Jeff Dufour and Patrick Gavin, The Examiner
2007-02-14 08:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

WASHINGTON -

Jeff Dufour and Patrick Gavin cover people, power and politics in the beltway each weekday. Email them at yan@dcexaminer.com .

Hanssen spied on style, too

Sen. Hillary Clinton will have to get used to lots of talk about fashion during her presidential run, but whom should she listen to?

Georgetown jeweler Ann Hand has said Clinton should wear pearls instead of diamonds. Fashion designer Donatella Versace recently said Clinton should skip the trousers for dresses and skirts. And now, former FBI agent-turned Soviet spy Robert Hanssen is weighing in …

... sort of. (After all, it’s kind of hard staying up on fashion trends when you spend 23 hours a day in solitary confinement, serving out a life sentence at a Colorado Supermax penitentiary).

In “Breach,” a movie opening Friday inspired by the story of Hanssen and his “clerk” Eric O’Neill (an FBI rookie who helped bring down Hanssen), we learn of Hanssen’s own fashion advice for Clinton. As Hanssen (played by Chris Cooper) and O’Neill (played by Ryan Phillippe) ride in an elevator, Hanssen expresses his conviction that men wear pants, women wear skirts.

“The last thing we need is more Hillary Clintons,” Hanssen says.

We asked O’Neill why Hanssen had such disdain for both pants on women and Hillary Clinton.

“He certainly had little respect for women in business and believed that women should be in the home as mothers and caregivers to the children,” O’Neill told Yeas & Nays. Hanssen had a “severe and odd and bizarre dislike of women in any position of power,” according to O’Neill. As for Hillary, “she sort of stands for everything he’s against. He’s rabidly pro-life, he is anti-Democrat … and he just looked at her as sort of being a poster person for all the problems that were occurring in the nation.”

So, kudos to Hillary: When the biggest spy in American history comes out against you, you must be doing something right.

The filming was sponsored by GenerationEngage and Washington Life magazine and was held at the Canadian Embassy. Following the screening, O'Neill and director Billy Ray joined GenerationEngage Executive Director Adrian Talbott for an iChat conversation that was simulcast to audiences in Raleigh and New York City.

Arena Stage sending pols to ‘camp’

Call it Congress’ annual “team-building” exercise.

In April, the Arena Stage will host its annual benefit for community engagement, in which members of Congress and other local VIPs take to the stage to perform an original comedy.

This year’s script, titled “Camp Wannabepolitiki,” tells the story of a “super-secret summer camp for pols and pundits.”

The cast is still being recruited, but last year’s players — in a production called “The Pundit Whodunit” — included Sens. Daniel Akaka, Jack Reed and Ted Stevens, along with George Stephanopoulos and Sheila Johnson.

This year will also be different in that the entire evening will take place at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, which just turned three years old. “In the past,” Arena spokeswoman Kirstin Lunke said the cast “has been rehearsing at Arena while everyone else has dinner at the Mandarin.” Now, with a stage constructed at the hotel, “there’s more elbow-rubbing for everyone,” she said.

Colbert says no to Correspondents’ Dinner in D.C.

Comedy Central’s Steven Colbert won’t be returning to Washington for this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner — but it’s not because he’s lacking an invitation.

The host of the “Colbert Report,” whose headlining performance at last year’s dinner was both praised and panned, was invited back as a guest by Correspondents’ Association President Steve Scully, who serves as C-SPAN’s political director. Scully said he and Colbert had a gracious phone conversation recently and Colbert informed him that he’d be unable to attend the event this year. Still, he said, he greatly enjoyed his time in D.C. last April and was honored to be invited.

And Colbert also had something to say about his successor, Rich Little, who will headline the April 21 dinner. Referring to this year’s headliner, Colbert told Scully, “Watch out for that Rich fellow; he can be very funny.”

Back from Iraq, Gen. Casey cheers on Georgetown

Gen. George Casey didn’t waste much time getting back into the swing of Washington after returning from Baghdad Sunday.

The former commander of forces in Iraq and new chief of staff of the Army was courtside at Verizon Center Monday night to witness Georgetown’s dismantling of West Virginia.

Casey earned a B.S. in international relations from Georgetown in 1970.

Our source tells us that, no matter how popular or unpopular the Iraq war, Casey was a crowd favorite amongst passers-by.

Who’s got better buildings than us?

Six of Americans’ top 10 favorite buildings are right here in D.C., according to a new poll conducted by Harris Interactive.

Taking the nominees from the American Institute of Architects, Harris then conducted a poll of 1,800 people to determine the country’s 150 favorite structures.

Washington’s public buildings and memorials dominated the top 10 list, with the White House, National Cathedral, Jefferson Memorial, U.S. Capitol, Lincoln Memorial and Vietnam Veterans Memorial making the cut. Also in the top 10 were the Empire State Building, Golden Gate Bridge, the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina and the Chrysler Building.

New York City, however, had more buildings on the overall list than Washington, besting our fair city, 32-17.

Chicago ranked third with 16 buildings.

Speakeasy

“Mitt Romney’s flip-flops are enough to make John Kerry blush.”

–Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., in a release on the eve of Romney’s Tuesday announcement for the presidency