Strom Thurmond, Spotted in Vegas
Roll Call Staff
Like Elvis, late Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) lives on. Just ask Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.). He apparently believes Thurmond is alive and legislating.
On Monday of last week, the day before he led Senate Democrats to victory, Schumer responded to a nice lady in Mississippi who had written him with a request. He explained to her, “It has been a long tradition and Senatorial courtesy to refer correspondence to Senators representing the appropriate state ... . For this reason, I am sure you understand why I am forwarding your correspondence to Senator Thad Cochran and Senator Strom Thurmond.”
Schumer (or the spacey kid in his office handling constituent mail) was even nice enough to include Cochran’s Dirksen Senate Office Building address and phone number, and Thurmond’s old Russell Senate Office Building address and number. And he “cc’ed” both Cochran and Thurmond.
We’d love to know what Thurmond, who died in 2003 at the age of 100, thought of being misidentified as a Mississippian by a Yankee. At least Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and his wife, Patricia, got a kick out of the mistake.
Could Schumer’s staffer possibly have been mistaken and thought it was Lott, not Thurmond, who had gone on to his reward? Mrs. Lott said she was amused because she’s forever teasing her husband about “slowing down.” But she assured HOH, “He’s still alive and kicking.”
Schumer’s communications director, Eric Schultz, did not think the mistake was as funny as we did. “We apologize for the error and will be sending out a corrected letter today,” he said Monday.
Please, dear readers, if any of you have Elvis or Thurmond sightings, send them along. Thank you.
Baby Pelosi. Finally, the anxiety of waiting has subsided. Likely Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), who has been on pins and needles, proudly announced the birth Monday morning of her sixth grandchild, Paul Michael Vos.
Baby Paul, named for his grandfather, Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, weighed in at 8 pounds, 10.5 ounces. The baby is the son of Alexandra Pelosi and her husband, Michael Vos.
As promised, Pelosi called President Bush Monday to let him know the baby had been born. During their post-election meeting last week, Bush, who knows Alexandra from her days making the movie “Journeys With George,” had asked the likely Speaker to let him know.
The president said he would be placing a call to the proud mother to personally congratulate her, which he did later. We hear he’s struggling with the news that “Paul” beat out “George.”
Republicans Produce, Too! Not to be outdone by the new majority, the GOP media strategists at Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm, the firm made famous by its Swift Boat ads against 2004 presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), have their own baby news.
“Before the polls closed on Tuesday the 7th, sometime between 2 pm and 3 pm, partner Erik Potholm and his wife, Erica, welcomed another little Republican to Northern Virginia,” the firm’s Ben Burger reported in an e-mail.
Burger said the bouncing baby Republican, Aiden Alexander Potholm, weighed 8 pounds, 12 ounces. “If only we could have registered him to vote.”
If sweet little Aiden is a chip off the old block, maybe we’ll see him pulling the strings for a candidate in the presidential election year 2032!
Campaigning on YouTube. His colleagues weren’t returning his phone calls, so the ever-earnest Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) went about running for chairman of the House Republican Conference on YouTube.
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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