Much has been made of Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) struggles to give up smoking. Well, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey (D-Wis.) gave up the cigs, though his advice on the subject comes a little too late for the happily married presidential contender.

During a hearing last week on healthcare and giving people incentives to liver healthier lifestyles, Obey revealed how he kicked the nasty habit — and how he might be single if he hadn’t: “When I asked my wife to marry me, I smoked three packs of cigarettes a day, and the night I asked her to marry me, she said, ‘I will, provided you put that thing out in your hand right now, and never take another one.’ That’s a real incentive!”

 
Miller threatens to make soft gavel hard

Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), in his second term, likes to speak truth to power, especially when the person in power is a Democrat. But Price made his Republican colleagues nervous last week when he targeted Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.

During the committee’s markup of the Employee Free Choice Act, Price interrupted an impassioned speech by Miller on the need to protect union organizers to note that the chairman’s time had expired. That sort of breach of etiquette is rare on Capitol Hill, where chairmen control committee agendas and wield many other perquisites that can be used to make their colleagues happy or miserable.

Price’s interjection appeared to fluster Miller, who grew red while explaining that he had used a “soft gavel” to referee the markup. In other words, he had let his colleagues speak a minute or two beyond their allotted times so that they could finish their arguments. Miller, in fact, is so egalitarian that he brings his committee to order by tapping the handle of gavel, instead of the head, on the dais.

But after Price challenged him, the reddened Miller offered to exchange his soft gavel for a “hard gavel,” and police the committee strictly.

That spurred Price’s alarmed GOP colleagues to sputter assurances that they were happy with Miller’s conduct and saw no need for change. Even after the flare-up subsided, Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) went out of his way to thank Miller for the courtesy of using a soft gavel.

 
Justice Blackmun, the play and the movie

A Broadway play and movie about the hard-working, self-effacing Supreme Court justice who wrote the majority opinion for the historic 1973 abortion decision in Roe v. Wade would seem highly unlikely, but that’s apparently what’s in store for Linda Greenhouse’s biography of the late Justice Harry Blackmun.

Jay Harris, a producer with the Weissberger Theater Group, told The Hill he’s purchased the option rights to Greenhouse’s 2005 book, Becoming Justice Blackmun, for adaptation as a stage play and possibly a motion picture, and that award-winning playwright Lee Blessing has been commissioned to write the screenplay.

Harris bought the rights from Greenhouse — who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1998 for her coverage of the Supreme Court for The New York Times — and from her publisher, Henry Holt and Co. “It’s premature because nothing’s been written yet, but it’s our intention to do it,” he explained.

Harris, who produced the musical comedy “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” among others, said he was fascinated with the book, which chronicles Blackmun’s 24 years on the high court, including the breakup of his lifelong friendship with his fellow Minnesotan, former Chief Justice Warren Burger.

“I thought the book was wonderful, and as I read it, I saw the extent of the relationship between Blackmun and Warren Burger. I started to envision a play and movie about the deterioration of their friendship, and what were, and still are, the principal issues that were before their Supreme Court, like abortion, affirmative action and states’ rights,” Harris said.

Sounds like it could be a less humorous version of “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.”

 
Thank you for not speaking

Every House lawmaker was invited to come to the floor last week and debate President Bush’s troop surge plan in Iraq. Most did, with some comparing the war to professional football, mowing lawns and unscrambling omelets.

But not everyone took the opportunity to say what others had undoubtedly said already. And for that, we salute Reps. Bud Cramer (D-Ala.), Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), Howard Berman (D-Calif.), Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), Bobby Jindal (R-La.), Charlie Melancon (D-La.), Jim McCrery (R-La.), Rodney Alexander (R-La.), Richard Baker (R-La.), Gene Taylor (D-Miss.), Sam Graves (R-Mo.), Randy Kuhl (R-N.Y.), Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), Chris Cannon (R-Utah) and Resident Commissioner Luis Fortuņo (R-Puerto Rico.).

Hastert also missed the vote last week (recovering from gall bladder surgery), but he did put out a release opposing the Democratic motion.

 
Know your own enemy

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) has many books in his office at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), but one stands out from the rest — The Architect: Karl Rove and the Master Plan for Absolute Power.

But during a recent interview with The Hill, Van Hollen said no, he had not read the tome penned by James Moore and Wayne Slater. Former DCCC chief Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) must have left it behind after he put some dents in Rove’s master plan.