The Western Representation Political Action Committee has some pretty passionate beliefs about gun control.
A fundraising email sent out Tuesday morning with the subject line “Criminals Love Gun Control” is essentially a repurposed blog post from earlier in the week. The post was written by “Admin,” though the official fundraising email was signed by Dustin Stockton, WRPAC’s co-founder.
Stockton bolded certain lines throughout the post, and the first bold line of the email is, perhaps, a bit overwrought. The imagery, coupled with the cadence, made us spit out our coffee and feel very uncomfortable for several minutes.
The Hollywood petting zoo made it back to Washington this past weekend, but to be honest, the whole town seemed a little tired. And the Washington/Hollywood two-in-one punch seemed a little underwhelmed with each other this time around.
This might be because Hollywood and D.C. have seen an awful lot of each other over the past year. Beginning at Nerd Prom 2012, the two have hung out at both the Republican and Democratic national conventions, were intertwined during the 2012 elections, and then convened again for a week of festivities surrounding President Barack Obama’s second inauguration.
Washington even popped by Hollywood’s very own prom season (Golden Globes, Academy Awards) with its own royalty: President Bill Clinton and first lady Michelle Obama, respectively.
So it’s no wonder that by the time this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner week came around, familiarity perhaps bred a shrug of the shoulder. Full story
Uh oh … look what HOH found in the basement of the Rayburn House Office Building on Thursday afternoon:
(Julie Ershadi/CQ Roll Call)
A garbage dolly loaded with empty boxes and bottles of Stella Artois beers and Robert Mondavi vino. Let’s just hope it was a celebration, not a mourning.
Dominic Lakhan, who is engaged to the Ohio Republican’s daughter Lindsay, was busted in 2006 for driving with an open beer can, possessing 2 grams of marijuana and being around the strong smell of burning weed.
The Enquirer then pointed out that Lakhan is from Jamaica — we all know what that means — and “resembles reggae legend Bob Marley.” And we all REALLY know what that means!
This might sound like a bit of a whiskey dream, but rapper and preacher MC Hammer was spotted at Tuesday night’s Washington Capitals game straight chilling with Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.
Apparently, Kaine was invited to the game by Caps co-owner Raul J. Fernandez. It was just a coincidence, or divine intervention, that Hammer was also there.
“I’m sure that the senator had a great time,” said Kaine spokeswoman Amy Dudley.
(Photo courtesy @AlfredAjebon)
At least according to this picture of the happy trio, Hammer did not hurt them and they had the best time ever. The Caps, possibly inspired by Kaine and Hammer, defeated the Winnipeg Jets and claimed yet another Southeast Division title.
For the second edition of our series that examines fictional characters and the real people who represent them in Congress, we explore the franchise of American literature heroes.
The rules go like this: We decide where a fictional character lives and then look up who represents them in the House. (See more on the rules here.) We welcome any dispute with our assessments in the comments section below.
The Great American Novel is a relatively easy topic to research — public curiosity in literary characters is so strong that most of the places listed below built tourist industries around these novels’ settings.
And this writer might have to plead guilty to dragging her family out to Great Neck, Long Island, when she was 19 in her quest for the spirit of Zelda Fitzgerald. So let’s start with the love of Zelda’s life, who wrote the quintessential Great American Novel.
Jay Gatsby “The Great Gatsby,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald West Egg, N.Y.: Democratic Rep. Steve Israel
Israel’s district is full of money.
This is especially true in the enclaves along Long Island’s North Shore, the home of both Gatsby’s noveau riche West Egg (Kings Point) home and the post-Buchanan home in East Egg (Sands Point). The mansion that many believe inspired the Buchanan home was on the market in 2005 for $28 million, according to Forbes.
Judging by the trailer of director Baz Luhrmann’s new movie adaptation, Leonardo DiCaprio’s attempt at a Locust Valley Lockjaw accent sounds terribly fake and contrived.
Two sources confirm that the Oklahoma Republican tumbled into the fountain at the National Building Museum where the gala was being held.
This wasn’t some quick toe-in-toe-out of a shallow fountain. The senator took a serious dive. When he emerged, he was soaked to his neck, his suit was sopping and ”water had to be poured from his cowboy boots.”
“That’s just a natural reaction to making the Time 100 list,” quipped Coburn spokesman John Hart.
Picture of the offending National Building Museum fountain. Image is from another event with a similar set up to Wednesday’s. (Photo courtesy BishBash.com)
It could be. Or this just might have been great Neptune’s revenge on Coburn for pooh-poohing a 2012 fountain restoration project in Lancaster, Pa. Full story
House Judiciary Chairman Robert W. Goodlatte has quite the enthusiastic fan base!
The Virginia Republican was honored at the annual Grammys on the Hill breakfast at the Capitol Hill Club Thursday morning with a song dashed off earlier this week by a group of Roanoke, Va., songwriters.
The song, “Copy-Right, Copy-Wrong,” was written by Goodlatte constituents and members of the Southwest Virginia Songwriters Association: Larry Sakayama, Greg Trafidlo and Barbara Martin. Nashville songwriter Darrell Brown also pitched in.
The lyrics forgive Goodlatte for being born a Yankee, while tracing the congressman’s journey from his “college in Maine” to the law degree that will help him to “slay the piracy giants.”
“To those that make the music, he’s our Moses,” the group crooned. “Even better than Charlton Heston.”
The chorus continues: “Chairman Bob/Get your hands in the mud/Chairman Bob/Roll up your sleeves Bob/Say Copy-right yeah yeah/Not Copy-wrong no no.”
Senate staffers in the Hart Office Building spent part of their morning stuck in a holding pattern after reports of suspicious packages shut down the first and third floors.
Meanwhile, it was business as unusual on one of the lesser known levels:
President Barack Obama said Friday that presidents don’t wear hats. But we see plenty of evidence that he’s willing to make an exception, if the chapeau is right.
Let’s start at the beginning. Earlier in the day, Obama became the second politician to be offered a helmet in the past several months.
In January, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was presented with a football jersey and a helmet after she returned to work following a fall and subsequent concussion.
On Friday, Obama presented the Navy Football team with a trophy. Two players then presented “44″ with a helmet, and, according to the pool report, “[s]omeone in the crowd shouted ‘put it on.’” Obama demurred.
“Here’s a general rule,” the president replied. “You don’t put stuff on your head if you’re president. That’s politics 101. You never look good wearing something on your head.”
He seems to have learned this great lesson from two politicians from Massachusetts and Democratic presidential candidates, Gov. Michael Dukakis and Secretary of State John Kerry.
Still, our current commander in chief has worn several things upon his head. Don’t believe us? HOH has gathered eight pictures of Barack Obama wearing, holding and regarding hats and helmets and one painting of the president with a pancake on his head.
Let’s give Rep. Steve Cohen the benefit of the doubt, at the same time keeping straight all that is going into his explanation over his latest Twitter misadventure: Cyndi Lauper, his own daughter, Mavis Staples, the movie ‘Absence of Malice,’ two of his own colleagues, the White House, and, of course, the Sunlight Foundation.
At a somewhat perplexing news conference Friday afternoon, the Tennessee Democrat said that a tweet he fired off from his Twitter account Tuesday night to singer Cyndi Lauper, saying she was “hot” at a performance at the White House, wasn’t a mistake but rather a prank on the media.
Cohen gave a couple of reasons as to why he sent the tweet in question to Lauper: “CyndiLauper great night,couldn’t believe how hot u were.see you again next Tuesday.try a little tenderness”
First, he said he wanted to promote the White House program – which featured performances of Memphis music by Justin Timberlake, Queen Latifah, Mavis Staples and the Alabama Shakes, among others, and will be replayed on Tuesday on PBS.
Second, he said he was trying to turn “gotcha” journalism around on all of us journalists. Full story
Heard on the Hill is Roll Call's Capitol Hill gossip blog.
Warren Rojas is a Heard on the Hill columnist for Roll Call, having previously worked as the founding dining editor for Northern Virginia Magazine and also as a tax reporter for Tax Notes. @WARojas
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