Unholy Alliance?
Roll Call Staff
Attention all conspiracy theorists who despair about “one-world” government: It’s starting to look like the Rockefellers and Mellons are taking over the Senate Select Intelligence Committee.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), the panel’s new vice chairman, has hired Christopher Mellon (yes, of that Mellon family) as minority staff director.
“They worked together on the Trilateral Commission for years,” joked one committee staffer. “So it seemed like a natural fit.”
The 45-year-old staffer, whose great-grandfather started the Gulf Oil Co., is a descendant of Judge Thomas Mellon. The Senator, of course, is John Davison Rockefeller IV, great-grandson of the man who founded Standard Oil.
Both families are great fodder for people who run Web sites devoted to following the “Illuminati,” or secret society of rich people who are allegedly plotting to take over the world.
“The Illuminati banking leaders, such as the Rothschilds, the Vanderbilts, the Rockefellers, the Carnegies, and the Mellons, as examples, will reveal themselves, and offer to ‘save’ the foundering economy,” says one such site. “A new system of monetary exchange, based on an international monetary system, and based between Cairo, Egypt, and Brussels, Belgium, will be set up. A true ‘one world economy,’ creating the longed for ‘one world order,’ will become reality.”
A committee aide joked to HOH: “I hate it when they find out about that. It’s very disconcerting.”
In all seriousness, Mellon brings distinguished credentials to the committee post, having spent a decade working on intelligence issues for then-Sen. William Cohen (R-Maine.). When Cohen became Defense secretary, Mellon followed him over to the Pentagon and until recently was serving under current Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
In other words, the liberal Rockefeller has hired — gasp — a Republican. In keeping with the bipartisan nature of the committee, it will probably work out just fine.
HOH just has one question: Could Mellon spare a few bucks?
Hot Stuff. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif) was heard on Wednesday in a Longworth hallway proclaiming, “I’m hot right now!”
No, Baca was not admiring himself in a mirror. He was just trying to recover from cramming 47 jalapeno peppers down his throat in a span of five minutes to steal the “Zestiest Legislator” crown from Rep. Max Sandlin (D-Texas).
Upon losing his title as ‘Zestiest Legislator’ on Wednesday, Sandlin was itching for a rematch with Baca. He complained that the organizers ‘wouldn’t bring me enough peppers’ to keep up with the Californian.
Chile Pepper/Cooking Zesty magazine challenged legislators to the contest, looking to see who could withstand the heat of eating green pickled jalapeno peppers in the allotted time frame. Each pepper is about 15,000 times hotter than a green bell pepper.
Sandlin, who hosted this year’s battle, managed to scarf down 40 peppers. He consumed just eight of the spicy peppers to be named the champ in the first annual contest last year.
Upon losing on Wednesday, Sandlin was itching for a rematch with Baca. He complained that the organizers “wouldn’t bring me enough peppers” to keep up with the Californian in an excuse that sounded like sour grapes — or at least sour peppers.
As the men furiously ate (while tiny beads of sweat trickled down their faces), Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) and Kay Granger (R-Texas) politely munched on their jalapenos with closed mouths.
Before the countdown began, Granger was even seen quietly squeezing out some of the pepper juice onto her plate. And she asked the magazine officials before the race, “Don’t we have any cornbread or anything?”
The Kerry Blue Terrier. Since all indications are that his prostate cancer surgery went well on Wednesday, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) seems intent on getting back out on the presidential campaign trail as quickly as possible.
Maybe the Senator will get a little inspiration from Mick, the 6-year-old Kerry blue terrier who beat out 2,602 other pooches to snag the crown at Tuesday night’s Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. It sounds like they share more than just a surname.
“The typical Kerry Blue Terrier should be upstanding, well-knit and in good balance, showing a well-developed and muscular body,” says the American Kennel Club’s Web site. (The Senator is known for being physically fit and enjoys rollerblading and windsurfing.)
According to the AKC, the terrier’s head is “long, but not exaggerated, and in good proportion to the rest of the body,” another similarity to the strong-jawed Kerry.
But there is one key difference: The Kerry blue terrier originated in Ireland. The Senator, as we now know from a recent Boston Globe piece, has Czech roots.
Ben Backs Down? In calling for the resignation of U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Lloyd Ward, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.) has set an interesting standard for those in the upper echelons of society.
Campbell lashed out at Ward in a Washington Post story this weekend, calling his membership in the all-male Augusta National Golf Club “disgraceful” and grounds for his ouster.
Taylor: Preventing Another Underwear Bomber
March 19, 4:09 p.m.
The intelligence community faces challenges daily. No example is more emblematic of the problems faced than the so-called underwear bomber of 2009. As threats emerge, the hunt for “persons of interest” must occur in a more reliable and efficient manner because the consequences of inaction can be catastrophic. Read Full Article
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