Rangel won’t take no for an answer

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) has been courting Republican counterpart Jim McCrery (La.) heavily, but so far McCrery is playing hard to get.

Rangel twice in the last week has invited the Louisiana Republican out, first for an April 17 lunch at the National Press Club. The second invitation was even more serious: dinner at the Peterson Institute for International Economics on April 23.

McCrery cited conflicts and declined invitations to both events, where Rangel was set to make policy speeches. A spokesman said McCrery had scheduling conflicts both times.

Rangel has been trying to make McCrery one of his best buds ever since Democrats won the House, and the two are working closely together to try to reach a joint position on trade.

At the Press Club, Rangel said he thought he would make news if he showed up with the ranking Republican on his committee, since his “dull speech” wouldn’t make headlines. He said McCrery declined because he was appearing on CNBC’s “Power Lunch,” adding that McCrery did promise to say nice things about Rangel on the show.

At the dinner on April 23, Rangel said he thought heads would turn if he walked in with both McCrery and Rep. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.), who chairs the trade subcommittee. Levin was happy to accommodate Rangel, who indicated he’d keep trying to set up a date with McCrery.

Bill Clinton already acting like a ‘first lady’

Former President Clinton is clearly tight with the spouses of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), so much so that he’s chairing their golf and tennis tournament in late June.

Such is life when you are a “first lady” wannabe in the heated presidential race between his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the frontrunners for the Democratic nomination.

Clinton is set to serve as the honorary chairman of the Mervyn L. Jones Tournament, which is hosted by the spouses of CBC members. The event is typically attended by celebrities, corporate executives and, of course, many members of the CBC.

Obama, a CBC member, was invited to the event, explained Tracey Austin, a spokeswoman for the CBC spouses.

Obama’s camp does not know if the senator will attend the event. “We don’t even have the schedule for that far out,” a campaign spokeswoman said. “We don’t have schedules for the end of the week.”

Organization chairwoman and CBC spouse Leslie Meek, wife of Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.), said in a release, “We are delighted to have President Clinton serve as Honorary Chair for this year’s tournament as we raise funding for college scholarships.” 

Leslie Meek told The Hill, “Our objective is to raise as much money as we possibly can. Last year we raised about $400,000. Who’s going to raise more interest than a former president?”

As far as Obama is concerned, she said, “It wasn’t an either-or. We had the opportunity to have the former president sign on and we jumped at it.”

The fundraiser is named after the late husband of Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio). The setting for the event is the lovely Lansdowne Resort in Lansdowne, Va., which is equipped with a luxury spa, four outdoor pools and two championship golf courses. The event is a two-day retreat with a gala and silent auction the night before the tournament.

Post office bill attracts controversy

Things have gotten so partisan in Washington that Republicans and Democrats can’t even agree on what to call post offices. Earlier this week, 53 Republicans voted against a measure that would name a postal facility after the late Rachel Carson, whose book Silent Spring is credited with launching the environmental movement.

And we’re not talking about GOP backbenchers. Among those who voted no were Reps. John Boehner (Ohio), Roy Blunt (Mo.), Eric Cantor (Va.) and Dennis Hastert (Ill.). Three other Republicans voted present.
Why? Some Republicans have problems with Carson’s claims that DDT causes health problems in humans. They say those assertions about the pesticide are unproven.

“A strong number of Republicans felt Congress should not name a post office after a person who ran a sensationalist campaign to ban a product that could be used to prevent the deaths of hundreds millions of people every year,” said Brian Kennedy, spokesman for Minority Leader Boehner.

Regardless, Carson supporters got the last laugh: The bill got more than the two-thirds of the House necessary for passage.

2008 conventions may have different flavor

Ever since 1988, Bill McCloskey has been one of the most popular figures among journalists covering the Democratic and Republican national conventions.

That’s because the 62-year-old former AP Radio reporter has presided over the Bell South Media Lounge that dispensed free food and drink to the harried scribes at nine of the last 10 conventions (another company hosted the lounge at the 2000 Democratic confab in Chicago).

But McCloskey recently stepped down after 20 years as director of media relations for Bell South after it was bought by AT&T last December, and neither he nor Bell South will be entertaining journalists in 2008 when Republicans meet in the Twin Cities and Democrats in Denver.

“I think if AT&T doesn’t pick it up, somebody else will, and I’d love to be hired as a consultant,” McCloskey said last week from his home in Bethesda, Md.

The lounges produced a lot of good will for his company, he added. “I’d get calls from reporters four and five months in advance asking if we were going to be there.”

But sometimes there were problems, like when an over-zealous aide refused to admit then-Democratic National Chairman Ron Brown to the lounge because he didn’t have a media pass.

Fortunately, McCloskey intervened. “I told the kid, ‘You better let him in. That’s his signature on your pass.’”

Heidi Bruggink, Albert Eisele, Alexander Harrison, Betsy Rothstein and Ian Swanson contributed to this page.