Inside the Beltway

End of the moon

“Americans say that everyone hates us because we are rich, democratic and free. They remind me of those girls who are convinced people hate them because they are beautiful. The truth is everyone hates them because they are [expletive deleted].”

So says performance artist Laurie Anderson in her latest masterwork, “The End of the Moon.”

And, notes Jim Weidman, spokesman for the Heritage Foundation, Ms. Anderson is currently touring Europe with this one-woman show, created under the auspices of NASA.

That’s right. NASA two years ago tabbed Ms. Anderson to be its first-ever “artist in residence,” a position that carried a $20,000 stipend to create and perform a theatrical piece about NASA.

“What the agency got was ‘The End of the Moon,’” Mr. Weidman tells Inside the Beltway. “Ms. Anderson describes her opus thusly: ‘Nominally, it’s my official report as the first NASA artist in residence, but the stories include things about war, my dog, trees, people I’ve known, theories.’”

Now it appears that Ms. Anderson may be NASA’s first — and last — artist in residence.

Last week, continuing his personal battle to rid the federal government of wasteful spending, Rep. Chris Chocola, Indiana Republican, successfully amended the Science, State, Justice and Commerce annual appropriations bill “to prohibit federal funds from being used to employ an ‘artist in residence’ at NASA.”

Mr. Chocola’s amendment was approved during floor consideration, and the underlying bill passed by a vote of 418-7.

“Given current budget constraints … it’s obviously questionable that NASA would spend taxpayer dollars … to perform theatrical story-telling pieces,” the congressman said.

Claiming Lanny, too

A senior White House official, who asks not to be identified, read our recent item about the White House correspondent who, during the daily press briefing, asked if President Bush is “ready to replace Kofi Annan with my friend President Bill Clinton as the United Nations secretary-general.”

To which a surprised reporter shot back: “Your friend?”

“Thought you might enjoy this one too,” writes the official, who forwards a transcript from a recent morning gaggle between reporters and White House spokesman Scott McClellan, who had noted:

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