The Dem countdown to end of Bush’s term

You’ve seen the blue-state bumper stickers eagerly pointing out that 01.20.09 will be President Bush’s last day in office, but how far away is that, exactly?

If you really want to know, ask Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.).

Mention Bush’s name to him, as we did recently, and he just might reach into the breast pocket of his jacket and pull out a keychain-sized digital device. On the tiny screen is the exact number of days left in the term of our 43rd president.

As of Wednesday, by the way, it’s 467 days.

“Not that I’m counting,” McDermott said with a grin.

We don’t know how much McDermott paid for his little gadget, but if Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), for example, replaces Bush in the White House, we know of a few of his colleagues who might like to buy it from him.

Former ambassador to Saudi Arabia says ‘Thanks, but no thanks’ to chatty Larson

A few administration Republicans in the last couple of years have revealed that they had reservations about the 2002 invasion of Iraq, hoping for some vindication, no doubt.

Robert Jordan, then the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, is not one of them.

In a briefing with reporters last week, Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) recalled a conversation he had in 2002 with Jordan.

“He said that if we were to remove this ‘toothless tiger,’ we will have done what Osama bin Laden failed to do, which is to create a united Islamic jihad,” Larson recalled.

Jordan remembers the conversation differently.

“The congressman is attempting to recall a conversation of five years ago,” Jordan said in an e-mail response. Jordan went on to clarify that, although he passed on Saudi concerns that a war could strengthen bin Laden — “as was my job” — he ultimately supported the invasion.

And, even though Jordan said he personally believed in 2002 that there was not enough information available to make a firm decision, he said that he “would not have expressed personal views in the way you describe the congressman as quoting me.”

The ‘thrill’ of Yucca Mountain came a couple years too early

We have mixed feelings about correcting Rep. Jon Porter (R-Nev.), who said of the fight over storing nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain: “In 1982, Michael Jackson’s song ‘Thriller’ was popular when we started this project.”

Now, we really, really support the use of pop-culture references in boring hearings — and Porter, as a founding member of congressional rock band The Second Amendments, certainly brings his own music cred to the party, so to speak.

But here at Under the Dome, we consider ourselves to be the Robert C. Byrd of rock music history, if you will.

So it is with some hesitation that we note that, while “Thriller” was released in 1982, it wasn’t until late 1983 that the newly released video rocketed the song into the permanent record of rockitude. In fact, it didn’t climb high on the charts until 1984 — and even then only topped out at No. 4 on the Billboard Top 100.

But we respect completely that Porter went with “Thriller” to make his point, rather than with the song that actually did top the chart in 1982: “Physical,” by Olivia Newton-John.

Pelosi won’t miss GOP friends

Eight House Republicans and six more in the Senate have now announced that they will sit out the 2008 elections.

As campaign chiefs Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) and Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) continue to contemplate just how bad things can get, Democrats face a choice: High road or low road?

One might assume that Senate Majority Leader Harry “The war is lost” Reid (D-Nev.) would be the one who wouldn’t be able to hide his glee at the spate of Republican retirements.

Known for wandering off of his script from time to time in moments of excitement, Reid more recently has held his tongue, even releasing a nice statement at the announcement that long-serving Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) would retire next year due to health reasons.

“He has served the people of New Mexico and the U.S. Senate honorably, and his mark on both his state and this body will endure long after he retires,” Reid said on Oct. 4.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi decided to go a different route.

“It makes me very happy to see my good and dear friends spending more time with their families,” Pelosi sweetly told reporters on that same day. “They’ve earned it.”

Not to be unkind, of course.

“Most of the ones who are leaving are people who have been here awhile, so I served with them for a long time, respect their service to our country, and sincerely wish them well,” she continued. “I’m not sad to see them go.”

Shimkus’s unsponsoring spree

No, Rep. John Shimkus hasn’t changed his mind about Armenian genocide.

The Illinois Republican, a member of the congressional caucus on Armenian issues and a vocal advocate of strengthening ties with the republic, yanked his name last week from a resolution that calls upon the U.S. government to “accurately characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians as genocide and to recall the proud history of United States intervention in opposition to the Armenian genocide.”

Spokesman Steve Tomaszew­ski said Tuesday that more foreign policy legislation is likely to lose the benefit of Shimkus’s sponsorship soon, but not because the congressman has adopted a new, isolationist credo.

Tomaszewski said that changes resulted from Shimkus’s appointment as the new ranking member of the U.S. delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. He replaced Rep. Paul Gillmor (R-Ohio), who died last month.

Mike Soraghan contributed to this page.