Sequester Grounds Mile-High Trysts

General panic has hit airports over the air traffic control furloughs brought about by sequestration. Many media outlets, airlines and customers have been wringing their hands over what some are calling the “airport armageddon.” The frisky among us, meanwhile, have used it as an excuse to hook up.

The dating site MeetattheAirport.com sent out a release Tuesday claiming it’s experienced an 800 percent jump in membership since Sunday night, just as the hard-core delays in Los Angeles and New York were getting under way.

“We’ve noticed a 300% increase in member sign-ups out of New York and Washington, D.C., in the past 24 hours as people are preparing themselves for longer wait times and delays,” said the site’s founder, Steve Pasternack, who also started the niche site SugarDaddie.com. Full story

Steve Stockman Staffer Takes Twitter Feeds Seriously

Rep. Steve Stockman’s Twitter feed, never a source of dull content, took off last week, giving its followers a series of real-time updates of the events unfolding around the manhunt for the second Boston Marathon bombing suspect, with live tweets of scanner chatter and general news curation.

The Texas Republican, though, largely doesn’t tweet from his official feed, leaving it to his communications director, Donny Ferguson.

Many official congressional Twitter and Facebook feeds are managed by staffers, so that isn’t unusual. Still, it’s not often you see a member of Congress live-tweeting a breaking news event, particularly in the wee hours.

Ferguson told HOH that he woke up coughing Thursday and couldn’t go back to bed. So, like many people, he couldn’t tear himself away from the chaotic events unfolding in the Boston area. Ferguson began to report police scanner news out of the congressman’s official feed. He did not identify himself as a staffer. Ferguson was also tweeting from his own personal account.

It is important to note that the tone of the two feeds vary. Ferguson keeps the congressman’s pretty focused and serious, while his personal feed is a little looser and more chatty.

Ferguson acknowledged that it was a little unusual to have an official congressional Twitter feed live-tweet a police scanner and a developing news story. Ferguson also said that, because the media had gotten aspects of the story wrong so many times, he felt a responsibility to get accurate information to the congressman’s followers.  Full story

Anthony Weiner Peeks Head Out, Twittersphere Explodes

Ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., who, for some reason or another in 2011 abruptly resigned from office/bailed on the social mediaverse, burst back onto the scene Monday:

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As expected, the Twitterati have been having a field day with this particular second coming Full story

PBS Takes the Constitution for a Ride

Forget the man-on-the-street shtick. NPR personality Peter Sagal became a biker on the beat during his almost two-month road trip across the country for PBS’ new historical series “Constitution USA.”

(Warren Rojas/CQ Roll Call)

Rather than dwell strictly in the past, the four-part production — set to debut 9 p.m., May 7 — leapfrogs throughout time and space, giving the Founding Fathers their due while also checking in with modern man on what the living document that established this nation hath wrought.

Each installment bores down on a different tenet of the Constitution, including: freedom, individual rights, equality and the separation of powers.

In a highlight reel shown to attendees at a Capitol Hill screening last week, Sagal rolls from teachable moment to teachable moment aboard his patriotically appointed Harley. The opening sequence played like a cross between Dave Attell’s “Insomniac” and Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations,” with Sagal sucking down a few cold ones with everyone from heavily tattooed ex-Marine bikers in Arizona to bow-tied historians in Philadelphia.

Along the way, Sagal crosses paths with a who’s who of headstrong Americans, including: one of the original Little Rock Nine; Albert Snyder, the father of slain U.S. soldier Matthew Snyder, who sued Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred W. Phelps Sr., after the headline-grabbing group protested his son’s funeral; a proponent of same-sex marriage currently before the Supreme Court; and a Northern California marijuana grower named “Swami.”

“It’s going to enjoy a long life in classrooms across America for generations to come,” one of the series’s producers suggested.

Former social studies teacher cum Rep. Betty McCollum, meanwhile, was just happy she could finally share some work-related intel with the general public.

“It’s the first time I’ve been in this auditorium that I can talk about what I’m about to see here when I leave,” the Minnesota Democrat told those assembled in an auditorium usually reserved for top-secret security briefings.

Ricin Man and His Trusty Dog, Moo Cow

By now you may have already heard the tale of the capture of Paul Kevin Curtis, an Elvis impersonator-turned-suspect for sending ricin to elected officials and who might also have believed he was being targeted for uncovering a refrigerator full of black market body parts.

But there’s always another side to every story and, the way Curtis tells it, it starts with a drive with a dog named Moo Cow. Full story

Bipartisan Anti-War Lawmakers On Board at New Ron Paul Institute

Reps. Walter B. Jones, R-N.C., and John J. Duncan Jr., R-Tenn., and ex-Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, will help steer the direction of the new Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity as members of its board, they announced Wednesday at a Capitol Hill event.

“It’s a natural instinct for people to want peace and prosperity,” ex-Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, the institute’s CEO, said during the event. The institute is a nonpartisan educational organization aimed at capitalizing on the groundswell of young people who have supported Paul’s presidential bids and anti-war position.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who also spoke at the event, counted himself a member of that young population and said Paul’s appeal stems from his honesty and principles, particularly in the votes he took as a congressman.

“More than once we’ve stood on the floor, I think, since Congressman Paul left and wondered, ‘What would Ron Paul do in this situation?’” Massie said.

Duncan discussed the pressure he faced to vote for authorization of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, including a White House briefing with then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, CIA Director George Tenet and CIA Deputy Director John McLaughlin. Duncan said that at the time, they could not convince him that Saddam Hussein was a threat to the United States.

“I think it is so sad what we’ve done through the years, so I’m in very strong support of what Dr. Paul is trying to do here,” he said.

Daniel McAdams, executive director of the Ron Paul Institute and foreign policy adviser to Paul during his time in Congress, said the institute will monitor lawmakers’ votes and issue assessments in the form of a Peace and Prosperity Scorecard.

The institute will also award student writing on foreign affairs and hopes to launch a Peace and Prosperity summer school, McAdams said.

Feel Good H Street Photo

Here’s a little slice of Washington, D.C., that’s not entirely depressing: TruOrleans, a New Orleans restaurant on H Street NE, shows love for Boston.

Jason Dick/CQ Roll Call

Lugar’s Knight Moves

Former Sen. Richard G. Lugar should probably go ahead and update his résumé on Tuesday. That’s when the Indiana Republican will be dubbed an honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire during a semi-private ceremony at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C.
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No Separation of Church and State When Tragedy Strikes

The twin blasts that rocked the Boston Marathon Monday sparked an outpouring of support from suddenly somber and reflective pols. The one thing they almost all defaulted to was prayer:

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We hear ya.

6 Out of 7 Rubios Agree

Immigration

is

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Rob Lowe to Narrate the 1980s

Fire up the Hot Tub Time Machine!

It’s the event every Gen-Xer has been waiting for: Affirmation that the 1980s gave birth to every culturally significant trend of the next 30 years.

And who better to guide us through this than the National Geographic Channel’s three-night, six-hour mini-series, “The ’80s: The Decade That Made Us,” narrated by Rob Lowe, he of “St. Elmo’s Fire,” “Class” and “About Last Night…”

Long before Lowe played the noble Sam Seaborn on “The West Wing,” Lowe was starring in hard-R comedies in the era of leg warmers, Aqua Net and Ronald Reagan — a time we were all duly reminded of with this week’s death of another 1980s icon, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher Thatcher.

“Despite its reputation for bad hair and loud clothing, the ’80s was a big, bold time, and just about everything about the era, from the politics and technological innovations to the blockbuster movies, TV shows and ‘to the max’ fashions, continues to shape the world we live in today,” a release from National Geographic Channel pants.

Even Cyndi Lauper is back, thanks to the latest Twitter misadventure of Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn.

That’s what we’re talking about! Those of you who want to remember, it all starts on National Geographic Channel at 8 p.m. EDT Sunday night.

Obama Wears Things on His Head

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.

Choom Gang Panama Hat

Full story

Awkward? Jane Harman and Mark Mazzetti Together Again

In a potentially awkward encounter, former Rep. Jane Harman had nothing but warm praise this week for a new book by Mark Mazzetti, the New York Times reporter who once reported on her alleged collusion with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

The California Democrat became the first female president and chief executive officer of the Woodrow Wilson Center in February 2011. Months later, Mazzetti began his tenure there as a scholar, during which he wrote “The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth.” The book was released earlier this week.

In her opening remarks at Thursday’s book launch at the center, Harman said her organization gives the space for scholars such as Mazzetti, who was in attendance, to do their work.

Full story

McCotter Sues Former Staffers for Forged Ballot Signatures

Ex-Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich., is taking two former staffers to court, suing them for the fraudulent nomination petitions that ultimately led to his resignation from Congress in July.

In the lawsuit filed in Michigan’s Wayne County Circuit Court on Thursday, McCotter alleges that the two aides deliberately submitted forged ballot petitions to foil his re-election efforts, according to The Associated Press.

The former fringe 2012 GOP presidential hopeful filed the suit against his former deputy district director, Don Yowchuang, 34, and former intern, Dillon Breen, 20. Full story

Making Friends on Budget Day

Giddy to get in a good shot at President Barack Obama, Lone Star State Republican Rep. Pete Olson fired off this flippant non-read of the newly released White House budget:

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But his constituent Justin Kugler didn’t seem terribly impressed:

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Best of luck patching things up before 2014!