FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELTS, THE MID-TERMS ARE ON!
by Carol Joynt
It was another wild ride in Washington this past week, as President Barack Obama celebrated one year in office. There’s no way of knowing how its been for him, deep in the recesses of his heart and soul, but for watchers like me its been equal parts Avatar 3-D, Hurt Locker and The Hangover.
The week had a little of everything.
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| Scott Brown, winner In Massachusetts. |
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| Rep. Martha Coakley, blamed for being loser in Massachusetts. |
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There was the Scott Brown election in Massachusetts that sent Democrats stumbling zombie-like into Capitol Hill and Penn Quarter power eateries, slinging blame like mashed potatoes: “She was a bad candidate.” “What do Mass voters know?” “If only Vicki had run” and, most of all: “Where was Rahm?”
At the end of the week, the President announced some internal political restructuring, and not a moment too soon with the calendar’s pages tearing away toward the November 2 mid-terms. In the Senate, 36 of the 100 seats are up and, of course, all of the House. Again, expect a wild ride.
In the aftermath of the loss of Ted Kennedy’s treasured seat to an actual Republican, the House and Senate leadership, otherwise known as Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid, hinted at a new direction for health care reform legislation. Yadayadayada .... Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was caught in the middle of politically charged debate over whether he should get another four-year term. Watch the Senate votes, especially from those up for re-election, like Democrats Barbara Boxer of California and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin.
The notorious polo-loving, party-crashing Salahis, Tareq and Michaele, slid into their witness chairs before the House Homeland Security Committee, invoked the Fifth Amendment 25 times, and then declared they are “strong supporters of the men and women in uniform.” Republican Dan Lungren of California, who planned to remain silent during the hearing, couldn’t restrain himself: "To have engaged in conduct that undercut the seriousness of our role to protect the president as some sort of reality TV stunt is an extraordinary affront ..."
Since people ask this question a lot, yes, the Salahis are still very much in the cast of “The Real Housewives of Washington, DC,” (duh!), which extended its filming a few weeks to capture the group dynamic of their personal drama — post-White House fiasco — pushing the show’s air date to possibly late summer.
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| Tareq Salahi (L) and Michaele Salahi prepare to testify before the House Homeland Security Committee, January 20, 2010 in Washington, DC. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America). |
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| O'Brien got fired and Leno has to do the White House Correspondents Association dinner. |
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| Carlos Allen and Michaela Salahi, on the right. Will they be invited to the White House Correspondents Association dinner? |
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The Supreme Court, apparently not wanting to miss out, got their diva moment in the case of Citizen’s United v. Federal Election Commission, striking down the laws that limit corporate political spending, tossing a big juicy bone to conservatives while giving extreme tsauris to the President, who called the vote damaging and said “it gives the special interest lobbyists new leverage.” Expect to hear more when Obama delivers his first State of the Union address Wednesday evening.
An Obama note both sweet and tender comes from friends who had dinner with a member of the First Family’s Secret Service detail. He told them how much the Secret Service like the Obamas. That says a lot given the intimate nature of the relationship. At the outset the First Lady told the Secret Service “she wanted the agents to call her Michelle.” When she cited her priorities, he said, “It was ‘take care of my girls. Don’t let anything happen to my girls.'"
The week’s best was saved for last. A knee-slapping announcement that the White House Correspondents Association hired Jay Leno to be the comedy at their annual spring hoedown that tries to pass itself off as a serious dinner.
Hiring Leno confirms the Washington media are so out of the groove they're ready for the nursing home, or someone at WHCA has a wicked sense of humor, seeing a common bond between between management at NBC and within the Obama Administration.
It was probably only Jay’s boss, Jeff Zucker, exerting what little muscle he has left, making Jay do the gig as part of his rehabilitation as a popular late night host. Insiders say the invite was in the pipeline before all the drama.
Regardless, Conan O’Brien, who was on fire after his firing, would have been the money choice, which means Jay has his work cut out for him at the May 1 gala. He has to kill.
I’m eager to learn who has the chutzpah to invite the Salahis, and “third” crasher, Carlos Allen, as their guests, because the point of the White House Correspondents dinner is for news organizations to compete against each other to bag the most preposterous guests - and attendant publicity - rather than to celebrate the pursuit of real stories and real news.
A POP-UP HAITI FUNDRAISER
It was literally one week ago that a mutual friend, James Packard-Gomez, invited me to Georgetown Cupcake for coffee and sweets and to meet Richard Bahar. “He wants to pull together a fundraiser for Doctors Without Borders on behalf of their work in Haiti.” That was Monday.
On Friday night Richard’s fundraiser, “Georgetown for Haiti,” happened in the expansive studio space above an M Street retailer. |
