Bush loss, Starbucks gain

President Bush has long advocated for immigration reform to make this country more welcoming to Hispanics. But at a Rose Garden ceremony last Wednesday to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, Bush ended up locking a group of foreign Hispanic leaders out on the street.

About a dozen ambassadors from Latin American countries such as Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru discovered to their shock and chagrin that though the White House had asked them to the annual event, they could not get past the door because their names were not on the invite list.

Could this be payback from Bush just two weeks after former Mexican President Vicente Fox released Revolution of Hope, a book that called Bush a “windshield cowboy” and the “cockiest guy I ever met”?

In a searing ritual familiar to those who have tried to enter a velvet-rope party wearing khakis or flip-flops, the Latin ambassadors were forced to stand around awkwardly and watch more favored guests stream right past them and into the event.

Eventually, the group of ambassadors decided to call it quits and crossed the street to have coffee at Starbucks instead.
“I think for about 15 minutes they waited and when they realized that the event had already started they decided to leave,” said Ricardo Alday, spokesman for the Embassy of Mexico.

Daniel Fisk, senior director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council, later called Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhán and other envoys to apologize for the snafu.

“Mr. Fisk reached out and made apologies to those in the diplomatic corps who were invited and affected,” said National Security Council spokeswoman Kate Starr. “No insult was intended and we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.”

GOPers aren’t the only ones miffed at Schumer

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) may need to invest in a giant hook.

If he did, though, we suspect that Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) would buy a giant pair of wire-cutters.

Leahy made no effort to hide his annoyance with Schumer, ranked seventh on the Democratic side, as the length of the always chatty New Yorker’s introduction for Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey at his confirmation hearing Wednesday began to threaten Leahy’s schedule.

Leahy broke into Schumer’s statement twice, at one point asking, “Are you going to take much longer?” Still Schumer prattled on, apparently unfazed.

Finally, Leahy took a new approach, simply pretending that Schumer had stopped talking.

“Thank you, Sen. Schumer … Sen. Lieberman? … Sen. Lieberman?” Leahy said in an effort to silence Schumer.

Seconds later, Schumer finished reading his entire statement and thanked the chairman.

Beware of interns on Segways — they are faster than you think

If you see congressional aides speeding through House office building hallways on various unfamiliar vehicles Wednesday, don’t be alarmed (though you should probably get out of the way).

The Green the Capitol office, created by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) earlier this year, is holding an expo on “Green Transportation” in the Cannon Caucus Room and outside of the Cannon House Office Building.

Grant Scherling, executive director of the office, said the event’s goals are modest, and mostly directed at education.

“It’s understood that not everyone who comes to this event is going to run out and buy an electric car,” Scherling said.

Ron Paul reaches top tier in own mind, demotes McCain

Say what you want about Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and his long-shot campaign for president, but the man has moxie.
A release from the Paul campaign this week announced his plans to hold a press conference “to discuss the finances of Dr. Paul and the other three top-tier candidates.”

Those “other” top-tier candidates presumably would be former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn.), former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) — but wait, that’s four, not three.

Asked which campaign got the ax, a Paul staffer explained that one candidate’s bank account simply did not meet Paul’s high standards.

“We discussed the fundraising of all the candidates, but argue that since McCain is in the red for the primary, he is not a viable candidate,” the staffer said.

Beyond McCain, one would think that Paul would have a little sympathy for the other Republican candidates who are virtually unknown three feet outside of the Beltway, such as Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.) or former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who is perpetually noted as maybe, almost a breakthrough candidate.

But you give a guy some cash, and it all goes to his head. Paul certainly has surprised observers with his fundraising prowess — he raised more than $5 million in the last quarter and has already raised more than $1 million online this month.

Sen. Craig gives thumbs-up to Matt Lauer’s interview style

Matt Lauer’s much-anticipated Tuesday interview with Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) on NBC was widely criticized for taking it too easy on the Idaho Republican, so maybe it’s no surprise that Craig himself was happy with it.

Hours before the television special aired, Craig stood waiting for an elevator off the Senate floor, where he was joined by old friend and fellow Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio).

Voinovich, whose office is across the hall from Craig’s in the Hart Senate Office Building and is thus acutely aware of the media interest in the Idahoan since he was arrested in an airport bathroom, asked Craig how the interview went.
Craig replied that he was relatively happy with the hour-long question-and-answer session, adding that he felt Lauer was not overly aggressive and that the interview was “structured well.”

That was a far cry from the review by Washington Post television critic Tom Shales, whose kindest word about Tuesday’s program was that it was “mediocre.”

Alexander Bolton, Manu Raju and Klaus Marre contributed to this page.