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."

Rolling out Gore

"Twenty-five years ago," opines the Denver Post, "the conservative movement in America was in full bloom. Today, it doesn't even have a major candidate for president."

"But, do the Democrats have their ideal candidate?" responds Lisa De Pasquale, Conservative Political Action Conference director for the American Conservative Union, in her column for HumanEvents.com.

Consider, she says, that one grand idea up the sleeve of the Democratic Party is to draft former Vice President Al Gore, complete with the catchy theme song, "Run, Al, Run." The song begins:

" 'Run, Al, Run. How can you lose when you've already won? Way back before all the damage was done. Now you're the number one favorite son, so run, Al, run."

"For me, this was the day the music died," Miss De Pasquale states. "The left has most of the rock stars, and this is the best they could come up with?"

Even the "once-hip" Rolling Stone magazine, she says, is giddy in proposing a Gore candidacy, saying if "Democrats were going to sit down and construct the perfect candidate for 2008, they'd be hard-pressed to improve on Gore."

Not to mention the fact, Rolling Stone adds, that Mr. Gore is now a "Hollywood celebrity."

Chicken or egg?

Regarding our coverage of this week's White House Easter Egg Roll, leave it to Inside the Beltway readers to answer the persistent question: What came first, the chicken or the egg?

"A chicken has to come from the egg as a chicken. It doesn't come out as 'not-a-chicken,' then turn into a chicken later in life," argues Michael J. Nessler of Gadsden, Ala.

"The very first chicken egg came from the mating of two creatures that were 'nearly-but-not-quite-chicken' birds," he suggests. "It probably went something like this: A 'more-than-a-chicken-but-still-not-a-chicken' bird mated with a 'less-than-a-chicken-but-still-not-a-chicken' bird enough times that, given the inevitablity of genetic variabilities over time, a breeding-pair of 'honest-to-goodness' chickens hatched out of the very first of very many chicken eggs.

"Neither breakfast, nor my cholesterol level, will ever be the same for it," he adds.

• John McCaslin, whose column is nationally syndicated, can be reached at 202/636-3284 or jmccaslin@washingtontimes.com.