Conyers welcomes Karl Rove to party

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) made a roomful of partygoers at the Congressional Black Caucus’s dessert and champagne party laugh hard Sunday night when he took to the microphone and invited Karl Rove to the party.

“I’m hoping the president’s adviser Karl Rove comes by tonight, because I have a live subpoena waiting for him,” he told guests.

Alfre Woodard parties with the Congressional Black Caucus

Emmy Award-winning actress Alfre Woodard turned up at the debut Democratic National Convention party for the Congressional Black Caucus.

The party, sponsored by Johnson & Johnson, offered an open bar along with a decadent feast of crabcakes, sirloin, fancy cheese fries and a pasta station.

But the real attention-grabber at the party was Woodard, in a shiny white dress at the far side of the bar. Partygoers asking for photographs and conversation deluged the actress, who has starred on TV’s “Hill Street Blues” and “Desperate Housewives.”

Woodard, a national surrogate for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for the past year, gladly gushed about the presumed presidential nominee.

The memory that stuck out most in her mind was when she took her 13-year-old son to Obama’s Washington office to meet him. More than anything, Woodard says, she wanted her son to walk into Obama’s office and see the senator working in his office and dressed in a suit.

“We were following him around,” she said, explaining that her son can be hard to engage but that Obama connected with him. “He was talking to my son.”

What struck the actress most was Obama’s response when she tried to tell him that she believes there is a permanent underclass in this country. “I don’t believe that,” he replied, looking her square in the eye. She says she has had to learn to campaign “for something,” rather than “fighting against” something.

Woodard’s upcoming acting roles include “My Own Worst Enemy,” a TV show with Christian Slater that debuts in October, and “Family to Praise,” a movie she stars in with Kathy Bates.

Omarosa gets paid to attend parties

If you see the former star of “The Apprentice” Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth at DNC parties this week, it might be because she was paid to be there.

A former aide to Vice President Al Gore, the woman made famous for her villainous personality on the Donald Trump reality show plans to appear at an array of parties. She turned up at Sunday night’s Congressional Black Caucus soiree — in a fashionable low-cut yellow dress — as well as the Ron Brown golf tournament.

“I’m fortunate to come and enjoy myself on someone else’s dime,” she told ITK.

Gov. Sebelius boogies down at New Orleans event

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius wasn’t letting her loss in the Barack Obama veepstakes put a crimp in her convention-partying style.

Sebelius was cutting a mean rug Sunday night at the New Orleans All-Star Jam-Balaya bash with former Sen. John Breaux (D-La.), James Carville and Donna Brazile, held in downtown Denver’s cavernous Fillmore Auditorium.

She boogied, she jammed and she even showed how low she could go, a move that would be a killer on the knees of most fat-cat Washington pols. But the svelte, silver-locked 60-year-old didn’t even break a sweat.

She displayed the same energy and upbeat outlook when asked about female voters’ disappointment that Obama passed over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) to choose Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) as his No. 2.

“Joe is an accomplished legislator, very knowledgeable about foreign affairs and is a Washington politician that hasn’t lost his hometown roots and can sit down at the kitchen table with people who have suffered in this economic downturn and really understand their plight,” she said.

But when asked about the latest CNN poll showing that 27 percent of Clinton voters are now supporting John McCain, Sebelius became a tad aggressive.

“I want to know who these women are,” she remarked. “As I travel the country, [I see women] who are thrilled about him — he’s married to a bright and beautiful woman who’s the mother of two bright and beautiful daughters. He understands women’s issues. John McCain doesn’t even support pay equity … and there are huge issues at stake at the Supreme Court … we’re going to have a very united front.”

Sighting: CNN’s John King outside the tent area of Denver’s Pepsi Center

CNN’s John King was walking to his makeshift office at Denver’s Pepsi Center on Monday morning when he passed a gaggle of Secret Service officers.

“Another day in paradise, huh?” he called out to the men, dressed in all black.

One officer replied, “We want to be you — you know that, right?”