Heard on the Hill: Flying Blind
Roll Call Staff
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Oh, the joy of a mass e-mail sent to important people, the kind where the sender forgets to hide the recipients, revealing often-closely guarded VIP e-mail addresses.
Patti Solis Doyle, the longtime staffer to Hillary Rodham Clinton whose ties to the New York Democrat span her years as first lady, Senator and presidential candidate, sent such a missive on Monday in which she announced she had joined the law firm Utrecht & Phillips. Despite being a veteran of bare-knuckle campaigns — where e-mail gaffes can have dire consequences — Solis Doyle left the dozens of recipients’ e-mail addresses visible to all who got the message.
That enabled those who got it to sneak a peek into the very connected longtime Democratic operative’s circle of contacts, a list that included plenty of the usual suspects (lobbyists, other Democratic operatives and the like) and also a few notables. Ever wanted to prank e-mail former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright? HOH is tempted.
Two of the oddest on the list: big Democratic donor (and model-actress Liz Hurley’s baby-daddy) Stephen Bing and ... former GOP Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.).
HOH hears some of the recipients were chuckling when they discovered the kind of company they’re keeping.
A red-faced Solis Doyle tells HOH it was “an honest mistake,” and says she simply forgot to put the addresses in the blind, or Bcc, field when dashing it off. Several of her friends, though, were happy to inform her of the gaffe. And as for the odd assortment of recipients, she says it’s to be expected.
“After 20 years in politics, you develop quite a contact list,” she explains.
Saving Nemo. Rep. Devin Nunes created a rather fishy situation when he brought about a dozen live rainbow smelt to a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on Tuesday morning.
To drive home his message that too much water is being diverted in California to benefit the endangered delta smelt, the Golden State Republican asked unanimous consent to enter a large goldfish bowl full of rainbow smelt (cousin to the delta) into the record.
The fish, Nunes said, are contributing to California’s drought. “You can have them, we don’t want ’em,” he quipped.
No one objected, and so a photograph of the fish will be used for the official record, according to committee staff.
But the fate of the live fish remains unclear.
District Department of the Environment officials will head to Capitol Hill “sometime in the near future” to pick up the fish, spokesman Alan Heymann confirmed to HOH.
There is one hiccup, however: The rainbow smelt are not native to the region (they originate in Maine), so officials cannot release them into the wild.
So where will the homeless fish wind up? “We are still in the process of determining that,” Heymann said.
Here’s to hoping the little guys won’t be sleeping with the ... er, fishes.
Congress Hearts Linda. Members of Congress had plenty of kind words about the importance of the arts on Tuesday morning, but they were particularly effusive about one arts lobbyist.
Singer Linda Ronstadt joined Americans for the Arts for the group’s advocacy day on Capitol Hill, and she got lots of love.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) recalled that he was a huge fan of Ronstadt in college, dating back to the singer’s stint as the lead singer of the Stone Poneys. “I fell in love with the song ‘Different Drum,’” Schumer reminisced in front of a crowd gathered to kick off the arts initiative. “I remember singing that — or trying to sing that — to a girl I was dating.”
Alas, Schumer’s tale of college romance didn’t have a happy ending. “She broke up with me that night,” he concluded.
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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