Musician Bono drops in on House Dems’ meeting

Even though several Republicans and Democrats are using U2’s concert in D.C. this week to raise money, the band’s frontman, Bono, appeared to show a preference for the Democrats when he graced Capitol Hill yesterday.

Bono dropped in on a meeting of House Democrats to talk about debt relief for developing countries and the global AIDS crisis. The singer is spending several days in Washington on a trip that is part performance, part public policy. U2 performs at MCI Center later this week. Tomorrow, Bono will show Republicans a little love when he meets with President Bush.

In his address to the weekly meeting of House Democrats yesterday, Bono drew attention to a group he founded and dubbed Debt AIDS Trade Africa, which has been working on debt relief. At one point during the speech, he even likened House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to a lioness.

Bono also enjoyed a private lunch with Pelosi and other prominent Democrats, including Sens. John Kerry (Mass.), Patrick Leahy (Vt.), Barack Obama (Ill.) and Dick Durbin (Ill.) and Reps. Steny Hoyer (Md.) and Nita Lowey (N.Y.).

Pelosi has met Bono before, having attended a U2 concert in San Jose, Calif., earlier this year. She bought two sets of tickets to both tonight’s and tomorrow night’s shows and will decided which one to attend depending on the House schedule.