Staycation: Famous For DC People Remain In DC, Even In July!
So we did a midsummer slow news day's Wonk'd yesterday and what do you know, another billion Wonk'd sightings arrived in out Tips Box this morning. It's like you people can be easily manipulated by suggestion. "Here are some Wonkette readers sending us Wonk'd items ...this means you must do the same, reader." And it works! (Next time we'll subliminally make you do something vulgar in the Reflecting Pool.) Anyway, enjoy these eyewitness reports of Maria Shriver, Ralph Nader, Rahm Emanuel and Others doing whatever it is they do, in Washington!
Okay this is where you should actually pay attention: We love your Wonk'd sightings, but you must putWONK'Din the subject line of the email, or we lose these forever. This is why we are doing another Wonk'd right now, because otherwise this batch of sightings with no WONK'D in the subject line would be quickly buried in the daily avalanche of email in the Tips Jar.
Crossed paths with Ralph Nader today at 18th&R with what appeared to be an MSNBC goody bag in hand. Likely just wrapped up a long day's worth of crazy talk as he looked like he had recently untucked his dress shirt.
I just saw Maria Shriver at the corner of 23rd and M in front of the Ritz Carlton. She looked pretty hot and was shorter than I expected. She was with some shaven-headed semi-hipster guy (not Arnold) who I assumed was her personal assistant. I made eye contact a few times and she gave a polite smile. She headed down the street before I could get my iPhone out for a pic. I was kind of surprised at how good looking she was in person. Man, she was hot.
I have seen George Will twice sitting at the same outdoor table at Furin’s in Georgetown in the past few weeks. Both times he looked as if he was working away on some screed about blue jeans. A friend asked if he ordered the bowtie salad.
Saw Rahm Emanuel last Thursday during intermission at King Lear at the Shakespeare Theater. Way up in the nosebleeds, apparently. Chatted, phoned, and gamely posed for photos before seemingly leaving during intermission.
I saw James Carville walk out of a bathroom at BWI airport a few weeks ago. I was so excited that it stunned me and I couldn't get his autograph.
Saw Helen Thomas being helped out of a car and into Mama Ayesha's on Calvert Street (Friday 7/17, around 7pm). She seemed to require assistance to walk and was looking pretty frail.
PS -- I have lived in DC for a year and a half and this is my first celebrity sighting. The person I was with had no idea who she was. Le sigh .
I live near Howard university and ride my pedal bike to the Pentagon every day for work. Randomly during the week, I bike right past SECDEF Robert Gates tending to his morning jog with his security detail. He seams to have a penchant for jogging around the monuments, I always see him between the WW2 and Lincoln memorials. Though I have never called out his name (for fear of being dragged into the minivan and given the Taliban treatment by his detail), his height, hair, and face match. And he is the only jogger around being trailed by both a jogger with an earpiece and a minivan. I used to see Rumsfeld playing racquetball at the pentagon gym all the time too, but who gives a crap about that guy. Rummy was short ... like surprisingly tom cruise short, always way shorter than those playing him. I wonder if he ever lost!
I was sitting very near to David Gregory at the Nationals-Cubs game on Saturday night. Gregory was sitting with Bo Blair, the awful, but prodigious force behind the Smith Point, Jetties, Rookery, Surfside cabal. They seemed to be enjoying one another's company, which really lowered my opinion of David Gregory.
I was eating lunch at Port of Pireaus on M and 21st when a hot looking intern or young staffer type was looking for a seat. I offered her a spot at my table. She then signaled for the guy she was with to sit with us. It was Bob Schieffer, who gets cockblocked by the host of Face the Nation?
On an afternoon flight from Atlanta to National yesterday (July 20th), I was on a plane with former Sen. Max Cleland and current Rep. Lynn Westmoreland. Cleland was waiting on the skyway for others to board and was very receptive to a number of passengers who spoke with him while waiting to board. Seemed like a genuinely nice guy. It always pissed me off that loudmouth chickenhawk Saxby Chambliss had the nerve to question Cleland's patriotism and equated him with Bin Laden and Saddam in 2002. Not much to say about Westmoreland, except that he dropped his blackberry and would have lost it, had a nice woman not found it and handed it back to him. I probably would have kicked it further under a seat, so he's lucky she saw it first.
Worthless DC "Celebrity" sighting: A couple weeks ago I saw Michelle Rhee walking out of the Busboys at 5th & K holding hands (!) with Sacramento mayor and former baller Kevin Johnson. Is it widely know they're in a relationship?
Thanks to "Patrick," "Bypartizoa," "January," "Josh," "Dylan," "Julie," "Mike," "Dan," "Ryan," "Jon" and "Ben" for the sighting reports! Seen somebody "famous for DC" wandering about town? Send your report to tips@wonkette.com with the subject lineWONK'D.