Inside the Beltway

Run, Fred, run

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson said he’d wait to decide whether to seek the presidency in 2008 after gauging public reaction to his announcement last week that he had been diagnosed in 2004 with a form of lymphoma, which is now in remission.

Suffice it to say, he has supporters. Not only was Mr. Thompson, in absentia, the talk of the Republican Party of Iowa’s Lincoln Day Dinner in Des Moines on Saturday night, but his wife, Jeri Thompson, says messages she’s received from across the country are all positive.

“The chairman of the Houston, Texas, Republican party called and ordered 100 [Thompson] bumper stickers; his precinct captains each want one,” she tells Inside the Beltway. “The anecdotes accompanying some of these orders are delightful.

“I received a call Thursday from an attorney who lives in Orange County, California. I have no idea where he got my name, but at any rate he wants to organize ‘Attorneys for Thompson’ in that state.”

John’s secretaries

It would appear that “Secretary’s Day” is being observed at this coming weekend’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner — or so we gather from the guest list of Washington talk-meister John McLaughlin and his wife, Cristina.

Joining the McLaughlins at their tables for the Saturday night dinner are Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, Commerce SecretaryCarlosGutierrez and Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson.

The third or fourth Wednesday of April is traditionally the date when Secretary’s Day is observed. The annual tribute was started as “National Secretaries Week” in 1952 under proclamation by Commerce Secretary Charles Sawyer.

In those days, of course, a secretary was called a “secretary.” Given today’s politically correct atmosphere, Secretary’s Day was changed in 1998 to “Administrative Professionals’ Day.”

Choose your list

Certain patients being released from the Washington Hospital Center — the largest private medical facility in the nation’s capital and one of the top-rated hospitals in the country for heart and cancer care — are discovering an eye-opening list attached to their discharge papers.

It names several famous people who have died from smoking-related illnesses, such as emphysema, lung cancer and heart attacks. Listed are talk-show host Johnny Carson, ABC News anchor Peter Jennings, singer and actress Rosemary Clooney, jazz pioneer Duke Ellington, jazz performer Nat King Cole, and Grateful Dead lead guitarist and vocalist Jerry Garcia.

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