New Pelosi book in the works

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been in charge of the House for less than six months, but she already has a biographer fast on her heels: Marc Sandalow, the Washington bureau chief of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Sandalow has taken a six-month leave from the newspaper to pen a comprehensive biography of Madame Speaker, which he hopes will hit bookshelves early next year.

“She has a story unlike anybody before her,” Sandalow told Yeas & Nays. “I keep explaining it to people like this: When [former House Speaker] Tip O’Neill was 37, he was speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. When Pelosi was 37, she had five kids at home under the age of 12. She’s had a completely different path to political success.”

Sandalow, who’s been covering Pelosi since 1983, was approached to do a book when Democrats took control of Congress during the 2006 election. The still-untitled book will be published by Rodale, and his editor is Leigh Haber, who also edited such books as Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and Sen. Chuck Schumer’s “Positively American.”

Sandalow says that Pelosi is aware of his book, but will she help make Sandalow’s job easier by cooperating with the biography?

“I don’t know that anybody likes the idea of somebody else writing a book about them,” Sandalow said. “She may be less fond of it than others.”

And he probably won’t get much help from Pelosi’s adversaries. “Even a lot of folks who previously have had problems with Pelosi are very reluctant to say negative things about her,” Sandalow said. “She’s the speaker, and they pay her respect.”

Waterston found not guilty of politics

“In the American political system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: Republicans and Democrats.”

Thus did National Press Club President Jerry Zremski introduce “Law & Order” star Sam Waterston on Wednesday, with a nod to the famous opening of the show.

But if Waterston had his way, he’d like to undermine Zremski’s very premise.

You see, Waterston is the celebrity spokesman for Unity08, an initiative that seeks to nominate a bipartisan ticket for president in 2008 through an online political convention.

“Our goal is nothing less than to restore our American political values and rescue tomorrow from the mistakes of today,” said Waterston, who is a self-proclaimed moderate. “You can’t say Unity08’s goals are small.”

Waterston emphasized several times throughout his remarks and the Q&A session that he would not be a candidate: “Unity08 is too good an idea to mess it up with a stupid idea like that,” he said, nor would he even suggest possible nominees for the Unity08 ticket.

The specter of his “Law & Order” boss, former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., hung over the room, however.

“If at any point you hear the note of someone running for president,” Waterston assured the crowd, it wasn’t him, “but rather the other ‘Law & Order’ actor.”

Norah O’Donnell: Momzilla to be?

Being pregnant with twins sure hasn’t slowed Norah O’Donnell’s social life: In addition to her on-air duties for MSNBC, she had a VIP baby shower at the Kuwaiti ambassador’s residence earlier this month, was spotted at Tammy Haddad’s garden brunch last weekend, and now we hear that she’s co-hosting a book launch at Ralph Lauren on Tuesday with the Ashcroft Group’s Juleanna Glover Weiss and “Meet the Press” producer Michelle Jaconi and socialite Mary Amons.

The book — “Momzillas” by Jill Kargman — is a new novel that explores the New York City scene of “highly educated, highly competitive, extremely wealthy moms.”

For her part, Kargman is the daughter of former Chanel CEO Arie Kopelman and the goddaughter of Teresa Heinz Kerry. Her book tour is making stops only at Ralph Lauren locations nationwide.

An alert informs us not only that the event is restricted to only 100 of Washington’s most prominent social women, but also that Kargman “will be wearing an ensemble by Ralph Lauren.” Good thing. We were afraid she’d be wearing (the horror!) Calvin Klein.

Miller pushes for piracy protection

Fashion designer Nicole Miller can’t get enough of our city. After hanging at Cafe Milano two weeks ago with a group of D.C. VIPs, she was on the Hill on Wednesday — this time with Harper’s Bazaar Editor Glenda Bailey and publisher Valerie Salembier — to push for legislation protecting fashion designs against piracy.

“I’ve been copied for 25 years,” Miller said. “It’s so annoying to walk around and see a cheap copy of my clothing.”

The Design Piracy Prohibition Act, which is sponsored by Reps. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., would protect fashion designs for three years.

“It is just plain thievery, stealing on the first order,” said Maloney of the current situation, in which designs are often copied days after they appear on the runway.

Kucinich picks Carter

Should she be elected president, Sen. Hillary Clinton might very well appoint husband Bill as “Ambassador to the World” (we can only imagine the business card). But one of her rivals has a different idea.

Speaking at the School for Advanced International Studies on Wednesday, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (also a contender for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination) said that he disagrees with Clinton’s choice for such a global position. His choice?

“I’d pick Jimmy Carter,” Kucinich said.

Speakeasy

“You are the calvary showing up just in time to save our country.”

– Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif., to a group of conservative radio hosts in town this week to pressure Congress on curtailing illegal immigration

“I did not want to do this. This is on the head of the government. This is not on me.”

– Deborah Jeane Palfrey (aka the “D.C. Madam”), on her decision to name columnist/scholar Harlan Ullman as one of her clients

“I like my position. I like my bracket.”

– Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., applying an NCAA hoops analogy to his presidential chances