DENVER—LL is currently sitting at Denver International Airport, yawning and enjoying the free WiFi, mostly to ogle Sarah Palin. As his time at the Democratic National Convention comes to a close, though, he is reminded of an informal blog-off discussed late last week between himself and the Washington Post’s David Nakamura and DCist’s Sommer Mathis.

You decide the winner in the comments! Here’s my posts, Mathis’ posts, and Nakamura’s posts.

Now before you cast your vote, ask yourself this: What other blogger has brought you poorly lit video of Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. doin’ “Da Butt”:

LL shot that at a poolside party Tuesday night thrown by Pepco, where guests were greeted by a thoroughly seersuckered Vincent B. Orange Sr., the former Ward 5 councilmember turned Pepco lobbyist, and treated to a carving station and raw bar.

Prior to Thomas’ move-busting, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton had been getting down with about a dozen others in a “Booty Call” line dance. That prompted noted jock Thomas, standing on the sideline, to protest to LL that “he got the athletics gene but not the dancing gene.” He pointed to his mother, delegate delegation member Romaine Thomas, who was dancing with Norton and said, “She’s the dancer in the family.” He then informed a surprised LL that he had attended cotillion as a youngster.

Then the DJ spun E.U.’s go-go crossover classic, and it was off to the races. LL, meanwhile, had to explain go-go to a pair of befuddled New Mexico delegates who had wandered in.

To paraphrase All the President’s Men, that’s a good, solid piece of American journalism the Washington Post doesn’t have.

Vote away!

DENVER—At a get-together of delegates before leaving for Denver last week, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton remarked that it’s not all fun and games for the D.C. folks, who have to maintain a focus on lobbying for voting rights. “We’re there to work,” she said.

Well, there’s time for a little golf, too.

The picture above is of Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr., denizen of Langston Golf Course, arriving at the Crowne Plaza late yesterday after playing in the 6th annual Ronald H. Brown Memorial Golf Tournament, a benefit memorializing the late Democratic bigwig and commerce secretary.

The tournament, held at the Green Valley Ranch Golf Club, about 15 miles east of downtown, attracted VIPs such as National Urban League head Mark H. Morial, Colorado senate President Peter C. Groff, and—drumroll please—former Ward 5 Councilmember Vincent B. Orange.

Thomas said he played at the invitation of Michael A. Brown, Ron Brown’s son who is now a lobbyist running for an at-large council seat in D.C. The format was a modified best-ball, with each foursome sharing the best drive, then proceeding to the pin separately.

How often did legendary linksman Thomas snag the best drive? “About half the time,” he says with no small hint of pride. But it was Orange, he says, who was the big hitter of the outing, smacking a 295-yard drive at one point.

“My best was about 280,” he says. “But I was consistent.”

Relations between the District’s executive branch and the D.C. Council aren’t getting any sweeter—especially when it comes to the D.C. Public Schools.

On Aug. 1, DCPS held a systemwide summer-school graduation ceremony at McKinley Tech High School, attended by schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee. No member of the D.C. Council was invited, and at least one of them isn’t happy about it.

That would be Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr., in whose ward the ceremony was held. He showed up, having been given a ticket by a graduate’s family. When he arrived, he asked a Rhee staffer if, as an elected official, he could join Rhee and top aide Kaya Henderson, as well as the ceremony’s keynote speaker, on the stage. Thomas says a Rhee staffer initially told him he could not join them, then was escorted out a side door. Later, Thomas says, he got the OK to go on stage, but “at that point I said, the ceremony was well underway.”

“Instead of causing a scene,” he says, “I decided to use the power of the pen.”

That refers to a letter that Thomas posted to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and copied to Rhee and his council colleagues. In the letter, obtained by LL, Thomas didn’t stint on the outrage: “To date, this is the most egregious display of disrespect to not only me, but also the entire body of the Council,” Thomas wrote. “To use a beautiful occasion to celebrate our students’ accomplishments to expound derision is exceptionally troubling. (The full text of the letter is after the jump.)

Thomas’ critical comments come weeks after Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray delivered some of his most ascerbic commentary to date on the Fenty-Rhee approach to legislative relations.

Asked about the incident, Thomas says he was most concerned about the institutional snub: “Quite frankly, the crux of it all is that no one [on the council] got an invitation to one of the most important events of the summer,” Thomas says. “That alone was disrespectful to me.” Further adding to Thomas’ ire, he says, was that he and colleagues were not colsulted on the hire of a news DCPS athletic director. (Troy Mathieu was named the new AD last week.)

“It would have been a lot more helpful to say, ‘Here’s the guy,’ instead of reading about it in the Washington Post,” he says.

Rhee’s spokesperson, Mafara Hobson, reports in an e-mail that her boss “wasn’t aware of the behind the scenes commotion during the graduation.” Rhee, Hobson says, was given a note saying that Thomas wanted to come on stage, and “she immediately insisted that he do so,” but Thomas then walked away. Rhee e-mailed Thomas about what happened but never heard back from him.

Rhee and Thomas, Hobson says, are scheduled to meet about the incident this week. Asked if the situation has been resolved to his satisfaction, Thomas says, “It will. I’m a satisfaction-guaranteed type of guy.”

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A brief perusal of Roget’s suggests a galaxy of promising adjectives for describing one’s reaction to a troubling Supreme Court decision.

For one, there is “troubled.” “Shocked,” “outraged,” and “concerned” come to mind. Further options include “chagrined,” “mortified,” “aggrieved,” “offended,” “incensed,” “riled up,” and “scared shitless.”

In their press releases, however, District politicos have been sticking to one word with alarming regularity:

Disappointed.

First, there is Ward 5 Councilmember Harry “Tommy” Thomas, Jr., who “expressed his extreme disappointment with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the District gun ban, and indicated that the Council must now establish strict standards to regulate the sale of handguns in the District of Columbia.”

Then we have Fenty, Nickles, and Lanier, who weigh in as follows:

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, Interim Attorney General Peter Nickles, and Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier announced their disappointment in today’s ruling of the United States Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller…. “I’m disappointed in the Court’s ruling and believe introducing more handguns into the District will mean more handgun violence,” said Mayor Fenty.*

Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray includes the following in his statement:

Although I am disappointed by the court’s decision, working collectively with the Mayor, the Metropolitan Police, legal authorities, and residents, the Council will do all it can to prevent violence from escalating further as a result of today’s un-welcome weakening of our gun laws.

Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser:

I am disappointed in today’s Supreme Court action which ruled that the DC law banning private handgun possession at home violates the Second Amendment.

At-Large Councilmember Kwame Brown:

My disappointment in the Supreme Courts ruling cannot be merely expressed by words. Every time I hear of another youth, another mother or child gunned down in our communities is yet another reminder of why we need these protective measures in place.

[Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton issued a statement in which the d-word was conspicuously absent, as did Adam Clampitt, Independent Candidate for DC Council At-Large.]

Come on, folks! Disappointed is when your team loses in spring training. Disappointed is when your kid doesn’t crack a B in algebra. Disappointed is when your dog relieves himself under the dining room table.

Whatever happened to “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!”

*The Post imputes “dismay” to Fenty. Over-editorialize much lately?

College hoops geeks, take note: Former Loyola Marymount star Bo Kimble is at today’s D.C. Council legislative meeting.

Kimble is appearing on a somber note, to lend his support to a bill sponsored by Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. to put defibrillators in various city recreational facilities. Kimble, of course, lost his longtime friend and teammate Hank Gathers after he collapsed and died in a conference tournament game in March 1990. Gathers suffered from an undiagnosed congenital heart defect.

Kimble went on under coach Paul Westhead to lead Loyola Marymount—one of the most remarkable teams in college hoops history—to the Elite Eight in Gathers’ memory before falling to eventual NCAA champion UNLV.

Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. just sent out this press release:

Thomas Withholds Endorsement of Democratic Presidential Candidate to Highlight District, Ward Issues

Washington, DC – Ward 5 Councilmember Harry “Tommy” Thomas, Jr. announced today that he will refrain from officially endorsing either Democratic presidential candidate until he can discuss with each their positions statehood rights for the District of Columbia and key urban issues such as crime, unemployment, and economic revitalization of our inner city neighborhoods.

“I am honored to represent the residents of the District of Columbia in what is the most important election facing our nation in a lifetime,” said Councilmember Thomas. “I was elected to represent the District as an unpledged delegate, and I take that role seriously. I will evaluate each candidate and their viewpoints on providing DC with the voting rights we deserve. I will compare and assess each candidate’s plans for partnering with the Mayor and Council to bring jobs and economic revitalization to all corners of this great city. And most importantly, I will confer with my residents and fellow members of the Democratic party before making my decision,” said Thomas.

LL says: Hard to see him staying in the Hillary camp after backing out…

This morning, the Post and the Examiner both got wise to the intrigue of the D.C. Democratic delegate count—or at least the question of Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr.’s presidential loyalties.

To recap: Thomas had been an avowed Hillary Clinton supporter for months. Last Thursday, he ran for one of two unpledged add-on delegate spots and won, leading to heightened questions about his commitment to Hillary.

Thomas told LL after the vote, “I haven’t changed. I’m consistent.” But earlier in the week, Thomas staffer Ayawna Chase had told Shadow Rep. Mike Panetta that her boss had “changed his mind after hearing from his constituents,” according to Panetta’s comments on a Daily Kos posting. Then, yesterday, the D.C. Democrats sent out a spreadsheet listing all of the D.C. delegates along with their presidential preferences. Thomas was marked as supporting Clinton. Then, on Monday evening, a revised spreadsheet was sent out, along with a note explaining that Thomas “was incorrectly listed as a supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton should read and tallied as ‘Unpledged’.”

Thomas said to LL this morning that he still hasn’t “changed officially.” He explained the spreadsheet change thusly: “What I wanted to do is honor the process of being an unpledged delegate.”

OK, whatever.

Here’s some interesting tidbits: According to Thomas spokesperson Vicky Leonard-Chambers, her boss is meeting with Clinton today and had mentioned potentially attending an Barack Obama event this evening. She also says Thomas hopes to meet with Obama himself soon.

“He’s doing what he said he would do, which is talk to both before he decides,” she says.

In a town where Barack Obama got better than 75 percent of the vote, this wasn’t supposed to happen. But it did anyway: Hillary Clinton picked up an extra District delegate to the Democratic National Convention last night. For that, Obama supporters have only their own to blame.

The D.C. Democratic State Committee met in the John A. Wilson Building for almost three hours to select a pair of unpledged add-on “superdelegates.” More than 20 signed up to run for the two slots, voted on by the 80-odd members of the committee. “Unpledged” in this case is a bit misleading; most delegate candidates’ presidential preferences were already widely known to voters.

The days and weeks before the vote saw furious lobbying of the 80-some committee members—especially on the Obama side—to sway votes to their presidential candidate. Obama organizers hoped to prevent a split vote by steering support to two delegate candidates: Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander, a longtime state committee member and favorite of the old guard, and lawyer Miriam Sapiro, a relative unknown favored by the grassroots types.

Though a number of the 25 candidates on the ballot withdrew before the vote, seven Obama supporters ended up running, while only two Clinton supporters only three Clinton supporters only two Clinton supporters stood: Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr., Ward 3 resident Mary Ann Miller, and lawyer and ex-council staffer Aimee Occhetti.

Clinton’s name never came up in Thomas’ brief remarks before the vote; he instead chose to talk up his own qualifications and big-picture issues. “The issue is what are we going to do when we get to Denver that best represents the District of Columbia,” he said. (Rumors had swirled that Thomas planned to switch to Obama, but Thomas knocked those down after the vote: “I haven’t changed,” he says. “I’m consistent.”)

The actual candidates’ names rarely came up, in fact. The division within the Obama camp was briefly aired when candidate Linda Nguyen rose to say, “I only have 2 minutes to convince you to vote for me…not someone you promised the mayor you’d vote for.” That earned her hearty boos from the crowd. (Line of the night, though, came from Occhetti: “If you call me at 3 a.m., I will definitely try to answer the phone.”)

In the end, Alexander cruised to victory, but Sapiro came up two votes short; she got 22 to Thomas’ 24. Check after the jump for a full tally of the results (i.e., which Obama folks didn’t get with the program).

Delegate Potpourri

• Unsurprisingly, Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray and At-Large Councilmember Kwame R. Brown took the two spots reserved for PLEOs—party leaders and elected officials. Shadow Rep. Mike Panetta appeared on the original ballot but withdrew before the vote. In remarks after the vote, Gray said, “My life’s aspiration has been to be a PLEO. I’ve finally arrived!” Panetta says he plans to run for an alternate pledged at-large spot set to be selected on May 3. Barring that, committee chair Anita Bonds announced to the crowd that Panetta would be serving as the delegation’s Official Blogger in Denver. Says Panetta: “One way or another, I’ll be there.”
• Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans showed early in the meeting to greet the crowd but quickly left. Since the decision came down that both PLEOs were to be Obama-pledged, Evans did not appear on the ballot. Gray announced after voting that Evans would be running at the May 3 meeting for a pledged at-large slot for Clinton; Gray lobbied the crowd on Evans’ behalf.

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If, like the “alleged military wife from Fort Belvoir,” you were unable to get in to the White House egg roll, here’s another option: Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. is hosting an egg hunt at the Fort Lincoln Gazebo, 3100 Fort Lincoln Drive. According to a press release, there will be face painting, Simon Says, and sack races, as well as a “picnic-style lunch of grilled hot dogs.” Parks and Rec Director Clark Ray is rumored to be coming!!! —Mike DeBonis

Loose Lips queries D.C. Councilmembers about The Real Super Tuesday, the Potomac Primary on Feb. 12.

Wednesday night is the next Republican presidential debate, and local voting-rights activists want their questions answered. And, no, it won’t involve picketing or a sit-in this time.

This is the CNN/YouTube presidential debate, and if you’re not familiar with the format, it’s like any other debate, except the questions are taken from videos made by citizens and posted on YouTube.

Local nonprof DC Vote coordinated a series of 11 video questions, which were taped with the help of local public-access station DCTV. Says DC Vote Outreach Director Eugene Dewitt Kinlow: “They range from the serious and straightforward to some with a little levity.”

Well, just about all of them are in the former category: Two of the spots are from local GOP bigwigs, such as they are—local party chair Bob Kabel and D.C. Young Republicans leader Marcus Skelton. A number of avowed Democrats, including Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr., Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander, and schools Ombudsman Tonya Vidal Kinlow, also recorded questions.

Several more are from un affiliated D.C. citizens. One, from the Chambliss family, plays the cute-kid card. Nelson Rimensnyder goes patriotic. And bordering on the bizarre would be Eli Zigas‘ video, in which he plays a time-traveling, iMac-owning Abe Lincoln.

The chances of any of the DC Vote spots making it on air are admittedly slim, with thousands of videos having been submitted, but let’s call Zigas’ chances at slim to none. As far as I’m concerned, I vote for Skelton’s spot:

Which one do you like best? Watch ‘em all, and put your vote in the comments.

On Tuesday, D.C. Vote held its 7th annual “Champions of Democracy” awards reception at the Carnegie Library (né City Museum). The festivities, like at many a fundraising bash, included a silent auction of lunches with D.C. politicos, with the proceeds to benefit D.C. Vote’s general operations.

Such a fundraising tactic has always held a certain appeal for LL because it’s about as close as one can get to a free-market determination of a councilmember’s relative clout. After all, who shells out big bucks to have lunch with a politico who can’t get things done? Herewith, an accounting:

$275 - Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh*
$250 - At-Large Councilmember Kwame Brown
$200 - Ward 8 Councilmember Marion S. Barry Jr.
$105 - Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham
$90 - Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells
$70 - Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser
$60 - Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander
$60 - Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr.

Now to be fair: Cheh’s number is inflated, considering a bid gave you a shot at an eight-person dinner with the councilmember at the home of local filmmaker and D.C. Vote board member Aviva Kempner, rather than the usual restaurant lunch for two.

The true champion of clout, though, was Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, who got $500 for his offering. That, however, was a little bit more than just lunch: four spots in the city’s Verizon Center luxury box for a Wizards game.

There’s a big debate over the day laborers that congregate near Home Depot in Northeast. Neighbors are pissed that these folks, well, piss and do other unseemly things in the vicinity. See this story in the Washington Times for more on that.

Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. has proposed building a multiculti training center on the site, the better to handle the open-air labor market that has sprung up at this contractor hotspot.

Build the center, indeed. But before building the center, raze the entire shopping center, bulldoze the parking lot, and keep digging. As Washington City Paper pointed out years ago, this project was launched and executed hastily, to the eternal detriment of economic and community development in and around Brentwood. The whole thing sits too high off Brentwood Road NE, a problem that the developers handled by building a retaining wall and saying, essentially, the hell with it. Bring this eyesore to street level, make the shops front the street, and then build the day laborer site. How hard could that be?

Here’s a little something Ivy City residents who might have concerns about adult-themed clubs coming to their neighborhood should know: You already have one.

Club proprietor Bob Siegel isn’t waiting to rebuild his adult-themed empire after his eviction from the stadium site. In order for Siegel to serve drinks and have live entertainment, he needs the council to pass legislation that would allow him to transfer the nude dancing license to the Ward 5 warehouse district. The city used eminent domain to chase Siegel and several other business owners out of their O Street SE digs near the new stadium.

For 10 bucks before 7 p.m., and $15 after that, patrons to his club at 2120 West Virginia Ave. NE are treated to a huge warehouse with all the accouterments Siegel once offered in Southeast. No alcohol is served.

After passing through pay station and being buzzed in, patrons can take a quick right past the sex toys into the “theatre,” a large projection-screen TV in a small room that contains four large high-backed benches. At 1 p.m. today, only one patron was taking in the show.

Farther back in the sprawling complex is a black-light room and plenty of very dimly-lit side rooms. A patron or two hang close to the wall in the shadows. A sign in one of rooms reads: “Please dispose all paper towels, garments, and trash into the garbage bins.”

In a better-lit area of the warehouse, a construction project was underway: Two workers were building a maze of eight-foot-high cubicles for the “glory hole” portion of the premises.

Siegel was on site, but he refused to speak about his burgeoning enterprise, sort of. “I’m not happy with the way your paper is playing this Harry Thomas thing up,” said Siegel. His reference was to this week’s Loose Lips column on the battle over legislation that would allow club owners displaced by the new ballpark a one-time relocation break.

Call them adult entertainment. Call them nude dancing clubs. Just, whatever you do, don’t call them strip clubs.

“I am not a strip club,” declared Nexus Gold Club owner Ron Hunt in an impassioned speech before Ward 5 residents at Bethesda Baptist Church last night. Hunt prefers the term “gentlemen’s club” to describe Nexus, a glitzy nightclub that offered nude dancing until it was closed by the city last fall. Nexus was one of a series of clubs shuttered to make way for new stadium development.

In a lengthy oration that elicited intermittent boos from the audience, Hunt made grand claims, saying his club “was known as the largest on the East Coast,” and that 80 percent of its patrons arrived via limousine. “This was for the upper-echelon people,” he said, adding, “This club looked like a living room. We cater[ed] to husbands and wives.”

But the neighbors who packed the pews at Bethesda last night wouldn’t hear it. “If these clubs are so wonderful, why don’t they put some kind of subsidy to put them by the [new] stadium,” one resident said.

Others suggested the clubs should be evenly distributed throughout the wards, or perhaps clustered in Ward 1. Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham has introduced legislation designed to permit one-time relocation of the clubs to similarly zoned locations—all of which are in Ward 5. “The issue before us is a simple issue. It’s a zoning issue,” said Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr., who convened the meeting. “No ward wants to be inundated with one type of business.”