When first lady Laura Bush reached Joe Cannon, she looked puzzled. "Are you guys twins?" the first lady asked Joe. The president knew better and called Chris over.
"Your brother's better looking than you," the president reportedly told Chris.
No way to win: Meanwhile, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is taking a lot of criticism from bloggers about "forgetting" the names of his House colleagues from Utah during the Utah Republican Party's organizing convention. Apparently, Hatch hesitated when it came to recalling the names of Utah's congressmen but then made up for it by praising the members of the delegation for all their hard work.
That, of course, ticked off some other people because the delegation includes Rep. Jim Matheson, a Democrat whom the GOP wants to boot from office.
Matheson Jr.: Matheson, by the way, is expecting a new family addition in January. He confirmed this week that his wife, Amy Herbener, is pregnant. The couple already has one son, Will, who is 7 years old and just starting first grade. The coming baby is a boy, and we're guessing a Democrat as well.
Leavitt more powerful than Bush: Health and Human Services Secretary and former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt topped his own boss in a new ranking of powerful people in the health care industry, with Leavitt taking the No. 1 spot and President Bush relegated to fourth.
Modern Healthcare magazine ranked Bush behind Leavitt, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Donald Berwick, president of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, in that order.
Makes you wonder if Leavitt forgot that rule about always letting your boss win?
Stumping the secretary: The Des Moines Register reported this week that Leavitt doesn't know all the answers.
During a question-and-answer period at Des Moines University over the new Medicare prescription drug benefits, the Register said that Leavitt was unaware that the new plan would not pay for a certain class of drugs used to treat seniors with anxiety dementia-related problems. Leavitt said it was covered, but was corrected by a staffer.
Later, the Register reported, Leavitt was asked a question and he responded, "You may have stumped the secretary. You win an award for that."
No word on what the prize is. Cheaper drugs, maybe?
The big red one: Utah Rep. Rob Bishop says his vote for the controversial Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) wasn't really about free trade. Instead, it was about protecting U.S. sovereignty and fighting communism. That's right, battling reds. As the former high school history teacher informs constituents in a recent newsletter: "Communism is not dead." He points to Cuba's Fidel Castro, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (Yes, the same one televangelist Pat Robertson recently nominated for assassination), the Chinese and "Ortega," presumably referring to former Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who left office in 1990. An opponent of most other free-trade agreements, Bishop says he was for this one because of its "anti-Communist component."
