Gossip Roundup: Delay, Dunst, Disney, Diana, Douglas and Dean
•Heard on the Hill: Girl Scouts lobby for promotion of healthy eating, sell cookies. Legislators have fine eye for irony: "Considering I get fat just looking at them,I thought that was somewhat humorous. "Rep. Clay Shaw (R-Fla.)just can’t get enough ofCaddyshack. (Think it'sthe drug humor or the poo jokes?) In the official calendar for constituents, "today in history" refers to 1804: problems in Haiti, the impeachment trial ofJudge Pickering(John), andPresident Jefferson'srequest to increase military funding to guard against pirates. "The difference between then and now is thatthe pirates now control the White House," jokes one Democratic aide whileJonathan Grella, spokesman for Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-Texas),predicts the future: "November 9, 2004: A week after a taxing defeat, a curiously tautKerrypicks up the pompoms and joins co-starKirsten Dunstin Bring It On II: Botox Boogaloo ." [ Roll Call ]
•Inside the Beltway: BushandKerryare 9th cousins twice removed. Their very extended family includes, among others: Walt Disney, Michael Douglas, Clint Eastwood, the Wright brothers, Hugh Hefner, Princess Diana, Howard Dean, Benedict Arnold, and John Hinckley Jr.[ WT ]
•Inside Politics: Vincent Galloon seeing photos ofPresident Clintonin Hollywood homes: "I seen more pictures of him, you know, the autographed photos, with likethese sleazy babes. I mean pictures of a former president with two of these babes hanging on him. Can you imagine going to someone's home and seeing a picture ofNixonwith two hookers?" (You're one to talk, Vince). . .John Kerryscores the endorsement ofNorth Korea's infamous communist dictator Kim Jong Il,who hopes a Democratic administration would be softer on his country's nuclear program. . .Matthew Cooper, White House correspondent for Time,on aKerrypresidency: "You sort of see him sitting at home with a powdered wig watching C-SPAN. ForJohn Kerry, being rebellious is having red wine with fish." (A heavier fish can stand up to a pinot noir perfectly well, FYI.) [ WT ]
•Lloyd Grove's Lowdown: Kerryplayed prep-school hockey withFBI Director Robert MuellerandJohn Whitman, Christine Todd Whitman's husband. . . What happens during the presidential debates when the topic of Skull & Bones is raised? According to the rules, a member is supposed to leave the room. [ NYDN ]