Threat level is yellow, or orange, or something

Remember that color-coded threat level system that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) set up a few years ago? It hasn’t gotten a lot of attention recently, but it still exists, and it’s more confusing than ever.

The DHS this week displayed a graphic on its website that said the national threat level was yellow. But within the same graphic, it said the threat level for the airline industry was orange — i.e., more dangerous.

A DHS spokeswoman explained that there are different colors for the national threat and for the airline industry. Asked about the threat levels for other industries (shipping, trucking, farming?) and more details about the confusing website posting, Under the Dome got directed to the public affairs shop of the Transportation Security Administration. A voicemail picked up at TSA, saying there were many calls coming in and advising us to leave a message or check TSA’s website for information.

TSA did not comment by press time.

Venable lobbyist ready to rock Georgetown

Everyone in D.C. (including Under the Dome) has been talking about Monday night’s Battle of the Bands between White House Press Secretary Tony Snow and longtime CBS newsman Bob Schieffer. (Snow’s crew prevailed.)

But while that event attracted headlines, the most intense musical bash of the month will happen this weekend, when Venable lobbyist Erik Huey and his band, the Surreal McCoys, rock Georgetown (tomorrow) and the Big Apple (Saturday).

Huey, who lobbies for entertainment-industry clients when he’s not jamming, is the group’s lead singer.

The Surreal McCoys describes itself as “the top cowpunk band ever to come out of Notre Dame Law School. … Think of Johnny Cash crossed with the Clash. But with more charisma. And charmingly modest. And we’re all still alive.”

The band last year played at the world-famous Viper Room on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles and then launched what it called a “whiskey-soaked tour” of the Midwest.

Lobbyist Tom Quinn, a partner at Venable, and The Hill newspaper are among the sponsors of the events this weekend. All the profits will go to charities D.C. Street Sense and City at Peace.

More details can be found at www.thesurrealmccoys.com .

Schumer’s wishful thinking

While usually only Beltway nerds can appreciate a committee hearing, the testimony of former Deputy Attorney General James Comey Tuesday would have wowed any tourist who stumbled into the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

It sounded like the stuff that makes a good Washington political intrigue novel: high-ranking White House officials trying to get a hospitalized attorney general to sign off on the extension of a controversial counterterrorism program, with the acting attorney general and the FBI director rushing to the sickbed of their boss to prevent that from happening.
Besides intrigue, the hearing had plenty of light-hearted moments.

When Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), one of the most vocal critics of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (who played a prominent role in the saga), was about to put Comey under oath ahead of his testimony, wishful thinking apparently got the better of him.

“And now I’d like to administer the oath of office,” Schumer began, before realizing that this was not a swearing-in ceremony. “I’m sorry, I wish we were administering the oath of office,” Schumer said to great laughter, making it clear that he would much rather see Comey and Gonzales trade places.

Comey’s testimony was so compelling that it took ranking committee Republican Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) more than 21 minutes to ask when Schumer’s five-minute round of questioning was to expire.

“Mr. Chairman, could you give us some idea when your first round will conclude?” Specter asked, pointing out that
Schumer was 16 minutes and 35 seconds over his allotted time.

The New York Democrat responded that “most people would think that those 16 minutes and 35 seconds were worth hearing.”

Five minutes later, Schumer wrapped up his questioning. Specter noted that he could not recall anyone ever so blatantly exceeding the time limit.

Specter, who had been assured of equal time, then launched into a lengthy question-and-answer session with Comey, and in the end, he also got the last laugh.

After he had also greatly exceeded the five-minute limit and Comey evaded his repeated questions on whether the administration had acted illegally, Specter quipped, to the amusement of the gallery, “Let me move on. I only have 35 minutes left.”

The haircut that keeps on cutting

Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) was neither self-critical nor defensive yesterday after finding himself on the receiving end of one of the more memorable one-liners of the political cycle this week.

During Tuesday’s GOP debate in South Carolina, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee took the opportunity to make a crack about Edwards’s now famously expensive (read: $400) haircuts.

“We’ve had a Congress that’s spent money like John Edwards at a beauty shop,” Huckabee said.

Under the Dome caught up with Edwards after he spoke in front of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers’ legislative conference and asked him about Huckabee’s dig.

He brushed off (or maybe, combed) Huckabee’s jab, saying, “I didn’t see the debate … I heard his one line, though.”

Asked for his reaction, the former senator managed a laugh, waved his hand dismissively and said, “I’m past that.” His entourage laughed too — they just love this stuff, don’t you know.

Huckabee said on a conference call yesterday morning that the remark was unplanned. (In other words, he’s naturally
funny.) Asked about his own personal beautician, Huckabee said he goes to the same barber he went to in college.

“If he cut my hair and charged me a dollar per hair, we couldn’t come up with a $400 haircut,” Huckabee said.