A small but lively group of Iraq war veterans took up positions Saturday afternoon outside the headquarters of "Code Pink," the feminist antiwar group huddled inside what is zoned as residential housing at 712 5th St. NE.

The war vets charge that Code Pink should be "evicted" due to zoning violations, arguing the women operate a corporate lobbying practice in a single-family dwelling in what is zoned as a residential neighborhood of Capitol Hill.

Quoting Colbert

We had to laugh at David M. Walker, comptroller general of the U.S. who leads the Government Accountability Office, the so-called "investigative arm of Congress."

"Or as Stephen Colbert would say, we're all about combating 'truthiness,' " Mr. Walker said during his presidential lecture series last week, quoting the popular comedian and satirist.

Saluting women

Friendship brought Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, where the Independent Women's Forum's (IWF) Woman of Valor award was given posthumously to R. Gaull Silberman, known as "Ricky," an IWF founder and board member who died of cancer in February.

Elizabeth "Liz" Cheney, daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, presented the award to Mrs. Silberman's husband, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Senior Judge Laurence Silberman.

"Ricky gave real hugs in a town where people give air-brush kisses," Mrs. Cheney praised.

Inside the Beltway is told that Justice Thomas will write a "long, personal reminiscence" about Mrs. Silberman in the IWF's forthcoming newsletter. IWF's president and CEO, Michelle Bernard Silberman, explained that Justice Thomas had "inadvertently" contributed to the decision by Mrs. Silberman and others to found IWF, because during his stormy Supreme Court confirmation hearings the founders felt that the women interviewed by the press for a "women's view" did not represent mainstream America.

In addition, the newly appointed chief of protocol of the U.S., Ambassador Nancy Brinker, founder of the Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure, also was awarded the Woman of Valor award at last week's gala. The award was presented to Mrs. Brinker by former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson. Each year, the award is given in honor of Mr. Olson's late wife, Barbara K. Olson, who was killed during the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Hillary's choice

Given the latest presidential polling, it's becoming evident that the Democratic Party, for what would be a fifth time, will not select a black candidate as their party's nominee for president.

This fact is brought to our attention by Frances Rice, chairman of the National Black Republican Association, who is calling on his fellow black Americans to jump parties.

"Four times, Democratic Party primary voters had a chance to select a black person as their party's nominee," he said. "Each time the Democrats turned their backs on the black presidential candidates: Shirley Chisholm, who became the first black and the first woman to run for president in 1972; Senator Carol Mosely Braun; Reverend Jesse Jackson; and Reverend Al Sharpton. Now the Democrats have another chance."

But recent polls, he said, reveal Democratic primary voters "will choose yet another white person" — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York — over black Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.

Start swimming

Excerpt from the Daily Mail of London, dated Friday, at the same time that it was being announced that former Vice President Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 for his efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change:

"The award, however, comes in the same week a High Court judge criticized [Mr. Gore's] documentary, 'An Inconvenient Truth,' for being 'alarmist' and 'exaggerated.' Mr. Justice Burton ruled the film had nine scientific errors and could only be shown in U.K. schools if it was accompanied by new guidance notes to balance Gore's 'one-sided' views.

"Despite winning lavish praise from the environmental lobby and an Oscar from the film industry, Mr. Gore's documentary was found to contain 'nine scientific errors' by the judge. These inconvenient untruths included the claim that ... sea levels will rise up to 20 feet in the near future."