Jeff Dufour and Patrick Gavin, The Examiner
2006-12-15 22:05:42.0
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Jeff Dufour and Patrick Gavin cover people, power and politics in the beltway each weekday. Email them at yan@dcexaminer.com .

Prez no match for ‘Grey’s’ star

President Bush was upstaged Thursday by an American actor-cum-African tribal chief.

The president and Mrs. Bush participated in the White House Summit on malaria, but the talk was all about the emcee — Isaiah Washington, one of the stars of the immensely popular ABC drama “Grey’s Anatomy.” The actor’s connection to Africa, where malaria is particularly devastating, is beyond reproach: Visiting his relatives on the continent earlier this year, he was inducted into the Mende tribe as a tribal chief.

Before Bush took the stage at the National Geographic building, South African music star Yvonne Chaka Chaka performed, inspiring Madeline McElveen, mother of American Red Cross Chair Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, to get up and dance largely by herself, according to photographer Carrie Devorah, who covered the event.

Also in attendance: Bill Gates’ wife Melinda, Sens. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., former NBAer Sam Perkins, and President Clinton’s Canadian friend, Belinda Stronach. Pastor Rick Warren, author of the bestselling “The Purpose-Driven Life,” was seen trailing an assistant with an armful of books for him to sign. According to one source, at the end of the event, “Rick had a few more books left over than normal.”

To the disappointment of many, Angelina Jolie was rumored around the halls of National Geographic to be showing up. But alas, it was not to be.

Lott’s son railroaded by ‘railroad to nowhere’?

When the House of Representatives and the president scuttled the so-called “railroad to nowhere” earlier this year, it was seen as a blow to Mississippi Republican Sens. Trent Lott and Thad Cochran, both of whom championed the measure.

But it turns out that Lott’s son, lobbyist Chet Lott, might also have come out on the wrong end of the deal, as he was working for a firm that could have benefited from the legislation.

The now-infamous pork project would have spent $700 million to move a private CSX freight rail line in Mississippi a few miles inland to make room for a relocated Interstate 90 and a beach and gaming district along the Gulf coast. Trouble was, CSX and its insurers had just spent $300 million to rebuild the track in its current location after it was hit by Hurricane Katrina. According to reports, the project would have entailed paying off CSX for the land on which the tracks sit, destroying those tracks and expanding the capacity of other tracks in the area.

In late winter — about the same time that Lott began pushing for the appropriation — his son Chet registered as a lobbyist for the R.J. Corman Railroad Group, which calls itself “one of the major builders of new and rehabilitated rail in the United States.” In fact, it was Corman that did the repair work on CSX’s existing tracks earlier this year.

The younger Lott, who consults for the Livingston Group in Washington, also owns the Lott & Hopkins lobby shop in Lexington, Ky., only a short drive from Corman’s headquarters in Nicholasville, Ky. He filed his lobbying disclosure form for Corman on Jan. 25.

Chet Lott told Yeas & Nays via e-mail on Thursday, “I have had no involvement what so ever with the railroad relocation project. R.J. Corman is a Kentucky-based company.”

That’s true, but Corman’s own Web site states that it has “operations in Kentucky and more than a dozen other states.”

Sen. Lott’s spokeswoman, Susan Irby, said Thursday that her boss had authorized the relocation of the track “years before” the hurricane. This time around, he was simply trying to appropriate the funds for the project.

As far as Corman’s potential involvement, she said, “My understanding is this would not have been a project for them, so this was not an issue.”

But a representative for Corman’s construction division told us Thursday that had the appropriation gone through, “I’m sure that CSX probably would have wanted us to place a bid on that, yes. We work for CSX and many times they do ask us to do work like that.”

In addition, Ron Utt, a scholar with the Heritage Foundation who has followed the railroad controversy, noted that Corman has many ex-CSX officials on its board. Thus, when it came time to bid for the project, Corman certainly could have expected “preferential treatment” by CSX.

A spokesperson for CSX did not respond to a request for comment.

Ballers’ night on the town

After the Denver Nuggets lost to the Washington Wizards Wednesday night, they decided to ease their pain with a night on the town.

First, Nuggets players Marcus Camby, Andre Miller and Eduardo Najera — and their respective posses — swung by nearby Clyde’s for dinner and drinks. The winners? The players, who got to enjoy adoring groupies staring at them as they ate. These same groupies slowly strutted their stuff by the boys on their way out, hoping to be checked out. The losers? Everyone else in the restaurant.

“As soon as these guys walked in, let’s just say that the service shifted,” says our source.

Later, the players joined Nuggets teammate Carmelo Anthony for a party he was hosting at the kstreet Lounge.

Dave Chappelle can’t sell

Wow. Dave Chappelle really has fallen from grace. The Duke Ellington School of the Arts had to reduce the starting auction bid for their Dave Chappelle Package from $1,500 to $500, after no one placed a bid at the original price. (The comedian is an alumni of the school.)

The package includes two premium tickets to see Chappelle at any performance in the continental U.S., plus backstage passes. A spokeswoman for the school told us that they lowered the price because they “we wanted to get as many people interested in the package as possible. Didn’t seem to be very interesting at $1,500, and now it does.” A package with opera singer Denyce Graves, another Ellington alum, also had to be reduced. You can bid at www.dukeellingtonauction.com.

Think Tank

Who’s on Santa’s naughty list this year?

“Mayor Mike Bloomberg deserves a lump of coal made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil for pushing New York’s unprecedented and overreaching ban on trans fats.”

– Nick Gillespie, Reason magazine

“Rep. William Jefferson’s Maytag repairman.”

– Howard Mortman, New Media Strategies

“Despite being re-elected, seems likely Rep. William J. Jefferson could find a few lumps of coal in his freezer this year.”

– Sommer Mathis, DCist.com