Jeff Dufour and Patrick Gavin, The Examiner
2007-01-29 08:00:00.0
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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 .

Maher meets Mawyer on camera

An increasingly bicoastal Bill Maher was in D.C. yet again on Friday, conducting an interview for his forthcoming documentary about religion. At the Old Ebbitt Grill, Maher held a conversation for the camera with Martin Mawyer, president and founder of the Christian Action Network, a grassroots Christian political organization that has recently taken a hard stance against radical Islam.

A spokesman for the organization said the meeting lasted about 45 minutes. He added that while the meeting was cordial, Maher “often says controversial things to get a reaction.”

The documentary, he said, is “best described as how religion influences the country, politics and the media.” That certainly squares with what religious skeptic Maher and his associates have said publicly about the film, reportedly titled, “A Spiritual Journey.”

According to Variety magazine, Maher is co-producing the film with Palmer West and Jonah Smith, who produced “A Scanner Darkly.”

They’ve described it as “examining the presence of religion in many of the big news stories of recent years, from Muslim riots over cartoons to the Ten Commandments in front of courthouses, a born-again Christian in the White House and Scientology in the birthing room.”

Maher has also added director Larry Charles, of “Seinfeld” and “Borat” fame, to assist on the project, which is scheduled to premiere in 2008.

Charles told the Rotten Tomatoes Web site that they’ve already shot scenes in Israel, Rome, London and Amsterdam.

Maher’s publicist could only confirm that the meeting on Friday took place; she said she had no further details about his visit.

‘Run for Life’ apropos in karaoke battle

Karaoke is the new bake sale.

At least it was on Thursday night, when the Winston Group’s Kristen Soltis and Hannah Powell, a staff assistant for research and analysis at the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, held a karaoke competition at Café Japone to raise money for the Whitman-Walker Clinic, which provides HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention to the greater Washington area (Powell ran the AIDS Marathon in Miami Sunday).

The three-judge panel that ranked the crooners: Piao Sam (“Beauty and the Geek” contestant, Season 3), Dan Calloway (professional ballroom dancer) and Amy Hopcian (Winston Group’s director of political research).

The winner was Christine Baumann, who brought the house down with a righteous version of Melissa Etheridge’s “I Run For Life.”

But, close behind was Marty Reape, whose day job is at the EOP Group lobbying firm, who donned a skull cap and fake mole to perform Enrique Inglesias’ “Hero.” Tom Rottcher, from the French embassy, didn’t disappoint with the karaoke standard, “Pour Some Sugar On Me.”

Kimsey Kares for Kids

AOL founder Jim Kimsey played host to scores of Washington A-listers Sunday night to celebrate the Center for International Education at Washington International School.

Kimsey’s connection? His granddaughter is enrolled in the school’s French program. Kimsey even saw fit to open the original Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house, next to his larger, main house, for the school’s supporters to stroll around in.

Among those in attendance, many of whom gasped at the Potomac rolling by from Kimsey’s massive picture windows: Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, investor Joe Robert, White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson, HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt, AOL’s Steve Case, Paraguayan Ambassador James Spalding, and former Mayor Anthony Williams.

“Didn’t he used to be someone?” Williams joked about himself when he was introduced by the Institute for Education’s Kathy Kemper, whose organization is a cofounder of the Center.

Tuckered out from dancing

You might have wondered why Tucker Carlson wasn’t at the Verizon Center on Sunday night, dancing away with his former pals from the third season of ABC’s hit reality show, “Dancing with the Stars.” Joey McIntyre, Kym Johnson, Drew Lachey, Cheryl Burke, Lisa Rinna, Louis Van Amstel, Joey Lawrence, Edyta Sliwinska, Willa Ford, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Harry Hamlin and Karina Smirnoff all performed, but Carlson was nowhere to be found.

It turns out that Carlson was simply out of town Sunday and, therefore, unable to get jiggy with it on the stage. That, of course, might be a good thing: You’ll recall that Carlson’s two left feet resulted in him being the first one voted off the competition.

Think tank

“Who will be above and below President Bush when history ranks his presidency against the others?”

“As Yogi Berra said, ‘the hardest thing to predict is the future,’ but trying to democratize the Middle East and liberate much of the Arab world, seriously funding health initiatives in Africa and re-energizing a lagging economy all during the most dangerous era of our lives already puts him well above Jimmy Carter.”

– Seth Leibsohn, The Claremont Institute

Who knows? He is hoping he is another Harry Truman — going from 28 percent approval during his presidency to “near great” status in history; from today’s perspective, put him between Ulysses S. Grant and Warren Harding.”

– Norm Ornstein, AEI

“Nobody. The man’s in a league of his own, but some historians will probably place him over Robert Hoover, the president of the Animal House fraternity.”

– Chuck Conconi, Qorvis Communications