It seems that the wave of excitement over Barack Obama’s election wishes to wash away anything and everything associated with W. Believe me, I can relate. But with regards to the speculation over the next White House chef, I think we need to get a grip. And who better to provide a hand rail than Palena’s Frank Ruta, a former White House executive sous chef and our winner this year for Best Chef?

“Boy, next White House Chef…did I miss something?” Ruta writes via e-mail when I raise the topic with him. “The Executive Chef doesn’t usually change with administrations. At least that has been the case in the past. My feeling is that Chef [Cristeta] Comerford will stay on in her current position.”

I e-mailed back and asked Ruta to provide a little more insight on the politics of selecting and/or changing White House chefs.

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As much local politics as humanly possible. Send your tips, releases, stories, events, etc. to lips@washingtoncitypaper.com.

Good morning, all. And HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAYS to Phil Mendelson and Vincent Gray, both of whom marked another year on Saturday. The chairman celebrated his 66th Friday evening at F. Scott’s in Georgetown. Put party reports in the comments!

“What D.C. should expect from Obama administration?” asks Michael Neibauer in the Examiner. Voting rights? Budget autonomy? Federal payment? All of the above?

David Nakamura writes up the latest voting-rights feud in the WaPo. With a solid Democratic congressional majority and a Democratic president, should we be aiming for a House vote (likely) or full statehood (not so likely)? Don’t look to Hizzoner for answers: “Fenty declined to take a position on what route the city should pursue, saying he wants to work with the Obama administration, congressional leaders and other city officials to develop a game plan that has the best chance for success.”

Hart Middle School, in Congress Heights, is overrun with violence, reports Bill Turque in the WaPo. “D.C. Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee has dispatched a team of administrators and extra security to an Anacostia middle school where three teachers have been assaulted, a 14-year-old was charged with carrying a shotgun and students have run the hallways discharging fire extinguishers.”

HERE’S THE MONEY SENTENCE: “While Woodard was speaking, he and a Washington Post reporter observed a security guard stand by and watch as a boy with a bandage on his left ear was pummeled on the head by a larger girl swinging her book bag.”

Council looks to go $50 million deeper with cuts than Mayor Fenty’s proposal, reports WaPo. And “the Examiner has learned” that it was all Vince Gray’s idea! The protesters are out at the Wilson Building.

MALIA AND SASHA WATCH—From Gotham Schools; RedState.com; from Jay Mathews in the WaPo; and a fab piece from Gabriel Sherman in the Atlantic

Fred Hiatt in the WaPo: Rhee “may not be able to succeed without at least the tacit support of Barack Obama.”

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The latest parlor game among local foodies is guessing who President-elect Barack Obama will tap as his White House chef. The main name being tossed around is Chicagoan Art Smith, Oprah Winfrey’s former personal chef who recently opened Art and Soul on Capitol Hill. The Post’s Tom Sietsema caught up with Smith this week to put the question to him directly. An excerpt:

Best known for having served as the personal chef for Oprah Winfrey for 10 years, Smith has already cooked several times for the future first family, who lives a few streets away from him in Chicago’s Hyde Park. (”They like delicious, healthy food,” reports the diplomatic chef.) On election night, Smith prepared a private dinner for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and about 150 Democratic stalwarts at Art and Soul. Earlier in his career, he was interviewed by the Reagan administration for the top cooking job. “I was way too young back then,” says Smith, age 48.

The chef currently commutes between Chicago, his home base, and Washington. Would he be up for cooking for Obama and kin? “I’m happy my name is even in the circle,” says Smith, who shows off his bipartisan nature by casually mentioning having had lunch recently with Doro Bush Koch, the current president’s sister.

Who would you like to see cooking for Obama’s state dinners?

Republicans, feeling down and out? Democrats, tempted to gloat? Check this out.

BREAKING FROM OBAMA PRESSER: President-Elect Barack Obama, in response to a question from Chicago Sun-Times reporter Lynn Sweet, says, “Michelle will be scouting out some schools. We’ll make a decision on that in the future.”

Also a note to national reporters: Stop asking Michelle Rhee to shill for D.C. Public Schools! Rhee spokesperon Dena Iverson says she’s taken numerous phone calls from reporters asking her boss to make a case for sending young Sasha and Malia to a DCPS school. “She isn’t going to do that,” she says. “Parents should make their decision on whatever is best for their kids. It shouldn’t be a political decision.”

Earlier this week, LL first reported, the city’s Contract Appeals Board ruled that the Office of the Chief Financial Officer had properly awarded the controversial lottery contract to W2I, the partnership between Greek firm Intralot and locals W2Tech, over the previous contract holders, Lottery Technology Enterprises.

The panel’s ruling isn’t the end of the saga, however: In a letter sent to councilmembers yesterday, LTE head Leonard Manning wrote that his outfit intends to appeal the CAB decision in D.C. Superior Court. Such a move further draws out the process that has become a political flashpoint, with the D.C. Council refusing to take action to approve the contract, which stands to save the District $40 million over 10 years.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty told LL on Wednesday he intends to resubmit the contract—again—in hopes that the council will vote to approve. Yesterday, in comments to LL, Interim Attorney General Peter J. Nickles amplified that stance: “We trust that the council will now schedule the matter for an up-or-down vote.”

LTE’s decision to pursue an appeal could provide political cover to Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray—who has not gone out of his way to move the contract, to say the least—by allowing him to refuse action on the grounds of a pending court proceeding. And come January, with the election of Michael A. Brown, the chances of the contract passing don’t get any better.

Meanwhile, the CFO’s office has taken steps to prepare for a rebid—a process that’s expected to result in a much worse deal for the District.

UPDATE, 2:54 P.M.: W2I spokesperson Crystal Wright points out that LTE partner GTECH has pursued a similar strategy in Ohio. “This is what they do. They don’t want to accept the reality that they lost this RFP….at a time, I might add, when there’s a $130 million shortfall in the District of Columbia….It’s time for the D.C. Council to do the right thing.”

You gotta read down to get to the point where this outfit claims its contribution to Obama’s win: “Our consistent work played a major role in turning public sentiment against the war, and that sentiment helped lay the foundation for the Obama campaign’s success.”

Please keep passing on press releases claiming decisive roles in the election

Statement from United for Peace and Justice on the Election of Barack Obama
November 7, 2008

New York, NY — What a moment! On November 4th, the voters of this country came out in massive numbers to cast their votes for change. The election of Barack Obama was the greatest repudiation of the Bush administration’s policies we have seen in these long years of struggle, and what a relief it was.
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As much local politics as humanly possible. Send your tips, releases, stories, events, etc. to lips@washingtoncitypaper.com.

Good morning, all. Yesterday was local politician day at the H. Carl Moultrie I Courthouse.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—Report: Brazil Punched Guy “in the Back [of] the Head With a Closed Fist”; Brazil Pleads Not Guilty; Strauss Pleads Not Guilty!

Your new head of Employment Services is Joseph P. Walsh, former director of policy and planning for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty plucks one off of Mass Gov. Deval Patrick’s bench. David Nakamaura reports in the WaPo. Also Jonathan O’Connell in the Biz Journal.

HMMM—So what’s next for Tene Dolphin? Fenty’s confidante and first chief of staff left the third-floor bullpen to get DOES back in line after Summer Spencer’s firing. Now, says Fenty spokesperson Mafara Hobson, Dolphin will be sticking around for a bit to help Walsh with the transition. But after that? Hobson could not confirm that Dolphin would be remaining with the administration. Nakamura has more at D.C. Wire., inclufing this: “One administration official speculated the Dolphin, who has worked with the Democratic National Committee, might be angling for a job in an Obama administration.”

MALIA AND SASHA WATCH CONT.—Examiner: “Presidential children have eschewed D.C. Public Schools since Amy Carter’s four-year stint in the late 1970s, but recent reforms to the district could lure back the nation’s new first family….However, the odds aren’t great.” Also DCist; bloggers Joanne Jacobs, Ed in the Apple, Dee Does the District

Harry Jaffe has a D.C. wish list for Barack Obama.

ALSO FROM JAFFE—In Washingtonian: Fenty’s midterm report card; “Born to Run,” a lengthy profile of Hizzoner

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A tattoo-shop employee told police that former At-Large Councilmember Harold Brazil cursed at him, pushed him into a wall, then began punching him “with a closed fist” in the back of the head, according to documents filed by prosecutors [PDF]. This went down at Jinx Proof Tattoo in Georgetown at about 7:20 p.m. on Oct. 9, after a female companion of Brazil’s was told that she couldn’t watch another female companion get inked in the back of the shop.

According to the report, one of the women also told police that Brazil had pushed the shop employee. The full text of the report is after the jump.

This morning, Brazil pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor assault charges.

Also of note: Today is Brazil’s 60th birthday.

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As much local politics as humanly possible. Send your tips, releases, stories, events, etc. to lips@washingtoncitypaper.com.

Good morning, all. Your morning entertainment: “Get Down With Brown!” [MP3]

LL WEEKLY—is off this week, for WCP’s FOOD ISSUE. Check out his culinary writing!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—DCision ‘08: The LL Postmortem; ANC 2C: Free at Last!; Panel Rejects Lottery Contract Appeal

Michael Brown credits dropping Dad’s name with helping him win, reports Nikita Stewart and David Nakamura in the Post. “Brown said he finally thought, ‘We should be just proud of what we are as people . . . where we come from.’” Also—the M. Brown campaign by the numbers: “1 million pieces of literature that pictured him with his father…about 1.5 million automated phone calls…300 workers and volunteers.”

So long, GOP: WaTimes’ Michael Drost writes about a Republicanless D.C. council. Jim Graham: “It will be a long time before a Republican is elected on the council again.”

APROPOS—Richard Layman compares Patrick Mara to Jim Gilmore and Andy Harris; Gary Imhoff in DCWatch’s themail: “Carol’s defeat means that Republicans will face being shut out of the council for decades into the future. Our city is in for a long spell of not just one-party rule, but of unchallenged, completely uniform one-party rule.”

How will Obama relate to D.C.? Politico takes a look. Says Mayor Adrian Fenty: “I do expect them to be extremely active, engaged members of the Washington, D.C., community — as they have been in Chicago….I know he won’t be a president who just happens to live in the White House. He will be a president who will see the issues of the city and want to do something about them.”

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Washington Examiner columnist and longtime Washington City Paper fave Jonetta Rose Barras today looks at the latest crusade of legendary D.C. activist Dorothy Brizill.

The highlights:

Founder of DC Watch, a government watchdog organization, Brizill pushed the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics to establish a hot line. She developed a survey and posted it on her organization’s Web site. She wants firsthand information from citizens about what they see at the polling places: Are there sufficient ballots; are the electronic machines working; and is there sufficient staff.

“What I want to do is go beyond a handful of impressions to get Joe Citizen’s actual experiences in trying to vote,� she says as she explains why she persuaded representatives from various organizations — the Federation of Citizens Associations, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the American Civil Liberties Union among others — to serve as election observers, monitoring actual vote counting.

Barras explains that while others focused on elections problems in battleground states, Brizill stuck to the recent elections snafus in her own city: “Brizill says she and others sprang into action hoping to determine exactly what is going wrong in the election process. ‘It’s very difficult to construct after the fact what happened,’ she adds.”

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Winner: At-Large Councilmember-Elect Michael A. Brown. Well, duh. But he won impressively. The numbers indicate that he was able to get a higher-than-usual folks to make that second at-large vote, considering the turnout. (Usually, the higher the turnout, the larger the percentage of people who decline to cast one or both at-large votes.) And he seems to have developed a base in the eastern half of the city, winning better than 50 percent of the non-Kwame vote in Wards 5 (57.0%), 7 (63.4%), and 8 (70.3%).

Winnerish: Patrick Mara. Hey, he won some precincts—9 (St. Sophia’s Greek Orthodox Church) and 12 (Metropolitan Memorial United Methodist), to be precise! And he ran strong, beating Carol Schwartz in her traditional strongholds—Wards 2, 3, and 4. Is future citywide success in the cards? Not likely, but he’s got a name and a base now, if he decides he wants to do it again.

Winner: Shadow Senator-for-Life Paul Strauss. BRPAA report? DWI arrest? Fuggedaboutit: 80.75 percent of the vote later, Strauss gets another six years of public office.

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The longest-running soap opera in hyperlocal D.C. politics appears to be nearing an end.

If Tuesday’s poll results hold, “Mahdi” Leroy Joseph Thorpe Jr.’s reign of insanity over the affairs over Shaw’s advisory neighborhood commission 2C will be over. For years, Thorpe ruled ANC meetings with a capricious hand, in the service of his race-baiting activist tactics (see this old CP story for deets), and even after Thorpe was unseated as a commissioner two years ago, his malevolent presence remained: His allies retained two of the four seats on the panel, and the chair, Doris Brooks, decided to name Thorpe the commission’s executive assistant and parliamentarian.

The 2-2 stalemate appears to have been broken, barring an absentee-ballot-fueled miracle: Read the rest of this entry »

That’s right: more from last night on U Street.

[Footage courtesy of Amanda Hess and Ted Scheinman]

Trouble viewing? Try the YouTube version.

John McCain’s concession speech made for great television, and not just because his yahoo flock interrupted him enough as he tried to make nice to remind everybody what a hate-based campaign he’d waged.

The most fascinating segment came with his “hug” of Sarah Palin at the end of his speech.

The embrace reminded me of one a boxer gives his opponent after the judges’ decision against him has been announced. Tough to watch, harder not to.