• Heard on the Hill: Let’s start with the best gossip first: “81-year-old father of Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) was cited for lewd and disorderly conduct after police arrested him allegedly having sex with a 38-year-old woman in a car outside a pizza joint.” [Roll Call]
• Reliable Source: Giants slugger Barry Bonds was at Kelly’s Cajun Grill at the Pentagon City food court Tuesday, American Idol is coming to Capitol Hill in September for some kind of something involving America’s favorite couple, Mary Bono and Steny Hoyer. [WP]
• Fox 411: George Clooney breaks up with Steven Soderbergh to start a new production company with Good Night, and Good Luck co-creator Grant Heslov. [FOXNews]
• Page Six: Lindsay Lohan falls down again. [NYP]

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• Heard on the Hill: Claire Shipman gave 16 House Members a pop quiz on the lyrics of the national anthem for tonight’s Nightline. . . Rep. Patrick Kennedy’s office has been fielding funny messages from constituents following last week’s incident. “Oh yeah, right, Ambien my butt,” said one caller. [Roll Call]
• Cindy Adams: The ousting of Porter Goss was an “emergency decision”. . . Rep. Patrick Kennedy knows “he couldn’t cut it” as president or senator. [NYP]
• Page Six: Pataki, Romney, and Frist court big donors at the Kentucky Derby. . . Clinton and Vernon Jordan receive a standing ovation for eating “mountains” of food at a Harlem restaurant. . . Sen. Kennedy seen on the Acela with George Clooney and Ron Silver. [NYP]
• Names & Faces: Sen. Obama, despite plea from Neil Young, has no plans to run in ‘08. [WP]
• Inside the Beltway: James Carville reportedly likes Cosmo magazine. . . Wolf Blitzer’s daughter likes his beard. [WT]

* Under the Dome: Justice Antonin Scalia drunk Corona and mingled with actress Doris Roberts at the Bloomberg party before looking “uncomfortable” with Ludacris. . . Meanwhile, Ludacris doesn’t care about Steve Scully. . . Anna Kournikova and Drew Lachey were among the no-shows. [The Hill]
* Heard on the Hill: “A longtime aide to a senior Democratic Senator” stole George Clooney’s place card. . . Cartoonist/author Anthony Haden-Guest fell asleep during Stephen Colbert’s routine. . . Court TV is opening a D.C. bureau. [Roll Call]
* Reliable Source: Bush’s low approval rating equal good business for impersonator Steve Bridges: “If they’re too high, people get nervous: ‘Is it okay to make fun of the president?’”. . . Bloomberg reporter Janine Zacharia scores a private lunch with Condoleezza Rice and Tiki Barber at the State Department. [WP]
* Page Six: Blind item asks, “Which Democratic party moneybags is getting divorced because he diddled with a candidate’s daughter? To cap it off, his wife, the mother of his children then had a go with her personal trainer (a woman).” [NYP]
* Rush & Molloy: Ken Mehlman: “I’m not gay. But those stories did a number on my dating life for six months.” [NYDN]

Because it was nice out, because we had made the decision while drunk the night before, because Liz has a thing for Clooney, and because we care about the people of Darfur, we stopped by the rally yesterday on the Mall. Lesson learned: It’s extremely easy to get into the press tent.

Not a whole lotta text this time, because we’ve written a books’ worth on that damn party by now. So enjoy the pictures, courtesy Liz Gorman, after the jump.

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Here is all the money that’s not being spent on hiring more reporters.

The afterparty report, drunker and therefore more hazily-recalled than the pre-party report, but full of glorious Liz Gorman photography, is yours for the taking, after the jump.

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* Names & Faces: Barbara Bush skipped the WHCA dinner. [WP]
* Page Six: Harvey Weinstein, MTV exec John Sykes, and Madisan Square Garden owner Jim Dolan are collaborating on Clinton’s 60th birthday party. . . Al Gore: “If I had half the communications skills of Karenna, I’d be halfway through my second term right now.” [NYP]
* Lloyd Grove’s Lowdown: Ludacris chilled with Antonin Scalia. [NYDN]
* Fox 411: Jason Binn threw a Capitol File party opposite the Bloomberg bash; Clooney, Rove, Albright made appearances. [Fox News]
* Heard on the Hill: Rep. John Sweeney (R-N.Y.) defends his participation in a frat party. . . Julia Thorne, first wife of John Kerry, dies of cancer. [Roll Call]
* Rush & Molloy: Pataki will launch his presidential campaign this week. [NYDN]
* Inside Politics: Powell asked for more troops to be sent to Iraq. [WT]

Photos, as always, by Liz Gorman.

We figured it out: if one open bar = good Washington party, an endless succession of open bars over the course of the entire night = the best Washington party. The rest of it’s just window dressing. Trust us.

Having clipped on our bow tie and slipped into our scuffed patent leather shoes, we went down to the Hilton a little after 6. The red carpet was out, with camera crews set up on one side and a couple dozen disposable camera-wielding gawkers behind a vinyl barrier. If they had bothered to rent a tux, they could’ve just sidestepped the divider and sauntered on into the receptions, as no one bothers to check names until the dinner actually starts. Once we got past the bank of photogs, we were confronted by the black-clad Reuters models for the first of what would be many times — eager to generate a little last-minute buzz, they’d decked out a couple models in black Reuters t-shirts and armed them with drink menus (as seen here last week). That might’ve been a bit too tacky for the crowd, as we can’t remember if anyone we know actually went to the Reuters “mixology lab” or whatever the hell it was called. The full reception report, after the jump.

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* You have to respect hookers. Who else could take a regular oldho hum corruption case and make it really get interesting? This one could get very good, so keep watching — it’ll all be here.
* It’s just wait on see on our old buddy Karl too. All the orange jumpsuit pics will be here once we get ‘um.
* In the category of news that’s not news, but everyone wants to hear anyway, George Clooney spoke at the National Press Club. Swoon, swoon, loving sigh, swoon. Seems also that the light from George’s star burns so bright, it extinguishes other lesser, previously scheduled, stellar formations.
* Scott McCllelan has only been gone for a week and already Bush has a new lamb to lead to slaughter. They say Tony can take it though, that he’s a cool customer and part time rock god, but we’re reserving judgment til an .mp3 comes through. We did get a chance to go see for ourselves that everyone else was more than happy to line up for the gravy train.
* The kickball kids must have been too drunk to talk to reporters, and the non-profiter’s Ultimate league has already gone underground, so the Wall Street Journal (the paper to read if you really want to know what’s going on) put a little piece about Hill softball up on the front page and now all the staffers are a twitter. They’re not really fooling anyone (we already know what’s in the red cups) but the hitting and catching is a nice garnish.
* Don’t think we forgot there’s a huge party tonight. Wonkette’s gonna be there, and we’ll tell you all about it so it’ll be just like you were too.

* Reliable Source: Cheney, at Fox News party, says Tony Snow will “do a superb job”. . . George Clooney, Joey Cheek in town for Sunday’s “Save Darfur” rally. [WP]
* Rush & Molloy: Rupert Murdoch to Snow: “Congratulations on your promotion - or maybe it’s a demotion.” [NYDN]
* Page Six: Snow isn’t “the greatest sax player”. . . Gen. Richard Myers dining at Da Tommaso in New York. . . Valerie Plame gets star treatment at a Vanity Fair party at the Tribeca Film Festival. [NYP]
* Inside the Beltway: Washington Life magazine hosts celebrity luncheon today, ahead of Correspondents’ Dinner. [WT]

An exclusive report on George Clooney’s National Press Club visit from our embedded operative: MORE »

George Clooney — who has such love in his heart for our Gotham-based sibling and its Gawker Stalker feature — is coming to Washington. His visit to D.C. is wreaking havoc with the National Press Club’s schedule. Inside Higher Ed reports:

The president of George Mason University and the presidents of Virginia Tech and the University of Delaware were supposed to speak at the National Press Club in Washington at lunchtime tomorrow about the role of academic research in America’s future competitiveness. But some guy named George Clooney is scheduled to talk at the press club about his recent trip to Darfur, Sudan at just about the same time.

A spokesman for George Mason, Dan Walsch, said that [Alan] Merten and the other presidents had concluded that the Clooney speech might draw a few reporters away from the higher ed event, and so they’ve canceled it for the time being. “What are the odds that two internationally known sex symbols would be in the same building at the same time?” said Walsch….

Yeah, we agree, that Sam Brownback is pretty dreamy…

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