Kathy Griffin might be a D-list diva, but she says House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) is royalty — of a sort.
“I’m meeting with this big queen named Jim Clyburn,” Griffin, who is in Washington this week to lobby for an end to the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, told HOH. “I’m going to be the first person to ever walk into his office and go, ‘Hey, girl!’”
Griffin is also slated to meet with the chamber’s two openly gay Congressmen, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) (“Leave it to the gays to have two first names,” she joked) and Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) (“Jared’s a good gay name”).
And although she’s excited to meet with Clyburn, upon learning that he was happily married, she changed her plans somewhat. “So you’re saying that I should stay with Levi and not dump him for Jim Clyburn?” she asked HOH.
That’s a reference to Levi Johnston — the Alaskan teen famous for fathering the out-of-wedlock grandchild of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) — with whom Griffin went on several publicity-stunt dates. Griffin tells us, tongue-in-cheek, that she and Johnston are in a “monogamous and committed relationship that has nothing to do with publicity.”
Griffin is leading a rally sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign on Thursday in Freedom Plaza. Griffin, a longtime supporter of gay rights and a beloved figure in the LGBT community, says she wants to push Congress and the White House to revoke the policy, which she says is out of step with the attitudes most people have toward gays in the military.
“Congress is homophobic, but I don’t think the American people are,” she says. She plans to ask attendees of the rally to send a three-sentence e-mail to their Members of Congress urging them to act quickly, or face some ticked-off voters in November.
Griffin is famous for her show “My Life on the D-list” — it sounds like the “D” could stand for “demanding.”
Pacific Theater. A bicameral battle could be brewing between Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) after the Senator said during a Monday radio interview that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has Members “liquored up on sake” and is making a “suicide run” to pass health care reform.
The kamikaze reference didn’t sit too well with Honda, a Japanese-American who spent part of his childhood in a World War II internment camp. The chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus on Tuesday said he is “disheartened” by the “racially tinged rhetoric.”
“There is a way to engage in healthy debate without alienating Asian-Americans, who are an important part of this democracy and health care reform,” Honda said.
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