Pelosi promotes sale of Inauguration photo

There is a theory that in the world of basic cable, the Democrats are Bravo and the Republicans are the Home Shopping Network.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) over the weekend, however, sounded more like the latter by offering a special, special offer for supporters. In an e-mail, she hawked an “exclusive commemorative photo of President and First Lady Obama.”

It’s yours for a mere $25 contribution to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

The photograph would look good on any plate — at least, any plate sold as a collector’s item on late-night television along with Ginsu knives. It’s an image of the smiling first couple dancing at one of the balls.

Embossed on top of spectators  watching the Obamas is flowing script: “The inauguration of Barack Obama / January 20th, 2009.”

Act now, Pelosi said. This offer expires at midnight and is not available in stores. Or, you could hold out for the T-shirt. The DCCC was also offering the “limited edition inaugural photo” on its website.

A spokeswoman for the DCCC said Pelosi had already received a huge response to her e-mail.

“The extremely positive response to the Speaker’s e-mail speaks to the excitement and optimism Americans across [the country] are feel[ing] about President Obama and Democrats’ agenda for change,” said Jennifer Crider, Pelosi’s spokeswoman at the DCCC.

GOP lobbyist takes up bipartisan guest bartending

Jason Roe, a managing partner with Federal Strategy Group, may have skipped town to avoid the Inauguration of President Obama, but this week he’s getting into the spirit by tending bar at a bipartisan “Welcome to the 111th Happy Hour” on Thursday at D’Acqua, located at 801 Pennsylvania Ave.

From 5 p.m. to “???,” the invitation says, a bipartisan group of volunteer bartenders such as Roe will welcome revelers. The event is intended to reintroduce the bar, now under new ownership, to Washington.

Think of it as an Inaugural After Party.

“Of course I’m a good bartender,” Roe told ITK over e-mail. “I was a bar manager in college and also after college. I got fired from my last job because it was a very granola-ish bar and I was gathering signatures to qualify Ronna Romney for ballot for U.S. Senate. The owner wasn’t real excited about me collecting [signatures] as a Republican.”

Roe said spending the Inauguration snowboarding in Switzerland and Austria “was incredibly fun.”

And no, he assured us, he hasn’t succumbed to Obamamania just yet. “However, the Euros were incredibly nice to me because of him,” he said. “There’s a real difference in their attitude toward us. Can’t wait till he pisses them off.”

Roe plans to bartend alongside seven other volunteers, including several lobbyists and John Michael Gonzalez, chief of staff to Rep. Melissa Bean (D-Ill.). Please remember, the invitation concludes, “In accordance with House and Senate Ethics Rules this is a Dutch treat affair.”
 

Former Bingaman aide takes on New Mexico ball

Mario Montoya, a former new-media aide to Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), may have looked stressed last Monday night rushing around in a tux at the Smithsonian Museum for the American Indian. But that was because, as president of the New Mexico State Society, he was responsible for putting on a ball with a band, food and poetry-reading for 800 guests.

Montoya had various things to be stressed about. He had to wait for guests stuck in traffic around the Mall. He also was nervous about a long speech he had prepared to give.

“At the last minute I decided to cut the speech out entirely and just thank the VIPs. … I was a little disappointed, but I think that it’s more important that the guests enjoy themselves rather than spend the night listening to me ramble,” he said.

His favorite part of the evening happened just after 9 p.m. “I hadn’t eaten or even had a glass of water, let alone champagne,” he said. “At that point, I felt like all the major things that could’ve gone wrong had passed without a problem. I was able to sit back and sort of take in the sights and sounds of the event.”

As dancing heated up downstairs to Kool & The Gang’s “Jungle Boogie,” a VIP cocktail reception was going on upstairs in a very hot room that began to feel like a sauna.

Guests didn’t mind. The VIP lounge held such dignitaries as newly elected Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), who walked arm in arm with his wife, Jill; former Sen. Fred Harris (D-N.M.), who unsuccessfully ran for president twice in the 1970s; and newly elected Rep. Harry Teague (D-N.M.).

“It’s just like ‘league,’” the new congressman joked of his surname while sipping on a cocktail. “We want everyone to have a Teague of their own.”

Teague says he’s adjusting well to Congress, but has gotten lost in the Rayburn House Office Building. “It’s a regular maze over there,” he said. “Both times I was able to stumble around and find my way.”

All in all, he’s getting by: “I know where the cafeteria and the bathroom are, but I don’t know everything yet.”

Rep. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), looking Southwestern in a bolo tie, was also at the reception with wife, Julie.

Julie Heinrich explained how relaxing Inauguration had been. “It’s great,” she says. “We left our kids with his mother, so it feels like a vacation.”

ITK Contest: Creative Coalition goody bag goes to New York reader

To spice up Inauguration week, M&M created a goody bag for the Creative Coalition’s 2009 Inaugural Ball on Jan. 20. ITK is giving the bag to The Hill reader who guessed how many times President Obama said certain words and phrases in his Inauguration speech, such as “change,” “yes, we can” and “hope.”

The prize — a lot of swag that includes a teeth-whitening kit and spa services at the Red Door Spa — goes to Evan Siegfried, a former press intern to Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), whose answers were the closest. Siegfried, who lives in Manhattan, is a deputy clerk of court for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

“President Obama has clearly shown D.C. that he knows New Yorkers get things done,” Siegfried wrote ITK in an e-mail. “If you need somebody to run State, get a New York Democrat. If you need somebody to run Treasury, get a New York Democrat. If you need somebody to run HUD, get a New York Democrat. If you need somebody to win an ITK contest, get a New York Democrat.”

Rep. Issa is finicky about his furniture

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) can’t be accused of being a hoarder.

One morning the week before Inauguration, he exited his personal Rayburn office carrying into the hallway an armchair that he apparently no longer wanted.

Aides in the front office eyed him warily. Issa offered no explanation whatsoever for his sudden impulsion to redecorate.

“He’s very tidy,” Issa spokesman Kurt Bardella later explained.