We figured a political column that concentrates heavily on exposing congressional shenanigans might not be the best place to point out that coyotes - the actual four-legged kind - are suddenly roaming the streets of Washington.
"Are you kidding? Is this a metaphor - coyotes in Washington?" writes reader Cara Lyons Lege of Frisco, Texas. "They 'establish their own areas,' 'build dens in exclusive Washington neighborhoods,' and best of all 'sometimes their carcasses get dragged off.' This is too easy!"
TEXAS COYOTES
Given the rare occurrence of coyotes making headlines in Washington, Rep. Ted Poe, Texas Republican, thought it a good time to warn about two-legged "coyotes" infiltrating his state.
"The Old West shootouts continue in Texas," says Poe, responding to a massive hail of bullets last week in Houston, the fourth-largest city in America, where "a blazing gun battle ensued between rival human smugglers - or 'coyotes,' as we call them - fighting over turf. The outlaws were fighting over the precious cargo of illegal aliens."
When the shooting stopped, 21 people were arrested.
The Houston Chronicle explains that illegal aliens are held by coyotes at drop houses "until relatives pay the ransom to set them loose in America." A coyote can charge $1,500 to $70,000 to smuggle a foreigner into the United States.
FILLING 'THE SLOT'
When he last navigated "the Slot" - as a young naval officer during World War II - the Japanese were firing from all sides.
Now, legendary Washington Post Editor Ben Bradlee will again cruise the once-dangerous 600-mile passage, stretching northwest out of Papua New Guinea, although this time accompanied by his youngest son, Quinn, 23, and under far friendlier circumstances than his last deployment.
"I was reading a piece in Tin Can Sailors," the 84-year-old Bradlee tells The Beltway Beat, referring to the newspaper of the National Association of Destroyer Veterans. "And I saw this ad for a cruise that leaves Papua New Guinea and goes to Guadalcanal and up the so-called 'Slot.'"
The newspaperman last navigated the South Pacific waterway during the height of World War II, traveling past various islands "none of which have a great place in history, but they have great meaning to me," he says.
"I was an officer on a destroyer, exclusive to destroyers for 3-1/2 years," Bradlee recalls. "I was commissioned when I was 20 years old, and I was 21 when in Guadalcanal."