Field of Dames: Reporters defeat lawmakers in softball game

The 7 p.m. start time for the annual Congressional Women’s Softball Game was nearing, but a few starters for the lawmakers’ team were missing.

The Senate was taking late votes, the word came, and the women would be there just as soon as that pesky farm bill was handled.

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Plenty of joking ensued about how the “do-nothing” upper chamber had picked the wrong night to get something done (hey, it was that kind of crowd).

Finally, the senators arrived and the game, which pits members against journalists, was on.

Ultimately, the lawmakers’ full roster wasn’t enough to match the performance by the Bad News Babes, who won 13-10. It was looking like a blowout for the reporters, who were leading 11-1, until the sixth, when lawmakers mounted a rally, assisted by some walks and RBIs for Reps. Colleen W. Hanabusa (D-Hawaii) and Susan a. Davis (D-Calif.). Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Martha Roby (R-Ala.) also came up with strong late-inning hits.

Standout performances from the media team included ABC’s Amy Walters, who hit multiple singles and was a vacuum at shortstop, and Emmarie Huetteman of the New York Times, who smacked a triple.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) announced the game, along with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, providing color about the sluggers as they came to bat. Sen. Gillibrand “tap-danced as a young girl” and Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) met her husband on a blind date, the crowd learned.

The game, which took place just blocks away from the Capitol at Watkins Recreational Center, will benefit the Young Survival Coalition, which helps young breast-cancer victims.

Before the first pitch, in the members’ dugout, the atmosphere was confident.

“Two times the age, three times the determination,” said Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.), dismissing the relative youth of the media team.

The media team was equally cool. “They can’t trash-talk their way to victory,” Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times said as she fueled up for the game with a hot dog and readied her gardening gloves, which do double duty as batting gear. “You know those politicians — talk, talk, talk.”

A well-paved way

It’s unclear why Attorney General Eric Holder is so concerned about the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s vote to hold him in contempt of Congress.

Although he is the first Obama administration official to undergo such a vote, he joins a long list of well-known officials from prior administrations who lost contempt votes by committees or even the full House or Senate, according to a list compiled by the Congressional Research Service last month.

The list, since 1980, includes:

Former George W. Bush White House counsel Harriet Miers, chief of staff Josh Bolten and deputy chief of staff Karl Rove over documents and testimony in the investigation of the firing of U.S. attorneys.

Several Clinton administration officials, including White House counsel Jack Quinn, during the investigation of the firings of White House travel office employees.

Clinton attorney general Janet Reno, for not turning over documents related to an inquiry of whether Justice failed to investigate or prosecute cases involving Democratic donors.