Inside the Beltway

Tom in the middle

Former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle is scheduled to surface tomorrow evening in New York City, reflecting on the disappointing 2004 election as well as his party’s — and no doubt President Bush’s — “progressive” agenda in 2005.

“One year in one hour with … Sen. Tom Daschle,” is how the event is being touted by the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, a nonpartisan bunch “dedicated to challenging the tired orthodoxies of both the right and the left.”

Conservative huddle

Tired orthodoxy or not, Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, chairman of the House Republican Study Committee, will convene his caucus of 100 House conservatives at a two-day retreat scheduled for Feb. 3-5 in Baltimore.

Among those attending: former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas and former Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas.

“The Conservative Members Retreat brings the best minds in the conservative movement in America together with conservative leaders in Congress,” says Mr. Pence. “The number of members making it a priority shows that freshman and veteran conservatives alike understand this retreat will be the number one conservative strategy huddle all year.”

Scaife gift

Richard Scaife, the billionaire owner of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, whom former House Speaker Newt Gingrich credits for laying the foundation — monetarily speaking — of modern conservatism, has donated $1 million to the Catholic Relief Services’ efforts in tsunami-ravaged South Asia.

We’re told that Mr. Scaife and his wife, Ritchie, were at their “Wit’s End” home in Pebble Beach last week when a family aide presented the gift to Pittsburgh Catholic Bishop Donald W. Wuerl.

The couple had been scheduled to fly in their personal DC-9 jet to Washington on Saturday for the annual Alfalfa Club dinner of political and business leaders, but the pilot grounded the flight because of the snowy weather in the nation’s capital.

As he does every year, Mr. Scaife was to attend the dinner with former Ambassador David Abshire, while his wife made reservations to dine at the Four Seasons Hotel, as she does every year, with longtime friend Patricia Carlson (wife of former Ambassador Dick Carlson), who was maid of honor at the Scaife wedding years ago.

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