Mark Plotkin, Ready to Hoop It Up

Political commentator Mark Plotkin is a man of certain hometown obsessions. He's crusaded tirelessly to get full recognition for the District in venues such as Congress (no luck thus far) and the Sports Illustrated "50 Years, 50 States" series (successfully -- awright, Mark!).

He shares a fixation with many college hoops fans -- the failure of his alma mater George Washington University to get a basketball rivalry going with Georgetown -- and ignited a little restaurant run-in on this very subject. Plotkin said he was lunching at Cafe Deluxe last month with WAMU host Kojo Nnamdi when they spotted Hoyas Coach John Thompson III.

"I said, 'Coach, why don't you ever play GW?' " Plotkin recalled. "He said, 'They won't play us,' and laughed and walked away.' " (So glad not to have been their dates . . . )

In Plotkin's view, this smacked of an outright lie. "Georgetown is scared to play GW!" he said, citing Georgetown's historic absence from the annual BB&T Classic, which draws most other local teams. So he did his normal thing and telephoned the media, hoping to get something going.

"The two top basketball teams should play each other!" Plotkin told us. He called back later, having burnished a better sound bite. The Hoyas, he said, "are haughty has-beens!" (He also called Council member Jack Evans to brainstorm about a "Ward 2 Championship" for charity. "I think it's a great idea," Evans gamely told us.)

The truth -- well, it might be a little more complex. GW Athletic Director Jack Kvancz acknowledged the two haven't faced off since the 1980s, in part because Georgetown has refused to play at GW's home court, the Smith Center -- but then GW isn't eager to play at the Hoyas' MCI home, unless some good tickets are maybe thrown into the deal. Kvancz said he'd welcome a matchup, but "there hasn't been a lot of conversation" in recent years.

Thompson, meanwhile, said "I'll play anyone -- it has to make sense to my particular team in that particular year." He doesn't recall the Cafe Deluxe incident: "I've got people shouting at me all the time."

Softball Champs Score a White House Invite

The World Series softball champions from McLean visit with President Bush.(Eric Draper - The White House)

The Little League Softball World Series champs from McLean finally got the presidential seal of approval. The girls -- Jamie Bell, Kristina Bettner, Jilly Falle, Sophie Giaquinto, Carolyn Gilbertson, Katalina Khoury, Mandy Moll, Gen Mulligan, Alex Nihill, Abby Petersen, Jessie Straub and Julia Weeks -- won the title in August and had an Oval Office photo-op with Fan No. 1 yesterday. "I thought it would be bigger with different paintings," said center fielder Khoury.

The middle schoolers wore team jackets but no flip-flops (unlike that racy Northwestern University lacrosse team). President Bush showed off his Texas art, asked them about their victory and shared his Parable of the Optimistic Rug: The Oval Office rug, he told the team, was designed with bright colors and sunny feel. "He told us to be optimistic and never down about something," Khoury said.

Kennedy's Dog Joins the Author Rounds

Joining the ranks of authors Socks Clinton, Millie Bush and Leader Dole: introducing Splash Kennedy. The Portuguese water dog, who calls Ted Kennedy his owner, has inspired a children's book called "My Senator and Me: A Dog's-Eye View of Washington, D.C.," which comes out in May. The politician joins the growing ranks of celebrity authors getting paid to write on a first-grade level.

"I am very excited about the opportunity to create a book for young readers and their families that will deepen their understanding of how our American government works," he said. Chapter One: A Brief History of Pooper Scooper Laws.

This Just In

Taped interviews are such a downer! Actress Lindsay Lohan emerged from her hospital bed to tell Teen People she's "appalled" by reports that she's taken drugs and battled an eating disorder. She's really, really unhappy about the February Vanity Fair article where her words were "misused and misconstrued." You know, confusing sentences like "I was making myself sick" and "I knew I had a problem and I couldn't admit it."

Vanity Fair issued a statement saying that every word of the interview with reporter Evgenia Peretz is on tape and it stands by the story.

Quote

"A car pulled out in front of me . . . and I just couldn't make a decision which way to go. I knew if I would turn left that the Republicans would get mad, and I knew if I turned right my wife would get mad, so I just crashed right into the car."

-- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, explaining that "Terminator 2"-style cut on his lip (15 stitches!) at yesterday's budget news conference in Sacramento.