Inside the Beltway

Tim to town

We see several supporters of Sen. John McCain are on the list of those hosting a private fundraising reception to be held at the local home of Republican stalwart Ken Mehlman for incumbent Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who, word is, remains in the running as a vice presidential prospect.

“If you look at McCain’s latest FEC [Federal Election Commission] filing, you will see an airline-ticket payment to Pawlenty’s campaign manager, Michael Krueger,” hints a source to Inside the Beltway, perhaps trying to deflect some of yesterday’s hype about Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice being on Mr. McCain’s shortlist.

Among the hosts for the April 23 fundraiser at the home of Mr. Mehlman, the former Republican National Committee chairman and campaign manager for President Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign, are senior McCain adviser Charlie Black; financier Fred Malek, who was the 1992 campaign manager for President George H.W. Bush; as well as Ronald Reagan’s one-time White House Chief of Staff Ken Duberstein, and former Minnesota Rep. Vin Weber, to name just a few.

’Little fibs’

The brouhaha over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton claiming — and later retracting — that she came under sniper fire during an arrival in Bosnia as first lady in 1996 reminded Washington historian John Lockwood of Mrs. Clinton’s earlier claim that her mother named her after explorer Sir Edmund Hillary.

Mrs. Clinton remarked in 1995, as her Air Force plane circled Mount Everest, that her mother Dorothy Rodham had read an article about the famed mountain climber, liked the name, and the rest is history.

“So when I was born, she called me Hillary and she always told me, ’It’s because of Sir Edmund Hillary,’ ” Mrs. Clinton commented during her South Asian goodwill tour as first lady.

However, that claim to fame was later deemed unreliable after reporters realized Edmund Hillary did not reach the top of Mount Everest until 1953 — six years after Mrs. Clinton was born in 1947.

Renowned “urban legend” investigators Barbara and David Mikkelson wrote later that they’d conducted a “comprehensive search” of U.S. publications that might have mentioned Edmund Hillary prior to 1953, but could find no stories that a typical Chicago housewife might have been reading around the time of Mrs. Clinton’s birth — when Edmund Hillary, a beekeeper, wasn’t yet a household name.

In fairness to Mrs. Clinton, the couple pointed out that often parents “make up harmless little fibs to amuse their children,” and indeed this could have been one of those instances.

As for Mr. Lockwood, he told Inside the Beltway yesterday that he has finished conducting a new search of the Library of Congress hoping to help Mrs. Clinton find the “Hillary” of her time. The first name he came across with the exact spelling was actress Hillary Brooke of the 1943 “Jane Eyre” movie.

“Or if someone more heroic is needed, there was [a Royal Air Force] pilot named Richard H. Hillary who fought in the Battle of Britain, wrote a well-received book called ’The Last Enemy,’ and died on duty in 1943,” he points out.

“I also found a mid-18th century book by a William Hillary, who wrote, among other things, a book whose title included the words ’a treatise on the putrid bilious fever.’ ”

Up and down

If for no other reason, the Democratic Party has a reason to pat itself on the back when it comes to raising campaign money.

Congressional campaign receipts totaled about $507 million in 2007, an increase of 8 percent when compared with 2005. However, the Federal Election Commission said yesterday that increased receipts for House campaigns were limited to Democratic candidates, who raised just over $200 million — up 64 percent from 2005.

Republican House candidates raised about $142 million in 2007, 9 percent less than in 2005, the FEC says.

• John McCaslin can be reached at 202/636-3284 or jmccaslin@washington times.com.