The issue is Darfur and the killing...

Posted by Mark Silva at 12:12 pm CDT

President Bush, who has worked hard to court the Latino vote during two election campaigns, made it clear today that he does not welcome a new National Anthem sung in Spanish. Bush was asked in a Rose Garden press conference if he thinks the anthem will carry the same meaning in Spanish.

"No I don't,'' Bush said. "Because I think the National Anthem ought to be sung in English. And I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English, and they ought to learn to sing the National Anthem in English.''

Posted by Frank James at 9:17 am CDT

Not to be outdone by Rep. Rahm Emanuel's (D-Ill.) poetic attack on House Republicans, Republican National Congressional Committee communications director Carl Forti offers a response in limerick form.

I actually received his response yesterday but didn't see it in my email inbox until this morning. Sorry, Carl.

"Steny" refers to Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) who as minority whip holds the second-highest post in the House Democratic leadership. Hoyer is known for his open door to K Street lobbyists, K St. being shorthand in the nation's capital for the lobbyists community in town.

Good Morning.

Here are a few Washington events of note for Friday, April 28, as gathered by the Associated Press.

President Bush is meeting with the President Ilham Aliev of Azerbaijan this morning.

8:30 a.m. Commerce Department releases the Gross Domestic Product for the first quarter.

10 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. WATER QUALITY — US Geological Survey’s National Water-Quality Assessment Program releases a nationwide assessment on volatile organic compounds in wells and groundwater.
Location: Room 2318, Rayburn.

Posted by Frank James at 3:21 pm CDT

Amid all the partisan finger-pointing on Capitol Hill over rising gas prices, comes a voice from the moderate middle belonging to Republican Rep. Sherwood Boehlert from upstate New York.

Boehlert, chair of the House Science Committee, dismisses many of the ideas currently coming from those in his own party as well as Democrats. “The American public deserves better,” he says.

Posted by Mark Silva at 3:15 pm CDT

As the White House prepares for a new press secretary who is a veteran commentator for Fox News, Tony Snow, a conversation with the outgoing press secretary, Scott McClellan, aboard Air Force One today offers some comic relief.

It seems one reporter wanted to get the television in the press cabin switched from Fox to CNN and encountered some turbulence. This just in, from the official White House transcript:

Posted by Naftali Bendavid at 2:39 pm CDT

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) Thursday staged the latest in a series of Democratic events designed to highlight high gas prices and blame the Republicans for them. Emanuel and Schumer, two scrappy urban politicians who are among their party's top strategists, are in charge of the Democratic efforts to retake the House and Senate, respectively. Democrats hope high gas prices present a big problem for Republican efforts to retain control of the two chambers.

"The oil issue is a metaphor for what's wrong with the people in charge," Schumer said, citing what he called Republican cronyism and incompetence. "The things we see in Iraq, we see in oil, we see in Medicare, we see in issue after issue after issue after issue."

Posted by Jeff Zeleny at 1:12 p.m. CDT

In Washington, politicians often pass for celebrities. Until, of course, a real celebrity comes to town.

Today, the spotlight was on George Clooney, who is seeking to draw fresh attention to the violence that has killed more than 200,000 villagers and driven 2 million people from their homes in Darfur in western Sudan

To make his case, the movie star appeared at a news conference with Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.). It’s not often that reporters from MTV or “Extra” find themselves crowding into a small room at the National Press Club, fighting their way to the podium as Clooney showed a dramatic video presentation of his recent travels to the region and of atrocities that have taken place.

Posted by Frank James at 10:40 am CDT

As someone who majored in English in college, I have a fondness for poetry. Apparently, so does Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, who has borrowed from Elizabeth Barrett Browning to take some political potshots at congressional Republicans. The "letter" he refers to in his introduction is, of course, fictional.

My guess is that congressional Republicans may respond with their own poetry. I have some ideas about lines they could use. There are some particularly good ones from Shakespeare. But I'll leave that to them. I'll post whatever response they come up with. Here's Emanuel's press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, April 27, 2006

Dear K Street, How Do I Love Thee?

Posted by Frank James at 10:26 am CDT

This has been reported elsewhere but a colleague just passed this item along about an Air Force pilot who was literally in a jam recently when the canopy of his Lockheed Martin F-22 A Raptor, the U.S. military’s newest aircraft and the most sophisticated fighter in the world, got stuck in the closed position, trapping the pilot for five hours.

Firefighters eventually had to saw a hole in the canopy to free the pilot. The canopy, which will have to replaced, cost an estimated $180,000.

Good morning.

Here are some Washington events of note for Thursday, April 27, as gathered by the Associated Press.

10 a.m. JOINT ECONOMIC — Full Committee. Hearing on the economic outlook. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.
Location: Room 216, Hart.

8:30 a.m. BUSH AIDE-TRIAL — Claude Allen, former domestic policy adviser for President Bush, is scheduled to appear in court on charges he was trying to receive a refund for items he didn’t purchase at a Montgomery County, Md. Target store.
Location: Montgomery County District Court, room 302, 50 Maryland Ave., Rockville

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Drug Enforcement Administration hold a briefing on efforts to deal with illegal drugs, money laundering and terrorism. 10:30 a.m.

Christina Norman, president of MTV Networks, speaks at National Press Club luncheon. 12:30 p.m.

1 p.m. CHERTOFF — Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff speaks at a public forum on a wide range of issues, including immmigration, border security, storm preparedness and other issues.
Location: Dewberry Hall, Johnson Center, George Mason University.

Posted by Jeff Zeleny at 8:53 p.m. CDT

It wasn't quite a heckle, but it was definitely a hiss. And Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is barely accustomed to either kind of expression.

As he delivered a keynote speech at the League of Conservation Voters annual dinner in Washington on Tuesday night, the applause was plentiful as he talked about the dangers of climate change. The reception was positive throughout much of his 25-minute address until he uttered two words: "cellulosic ethanol."

Posted by Mark Silva at 4:30 pm CDT

Karl Rove, the president’s chief political adviser, today made his fifth appearance before a federal grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA agent’s identity in 2003.

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, the Chicago-based U.S. attorney running the investigation, has advised Rove that he is not a target of the investigation, according to Rove’s attorney, Robert Luskin.

Posted by Mark Silva at 11:10 am CDT and updated at 1:50 pm CDT

It seems that few are happier about President Bush's hiring of Fox News commentator Tony Snow as White House press secretary today than the Democratic National Committee and its many minions.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has circulated a press release highlighting the more critical comments that Snow has made about Bush -- Snow once suggesed that "the English language has become a minefield for the man.'' Now, Snow has had plenty of positive things to say about Bush, calling the president's foreign policy "brilliant,'' for instance.

Posted by Andrew Zajac at 10:05 a.m. CDT

A story in today's Tribune about a planned Spanish language version of the Star Spangled Banner quoted a blogger on the conservative Free Republic web site who sarcastically noted the advance of Mexican-American syncretism by writing, "Welcome to the United States of Mexico."

Too late, amigo. That name's already taken.

Posted by Mark Silva at 8:50 am CDT and updated at 9:15 am CDT

Tony Snow, a Fox News commentator who as recently as February panned the domestic agenda of the Bush administration as "listless,'' stepped forward today to serve as chief spokesman for a White House attempting to regain the traction of a stalled domestic agenda.

President Bush stood alongside Snow in the press briefing room of the White House this morning with prepared humor ready for all of the criticism that Snow has directed at the president as host of the Tony Snow Show on Fox Radio and a weekly columnist featured at townhall.com

Posted by Frank James at 6:49 am CDT

This official White House photo by Eric Draper from the White House web site caught my eye. From yesterday's Cabinet Room meeting with senators on immigration legislation, it is President Bush portrayed as the bridge across the bitter partisan divide. During his first presidential campaign, Bush marketed himself as a "united, not a divider" and this photo obviously harks back to that catchphrase.

Good Morning.

Here are some Washington events of note for Wednesday, April 26, as collected by the Associated Press.

The Supreme Court meets to hand down decisions and hear arguments. 10 a.m.

1 p.m. RECORDS ACCESS — The National Archives holds a news briefing to announce the results of an audit of the withdrawal of records from public access.
Location: Room 105, National Archives, 700 Pennsylvania Ave. NW.

1:30 p.m. VIDEO GAMING — The Congressional Sex and Violence in the Media Caucus holds a news conference to release a study of video game content and ratings, call for a greater transparency and accountability and discuss the impact of vioelce in video games and interative media on youth.
Location: Cannon Terrace.

Posted by Rick Pearson at 6:45 pm CDT

This just in, from Chicago, where the national association of state attorneys general is meeting, and the generals are abuzz about the letter from the Bush Justice Department in Washington today calling on all generals to watch for gasoline price-gouging.

They're already on the case, some say.

Posted by Andrew Zajac at 2:04 p.m. CDT

Remember that Three Stooges scene where all of the stooges try running through a door together and wind up yelping, getting stuck and falling?

That's what it's like in DC today with pols from both parties rushing to demonstrate their concern about high oil prices. Nobody's got a balm that really works for distress at the pump, but there's no shortage of people telling you that, by golly, they're taking action.

Posted by Frank James at 10:50 a.m. CDT

If we could harness the energy from all the partisan sniping over gas prices on Capitol Hill, we wouldn’t make a dent in the nation’s energy woes but at least we’d have an inexhaustible supply to work with.

The charges and countercharges are coming fast and furiously. House Majority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) took the opportunity today to bash Democrats for failing to support Republican energy policies, the implication being that Democratic obstructionism has contributed to the higher prices.

Posted by Jeff Zeleny at 10:40 a.m. CDT

President Bush, fresh back in the capital from a California weekend, has invited eight senators to the White House this afternoon to talk immigration.

It is, perhaps, a welcome change of subject for the administration. While there is little agreement on what steps should be taken to reach immigration reform, could a renewed debate on the matter offer a temporary lifeline for the president?

This week, Washington has become consumed by the rising price of gasoline. This, after all, is a matter that directly impacts virtually all voters. So there is a fresh round of finger-pointing and political worry about the potential effect it could have on the midterm elections.