WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Capital Comment -- News notes, political rumors, and important events that shape politics and public policy in Washington and the world from United Press International.
Fast flip -- Never let it be said that the House's number two Democrat, U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., can't read the tea leaves. Earlier this week, Pelosi endorsed the re-election bid of fellow California Democrat Gary Condit -- who has been under a cloud since the disappearance of intern Chandra Levy, a rumored paramour. Pelosi has taken a drubbing for her move. Many of her same-state colleagues are staying neutral or supporting Condit's primary opponent.
On Wednesday, Pelosi announced she had changed her position on the race and that she too would remain neutral in the Democratic primary.
Changing horses -- U.S. Justice Department spokesman Mindy Tucker departs for the friendlier climes of the Republican National Committee after the current holiday season. Tucker, who has served as the chief spokesman for Attorney General John Ashcroft, will assume a senior communications position under new chairman Marc Racicot, the former Republican Gov. of Montana. Tucker's replacement at the Justice Department has not been named.
Housing costs -- With her poll numbers through the stratosphere, former Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole seems well-positioned to win a U.S. Senate seat in North Carolina. But even though things are going well now, there is considerable uneasiness in GOP circles about Dole's unwillingness to tend to basic business -- like finding a home in the state.
Dole has not lived in North Carolina for close to 30 years and, for campaign purposes, is using her mother's home as her legal address. As Mrs. Dole has earned a reported $2.3 million in speaking fees over the past two years, the idea of actually purchasing a home and living there -- at least some of the time -- does not seem like too much to ask. The real fear is that her campaign could be tripped up, not by major policy positions, but by these kinds of gaffes, which some suggest may show her as being out of touch with the voters back home -- wherever home actually is.
Not us, it's the other guy -- Rabbi Daniel Lapin, president of Toward Tradition, has released a statement designed to put a lot of daylight between conservative Jewish groups and the radical Jewish Defense League, whose leader was recently arrested in connection with an alleged bomb plot.
Lapin says that the controversy should not be allowed to fade as "it makes us confront what the word 'Jewish' means in the name of an organization."
According to Lapin, "this apparently tiny organization (the JDL) espouses nothing authentically Jewish. Rather, the group seems to be animated by a tribal understanding of what it means to be a Jew. The JDL is 'Jewish' in the same way that the pop star Madonna is 'Catholic.'"
Now things are getting interesting -- Democrat Charles Barron, a newly elected member of the New York City Council, is getting his tenure off to a rousing start. On Tuesday, Councilman-elect Barron made a speech in which he demanded the portrait of former President Thomas Jefferson be removed from city hall, calling the author of the Declaration of Independence a "pedophile."
"It's an insult," Barron said. "The man is a pedophile because he raped his slave Sally Hemmings. Whether it was consensual or not is irrelevant." Barron, who once penned a piece titled "Let's get hooked on Ebonics," wants the portrait replaced by a bust of Malcolm X.
The hat is in the ring -- D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, the former city financial officer who has made the nation's capital a nicer place to live and visit, says he will be a candidate for another term. Plucked from obscurity by the congressionally mandated D.C. Control Board, which wrested control of the city government from former Mayor Marion Berry, Williams has a Fiorello LaGuardia-like touch that has improved the quality of life in the city.
Mapmaker, mapmaker, make me a map -- Hinds County, Miss., Chancellor Patricia Wise has been assigned the responsibility of redrawing the state's congressional district lines. A judge who is usually tasked with hearing disputes over child support and divorce cases, Wise got the job after several Democratic activists filed suit asking her to draw the map as the state legislature's failure has failed to do so, according to a piece by Reed Branson in the Memphis, Tenn., Commercial-Appeal.
According to Branson, "Republicans charged early on there was a legislative 'conspiracy' by Democrats to deadlock in the statehouse and land the case in Hinds County Chancery Court, whose judges are elected by Democratic majorities.' Mississippi loses one congressional seat to reapportionment, making the effort at redrawing the lines particularly hard.
In the most likely scenario, Republican U.S. Rep. Chip Pickering and Democrat U.S. Rep. Ronnie Shows will end up in the same district, with most of the proposed plans giving an edge to Pickering.
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