Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell of Maine and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas will officially welcome former House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri into their post-congressional club during a reception tomorrow evening at the Willard Hotel.
We say officially, because it's been several months since the 64-year-old Gephardt, who stepped down from Capitol Hill in January, joined the Washington office of law firm DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary as senior counsel. The office is headed by Mitchell, and also counts former Rep. Jennifer Dunn of Washington among its ranks.
Gephardt, who twice fell short in bids to become his party's presidential nominee, has wasted little time wielding his influence and was hired by Boeing in recent weeks to advise the aerospace company on its dispute with striking machinists.
Suffice it to say, he's been anxious to utilize his law degree, which he earned from the University of Michigan in 1965.
JESUIT ACHIEVERS
After analyzing President Bush's pick of White House counsel - and non-judge - Harriet Miers to serve on the nation's highest court, NBC's "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert went to bat on Monday for the tuition-free Washington Jesuit Academy and its generous benefactors.
The academy provides boys from mostly "at-risk" backgrounds with a college-preparatory education, not to mention three balanced meals a day.
Russert, who addressed both students and their financial sponsors and mentors, is a product of eight years of education by the Jesuit order of Catholic priests, first at Buffalo's Canisius High School in New York, and then at Cleveland's John Carroll University.
Russert "spoke about his two schools and how they mirrored what we do at the academy on a daily basis, and how that helped set him on the course for where he is today," says academy spokesman Brian Ray.
DECLARATION OF JEHU?
Now on display for the next year in the National Archives Rotunda - right there alongside the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights - is the Declaration of Jehu Grant.
A slave in Narragansett, R.I., Grant's master remained loyal to the British during the Revolutionary War. So what did Grant do? He not only escaped in August 1777, but for 10 months he fought with the Americans - that is, until his master tracked him down.
Some 60 years later, Grant applied for a pension from the U.S. government. But Uncle Sam told him he was not eligible, owing to his status as a "fugitive slave" at the time of his war service.