Inside the Beltway

Hanging history

The Cynthia A. McKinney “Debt Retirement Campaign,” which hopes to recover costs of the outspoken Georgia Democrat’s unsuccessful 2006 re-election campaign, has a “McKinney for Congress” T-shirt with your name — and hers — on it. Price: $100 each.

“We have a small inventory of authentic campaign memorabilia left over,” explains the former congresswoman’s campaign store. “There are less than three dozen new, never-been-used T-shirts left. They have been signed by Cynthia. Hang a piece of history on your study wall. Proudly wear your support on your sleeve. Let the world, or at least your dinner guests, know you support a politician with backbone.”

Brave effort

“Despite the cold weather and freezing temperatures, gay and lesbian families came and made their presence known, making our existence real to millions of Americans.”

So boasts Jennifer Chrisler, executive director of the homosexual-parenting group Family Pride, referring to the fact that several members of the group participated in this week’s White House Easter Egg Roll.

Dueling acts

We told you of the move afoot for a prominent Republican organization to buy the Alexandria house — and National Historic Landmark — where former President Gerald R. Ford lived from 1955 to 1974, including for 10 days after he had become the nation’s 38th president.

Republican Party activist LaDonna HaleCurzon had suggested the rambler-style home, priced at just under $1 million, “could be modeled after the Reagan ranch” and be an ideal “draw” to host Washington-area political fundraisers.

Now, Mrs. Curzon has been given a tour of the home, and she says: “What a gem that house is. It’s almost like stepping back in time to when the first family, the Fords, lived there.”

Several photographs of the Fords are still displayed by the current owner, she tells this column, “and it looks like they were taken just prior to their move to the White House, because you can see taped-up boxes in the living room. I saw copies of The Washington Star, New York Times, and oddly enough a publication called ‘Comedy Central,’ or something like that.

“I figured that he and his staff used that for one-liners for speeches. He was, after all, competing against Chevy Chase” — referring, of course, to Mr. Ford’s repeated acts of clumsiness that were parodied by the comedian on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.”

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