D.C.’s new ambassadors feast together

What do you do if you're in Washington for Thanksgiving, but you’re not from the United States, nor do you traditionally celebrate the holiday?

If you’re one of the city's newest ambassadors, you might have headed to Esther Coopersmith’s Kalorama mansion on Thursday, where — for nearly a decade — the hostess extraordinaire has served up a full Thanksgiving dinner for members of Washington’s diplomatic community. (Coopersmith herself was the U.S. representative to the United Nations from 1979 to ’80 and has served in myriad other diplomatic positions before and since.) This Thanksgiving was no exception, as Coopersmith welcomed ambassadors (and their families) from Poland, Oman, Malaysia, Thailand and Kuwait for a dinner that ultimately totaled 32. “It's a great education for all of us,” Coopersmith said.

“I like to entertain new ambassadors at Thanksgiving because they don’t know much about our only true American holiday,” she said, adding that this year’s dinner lasted well into the evening, thanks in part to the great conversation and Thursday’s splendid weather.

Although Coopersmith has earned a reputation as both generous and accommodating, there is one rule she tries to enforce during these dinners. “What I tell them is to please take a little bit of everything and, if you don’t like it, just leave it on the plate,” she said. “But try it all.”

With a chuckle, Coopersmith added, “I say that to the adults and the children.”

Coopersmith topped her weekend with her annual open house on Friday, which saw such VIPs as retired Gen. Richard Myers, CNN’s Bob Franken, former editor Ina Ginsburg, Chinese Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong, George Mason University President Alan Merten and George Washington University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg.

Remembering life, pre-Iraq

Today, the war in Iraq marks a milestone: America has now spent more time involved in Iraq than in World War II (1,348 days, as of today).

Do you remember what America was like when Operation Iraqi Freedom was launched in March 2003?

“Bringing Down the House” was the nation’s No. 1 movie. 50 Cent’s “Get Rich or Die Tryin’ ” topped the Billboard charts. Michael Moore’s “Stupid White Men” led the New York Times Bestseller List for nonfiction, and John Grisham’s “The King of Torts” dominated the fiction chart.

A USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll showed that Americans favored the U.S. invasion of Iraq by a 2-to-1 ratio and a Guardian/ICM opinion poll (London) showed that a majority of British citizens “have confidence in [President Bush] to make the right decisions on Iraq.”

We learned that season three of “The Bachelor” would feature Andrew Firestone, heir to the Firestone tire empire. Washington Wizards’ point guard Tyronn Lue told The Associated Press: “We also have a war we have to fight, too — the Washington Wizards are trying to make the playoffs. It’s pretty much the same thing.”

Shannen Doherty was fighting with Paris Hilton over ladies’ man Rick Solomon and there was much concern out of Hollywood that the Iraq invasion could postpone the March 23 Academy Awards.

Spending bills stuffed like turkeys

For more than a year now, Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., one of Congress’s top anti-pork crusaders, has been spotlighting an “Egregious Earmark of the Week” via e-mail.

So it’s fitting that last week, the maverick conservative, who recently appeared on “60 Minutes” to argue against pork, issued a special Thanksgiving Day edition of the alert.

Flake pointed out that the Agriculture appropriations bill for fiscal year 2006 contains $234,000 for the National Wild Turkey Federation, $600,000 for cranberry production conservation in Massachusetts and Wisconsin, $1,497,000 for potato research and $500,000 for the Corn Growers Associations in Iowa, Missouri and Illinois.

“I’m sure that taxpayers aren’t giving thanks for the cornucopia of pork this year,” said Flake.

Mainers, North Dakotans love their senators

Perhaps centrist Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, knows something the national Republican party doesn’t. Snowe tops all senators in approval rating in a state-by-state comparison released last week by SurveyUSA, an independent polling operation that provides polls to TV stations and print media outlets.

Snowe commands a 79-percent approval rating, with only 18 percent of her constituents disapproving of her job performance.

Sparsely populated North Dakota makes a strong showing, with its two Democratic senators, Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan, coming in at second and third, respectively. Recently re-elected Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., came in fourth with 74 percent approval, and Snowe’s Maine counterpart, Republican Susan Collins, was fifth with 73 percent approval.

The rankings also illuminate the recent elections. Of the five lowest-ranking senators, four are Republicans who lost earlier this month — Conrad Burns of Montana (41); Jim Talent of Missouri (37); Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania (37) and Mike DeWine of Ohio (34).

The fifth is Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. His 39 percent approval puts him at the lowest of all Democrats up for re-election in 2008. The only other Democrat up for re-election in two years who is below 50 percent was Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., he of the “botched joke.”

Of Republicans up for re-election in 2008, five have approval ratings below 50 percent — Wayne Allard, R-Colo., at 44 percent; John Cornyn, R-Texas, at 45 percent; James Inhofe, R-Okla., at 46 percent; John Sununu, R-N.H., at 47 percent; and Norm Coleman, R-Minn., at 48 percent.

Novak doesn’t join in the revelry

The mood in Redskins owner Dan Snyder’s luxury box Sunday was jubilant for the first time in three weeks, as his team defeated the Carolina Panthers, 17-13.

Snyder sat in front of Alan Greenspan, Andrea Mitchell and Al Hunt and jumped in and out of his seat throughout the game, even occasionally flailing his arms to inspire fans out of their seats.

But tucked away in the box’s other corner was poor ol’ Bob Novak, sitting with a younger lady and looking perfectly (perhaps typically) dour and sour as he watched the game while wearing headphones. Only a few times could Novak be seen clapping or even smiling.

Perhaps Snyder kept Novak at an arm’s length to prevent the columnist from leaking any overheard details of TomKat’s recent nuptials.