Mean Height

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) expressed her dismay over government policies that rely on national averages during a hearing yesterday on defense issues. To illustrate her point, the senator, who registers at less than 5 feet tall, compared herself to a certain towering, millionaire senator from West Virginia.

Mikulski told Defense Secretary Robert Gates: “I mean, if you look at national averages, you put me next to [Sen.] Jay Rockefeller (D) — the average height of the Senate would be 5-foot-10, and I would be worth several million dollars.”

More ’08 contenders, more slips of the tongue

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is the latest presidential contender to succumb to exhaustion on the campaign trail and make a verbal-mental slip-up. The blogosphere is having a high time mocking him for saying 10,000 people had died in the recent Kansas tornadoes, when in truth the figure was 12.

But Obama is not the only one. And there are undoubtedly more to come.

Last week it was former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson’s (R) turn.

Asked during the Republican debate about how many soldiers have died in the Iraq war and how many have been injured, Thompson replied, “There’s been over 3,000 that have been lost and several thousand that have been injured …”

The injury toll, however, is much higher than “several thousand,” totaling more than 24,000.

Following the debate, Thompson’s campaign put out a release entitled, “GOP Debate: Governor Thompson Wins the Iraq Debate.”

Thompson also flubbed a question on employer discrimination, which he attributed to a faulty hearing aid during an interview on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.”

Maher accepted Thompson’s rationale for the gaffe, but comedian Garry Shandling mocked it throughout the show.

Rep. Murtha’s memory lapse

Anyone standing outside the House Armed Services hearing room on April 25 might have been a little mystified watching Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) appear on “Hardball” the other day.

Murtha, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) war czar, told “Hardball” host Chris Matthews earlier this month that Gen. David Petraeus hadn’t talked to lawmakers when he came to Washington.

“He only talks to the news media and so forth trying to sell this program,” Murtha said.

Problem was, Petraeus talked to two gatherings of lawmakers before he went before the media. And before that, he’d talked to Murtha privately on the phone.

A Murtha spokesman clarified that Murtha didn’t mean to say that Petraeus didn’t communicate at all, only that he didn’t testify before any committees of jurisdiction, such as Murtha’s Appropriations defense subcommittee.

“He believed [Petraeus’s] actions were purely political,” said Murtha spokesman Matt Mazonkey.

Cook’s return

It took the top G-man in the land to lure him back to D.C., but Dave Cook, Washington bureau chief of The Christian Science Monitor, made his first D.C. appearance in six months yesterday as host of the Monitor’s long-running newsmaker breakfast, with FBI Director Robert Mueller as the featured guest.

 Cook, who has hosted the on-the-record session for print journalists since taking over in January 2002 from founder Godfrey Sperling Jr. — the host since 1966 — has been in Boston since last November while filling in as editor of the Monitor’s website.

 Cook and some 30 other journalists quizzed Mueller about a broad range of subjects, including the arrests of six would-be terrorists who were charged with conspiring to attack the Army base at Fort Dix, N.J.; plans to counter other terrorist threats; the recent firing of eight U.S. attorneys; the FBI’s role in public corruption cases involving members of Congress; and even the fate of Mueller’s boss, beleaguered Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

The shirt-sleeved Mueller wisely declined comment on Gonzales, as he did when asked about former CIA Director George Tenet’s controversial new book, At the Center of the Storm. Describing Tenet as “a good friend,” Mueller said, “I’ve just started reading it. I’m only on page 3.”

Congressional lactation areas

The Cannon Terrace (or 441 Cannon if it’s raining) is the place to be today if you happen to be breast-feeding a baby. The event is intended to highlight Rep. Carolyn Maloney’s  (D-N.Y.) “Breastfeeding Promotion Act.”
The legislation would give tax incentives for business to create “lactation areas” in the workplace.

Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) is brave enough to participate (well, not really participate) in the event, as is Susan Kane, editor-in-chief of Babytalk magazine.

Cubin’s husband hospitalized

Under the Dome’s thoughts go out to Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-Wyo.), whose husband, Dr. Frederick “Fritz” Cubin, is still being treated for aggressive pneumonia.

Cubin has been home with him since the middle of April, at which point she opted to return to register her vote to uphold President Bush’s veto of the Democrats’ war-funding bill.

Albert Eisele, Betsy Rothstein and Mike Soraghan contributed to this page.