Asserting that the House “has become the more deliberative body,” he assailed the Senate for 99-0 votes such as the bill creating the Transportation Security Agency in the wake of Sept. 11. Noting that the House consulted security experts over a long period and studied Israel’s experience, he said, we do “detailed work on the committee level in the House. The Senate just says, ‘Whoomp, the people want this,’” and passes it immediately.
He also singled out the Amber Alert bill as legislation the Senate assembled in slapdash fashion.
Despite his criticisms, maybe Pence and his colleagues can help restore interchamber comity next month when the RSC holds its first bicameral retreat the first week of February.
Imus’s secret D.C. guest New York-based radio talk-show host Don Imus, whose regular guests include many members of Congress and top journalists, is bringing his irreverent and edgy brand of interviews and political satire to the nation’s capital on Inauguration Day amid hints that he’ll have a very special guest.
The famously cranky Imus will help launch a new “progressive talk” format on Clear Channel’s WWRC, 1260 AM, which is switching from its former all-sports programming that day. Imus is already a fixture on another Clear Channel station, WTNT, 570 AM, and his program will be simultaneously broadcast on both D.C. stations from now on.
Imus’s office is being secretive about whom his special guest will be during his 6-9 a.m. broadcast from the lobby of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, but sources say there’s a good chance it will be Vice President Dick Cheney.
Imus also is expected to interview many of his favorite guests from Washington, including Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and Pete Domenici (R-N.M.); Reps. Harold Ford (D-Tenn.) and J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.); and Newsweek’s Howard Fineman, the Boston Globe’s Tom Oliphant and CBS chief congressional correspondent Bob Schieffer.
The new WWRC format will also include three other nationally syndicated talk show hosts: Stephanie Miller (9 a.m.-noon), Air America’s Al Franken (noon to 3 p.m.) and conservative-turned-liberal Ed Schultz of Fargo, N.D. All will be broadcasting live from the Mandarin Oriental.
Oberstar, Armstrong headline fitness event The Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team made its debut public appearance in the Cannon Caucus Room on Monday. Discovery Channel has taken over the sponsorship of the team, and its most notable member, six-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, from the U.S. Postal Service. Armstrong and the rest of the team will compete in the tour this July.
Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.), Congress’s most avid cyclist, introduced Armstong, saying that, apart from Armstrong and two-time winner Greg LeMond, “the tour has not been widely appreciated in America.”
Armstrong plugged Discovery Channel’s National Body Challenge event as well as the efforts of his own foundation, which promotes cancer research. Speaking of the popular yellow bracelets the foundation sells, he said, “I thought we’d sell a few hundred thousand, but we sold 30 million.”
He added that it was “an honor for me to bring all these guys here to stand in our nation’s capital,” noting that his 28 team members hail from 15 countries.
Clinton Blair, legislative director for Rep. Anne Northup (R-Ky.), was the lucky winner of a drawing for a Discovery Cycling Team jersey signed by the entire team. Tough luck for Amanda Schaumburg, legal counsel to Rep. Mark Green (R-Wis.), and Josh Andrews, legislative assistant to Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), who were the first two names called but were not present to accept the prize.
Hill Grill bombarded by irate e-mails Matt Weiss, owner of the Red River Grill and Lounge 201, was despondent when he was forced to close the Red River Grill on Jan. 1, but he was unprepared for the venom directed at him by Hill residents and staffers.
After 10 years in the Senate-side space, Weiss said, he was “legally and financially” forced to close abruptly so that he could dissolve his partnerships and reopen later this year. “The only way to save it was to close,” he said.
Soon thereafter, a mass e-mail generated by an unknown person claimed that the Lounge 201 owners bought Red River Grill to close it and drive more business to the pricier martini bar.
Weiss said he got a few “pretty nasty” e-mails himself as a result. One said, “I hope you burn in hell,” and another dropped the dreaded f-bomb.
He said that in fact he plans on “renovating and reopening with the same concept” and price point, although likely with a new name and better food and service.
Weiss said he’s spoken to many of the people who e-mailed him, most of whom have apologized. But, he said, “You know how the Hill is. It’s like fifth grade around here.”
Avid cycler Sen. Schumer defies his wife One avid bicyclist who wasn’t at Monday’s Pro Cycling Team promotion was Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). But that doesn’t mean he’s less committed to pedal power than House colleagues such as Rep. Jim Oberstar, even though it may cause problems with his wife.
Schumer takes a regular ride through New York City every weekend to get some exercise, stay in touch with constituents, and, not coincidentally, stay in the public eye.
The 50-year-old freshman senator invited the New York Post’s Senate correspondent, Vince Morris, to join him on a recent cold Sunday afternoon for a trip of almost a dozen miles through the side streets of Brooklyn.
“He sticks to bike paths when he can, noting the conflicts he’s had with wife Iris Weinshall, the city’s transportation boss, who does not place the same importance on creating these paths as he does,” Morris reported in his newspaper.
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