Allies in Congress, Enemies on the Shelves

By Mary Ann Akers And Paul Kane
Thursday, April 10, 2008

The ol' House-Senate rivalry will have a new measuring stick this year: book sales.

Following in the footsteps of other recent House speakers, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is putting the finishing touches on her autobiography.

Titled "Know Your Power: A Message to America's Daughters," Madame Speaker's tome aspires to be equal parts biographical and inspirational. "If women can learn from me, in the same way I learned from the women who came before me, it will make the honor of being Speaker of the House even more meaningful," she writes in the book's preface, according to Random House.

Published by Doubleday, Pelosi's "Know Your Power" will be available July 29, just weeks before she chairs the Democratic National Convention in Denver. There, Pelosi may have to know her power better than ever, should she have to referee a floor fight over the presidential nomination battle.

Pelosi's book hits the shelves not long after the release of "The Good Fight: Hard Lessons From Searchlight to Washington," the latest book by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). Reid's book, which comes out May 1, weaves together his brawling days in the hardscrabble mining town of Searchlight. He recounts fights with everyone from classmates to the man who would eventually become his father-in-law, preparing him for a senatorial life of battling the Bush White House and Republican filibusters.

It's the first time in our recollection that the top congressional leaders are publishing books in the same year. Our money's on Pelosi selling more copies.

Fun With Dirt

Speaking of book deals, a tongue-in-cheek novel about the dark underworld of political fundraising is due out in July by a first-time author who knows the business all too well.

Nicole Sexton was a GOP political fundraiser for many years until she became disenchanted with the corruption of money and became a do-gooder at Bono's One Campaign against AIDS and poverty. Sexton's upcoming novel, "Party Favors," is about a nice Southern girl named Temple who lands in Washington, rapidly becomes a successful political fundraiser and just as quickly loses her moral compass to the lust for power.

Just like politicians who come to the nation's capital and "get drunk with power, the same thing happens with fundraisers. People get lost," Sexton tells us.

Though it's based on her own experiences, Sexton swears you won't recognize any character in the book. "I wasn't out to write 'Primary Colors,'" she said. "I'm not a tell-all kind of person."

Darn. But she promises a fun, quick read.

Turn Right for Cash

House Republicans have put one of their most conservative members in charge of raising cash for the annual President's Dinner, the largest fundraising gala of the year.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.), chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, has been tapped to chair the June 18 dinner, which raises money for the National Republican Congressional Committee and National Republican Senatorial Committee.

One thing is clear about the selection of Hensarling: The books for this fundraiser will be clean.

Hensarling is one of the lawmakers who has publicly filed reports with the Federal Election Commission accusing his former treasurer, Christopher J. Ward, of "unauthorized expenditures" from his political action committee.

Last month the NRCC accused Ward of diverting at least "several hundred thousand dollars" into his own accounts when he served as its treasurer, using what the committee said were "joint fundraising committees the NRCC was associated with" -- a veiled reference to the committees set up to fund the annual President's Dinner.

Adventures in Babysitting

Been wondering what superdelegates are getting in return for supporting the Democratic presidential candidates? Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who hopped off the fence last week to endorse Barack Obama, didn't get a thing. But her 12-year-old daughter, Abigail, did.

Klobuchar says it wasn't exactly a quid pro quo, but she let Obama know that Abigail would like to be the go-to babysitter for his two young daughters, Malia, 9, and Sasha, 6, if they wind up living in the White House.

During her endorsement conversation with him, Klobuchar dropped a not-so-subtle hint when Obama asked how her daughter was doing: Abigail was recently certified as a babysitter by the Red Cross and is "available on Saturday nights until 11 p.m." And thanks for asking.

No promise was extracted, Klobuchar says, though she feels pretty confident that her preferred Democratic presidential candidate will put her daughter high on the babysitting call list.

Obama has met Abigail and knows she's a fan of his. (He once commented on her gift of gab and asked whether she might someday, like her mother, run for office. According to Klobuchar, Abigail replied: "Oh, I've already done that. I'm on the sixth-grade student council.")

The would-be first babysitter became an Obama supporter when the senator from Illinois came to Minnesota to campaign for her mother two years ago. Throughout the 2008 Democratic presidential primary race, the persuasive seventh-grader has been "very vocal" about her presidential preference, even as her mother tried to remain neutral for as long as possible.

Abigail sounds qualified for the babysitting job. She has created business cards that read: "When you want to go away but the kids have to stay, call Abigail."

What's That, Mr. Rove?

Former White House chief strategist Karl Rove didn't applaud when Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo was given the Blogger of the Year award (in absentia) at the Week magazine's Opinion Awards dinner Tuesday night.

Marshall and his fellow TPM bloggers won the award for their relentless coverage of last year's furor over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys and the White House's behind-the-scenes role. Rove himself was suspected of involvement -- though no direct connection has been proved -- so the moment was a bit awkward.

As part of his coverage last year, Marshall posted thousands of internal Justice Department e-mails and memos on his blog, which became mandatory reading for anyone following the slow-moving scandal.

Just as Marshall was extolled Tuesday night, Rove, who was subpoenaed by the Senate during the height of the scandal, was overheard saying: "There wasn't a shred of evidence in those documents."

We don't know whether he was referring to the Justice Department documents that were released publicly, or thousands of pages of still-missing White House e-mails. He didn't respond to our e-mail request for comment.

Revising and Extending Our Remarks

"On the Hill" wrote March 6 of the surge in Democratic voter registration in the district of Rep. Jon Porter (R-Nev.). While we wrote that it was the 2nd Congressional District, Porter represents the 3rd District. He may wish he represented the 2nd, where there's still a strong GOP majority. And last week's item about a proposal by Rep. Walter Jones Jr. (R-N.C.) dealing with leftover campaign cash for members who pass away misidentified his father, Walter Jones Sr., as a Republican. Jones Sr., who passed away in 1992, was a longtime Democrat.