Russell folds the tents on annual St. Paddy’s Day bash

Every March, D.C.’s own piano-playing jokester Mark Russell and his wife, Ali, hold one of the signal events for official Washington — the St. Patrick’s Day party at their National Cathedral-area home.

But not this year. Earlier this month, regular attendees received a green card in the mail informing them there would be no festivities this year, as the Russells would be in China, “eating green egg rolls.”

Reached via e-mail from across the globe, Ali Russell said the “party or lack thereof this year is off the record, always.”

But the decision has disappointed their friends and associates, one of whom called the annual event “one of the truly fun parties in a town where most parties aren’t fun.”

“St. Patrick’s Day won’t be the same,” he said.

PBS commentator Mark Shields, a regular attendee, echoed the sentiment.

“I am bereft; I feel abandoned,” he said, before adding, tongue in cheek, “I’ve seen creative excuses, but going all the way to China …”

Shields said he wasn’t sure what he’d do this March 17, but “I hate to contemplate.”

In past years, the corned beef-and-cabbage-heavy bash has also attracted the likes of Reps. John Dingell, D-Mich., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., Justice Antonin Scalia, WJLA’s Gordon Peterson and NBC’s Tim Russert.

Russell is known to do a routine at the piano, which includes humor and Irish ballads alike. He also typically dresses up as something esoteric. Last year, he was Wild Bill Donovan, who founded the OSS, the forerunner of the CIA.

For his part, Shields is already looking forward to next year.

“They have pledged to return next year, and I will hold them to it,” he said.

Snow tries new crowd approach

We always knew the White House press secretary was a cheerleader for the administration, but not literally.

Before President Bush delivered remarks to political appointees and federal government employees Wednesday at Constitution Hall, Tony Snow took to the stage and warmed up the audience by using two foolproof motivational methods.

1. Make fun of the press. Our source reported Snow saying the following during this closed-press event: “Lots of people have asked me why I took a pay cut and agreed to work longer hours, but this is actually a lot better than working in the media. Because really, who wants to talk about Anna Nicole Smith all the time?”

2. Get the crowd to do the wave ... twice. That’s right, Snow made the gathered assembly do the sports stadium favorite in order to pump them up.

When the crowd initially paused, Snow implored them, “No really: Get up and do the wave!”

And everyone did, Cabinet members and all. Then, before he introduced Laura Bush, he made the crowd do another wave, to get them “really geeked up.”

Klobuchar’s husband into the shower

John Bessler, husband of Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., apparently doesn’t want to be left out of any activities for Senate spouses simply because he’s a man.

When Klobuchar addressed the crowd at the annual luncheon for Emily’s List at the Washington Convention Center Tuesday, she said that she and Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., were en route to the event from the Dirksen Senate Office Building when they happened upon Bessler, carrying a wrapped package down the street.

According to Klobuchar’s office, he said he was on his way to a baby shower that the Senate Spouses were throwing for the wives of Sens. Jim Webb, D-Va., and Jack Reed, D-R.I.

He “wasn’t going to miss out,” he told them.

Old Glory flying high again at cemetery

On Tuesday, we reported on the sorry state of the flag at Battleground National Cemetery on Georgia Avenue. We’re pleased to report that the National Park Service has replaced the cemetery’s tattered flag, which honors soldiers killed defending Washington during the Civil War, with a brand-spanking new one.

Rock Creek Park Superintendent Adrian Coleman told us Walter Reed Army Medical Center had agreed to maintain the flag for the Park Service.

“Apparently, that has fallen by the wayside, and we’ve assumed responsibility,” she said.

Cheers to that. Walter Reed has enough to worry about right now.

Justice Breyer é surdoué!

Justice Stephen Breyer is already a pretty impressive individual. But Tuesday night, he decided to show off how multitalented he is by translating his own commentary into French as he spoke to the French-American Foundation.

As he discussed French and American approaches to a concept he calls “Active Liberty,” Breyer made most of his points twice: Once in English and once in French.

The Rosen Group’s Zachary Hooper, whose public-relations firm helped organize and promote the event, said this sort of thing isn’t common.

“Everyone was pretty impressed,” Hooper said, adding that even when French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy appeared last fall, he didn’t translate his comments (delivered in French) into English.

Breyer explained his bilingual approach: “It’s amazing when I speak French because Americans understand me even if they don’t speak French.”

Yeas & Nays is proud to be American, and we have no idea what he meant by that.

Which may explain why he didn’t bother translating that sentence into French.

Kristin Laubach contributed to this page.