Arnold says smoking can cure Capitol Hill’s ills

According to their own governor, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, both D-Calif., are taking exactly the wrong approach to this whole smoking thing.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, speaking Monday on the topic of “post-partisanship” at the National Press Club, made multiple references to the smoking lounge he created in the courtyard of the California State Capitol, and suggested such a move could pay bipartisan dividends in Washington.

“I have a politically incorrect smoking tent,” he told the audience, a place for lawmakers to “smoke their stogies.”

“My smoking tent is always very busy, I can tell you,” he said, before adding this apparent bit of papal humor: “Sometimes there’s white smoke coming out and sometimes there’s black smoke.”

In reality, the tent, first set up in 2004, measures about 10 feet by 15 feet. According to a New York Times story at the time, it contained rattan chairs, orchids, a humidor and a mirror.

It’s been the subject of protests by anti-smoking groups, as well as the cause of a flood after its Astroturf floor blocked up a drain and inundated several first-floor offices with water.

Nevertheless, what’s the Governator’s solution for the partisanship that ails Washington? All together now: “I say, ‘Get yourself a smoking tent.’ ”

Not that such a development would sit very well with Pelosi and Waxman, who finally stamped out smoking among House members in the Speaker’s Lobby earlier this year.

With his wife, Maria, and mother-in-law, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, on the dais with him, Schwarzenegger lamented the win-at-all-costs mood in Washington, saying, “Our Founding Fathers would still be meeting at the Holiday Inn in Philadelphia had they not compromised.

“You can’t catch a socially transmitted disease” from talking to people with different views from yours.

As for his own bipartisan credentials, he said, “I don’t claim to be Gandhi or anything like that,” before adding ever so humbly, “I’m not a person that gets all introspective about my failures (and there are only a few).”

After the speech, Schwarzenegger was spotted at the Four Seasons’ Garden Terrace, holding court with a party of six. The governor, still sporting a cane from his recent skiing accident, paid the check for the group.

‘D’ grade most common for Hill Web sites

Almost 40 percent of congressional Web sites earned a “D” or “F,” compared with only 14 percent that earned an “A,” according to the Congressional Management Foundation’s 2006 Gold Mouse Report, released Monday.

“[I]t is disappointing that the most common grade earned was a ‘D,’” said Beverly Bell, executive director of CMF, a nonpartisan organization designed to promote a more effective Congress.

The group judged 615 member, committee and leadership sites on such criteria as audience, content, usability, interactivity and innovation.

Republican sites scored higher than Democratic sites, with 66 percent of GOP sites earning at least a “C,” while only 56 percent of Democratic sites did.

Thirty-two percent of sites didn’t have links to sponsored legislation, and voting information was hard to come by.

“What is particularly striking is how few members use the Internet to convey substantial information about how they have voted, and why they have voted the way they have,” said David Lazer of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Being that the survey was conducted for the 109th Congress, some of the best sites are no longer operational; notably those for Sens. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and the late Rep. Charlie Norwood, R-Ga.

The only local member to be recognized with a “Gold Mouse” was Rep. Ben Cardin, D-Md., who now resides in the Senate.

Less hurt for Russert

NBC’s Tim Russert may have had a rough couple of weeks — having endured some grueling cross-examination during his testimony at the Scooter Libby trial — but here’s one thing to cheer him up: His ankle is getting better. We hear he’s downsized from two crutches to one.

You’ll recall that Russert broke his ankle in November while playing with his dog, causing him to spot both a cast and crutches. Late last week, a Yeas & Nays spy spotted Russert in business-casual attire leaving Smart Therapy in Chevy Chase after getting his ankle massaged.

A staffer informed our source that the “Meet the Press” host has been quite good at keeping up his appointments, having only missed a few of them thanks to his involvement in the Libby trial.

Rudy’s a lover and a fighter

Speaking at the Hoover Institution’s board meeting yesterday, presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani showed both the soft and rough sides of his personality.

Soft: Giuliani told the attendees that Republicans “care more about people.”

Rough: In response to a question about Giuliani’s perceived dearth of foreign-policy experience, the tough-guy New Yorker came out. “What makes you think the mayor of New York City doesn’t have a foreign policy?”

And the lion shall lie down with the lamb

White House Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford is certainly willing and able to spice up the White House kitchen. As the White House’s first female executive chef, she’s no stranger to taking people by surprise.

But one surprise stuck out on the White House’s menu for Sunday’s “Dinner in Honor of the Governors of the States and Territories”: “Colorado Lamb Lion.”

“Lamb lion”? Don’t lions eat lamb, not mate with them in order to form some new exotic hybrid delicacy for our nation’s governors?

Alas, given how close the “I” and “O” keys are on a keyboard, “lamb lion” is more a typo than a tasty treat, and it’s “lamb loin” they all enjoyed.

On second thought, maybe it isn’t so silly: After President Bush’s presidency came in like a lion, it’s no stretch to say it’s going out like a lamb.