Inside the Beltway

Your call, Carville

How valuable is a signed copy of “Gettysburg,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s new novel, which imagines a victory by the South in the most famous battle of the Civil War?

As far as Louisianian James Carville is concerned, not much.

Yes, the Democratic strategist who introduced Bill Clinton to the world actually reviewed — and even praised — the Republican leader’s best-selling novel as “creative, clever and fascinating.”

But that’s not to say there’s a place for “Gettysburg” on Mr. Carville’s bookshelf.

“Seeing your item yesterday about Newt Gingrich’s book, ‘Gettysburg,’ prompted me to write about how we came across an interesting copy of that very book,” Barb Hill of Fairfax writes to Inside the Beltway.

“Staying at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in July for a weekend conference, we ended up in a suite and, in perusing the books in the sitting area, found a copy of ‘Gettysburg,’” she reveals.

“It was personally signed to James Carville from ‘your friend, Newt,’ thanking him for the ‘blurb’ printed on the dust cover,” the Virginia woman continues. “I guess James Carville had stayed in that suite earlier and left the book!”

And what does Mrs. Hill plan to do with her unique find?

“Right now, it is a great political souvenir,” she says, “but, if either gentleman would like it back, contact us!”

Champagne copyright

Two issues have currency as ministers work on a final World Trade Organization declaration from the current biennial ministerial conference in Cancun, Mexico.

“These are agriculture subsidies,” says attendee Christopher C. Horner, counsel at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, “and the obscure ‘geographical indications.’”

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