Home > Window on Washington > Archives > 2007 > April > 18
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Thompson “Presidential” In Meeting With GOP House Members
Politician-turned-actor Fred Thompson played politician again Wednesday with a private meeting on Capitol Hill with 53 Republican House members to discuss a possible campaign for president.
House members who attended the meeting said Thompson, who currently appears as district attorney Arthur Branch on NBC’s “Law And Order” programs, was “presidential” during the private gathering at the office and club complex of the Republican National Committee’s headquarters.
And indeed, Thompson’s exit was very presidential: he wisked past a crowd of reporters and, with a wave of his hand, disappeared into a waiting black SUV, the engine already running. He paused only long enough to give a brief statement.
Thompson said, “I don’t really have anything to say other than the fact that I wanted to come over and see some of my old friends and make some new friends and tell them what was on my mind and listen to them and see what was on their mind.”
He added: “We had a good talk. I enjoyed it. And we’ll be seeing some more of each other.”
Permalink | |
Lynne Cheney’s Mormon Ancestors
Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, spoke of her Mormon lineage at a special naturalization ceremony Tuesday at the National Archives.
She told the soon-to-be-Americans that “it takes work to create a country and work to keep a country, and part of that work lies in appreciating our history; and it is our history, whether our ancestors were here or not in the early days.”
Cheney said that some of her forebears were Mormon immigrants from Wales who came in the middle of the nineteenth century, “long after George Washington and the other Founding Fathers had departed from this life.”
She added: “But what the founders accomplished affected those immigrants mightily.”
Several high level administration officials have spoken recently at citizenship ceremonies, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Citizen’s Almanac and Pithy Quotes
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services released a new Citizen’s Almanac this week to hand out to immigrants at naturalization ceremonies.
The book includes information on the rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship, landmark decisions of the Supreme Court, and the history behind many of America’s patriotic anthems and symbols.
It also features a collection of presidential quotes on citizenship and immigration, including:
President George Washington, 1783: “The bosom of America is open to receive not only the opulent and respectable stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions.”
President Woodrow Wilson, 1915: “This is the only country in the world which experiences this constant and repeated rebirth. Other countries depend upon the multiplication of their own native people. This country is constantly drinking strength out of new sources by the voluntary association with it of great bodies of strong men and forward-looking women of other lands.”
President Calvin Coolidge, 1924: “American citizenship is a high estate. He who holds it is the peer of kings. It has been secured only by untold toil and effort. It will be maintained by no other method.”
President Ronald Reagan, 1984: “America has drawn the stoutest hearts from every corner of the world, from every nation of the world. And that was lucky for America, because if it was going to endure and grow and protect its freedoms for 200 years, it was going to need stout hearts.”
President George W. Bush, 2001: “America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideas that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles.”
Permalink | |
White House Communications Crisis
The Blackberry system breakdown that knocked many of the devices off the air took its toll at the White House.
“We’re 14 hours into no Blackberrys,” said spokesman Tony Fratto. “So you can imagine how things are.”
“We’ve already started a 12-step group,” he joked.
Permalink | |
