Heard on the Hill: Another Senatorial Line-Jumper
HOH would like to remind Members of Congress that while you can skip the security lines when entering buildings on Capitol Hill, it’s totally not cool to cut in line in Congressional cafeterias.
[IMGCAP(1)]Word got out last week that Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) jumped the line at the Cups & Co. carryout in the Russell Senate Office Building. And now HOH has learned that another Senator — Wyoming Republican Mike Enzi — on Friday skipped in front of patrons patiently waiting for their morning brew in a nearby Senate snack shop.
If one more Senator cuts the line for his coffee, this officially becomes a trend.
An HOH tipster was in line with about four or five others at the Senate-side shop in the basement of the Capitol when Enzi walked in. The Senator mulled around for a few minutes, then skipped the line to order and pay for his coffee, the tipster said.
Enzi didn’t say a word the entire time, our tipster noted.
Enzi spokeswoman Elly Pickett told HOH the Senator didn’t mean to cut the line.
Enzi usually brews his coffee in his office, “being the financially prudent accountant that he is,— Pickett said. But because he’s been in the Capitol managing the health care debate, Enzi hasn’t been able to make his own.
“He doesn’t ask his staff to get his coffee; he is willing to get it himself,— Pickett said. “He didn’t notice the few people in the snack shop were in line, so he ordered and paid for his coffee, added cream and sugar and headed back up to the debate.—
Enzi apologies to anyone who thought he cut them off, Pickett added. “He would never intentionally do that and will be more observant the next time he needs a cup of joe during floor debate,— she said.
Still Funny. Sen. Al Franken hasn’t lost his touch. An HOH tipster overheard the former comedian practicing his deadpan routine to a staffer while riding the Senate subway late last week. The Minnesota Democrat mused that someone ought to introduce legislation to create a Tiger Woods postal stamp, our spy says.
A Franken spokeswoman says her boss used the idea of a postal stamp honoring the scandal-plagued, affair-having golfer as an “example of a bad idea.—
We think it’s a funny one.
No Looking Back. Some retired Members of Congress speak fondly of their days on Capitol Hill. And then there’s former Rep. Tom Davis.
The Virginia Republican, who left Capitol Hill in November 2008 and almost immediately took a lucrative gig at Deloitte Consulting, appeared at the Avalon Theatre on Wednesday at a screening of “Un-Natural State,— a documentary about the D.C. voting rights movement.
Davis, who championed legislation to give the District a seat in the House, talked a bit about life in Congress before the movie began — and he seemed perfectly content with his decision to have left it all behind. “I just thought I could do better things with my time. … I am doing better things with my time,— Davis said.
Davis referred to Congress as “just a very dysfunctional institution,— adding: “I get very proud now that I left Congress undefeated and unindicted.—
The Invite Scramble. Three of their four parents are former Members of Congress, and the other was president. That electorally rich parentage means the invite list for the wedding of former first daughter Chelsea Clinton and fiancé Marc Mezvinsky could very well include some public officials.
But which Members of Congress will score invitations to the yet-to-be-scheduled wedding?
Don’t look to the groom’s side of the family for a Congressional connection. “They’re not publicly close to anyone on the Hill anymore,— one Democratic aide said of former Reps. Ed Mezvinsky (D-Iowa) and Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky (D-Pa.). No wonder former colleagues might want to distance themselves from the couple: Mezvinsky served five years in prison for fraud, a scarlet letter that tends to make politicians run.
More likely, any invites to Members would come from the bride’s side of the family. Possible invitees suggested by aides and others familiar with Democratic circles include Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) who is engaged to longtime Hillary Rodham Clinton aide Huma Abedin.
Other possible Clinton invites could go to Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who was the senior Senator from New York to Clinton’s junior during her Senate tenure. And the secretary of State has maintained ties with many of her other former Senate colleagues, the wedding-watchers note, particularly the women in the chamber who were early endorsers of her unsuccessful presidential run, such as Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).
Still, no one is rushing out to buy that perfect wedding-guest dress. For one thing, while the wedding may very well be a star-studded affair with a huge guest list, the happy couple could just pop off to Vegas for a quickie chapel trip — skipping the politics of whom to invite altogether.
“No one is expecting anything,— says one Democratic staffer whose boss is friendly with the Clintons.
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