By Mary Ann Akers And Paul Kane
Thursday, February 14, 2008
So much for the tradition of the Senate, at least when it comes to the legendary decorum that includes a ban on senators or staff using electronic devices on the chamber floor.
Any number of senators and staff can be seen using their BlackBerrys with reckless disregard for the rules that forbid their use. Openly flouting the rules yesterday, Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond (R-Mo.) pulled out his BlackBerry while standing in the well of the chamber. He read and sent messages while talking to another senator and managing a bill on intelligence agency issues.
In the presiding officer's chair, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) read a briefing book during a vote but had his BlackBerry next to the binder, dutifully checking the device infamously known by Capitol Hill staff as a "CrackBerry." Menendez took the precaution of lowering his BlackBerry onto his lap so his colleagues couldn't see him typing.
Even senior staff openly use their BlackBerrys these days. Yesterday, the top Republican floor adviser, David Schiappa, used his to conduct quick research in response to a question from Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine).
In 1997, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), then newly elected, tried to win permission for laptops on the floor as a way for better communication with staff. "I actually think people would stay on the floor, debate more, if we could communicate with our staff," Enzi said yesterday, recalling how his effort to get the chamber to go high-tech was soundly defeated.
Eric Ueland, a lobbyist with the Duberstein Group who was a Senate GOP leadership aide for 17 years, recalled that unanimous consent requests used to be required to allow calculators in the chamber when the annual budget debate was held.
But earlier this decade, BlackBerrys were issued to all 100 senators, and soon their use became ubiquitous -- but not on the chamber floor. Just 2 1/2 years ago, BlackBerry use was still so frowned upon that the Senate sergeant-at-arms issued a sternly written memo reminding senators of a long-standing rule prohibiting individual use of electronic devices.
"These devices are not only disruptive to the legislative business on the Senate floor, but they cause interference with the chamber's audio system," wrote Bill Pickle, the chamber's top rules enforcer until 2006.
Not anymore, apparently.
Dueling Funny MenRep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) were the resident comedians at last night's annual congressional dinner hosted by the Washington Press Club Foundation. Here are a few of their best lines, according to prepared remarks we received yesterday:
"Wow . . . big crowd . . . I haven't seen this many journalists in one place since Mitch[ McConnell] and I were in the cloakroom the other day watching streaming video of Britney Spears's driveway," said Cornyn, who is known for being slightly milder than milk toast.
"Senator Obama and I have a lot in common. We don't just share a home state. We also share exotic names that were given to us by our fathers. Barack, which in Swahili means Blessed, and Rahm, which, roughly translated from Hebrew, means: Go Screw Yourself," said the notoriously potty-mouthed Emanuel.
"The president has a penchant for handing out nicknames . . . and, it's true -- President Bush calls me 'Corndog.' Admittedly, it's not my favorite nickname . . . but it sure beats the heck out of what Senator McCain calls me," joked Cornyn, referring to McCain famously cursing him out last May during negotiations over immigration legislation.
"I'm the man missing a finger -- and over the years there have been a number of wild stories about how I lost my finger. Tonight, the truth will come out. It was a bris gone horribly wrong," cracked Emanuel, who did, indeed, lose the middle finger of his right hand -- but to a meat slicer, not a moyle.
And Cornyn, a freshman, joked that for those who don't know him well, they may recognize him as "someone who got his start on Capitol Hill like so many others . . . as one of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's purse boys."
Emanuel, a former Clinton White House aide, said he has learned a lot since those days: "Back then, the words 'stimulus' and 'package' had a whole different meaning."
Race and Religion BaitingIf you thought race was an uncomfortable issue in the Democratic presidential primary, get a load of what's going on in the Democratic primary in the 9th District of Tennessee, in the Memphis area, where a flier paints Jewish Rep. Steven I. Cohen (D-Tenn.) as a Jesus-hater.
"Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen and the JEWS HATE Jesus," blares the flier, which Cohen received in the mail last week.
The flier was circulated by an African American minister, whose name and phone number are printed on it and who confirmed he wrote it, according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal. He is from Murfreesboro, Tenn., which is outside Cohen's district. The flier encourages black leaders in Memphis to "see to it that one and ONLY one black Christian faces this opponent of Christ and Christianity in the 2008 election."
Cohen's main opponent in the Aug. 5 Democratic primary in the predominantly African American district is Nikki Tinker, who is black. A spokesman for Tinker denied any connection to the flier, according to the Commercial Appeal.
Cohen says it was "shocking" to receive the flier, "particularly coming from an African American the week after Dr. King's birthday. This was just such an ignorant and racist and prejudiced type of flier -- it's hard to fathom we're in the 21st century."
Cohen battled racial and religious innuendo in his 2006 campaign for Congress, but not anything as blunt as the flier he received last week. After winning, he tried unsuccessfully to become the first white member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
"It's a kink in my armor," Cohen says. "I'm always going to be white. I don't have to always be Jewish -- but I am, and will be."
A Starbucks RunRep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) gave us the scoop on why he announced his retirement this week: It's the coffee.
Shadegg is bummed out that the House-side cafeteria where he has gotten his afternoon coffee for 14 years no longer sells Starbucks. "I can take a lot in the minority: losing votes, not being a subcommittee chairman, but not being able to get Starbucks is unacceptable."
The congressman says the coffee was replaced about two or three weeks ago by something called Pura Vida Fair Trade coffee. "Spare me! There's got to be a kickback somewhere," he groaned.
Actually, word is that Shadegg is leaving the House to train his sights on the Senate, banking on Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) winning the White House and McCain's Senate seat opening up in 2010. Some of Shadegg's colleagues have joked quietly that Shadegg, who is known as one of those members who sleeps on a sofa in his congressional office and showers in the House gym to avoid paying rent on an apartment, is just looking for better quarters in the Senate.
All Shadegg would tell us is, "I continue to believe that the House gym is much nicer." As for whether he's plotting a Senate run, he said, "I'm absolutely not leaving to run for that, but I'm also not ruling out the possibility that I will."
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