Inside Politics

MoveOn vs. Hoyer

House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer, the Maryland Democrat who can boast a perfect 100 percent liberal rating from Americans for Democratic Action in 2004, has nonetheless drawn fire from the liberal activist group MoveOn.org over his support of the bankruptcy bill President Bush signed into law yesterday.

MoveOn’s political action committee is spending nearly $100,000 on local radio ads that hit Mr. Hoyer for not helping Democrats defeat the law that makes it harder for individuals to file for bankruptcy. The ad mentions that Mr. Hoyer has accepted about $300,000 in political donations from the credit card industry over the years.

“The point of the ad is to send a signal that it’s not appropriate for a Democratic leader to be cooperating with Tom DeLay’s agenda,” MoveOn PAC’s Washington director Tom Matzzie said, referring to the House majority leader. “We couldn’t stand the odor of the bill and the mass of Democratic support for something that is so obviously part of the Republican agenda.”

Mr. Hoyer was one of 73 Democrats who voted for the bill, despite being warned by MoveOn that doing so would have consequences.

Roasting Ben and Sal

Celebrity roasts are fun, it says here, but they’re one of the few things men can do that women can’t. The American News Women’s Club threw a roast of Ben Bradlee, the retired executive editor of The Washington Post, and Sally Quinn, his glam wife who was once the most-feared star of the Style section, the other night at the Fairmont Hotel. But for a few pointed remarks by Mary Matalin and James Carville, the roast degenerated into a contest to see who could say the most obsequious things about Ben and Sal as if they were still dishing it out on the pages of The Post.

Even the voluble Chris Matthews, who imagines he plays hardball, can’t throw anything up to the plate but floaters. “Oh, we love you, Ben,” he said. Some of the riffs were tasteless, but not many were funny.

It was too much for Ben and Sally. “Men can do these things, because they use insults as terms of affection,” she said, “but women can’t be mean unless they mean it.” When Ben, one of the genuine tough guys of the news biz, got up to make the final remarks of the evening he was his famous old self. “Good evening to all you hacks,” he said. He addressed the television journalists with the contempt all old-time newspapermen feel for boobs of the tube. “If you guys were not on camera, no one would ever have heard of you.”

But it was for charity, and a fairly good time was had by all. Heavyweights of Embassy Row turned out, including the ambassadors of the Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago and even the former ambassador of Sri Lanka.

Soros’ complaint

Billionaire Democrat George Soros yesterday criticized The Washington Times for its news coverage of him, and said he would be a Republican if the GOP had not purged its “moderate” members.

“I deeply resent the way The Washington Times has attacked me in print,” Mr. Soros, the financier of liberal Democrat causes and candidates, told Times’ senior national correspondent, Ralph Z. Hallow, in an interview after addressing a meeting of conservative interest groups and Republican staffers.

“I probably would be most comfortable as a moderate Republican, but [the party] has virtually eliminated its moderates,” the Hungarian-born financier of liberal pro-Democrat 527 groups such as MoveOn.org and Americans Coming Together said during a question-and-answer session after his address.

Mr. Soros was the guest speaker at the regular Wednesday morning strategy meeting led by Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, at ATR’s offices on L Street.

At one point, cell phones around the meeting room began ringing, causing a smiling Mr. Norquist to interrupt the session to say that Vermont Sen. James M. Jeffords, former “moderate” Republican-turned-independent (meaning Democrat), had just announced he would not seek re-election. Nearly everyone present but Mr. Soros broke out in applause.

Mr. Soros’ appearance was a surprise. Those in attendance greeted him politely, with some offering to work with him on issues on which they could find common ground — such as preserving civil and personal liberties.

He, in turn, praised them for the “tremendous energy and enthusiasm” they showed for their various causes, most of which he had “fundamental disagreements” with, he said.

Arnold’s ’screw-up’

Blaming his faulty English, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he misspoke when he suggested that California’s border with Mexico should be closed to help solve the nation’s illegal immigration problem.

Mr. Schwarzenegger made the remark while speaking to newspaper editors and publishers Tuesday. He said he intended to say the border should be secured.

“Yesterday was a total screw-up in the words I used,” the Republican said at a press conference yesterday in Sacramento. “Because instead of ’closing,’ I meant ’securing.’ I think maybe my English, I need to go back to school and study a little bit.”

Criticizing a judge

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay says Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s work from the bench has been “incredibly outrageous,” the Texas Republican’s latest salvo at the federal judiciary in the weeks after the courts’ refusal to stop Florida patient Terri Schiavo’s death by starvation.

Mr. DeLay also labeled a lot of the courts’ Republican appointees “judicial activists,” the Associated Press reports.

“Absolutely. We’ve got Justice Kennedy writing decisions based upon international law, not the Constitution of the United States? That’s just outrageous,” Mr. DeLay told Fox News Radio on Tuesday. “And not only that, but he said in session that he does his own research on the Internet? That is just incredibly outrageous.”

• Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or gpierce@washingtontimes.com.