Inside the Beltway

REAGAN BASEBALL

And now, a break from the partisan noise: a series of Major League Baseball tributes to the Ronald Reagan centennial begins Monday night when the San Diego Padres face the Pittsburgh Pirates in San Diego. NASCAR driver Austin Dillon, co-chairman of the Reagan Centennial National Youth Committee, throws out the first pitch; country recording artist Tim Dugger, a member of the same committee, will sing the national anthem.

A video tribute to Reagan — baseball enthusiast and a onetime radio sportscaster — will also be shown, narrated by MLB Network and Fox Sports announcer Chris Rose. See it here: www.youtube.com/reaganfoundation. Incidentally, the Gipper once filled in for announcer Harry Caray during a 1988 Chicago Cubs game, advising his audience, “You know in a few months Im going to be out of work and I thought I might as well audition.”

Nine of the 30 Major League Baseball teams have chosen to honor Reagan in similar ways, proof that “his legacy is as alive and well today,” says Stewart McLaurin, executive director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundations centennial celebration, who notes that the Washington Nationals stage their own Reagan tribute June 23.

TRUMPED OUT

Don’t fret. Media overkill on the White House Correspondents Dinner will die down any second now, save perhaps for a few scant editorials questioning the excess of the event. Meanwhile, the press wallowed in endless insults heaped on Donald Trump by President Obama and comedian Seth Meyers. Journalists reveled as Mr. Trump was booed when he walked the red carpet with his wife Melania and was later mocked by Vanity Fair for his seeming lack of reaction to it all.

“Trump had to be smirking at the attention, but it’s a pathetic commentary that the allegedly independent White House press corps served as a vehicle for an incumbent president to bash his most vocal challenger. I mean, I know that theyre a bunch of partisan sycophants, but do they have to be so obvious about it?” observes Pajamas Media contributor and longtime “Instapundit” Glenn Reynolds.

DADT EXPLAINED

“Does a straight Marine have to live with a gay Marine? Can a Marine with a same-sex partner receive housing allowance? Will being openly gay affect recruitment, assignments or promotion?” Those were the repeat questions posed to Marine Corps instructor Maj. Daryl DeSimone during recent Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal training at Camp Pendleton, Calif., according to an official account. The hour-long class was meant to educate the Leathernecks on what would change after the repeal of the 17-year-old DADT policy.

Maj. DeSimone answered several versions of the question, “Will I have to live with a gay Marine?”After the repeal, billeting assignments will made without regard to sexual orientation.

“You can live with somebody in the barracks. You don’t have to be their friend,” the officer told the class, adding that commanders may elect to reassign roommates on a case-by-case basis if it poses “too much of a disruption for the unit.”

Meanwhile, Marines with religious concerns about their gay comrades were told that they “retain the right to their religious beliefs, but their conduct must remain professional and they must treat fellow Marines with dignity and respect.”

BUMPER PATROL

“TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT: We Shall Overcomb.”

- Bumper sticker spotted in San Francisco

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