Surprise! Snow flaunts his flute

It’s not often that intestinal diseases and jazz flute go hand-in-hand, but so it was on Wednesday night.

White House spokesman Tony Snow was being honored for his successful fight against colon cancer by Great Comebacks, a program that shares stories between people who have lived with colorectal cancer and Crohn’s disease. Snow endured his surgery two years ago to the day of his award.

“It’s a pain in the you-know-what,” he said of the disease, as he paid tribute to the other inspirational people in the room.

What Snow didn’t know is that the other five members of his band, Beats Workin’, were on hand — hiding behind a black curtain with their equipment at the ready — to surprise Snow with an impromptu gig.

Snow is a multi-instrumentalist, but on this night, his bandmates snuck two of his flutes out of this house so he could lay down some solos, Ron Burgundy-style (Burgundy being, of course, Will Ferrell’s character in “Anchorman”).

Problem was, after the band opened with “Lean on Me,” Snow admitted that one of the instruments was broken, and he’d be forced to use his alto flute, which he’d “never played with the band.”

But he soldiered on (Ron would be proud) as the band launched into “Moondance,” with Snow’s airy woodwind floating over the top.

Former NFL kicker Rolf Benirschke, who introduced Snow, founded Great Comebacks 22 years ago after he won his spot back with the San Diego Chargers following ostomy surgery.

“The more we talk about it, the more that visible people want to talk about it,” Benirschke said. “Their story can help somebody else.”

The emcee for the evening was CBS’s Bob Schieffer, certainly no stranger to social functions these days. Himself a cancer survivor, Schieffer said, “I’m trying to stick around long enough to be on ‘60 Minutes.’ ”

As for Snow, he can also be heard this weekend on the NPR quiz show “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!”

Snow will appear on the “Not My Job” segment, which asks contestants questions on a topic outside their stated expertise.

Which means he probably won’t get many flute questions.

Paul’s pals perturb polls

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who has explored a presidential run, doesn’t register very high in the national polls featuring 2008 presidential candidates (1 percent, tops). But there’s one place that he simply rules: the Internet.

Fans of the libertarian have stormed the Web — in ways both good and bad — to show their support. Over at TechPresident.com — a Web site that tracks candidates’ “friends” on the popular social networking site MySpace.com — Paul is tops for Republicans, with 3,107 “friends” (Mitt Romney is second with 1,785).

But elsewhere, the voraciousness of Paul’s supporters has sparked the ire of others. The Web site 2008HorseRace.com, which features an ongoing poll for candidates, issued this notice on Feb. 23: “Ron Paul has been suspended for two weeks because of repeated use of mob intimidation tactics and multiple threats made by Ron Paul supporters against racetrack operators, racetrack officials and racetrack sponsors.” PajamasMedia.com removed Ron Paul from its presidential polls after it was discovered that someone had rigged the poll system in his favor. It has since implemented a rule that it will only include candidates polling at 1 percent or more in credible national news polls.

And a MySpace page titled “Opinion Polling” posted the following note this week: “Temporarily shut down due to Ron Paul will be back eventually.” A source said that the page’s owners shut it down because Paul supporters “invaded the place.”

Paul’s exploratory committee spokesman Kent Snyder thinks he knows why Paul’s supporters are so gung-ho for their guy. “One of the reasons that Dr. Paul is getting a lot of cyber support is because he voted against regulating the Internet,” Snyder told Yeas & Nays.

Conservatives take Washington

What happens when you combine 3,000 die-hard conservative college students with 2,000-plus of the party faithful all in one hotel? Something interesting, that’s for sure.

Some snapshots from Thursday’s Conservative Political Action Conference at the Omni Shoreham Hotel (the conference runs through Saturday):

_{CPAC Photo Gallery (Photos: Carrie Devorah)}

» At 9:50 a.m., a college student in the hotel lobby tells his buddy, “I definitely could crack open a couple brews right now.” 

» Seen: People walking around with neon stickers reading, “I told Hillary where to stick it.”

» Seen: A guy dressed in a dolphin costume and a shirt reading, “Flip Romney: Just another flip flopper from Massachusetts.”

» Heard: Conservative author Richard Viguerie finds inspiration in the Blues Brothers: “We’re going to get the band back together and we’re on a mission from God.”

» Heard: The Wall Street Journal’s John Fund saying, “I just got a message on my Blackberry from Al Gore. He said to turn down the lights. He needs more power for his heated pool house.”

Turnabout is fair play?

Ever since Democrats took over the Congress, House members have changed their tune on the Senate, according to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.

“House members used to groan when a senator walked in and say, ‘Why do all our good ideas go to die in the Senate?’” Hutchison said Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

“Now they say, ‘Oh, thank God for the Senate. Some of those bad ideas may die there.’ ”

Beats to avoid defeat

Don’t waste your time trying to solve the situation in Iraq with talk of troop surges or partitions or withdrawal. No, it’s time to listen to rhyme.

The “Make Hip Hop Not War” National Tour kicked off on Capitol Hill Thursday with a meeting co-sponsored by Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz. (favorite hip-hop artist: Public Enemy) and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif. The tour will travel to 15 cities nationwide to promote an immediate end to the war in Iraq.

Who knows if Capitol Hill will ever groove to Cypress Hill, but the Hip Hop Caucus is already having an effect: The group’s Ali Salahuddin, known as “Brother Ali,” jumped up out of his seat before Tuesday’s Senate testimony of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Peter Pace, and began to chant.

The U.S. Capitol Police, who had an exit strategy of their own for the protester, quickly escorted him out.

Kristin Laubach contributed to this page.