Bills and Buildings

Washington, DC, on $85 a Day

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Your Dream Jobs

1. Associate Producer at NPR Digital: Arts and Features. The Arts and Features group focuses on arts news as well as social-media and rich-media content. We're looking for a creative writer, editor and multimedia producer with daily news experience to help us take NPR's arts and features sections, including Books and Movies, to the next level. This is a full-time union position in Washington, DC. Salary and benefits are top-notch.

2. Editorial Intern at the American Spectator. Flexible hours are offered for class schedules as needed. Duties will include proofreading, data entry, Web site maintenance, administrative work and assisting editors with research and anything else that arises. Internship is ongoing, so submit your resume and cover letter at any time to ruddy@spectator.org; type "Spectator Internship" in the subject line. One to two writing samples are preferred. College credit can be made available. A small transportation stipend for full-time interns may be arranged. Time requirement: 15-30 hours per week.

3. Production Internship, via the Institute for Humane Studies. Spring placements are available in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and other major media centers across the country. Past placements include Warner Brothers, Focus Features and Big Mouth Productions. We consider applicants at all levels of experience—from extensive camera work and training in Final Cut Pro to simply a general interest and desire to work in the film and media industry.

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Your Dream Jobs

1. Manage the Web site of the Washington Wizards.

2. MTV's Choose or Lose is looking for aspiring journalists to cover the 2008 election via written stories, vlogs and photos.

3. Intern in the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice. "Most of what we do is related to the president's judicial nominees, but we also work on DOJ-related legislation and a couple interns have actually drafted immigration appellate briefs." E-mail me if interested.

4. Clerk for the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Refugees under Ranking Member John Cornyn (R-TX). Law clerks carry out a variety of tasks and projects during their six weeks, including tracking legislation, engaging in legal research and writing, and attending briefings and hearings. Past clerks have helped draft letters to government officials, brainstorm with counsel on breaking legislation, assist in preparations for committee hearings and briefings, and provide in-depth legal research. Full or part-time; a stipend is available. Click here (PDF) to apply.

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Your Dream Jobs

Every Monday morning, America's Future Foundation sends out AFF Room 101, an e-mail that keeps its members abreast of its upcoming activities. The e-mails contain a section called Your Dream Job, which advertises one exciting position, usually in the DC area.

In the same spirit, and because job-hunting can suck, I'm starting a sporadic series of blog posts called Your Dream Job. Here's the first:

1. Looking for a new media internship? Do video production and Web design for CEI.

2. Work at YouTube: "YouTube is an extremely team-oriented, creative work place. Every single employee has a voice in the choices we make and the features we implement. Besides all the traditional benefits (competitive salary, full medical/dental, stock options) you'll have the opportunity to directly influence a revolutionary service used by millions of people every day. Oh, and you'll get free snacks and your very own YouTube T-shirt."

3. Portfolio.com is seeking “intelligent, charismatic and humorous” actors to play hosts on its new business news Webcast. Candidates are encouraged to “Think Tina Fey.” According to a spokeswoman for Condé Nast, the daily business Webcast will be part of the refreshed Portfolio Web site, which will graduate from its test stage on August 23 with new bloggers, additional content and a redesigned home page. (The Webcast will be introduced at a date to be determined.) “It’s not going to be a fake news show at all; it’s going to be a serious news program with a twist,” said a Condé Nast spokeswoman, adding that the Webcast would be written by journalists and that both journalists and actors are being considered as presenters.

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Politics and Pizza

David Kirkpatrick, of the NYT, explains why Washington is like college:

[T]he “staff briefing” [lecture]—in which a lobbyist [professor] enticed congressional staff members [students] to hear a talk about some dry legislative concern by offering pizza—has become extinct. No one will come without the free food.

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The Daily Digest: Smile! You're on Google

Reasonoids will need a new happy-hour hangout. Dragonfly, on 12th and Connecticut, has shuttered its doors.

Just as Mitt Romney is picking up steam in the polls, the Huffington Post republishes three, powerful TV ads from 1994, in which a series of laid-off workers blame Romney's leveraged buyout of their company for their reduced wages.

John Fund and John Dickerson agree: Bill Richardson is the Democrats' Tommy Thompson: a self-destructing candidate in public with a stellar behind-the-scenes resume, who would otherwise make an excellent veep.

Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd have announced that they won't participate in the Fox News/Congressional Black Caucus debate, which means that Joe Biden will have the stage all to himself (Kucinich and Gravel will also be there, but c'mon).

Depending on your viewpoint, the geniuses at Google have either brought us one step closer to a surveillance state, or are heralding what Tom Friedman calls the world's "flattening." Either way, check out Google Maps' newest feature, Street View, which allows you to spy 360-degree images of locations as seen from the ground, instead of the usual overhead satellite vista. So far, it covers parts of five metropolitan areas—San Francisco, New York, Las Vegas, Denver and Miami—but the images, taken with a 11-lens camera, are static, and it is unclear how often they will be updated.

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The Daily Digest

Continued Coburn courage: the junior senator from Oklahoma is blocking a resolution to honor Rachel Carson, whose 1962 book Silent Spring, by erroneously linking DDT to cancer, galvanized the anti-DDT movement that, to this day, deprives millions of malaria-stricken people of their best hope for a cure.

Meet Chris Dodd, the senior Democratic senator from Connecticut who is struggling to break free from his second-tier status among the presidential hopefuls.

With his trademark coolness, Matt Labash introduces us to John Cox. John who? The "sane fringe candidate" running for president. Bravo to the Weekly Standard for devoting four pages to the guy, about whom Labash writes, "[E]ven while he makes plenty of noise about the need to seal our borders, the corrupt Mexican government, and a crackdown on businesses that hire illegals, he will not set his hair on fire by becoming a pandering immigrant-basher. . . . 'I refuse to lower myself,' says Cox. 'I'm a businessman. I've got clients. I'm not going to make myself out to be a buffoon.'"

The Washington Times hosts a blogger roundtable on the political impact of blogs.

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The Daily Digest

Bill Richardson's Latest Ads

If you're a young conservative or libertarian in the DC area, you should know about America's Future Foundation.

As is his wont, Radley spotlights the big picture surrounding a current event: prosecutorial zealotry and botched convictions go far beyond the exonerated Duke lacrosse players. "It's likely of no coincidence that the one jurisdiction [in Dallas, TX] where blood samples have been preserved is also one that's finding a shocking number of convictions of innocent people."

Another victory for transparency and bloggers (especially considering how expensive ShadowTV is): CNN has agreed to make its presidential debate footage available without restrictions at the conclusion of each debate.

The NYT reports that Rudy is "planning to offer a forthright affirmation of his support for abortion rights in public forums, television appearances and interviews in the coming days." This should be interesting, though let's hope that Rudy (1) drops the "hate!" declaration and (2) refrains from his other oft-repeated line that his position on abortion has always been "consistent." Even if that were true, I think it's better to admit the complexity of the issue rather than aver consistency in the face of a huge perception otherwise.

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The Daily Digest

Doug Bandow makes the best arguments I've read for why DC residents should get the franchise—just not in the way Congress is currently considering.

As a rule, Michael Barone refrains from "using the word reform to describe any laws, including those I favor. So campaign finance reform is campaign finance regulation and tort reform is tort law limitations. The patient's bill of rights becomes HMO regulation."

Perhaps spurred on Heritage's recently begun series, Heritage in Focus, Cato inaugurates a weekly video. In the proprietary vs. popular debate, Cato unfortunately chooses the former, and seems to spurn YouTube, which would dramatically expand its audience.

Two bloggers turn pro (that is, get paid as a full-time job): Laura McGann at TPMmuckraker, and Sommer Mathis at DCist.

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Washington Power Couples

Match the spouses (information provided by T.A. Frank):

1. Mandy Grunwald, Democratic strategist.
2. Andrea Mitchell, chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News.
3. Autumn Hanna, former aide to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
4. Elaine Chao, Secretary of Labor.
5. Campbell Brown, anchor for the weekend edition of NBC’s Today Show.
6. Jim VandeHei, executive editor of the Politico
7. Matthew Cooper, Washington editor of Portfolio.
8. Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader.
9. Dan Senor, former spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority.
10. Alan Greenspan, former chair of the Federal Reserve.


1. Grunwald-Cooper.
2. Mitchell-Greenspan.
3. Hanna-VandeHei.
4. Chao-McConnell.
5. Brown-Senor.

Update: Almost forgot: James Carville is married to Mary Matalin.

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The Daily Dose

Contrary to popular lore, Congress did not pass the Height Act to restrict Washington's skyline to 130 feet, but in response to protests prompted by the 160-foot Cairo apartment building, on Q Street NW near 16th Street, in 1894

Here's another opening for Fred Thompson to exploit: all three front-running GOP candidates support some form of earned citizenship or guest worker status for illegal immigrants. "This stance puts them at odds with their base that rejects anything in the ballpark of 'amnesty,'" writes the Politico's Jonathan Martin.

With the endorsement of the state's Democratic governor and its two senators, the Bush Administration wants to begin oil and gas exploration off the coast of Virginia. (HT: Bluey.)

GQ is reprinting what it says "may well the best" profile it's ever run: Michael Kelly on the hard-partying, hard-working senior senator from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy.

The Castle Coalition celebrates its fifth anniversary.

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Why DC Residents Cannot Vote: A Pesky Piece of Parchment Called the Constitution

Residents of the District of Columbia want a voting representative in Congress, and Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT) have introduced legislation to grant their wish (the House has already passed such legislation). This seems perfectly legitimate and long overdue; after all, simply living in the nation's capitol shouldn't disfranchise you.

But the way the franchise is established makes all the difference. As Heritage's Matthew Spalding explains in the below two-minute video, doing so by legislative fiat is unconstitutional. The Constitution created Congress for representatives of the "people of the . . . states," and since DC is not a state but the seat of the federal government, its residents cannot constitutionally claim suffrage.

Yes, this is harsh, especially because District residents certainly pay taxes (whatever happened to no taxation without representation?) But short of redistricting DC into Virginia or Maryland, or both, the only remedy is a constitutional amendment. As Congresswoman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) put it, "The Constitution is clear. Let's follow it or amend it."



Update (5/4): Wikipedia offers a decent overview of the competing arguments. Interesting footnote: John Kerry, George Will and the Congressional Research Service all favor the status quo, while Ken Starr, Viet Dinh and Mike Pence support suffrage.

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