Wishful thinking: Dreams of 2008 fill Capitol hallways

The next congressional elections are more than a year away, but you wouldn’t know it from the joyous reception of “Saturday Night Live” comedian-cum-Senate candidate Al Franken by Democratic lawmakers.

When Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) caught Franken cruising the Capitol halls on Tuesday, he told the liberal funnyman that he was pulling for him to unseat Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) in 2008.

Franken told Rangel that he’d just come from the Senate side, where he hopes to be working in about 16 months. Franken recounted that Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) greeted him with “Hey, Senator!” when they crossed paths.

Franken’s response? He had but one option: “Hey, Mr. President!”

A Rasmussen poll released on Sept. 11 placed Franken only five points behind Coleman, although Franken would first have to beat out a primary opponent with similar numbers. Dodd, however, has yet to battle his way out of the asterisks in national polls.

Rice’s path to Secretary of State job was no straight line

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may be known for her decisive nature now, but she was not always the resolute lady that Congress has seen defending the foreign policy of President Bush in committee testimony.

Rice told attendees at a dinner for the 10th anniversary of Washington Cornerstone School on Sept. 17 that her initial plan after high school graduation was to continue her training as a pianist. As she realized that child prodigies were outshining her easily, Rice had a talk with her father, who told her to find a new major or “You’re going to end up a waitress at Howard Johnson’s.”

“I went back to college and I tried a little bit of everything. I was really expanding my horizons. English literature — I hated it. State and local government — I hated it,” Rice explained to a laughing audience.

Finally, Rice discovered Russian studies, and what young girl doesn’t have this reaction?

“It was a little bit like love; you can’t quite explain it,” Rice said of her affection for all things Russian. “I’m really glad I changed my major.”

The Democratic-led Congress, however, might have preferred to see Rice back at the piano.

Baby Reed may already be affecting U.S. policy

When Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) delivered the rebuttal address on Sept. 13 to President Bush’s Iraq statement, he was by all accounts nervous.

He had only a few minutes to refute the words of his country’s leader on national television, but he told reporters that he had a secret weapon that helped him through it: a photo of his little girl on the screen of his BlackBerry.

“I thought it would be good to have a sense of purpose,” he explained to a political columnist from The Providence Journal. 

Immigration news strangely less appealing to the public than celebrity gossip

It seems that Americans for Legal Immigration, an organization that collects campaign funds for candidates who advocate boosting border security, is a little frustrated.

Apparently, members of the organization are having a little trouble getting the attention they believe that immigration overhaul legislation on the Senate bills deserves.

That’s why they sent out a joke press release on Wednesday that included fake quotes from O.J. Simpson (“most of the Senate is white”) and Lindsay Lohan (“I’m going to support DREAM Act amnesty, because if I don’t, my coke dealer will hang me out to dry”). It goes on to note that Britney Spears and others were not available for comment.

According to the press release, the parody was “intended to bring attention to how the corporate media in America is distracting the public with garbage” — and then it goes into some stuff about Senate legislation.

Scandal survivors nearly had impromptu Senate meeting

As Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) dodged photographers and reporters in his effort to vote without feeding the media frenzy surrounding his conviction for disorderly conduct in an airport bathroom, he had no idea that a kindred spirit was just about 100 yards away.

Former Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colo.), whose presidential candidacy was derailed in 1988 by a sex scandal, was pattering down the Senate stairs just as Craig was leaving the chamber after his first vote since he was accused of using signals to make sexual advances toward a police officer in public.

Hart passed through almost entirely unnoticed — which is good, because he was in no mood to talk. Hart was on a tight schedule of talking to some of his old colleagues about the Council for a Livable World, an organization for which he serves on the board.

The two never crossed paths, but maybe Hart’s proximity will remind Craig that the nightmare won’t last forever — 20 years from now, maybe Craig will pass through unnoticed, too.

Jonathan E. Kaplan contributed to this page.