Pombo offers his thanks

As Americans commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, many will swap stories about where they were and what they were doing when tragedy struck. Few in Washington have a more compelling story than Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif.

When American Airlines Flight 77 flew into the Pentagon, Pombo was 288 feet above the ground in the dome of the United States Capitol building, where he was giving a tour to two cousins.

“When I heard the explosion and saw the mushroom cloud, I was in complete and utter shock,” Pombo said. “We all were.”

For Pombo, like so many others, the details were hazy at first. He was unsure where the smoke was coming from, what had caused the explosion and whether this represented an attack on the United States. But when he saw people running out of the Capitol, Pombo quickly decided to leave the dome and was escorted out of the building.

But it wasn’t until later that Pombo learned that had it not been for the heroic acts of one of his own constituents — and those of the rest of United Flight 93 passengers — his safe exit from the dome and ultimate escape from the building might not have been possible.

Thomas Burnett Jr. was a 38-year-old business executive in California’s 11th congressional district in central California, where he lived with wife, Deena, and their three girls. Burnett was one of the passengers aboard Flight 93, which crashed in Shanksville, Pa., but which hijackers had reportedly planned to fly into the U.S. Capitol building. Burnett was able to call Deena four times from the plane and, on his last call, told her, “We’re all going to die, but three of us are going to do something.”

What he did is now the stuff of American lore and Pombo is eternally grateful.

“As we learned more about what the hijackers on Flight 93 intended and where they were headed,” Pombo said, “it became clear to me that, had it not been for the heroic acts of those on Flight 93, I — and so many others in the U.S. Capitol that day — never would have been able to escape in time. I remember Tom, all the heroes and all the lost lives today.”

Anchor’s Sept. 11 comment taken out of context

Ever since the Sept. 11 attacks, WUSA-9 morning anchor Mike Walter has become an unwitting ally of the tinfoil-hat society. And he’s none too pleased about it.

Stuck in traffic while driving to work along Washington Boulevard that morning, Walter heard the loud roar of American Airlines Flight 77 flying low and fast. As he looked up, he saw it bank and slam into the Pentagon.

As the day progressed, Walter said he was interviewed by “tons of people” about what he witnessed. The last interview he did was with CNN’s Jamie McIntyre, in which he described the plane as “like a cruise missile with wings.”

His statement became a key piece of evidence for those who believe that an actual cruise missile — and not a jetliner — caused the damage to the Pentagon.

Now, five years later, a Google search of “Mike Walter” and “cruise missile” turns up an astonishing 248,000 hits — mostly Web pages using Walter’s statement to support claims of a government conspiracy or complicity in the attacks.

Walter says he just wanted to convey in the CNN interview that “whomever was piloting the jet that day wanted to turn it into a weapon. I can’t believe that it was twisted into ‘I thought it was a missile.’ ”

Walter says he has been contacted “quite a bit” by conspiracy theorists and debunkers alike, and has talked to and e-mailed with several of them.

Of his off-the-cuff word choice that day, he says, without completing the sentence, “If you could go back in time. …”

A Foxx-y visit for the birthday girls

Actor/musician Jamie Foxx dined at Georgetown’s Café Milano on Saturday night with Redskins owner Dan Snyder — we hear that Foxx was discussing potential movie business with Snyder, who recently partnered with Tom Cruise — and was itching for a place to party later that night.

Café Milano maitre d’ Laurent Menoud encouraged Foxx to head to Dupont Circle’s Play Lounge, where Menoud knew Foxx would find Hadley Gamble, associate producer at Fox News, and Ashley Taylor, manager of the Ann Hand jewelry boutique in Georgetown, celebrating their 25th and 24th birthdays, respectively, in Play’s VIP section.

Foxx and Snyder joined Gamble, Taylor and friends in the packed VIP section and did a double take at all of the 1990s-era decorations, signs and costumes around the place, since Gamble and Taylor had created a “ ’90s and neon” theme to the evening — perhaps the décor took Foxx back to his “In Living Color” days?

But Foxx soon grabbed the mic, gave the birthday girls a shout-out and treated the crowd to a version of “Golddigger,” the Kanye West track that Foxx contributed Ray Charles-esque vocals to.

And that’s better than any “Happy Birthday” sing-a-long.

Good night, good riddance

David Strathairn’s portrayal of Edward R. Murrow, the legendary newsman who crusaded against infamous Republican Sen. Joe McCarthy, earned the actor an Academy Award nomination.

Now, he’s going all Murrow on contemporary Republicans as well. Strathairn has taped a black-and-white video, in full Murrow garb and voice, for Kirsten Gillibrand, who’s challenging fourth-term Republican Rep. John Sweeney in the upstate New York district where Strathairn lives.

In the ad, which first appeared Thursday on Gillibrand’s Web site, a stonefaced Strathairn intones, “Someone once stood up to the biggest bully America has ever known and asked, ‘Have you no decency sir?’ It is time for us to ask the same of Mr. Sweeney because in America someone always gets the last word: the people.”

A Sweeney spokeswoman told the Associated Press that the ad isn’t surprising because Gillibrand “has tapped into so much of the liberal Hollywood-New York money.”

Jimmy Siegel, the political consultant who wrote the spot, said to his knowledge it’s the only political ad the actor has ever done.

And it could be the last, if the Gillibrand campaign can’t spell his name right. Introducing the ad online, the campaign Web site refers to him as “David Stathairn.”

Speakeasy

“Dear, no purgatory for you, being

married to Joey.”

– Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., disclosing what his mother once told his wife

By the numbers

3: Number of current and former cabinet secretaries — Norman Mineta, Michael Chertoff and Tom Ridge — on hand last week for the premiere of Kevin Costner’s “The Guardian.”

3: Number of traffic lanes, out of six, closed due to the event, which was held at the Uptown Theater in Cleveland Park.