That kooky Rep. Dan Burton is continuing to champion an unlikely cause: wrapping the House chamber in a protective bubble. The Indiana Republican — who once famously tried to prove that former Clinton administration official Vince Foster’s death was not a suicide by re-enacting his version of it in his backyard using a pumpkin and a pistol — is again pressing the wacky idea of erecting a shield to protect Congress.
And he didn’t mince words, as he introduced legislation in the House Rules Committee on Thursday.
“What this bill does is it would authorize a study to look at enclosing the chamber, the gallery chamber, with Plexiglas so that somebody can’t throw a bomb down on the floor and kill a lot of us,” he told the committee.
The colorful Congressman proceeded to describe in detail exactly how a terrorist could kill “half the Members of Congress right now.” Burton insisted that the protective shield had other benefits, such as improving acoustics in the House chamber. “And you can do it in a way that would be very attractive,” he enthused to colleagues, most of whom remained unconvinced of the wisdom of Burton’s plan.
Burton spokesman John Donnelly acknowledged that the measure, which ultimately didn’t make it onto the rule in question, could be a hard sell. “We hoped the Rules Committee would think outside the box,” he said.
Make that outside the bubble.
Ka-Ching! Can we borrow Rep. Marcia Fudge’s lucky rabbit’s foot? Please? Because all we ever seem to end up with at the slot machines is a headache and a dwindling bucket of quarters.
The Ohio Democrat, though, hit the jackpot, taking home a cool $1,500 last year in winnings from the Presque Isle Casino in Erie, Pa., according to her recent financial disclosure. Of course, Fudge isn’t the only Member of Congress to win big bucks last year — Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) raked in $2,500 in lotto winnings.
Fudge spokeswoman Aketa Simmons tells HOH that the Congresswoman won the big bucks at the quarter slot machines, but declined to elaborate further.
Um, OK, but about that rabbit’s foot ...?
Method Acting, Hill Style. Sure, there’s plenty of talk about that Reese Witherspoon-Owen Wilson-Paul Rudd baseball movie that’s currently filming around town. But it’s not the only game in town.
Another D.C.-based flick, titled “Below the Beltway,” also is being shot right now, and HOH hears that one of the (admittedly lesser-known) stars came to Capitol Hill to conduct research last week.
Indie actress Iris Almario, best known for gigs on soap operas such as “The Young and the Restless,” met with staffers in the offices of Sens. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) on Thursday to learn about what it’s like to work on Capitol Hill.
Almario plays a Senate legislative director in the low-budget independent film, which takes a satirical look inside the lives of the people who conduct the behind-the-scenes work in Washington. Filming is set to wrap on June 30, according to the D.C. Office of Motion Picture & Television Development.
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