Jeff Dufour and Patrick Gavin, The Examiner
2007-03-19 07:00:00.0
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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 .

Congressmen battle to represent Homer Simpson

The long-awaited Simpsons movie debuts this summer. Part of the hook for the animated feature is that the filmmakers say they’ll reveal what state the fictitious “Springfield” is a part of.

For some added incentive, the film’s producers want the many real-life Springfields across the country to compete to host the film’s premiere.

Chad Pergram, a radio reporter for Capitol News Connection, interviewed several members with Springfields in their districts last week. According to Pergram’s report, the favorite so far appears to be Springfield, Ore., because Simpsons creator Matt Groening hails from nearby Portland.

“I think they live just down the street from me, actually,” Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore said. “I live in Springfield.”

Portland’s Rep. David Wu, D-Ore., said his wife, Michelle, went to school with Groening.

“Matt Groening bases a lot of his characters on Oregon,” Wu said.

If enthusiasm is any indication, Oregon’s members have a leg up on those who represent Springfield, Ohio.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, says he has hardly ever watched the show. “It’s cartoons, right?” he asks. “Homer Simpson, if he’s a good guy, he lives in Springfield. If he’s kind of nuts, he doesn’t.”

Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, was even less excited.

“I know my daughters don’t allow their children to watch it,” said Hobson, who said he won’t lobby for his city. “I’m not really excited about the Hollywood types,” he added. “That doesn’t stir me up.”

The D.C. area’s most powerful Republican House member, Rep. Tom Davis, represents Springfield, Va. He hopes that our Springfield — Mixing Bowl and all — will get the nod.

“Oh there are Mr. Burnses and there are comic book guys — and we have huge traffic jams” in Springfield, Davis said.

Of course, other states may yet have a say. Missouri, Massachusetts and Illinois, to name a few, also claim prominent cities named Springfield.

What happens in Vegas ends up in D.C.

If you want to learn ethics, where do you head? Las Vegas, of course.

More than 150 political power players — including Patton Boggs’ lobbyist extraordinaire Ben Ginsberg — headed to Sin City, of all places, late last week to learn about political ethics at a two-day conference entitled “All Things Ethical.”

The conference, sponsored by Campaigns & Elections magazine, included such seminars as:

» “Direct Mail Standards — How far can you go?”

» “Negative Television Advertising: Is negative the new positive?”

» “The Ethics of Deception — What is the whole truth and when is it required?”

Was the irony of the event’s location lost on the organizers?

Not so, says Campaigns & Elections Publisher Jordan Lieberman. “We found a target-rich environment in Las Vegas,” Lieberman told Yeas & Nays.

Foster’s: Australian For ‘Newt’

That was (potential presidential candidate?) Newt Gingrich escorting his wife, Callista Bisek, around the Tysons Galleria mall Sunday afternoon as she shopped in such stores as Neiman Marcus and Salvatore Ferragamo. He waited and read Fouad Ajami’s “The Foreigner’s Gift: The Americans, The Arabs, and the Iraqis in Iraq” (and underlined various passages) at the edge of each store, patiently waiting for Callista to finish up. But perhaps Newt should have done some shopping of his own: One could easily question his decision to wear a jacket advertising the Australian beer Foster’s.

Nothing new under the sun?

Imitation is still the sincerest form of flattery — even among political rivals.

On March 10, the Boston Herald quoted Mitt Romney’s spokesman, Kevin Madden, on the topic of two Massachusetts Republicans who launched a Web site to “expose” the governor’s record.

“They may be entitled to their own opinion, but they are not entitled to their own set of facts,” Madden said. “And the facts about Gov. Romney’s stellar record of fiscal conservatism and his pro-family advocacy are very clear.”

Fast forward to March 16. An unnamed source in the campaign of one of Romney’s presidential rivals, Rudy Giuliani, was quoted in the New York Post on the topic of — you guessed it — a new Web site that attacks Giuliani from the right.

That source’s quote: “People are entitled to their own opinions, not their own facts.”

Going bananas in the Senate

Have the Capitol cafeterias found themselves in another culinary controversy, a la Freedom Fries? That could be the case now that we’ve discovered that “terror-connected” foods are being sold there.

Only a day after news broke that Chiquita Bananas received a $25 million fine for having hired members of terrorist groups for protection in Colombia, a source tells us she purchased Chiquita bananas in the U.S. Senate Restaurant.

A spokeswoman for the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, which oversees the restaurants, did not offer a comment by press time.

Tucker’s advice for the new class

The fourth season of ABC’s popular show “Dancing with Stars” premieres tonight, with such contestants as Billy Ray Cyrus, Clyde Drexler, Heather Mills and Joey Fatone. Winning the competition isn’t easy, as the contestants usually arrive with two left feet and need to quickly learn how to dance with the best of them.

Washingtonians will recall that one of their own — MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson — was the first person voted off the competition last season, so we asked him to give the new “Dancing” class some advice. His four rules:

» Don’t tell anyone you’re doing it.

» If people find out, deny it.

» Take practice seriously.

» Remain on your feet for as much of the performance as you can.

By the numbers

48: Percentage of Americans 6 to 18 years old who have heard of Barack Obama, according to a new survey by Weekly Reader Research

73: Percentage of American youth who would vote for an African-American president