Washington Rock City

What do Public Enemy, Randy Newman, Rush, Heart and Reps. Marcia L. Fudge, D-Ohio, and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., have in common?

The first four are being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Thursday in Los Angeles.

The latter two are the lawmakers whom fellow House members should contact if they want to join the Congressional Rock and Roll Caucus and get on the list for the group’s party next week, which will be thrown on Capitol Hill by the Hall of Fame.
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Monday Beer Gathering for Everyone!

Home-grown beer producer DC Brau celebrates its two-year anniversary Monday at Meridian Pint, an opportunity to thank the brew gods for two of Washington’s sudsiest local firms.

The DC Brau catalog of drafts and casks — everything from its everyman Public ale to its eclectic The Stone of Arbroath 2012 — will be $5 all night.

The anniversary party comes on the same evening that the National Beer Wholesalers Association is hosting its own beer celebration — Cheers: The World of Beer Delivered by America’s Beer Distributors — in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress’ Thomas Jefferson Building.
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Taste of the South Readies Down-Home Comforts

Washington’s Southern belles and their beaus will glam up Saturday night for the annual Taste of the South at DAR Constitution Hall.

Tickets for the charity gala ­— $125 per person ­— sold out within two weeks, according to the event’s chairwoman, Alyson Gabel, primarily to staffers and lobbyists excited for drinks, dancing and down-home delicacies from 13 Southern states in the name of a good cause.

Since Taste of the South’s founding in 1982, the event annually has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charitable initiatives throughout the South. This year’s featured charity is Mercy House, a nonprofit based in Harrisonburg, Va., that helps homeless families. Proceeds will also help The Fishing School, a D.C.-based youth development organization, and other charities from the host states.
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Bid Your Way to Being a Political Influencer

We’ve been sequestered. The economy is still sputtering along. And the tax man is demanding to get paid next week.

Amazingly, some folks out there appear to have extra loot lying around. And, if auction website Charitybuzz is to be believed, aspiring philanthropists are not afraid to trade big bucks for entry into the political arena.

Why risk having your dirty laundry aired by running for office when you can simply cut a check — granted, by all appearances it’ll have to be a fairly big one — and spend a summer afternoon sailing with Ted Kennedy Jr.? This day trip to Hyannis Port, Mass., has an estimated value of $15,000 (proceeds benefit the Austen Riggs psychiatric center), but was going for roughly a third of that at press time.
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Reichert to Discuss Green River Killer

Fans of true crime will gather Wednesday evening to hear the real story behind the capture of the infamous Green River Killer, which so happens to star a current member of Congress.

The event, to be held at the Naval Heritage Center at the U.S. Navy Memorial, is titled “The Hunt for the Green River Killer” and will feature several of the law enforcement professionals — retired King County Sheriff and now-Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent Jana D. Monroe and the chief criminal investigator for Washington state, Robert Keppel — who helped to apprehend the serial killer of at least 48 women.
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In Washington, the Bard’s the Thing

The Shakespeare Theatre Company is gearing up for its spring season with its annual Will on the Hill event, which provides members of Congress and the journalists who cover them the chance to perform. The D.C. theater’s spring season might be one of its best yet, with its exploration of the intersection of Washington drama and the dramatic arts. And it aims to raise a little money in the process.
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‘Shahs’ Star to Host D.C. Persian New Year Bash

A new personality on Bravo’s “Shahs of Sunset” reality show is bringing a taste of Beverly Hills fashion sense to Persian New Year celebrations in the nation’s capital this weekend.

Neelufar Seyed Ghalichi, better known as Lilly Ghalichi, joined the cast of Near Eastern descendants in the show’s second season, which just wrapped up this February. In honor of the Persian New Year, which Persianate cultures the world over begin celebrating on the spring equinox, she’s hosting a fashion show and dance party at The Park at Fourteenth, a swanky restaurant-bar-lounge downtown.
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RedStateDate Woos Single Conservatives

Being lost in the electoral woods is bad enough. Political Matchmaker CEO Alexander Fondrier wants to bring lonely GOP activists together via ideologically aligned love connections.

Fondrier, founder and CEO of RedStateDate.com and Blue-StateDate.com, both of which launched last fall, said the compatibility sites were born of his own frustration with finding that certain someone. He estimated that, to date, about 6,000 people have joined up — although solo Republicans tend to outnumber mate-less Dems by about 5-to-1.

“We’ve seen a lot of people in the D.C. area signing up. Also, state capitals,” he said of his burgeoning market share, which he hoped to grow by showing his stuff at last week’s Conservative Action Political Conference.
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Staying on the Hill for Saint Paddy’s

As the saying goes, everyone’s Irish on St. Patrick’s Day.

But we here at HOH think that on this glorious holiday — which celebrates Irish culture and encourages imbibing in hefty quantities — drinking should be done among the natives.

And what better places to frequent than the Irish pubs on Capitol Hill.

There’s The Dubliner, the tried-and-true Irish pub near Union Station, which got a visit from President Barack Obama on St. Patrick’s Day last year. The bar says it hasn’t got word yet on whether Obama plans to stop by again for a pint of Guinness, but it plans to host three live bands all day Sunday and promises a near-never-ending flow of Guinness and corned beef sandwiches.
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Four Decades After Secret Bombings, Kissinger Cool With Drones

Henry Kissinger, cold warrior extraordinaire, is unimpressed with Sen. Rand Paul’s concerns about drone warfare.

The former secretary of State and national security adviser to President Richard Nixon, who helped guide Nixon through many a decision on the Vietnam War and its many bombings, watched the Kentucky Republican’s filibuster last week and dismissed Paul’s worry that the U.S. government would take out one of its own citizens on U.S. soil as ridiculous.

“Having seen many of these wars, I sympathize with President McCain,” he said.

“Sen. [John] McCain, [R-Ariz.], sir?” we asked, not sure if we misheard or he misspoke. The noise level at the West End’s Ritz-Carlton art gallery was loud.

“Yes, Sen. McCain.”

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The Warholian World of CPAC

As we gird our loins to mingle with the true believers set to swarm conservative Thunderdome — aka Conservative Political Action Conference 2013 — we couldn’t help but admire the far right’s dedication to pop artist Andy Warhol’s prescribed allotment of fame.

The three-day ideological jamboree March 14-16 must keep the rhetorical trains moving, so featured speakers are hustled into the limelight for 15 minutes before being released into the wilds of book signings, film screenings, prayer breakfasts and private fundraisers.
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Kissinger to Honor Scowcroft

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is quite the social butterfly these days.

Back in January, the 89-year-old statesman honored his former boss, the late President Richard Nixon, at an event at the Mayflower Hotel celebrating the 100th birthday of the controversial president.

On Wednesday night, Kissinger will present Brent Scowcroft with the National Defense University Foundation’s first International Statesman and Business Advocate Award.

Scowcroft served as national security adviser under Presidents Gerald Ford and George Bush. He and Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national security adviser for President Jimmy Carter, have long worked together to advocate greater bipartisanship in U.S. foreign policy.

Also expected to attend the event tonight: Gen. Colin Powell, J.W. “Bill” Marriott, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., among other notables.

Schooling TFA on Identifying Members of Congress

Teach for America — the nonprofit that places bright-eyed and bushy-tailed college grads into low-income, under-performing school districts for two-year teaching stints — is hosting a gala this week to raise money to expand their presence in D.C.-area schools.

The gala will be held at the upscale Omni Shoreham Hotel in the District and boasts an impressive list of attendees, including Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., biographer Walter Isaacson, D.C. Public Schools Superintendent Kaya Henderson and a performance from the Washington Youth Choir.

But in press releases sent out this week, the keynote speaker was curiously listed as U.S. Sen. Mike Johnson from Colorado.

Didn’t sound familiar. Who could this mystery senator be?

Did it mean Michael Bennet, the Democratic Senator from the Colorado who used to run Denver’s school system? Or maybe Mike Johanns, the Republican from Nebraska whose name is sort of similar, albeit from a different state?

HOH gave TFA a call to get the scoop, and before we even got our question out, the spokeswoman immediately knew what we were going to ask and corrected the release’s mistake.

The speaker is in fact Mike Johnston (note the additional “t”), and he is not a U.S. senator (as you could tell) but is in fact a member of Colorado’s state Senate.

Our sharp eyes also helped TFA correct its mistake of listing John Delaney as a representative from Virginia (the first-term member represents neighboring Maryland).

Snark aside, the event has raised more than $1 million thus far to support TFA’s expansion in the high-need D.C. area school systems. The gala begins Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m. at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Woodley Park.

CPAC 2013 IN and OUT List

It’s that time of year again, when young conservatives flood the area. They will hail from all over this great land and will paint this town in their own very special shade of red for the 2013 Conservative Political Action Committee Conference!

Here’s Part I of our quick list of what is CPAC 2013 cool (and what is so 2012), with Part II coming Thursday.
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D.C. Heads SXSW

You know how to tell when a giant indie-music/movie/tech festival has jumped the shark? When there is a relatively high chance you’ll run into a congressman, senator and/or a White House surrogate or two.

The South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, which is under way now, has been a mecca for music geeks the nation over since it first kicked off in 1987. Over the past couple of years, however, the indie festival has expanded and gone more than a little bit corporate, with sponsors such as Doritos and AT&T. It’s not just about the music any more. “South by,” as the kids call it, is now a giant three-pronged behemoth — SXSW Music, SXSW Film and SXSW Interactive — and the whole show is put on by a company called SXSW Inc.

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