Shuler deemed NFL’s ninth-worst draft bust

Even Republicans would have to acknowledge that Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) is having a better freshman term in Congress than his rookie season in the National Football League. Regardless of how he votes, Shuler is not now getting booed in Washington like he was in the mid-’90s.

{mosads}Shuler was recently named one of the biggest busts in the history of the NFL draft. But the ex-Washington Redskins quarterback, who registered as the ninth-worst bust on the NFL Network’s list, took the news in stride.

He agreed to an interview with the network, which noted that Shuler threw five interceptions in a 1994 game against the Arizona Cardinals after throwing just eight during his entire final season with the University of Tennessee. Shuler finished with 15 touchdowns and 33 interceptions thrown before retiring after the 1997 season as a New Orleans Saint.

Shuler said that his little boy has put on his old Redskins helmet and told his dad, “I want to be just like you.”

The freshman lawmaker added, “He doesn’t know about the interceptions I threw.”

Democrats counterattack Broder column 

Note to Washington party planners: Don’t invite Washington Post political columnist David Broder, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Democratic strategist/TV pundit Paul Begala to the same party.

Begala, the CNN commentator and former aide to President Clinton, touched off a firestorm in the blogosphere by depicting Broder as a “gasbag” for his “arrogant, elitist, condescending attack” on Reid after Broder, in an April 26 column, called Reid an “embarrassment” for declaring the Iraq war “lost.”

Writing in the left-leaning Huffington Post blog, Begala stated, “Perhaps Broder’s bed-wetting tantrum against Reid was spurred by the certain knowledge that while Harry Reid has been telling hard truths, Mr. Broder has been falling hard for transparent lies” by the Bush administration.

Begala’s excoriation of Broder, which drew 266 comments, most of them even more critical of Broder, was quickly followed by a letter to the Post in defense of Reid signed by the entire Senate Democratic Caucus.

So is Broder, the Post’s Pulitzer Prize-winning chief political columnist, now persona non grata among Senate Democrats?
“No, I’ve talked to a half-dozen Democratic senators since,” he said Monday. “The prize I’ve got is the original letter signed by 50 Senate Democrats, and that’s going to go up on my wall.”

And while the Post’s own media critic, Howard Kurtz, failed to come to Broder’s defense, syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker did.

Calling the criticism of Broder “empty outrage,” she wrote in The (Baltimore) Sun yesterday, “You’d have thought Mr. Broder had had an intimate encounter with an intern. Or, in the spirit of bipartisanship, had broken into Democratic National Committee headquarters.”

Parker said the Senate Democrats’ letter “betrays a disturbing hostility to legitimate criticism,” and added, “Mr. Broder merely did what he has done for the past 35 years. He called it as he saw it.”

Taking the media to task 

Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) last week assailed the media for its handling of a government investigation into former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.).

The Securities and Exchange Commission probe into Frist’s selling of a family-owned chain of hospitals is now closed, and Bennett is furious that the media has barely mentioned its outcome.

On the Senate floor last week, Bennett said, “When insider-trading allegations against Frist surfaced back in 2005, they were splashed on the pages of major newspapers from coast to coast. Now that Dr. Frist has been vindicated, the silence is instructive. Is anybody out there?”

Bennett’s got a point. Only 14 news items show up on LexisNexis about Frist’s innocence — and none on Bennett’s speech.

And yes, we take Visa 

In a recent e-mail to potential contributors to Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) presidential campaign, Visa Vice President of Public Affairs Rhonda Bentz pointed out a May 23 reception for the lawmaker on the rooftop of Covington and Burling.

Bentz added in the e-mail she’d be grateful if donors gave at her personal fundraising website for McCain. And yes, she stated, the website takes Visa.

“We’re pleased that many campaigns have decided to accept Visa,” Bentz told Under the Dome.

Boob Tube 

Some folks know how easy it is to let their eyeballs fall to a low-cut neckline. This is especially true when you’re holding a Sam Adams or a glass of Pinot Grigio at an after-work party or reception. But beware if you’re a member of Congress or anyone high-profile enough to be embarrassed in front of a national audience.

The minds behind TMZ.com, the Hollywood gossip site that attracts millions of readers a month by chronicling the misadventures of Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohan, and other celebrities, are contemplating a juicy prank for Washington’s less-dazzling glitterati.  

To attract viewers and buzz to a proposed D.C.-based gossip site, TMZ’s brain trust has batted around the idea of a “cleavage cam,” according to a source who discussed editorial plans with TMZ.

Their idea is to conceal a camera in the cleavage of a gal who is — how shall we put this? — well able to conceal it, and then send her to events and receptions on Capitol Hill and around town to catch celebrity Washingtonians failing to keep custody of their eyes.

A spokeswoman for TMZ declined to comment on its editorial plans.
But a source connected to TMZ said the website is waiting to hire the “right mix” of staff before going forward with plans for a D.C. publication.

When it does, memo to committee chairmen and vulnerable freshmen alike: Try to refrain from glancing down while chatting at cocktail parties — and if you can’t help yourself, remember to smile!