Books: Windsurfing and winning words

Republican Frank Luntz has finally released his long-awaited book. Democrat Terry McAuliffe's book comes out January 23.

McAuliffe’s “What A Party!” is a lengthy look at his life in politics, chock-a-block with opinions. Almost as soon as the book begins, he reveals that John Kerry’s windsurfing break on Nantucket in August 2004 may have had an even greater impact than simply making the candidate look juvenile and elitist.

On the same day that Kerry went windsurfing, President Bush had said that the war on terror was unwinnable.

“John’s campaign manager had scheduled a 90-minute meeting with him on Nantucket that day,” writes McAuliffe. “She was afraid she was going to get fired and went up there to make her case to keep her job. So … John went into the water with his windsurfing board without having been told” what Bush said.

According to McAuliffe, Kerry said, “That was one of the biggest mistakes we made in the campaign. Nobody briefed me. I don’t know why I was on that island that day.”

As it happened, the campaign botched the attempt to respond to Bush’s gaffe, and Kerry gave only a one-word answer — “Absolutely” — when asked the same question about the war.

Luntz’s book isn’t concerned with names, but rather with words. “Words that Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear,” traces the pollster’s lessons learned from years of crafting messages and talking points for Republican candidates and corporate clients.

His most famous work might have been the Republicans’ Contract with America in 1994. Luntz recalls attending the party’s annual retreat in Salisbury, Md., that year, when an ice storm closed off all the roads — “so it was just me and the members.”

After lighting into them for nearly an hour, he writes that he was “advised by several members to apologize to a Texas Congressman named Tom DeLay whom I had publicly and vehemently disagreed with over strategy … and was given a ‘Way to go, kid’ punch in the shoulder by a freshman California Representative named Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham.”

While such anecdotes may be amusing, the political pros in this town may be flipping to his appendix, where he outlines 21 words that should never be used in politics, and their suggested replacements. Among the losers: government (“Washington” is better); privatization (“personalization”); globalization (“free market economy”) and tort reform (“lawsuit abuse reform”).

Buckeyes down, but Brown pushes up

Before Monday’s college football national championship, Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Bill Nelson, D-Fla., placed a little wager: The person whose team loses has to do the same number of push-ups as the game’s total points. So following University of Florida’s 41-14 thumping of Ohio State, Brown had to drop and give Nelson 55 on Tuesday.

Nelson had Brown over to his office to do the push-ups before a crowd of staffers and reporters. He introduced Brown as “a jock,” which proved to be completely true: When Nelson said that the 41-14 score demanded 55 push-ups for Brown, Brown interrupted and said, “41 and 14 adds up to 55 not 45? Huh.”

“You really are a jock,” joked reporter Chad Pergram.

Ultimately, Brown fell short of 55 — blaming it on back problems caused by a car accident six years ago — but Nelson was quick to offer a bottle of Gatorade (get it? Gator-ade?!?).

Winded, Brown moaned, “This is my first week in the Senate. This isn’t what the whole idea was.”

Red pins for a blue Congress

Did Republicans pull a fast one on Democrats before they gave up their majority in Congress? Who knows, but conspiracy theorists will feast on the fact that the new congressional pins for the 110th Congress feature a nice and noticeable circle of Republican red on the outside, a departure from the blue outer rim on the 109th Congress’ pin.

But not so fast, conspiracy theorists! “They aren’t red,” clarifies Rep. Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich., who personally designed the pin. “They’re burgundy.” A second later, he amended himself. “They are a kind of reddish burgundy, so I guess you can blame me for that.”

When Ehlers was chair of the House Administration Committee last year — back when Republicans were in the majority — he wanted to design a pin that was less garish than previous ones.

“I wanted [to] go simple and direct,” Ehlers says, noting he tried to avoid “fancy gimmicks,” “complicated designs,” “extra decorations” and “sparkly edges.”

“Aren’t they beautiful?” Ehlers asks. “They must be a huge success because no one has complained about it yet.”

Kennedy ready to go soft

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., brings his own upholstery with him. At least, he did yesterday for his lunchtime address at the National Press Club. A Kennedy aide brought along a needlepoint pillow, emblazoned with Kennedy’s name and the Great Seal of the United States. A source tells us he often brings it with him “in case the chairs are hard.”

When pressed for further detail, Kennedy spokeswoman Laura Capps said he didn’t in fact use it.

“There’s no nostalgic reason for us having it,” she said. “We just brought it along with the stool in case anyone would want to use it during the conference.”

New speaker, new C-SPAN

As the first female speaker of the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., certainly deserves her time in the spotlight. And C-SPAN’s spotlight has been shining on her constantly, according to one C-SPAN employee, who was overheard commenting that C-SPAN should now stand for “Covering Speaker Pelosi Ad Nauseam.”