WTF, people? Can’t you smoke your crack at home like the rest of us, and not ditch your smoldering glass pipes in the Senate bathroom garbage? How many little bullshit fires have broken out in stairwells and bathrooms on the Hill in the last 30 days? Anyway, this morning, the matchstick man struck again. The Capitolist sent along a warning issued by the USCP: “There was a small paper fire in a men’s restroom on the Second Floor, SW corner, of the Dirksen Senate Office Building that was immediately extinguished. The building is not being evacuated, but all floors are being checked by U.S. Capitol Police personnel. All floors of the Hart SOB and Russell SOB will be checked as well.” There you have it, crackheads.

So the Longworth building was evacuated but it’s all better now and everybody’s back pretending to work. Some sort of alarm went off and everybody freaked out. Thanks, Capitol Police! Now we’re wondering if today’s incident is related to this Craigslist post:

6th Floor Men’s Room then 4th Floor - m4m - 35
Date: 2007-01-11, 2:09PM EST
Wednesday, Jan. 10, around 3:30 p.m. MORE »

This girl is going to be awesome:

Hill guy, where are you ? - w4m - 26
Hey - Looking for a guy to attend Congressional and Senate receptions with and maybe more. I am new to the Hill and I am in the process of a million in-processing meetings with my newly elected MOC. Just looking to get out and have some fun and learn how the hill works. I think something is going on in the Rayburn tonight but that is just a rumor for the moment??? Let’s chat.

24, bl-bl, 5′0, 105, size 2P if that means anything to you, athletic, educated, intelligent, world traveled, sarcastic and funny and never short on a witty comment.

Hill guy, where are you? [Casual Encounters]

For those of you who are dying to learn the winner of Congressional Catfight — or who are tiring of the whole thing — worry not. The competition is nearing its end, and we’re now just one round away from crowning a winner. MORE »

All right, we have a couple questions about this Hill piece. MORE »

Earlier this afternoon, a Capitol Hill source advised us: MORE »

For filing under “too cryptic to be helpful”: MORE »

Yesterday’s protests on the Hill by disability-rights group ADAPT prompted some coverage (mostly here) and lots of confusion. Having had their signs confiscated outside the building, the group’s message was somewhat blurred, though they apparently did a good job of clogging the hallways and getting arrested. We were especially impressed by the response they got from Sen. Charles Grassley, who asked the police to wait until after the office closed to arrest the disabled people, thus ensuring all of them spent the night in jail. Sensitive! MORE »

There’s an email going around the Hill inviting people to a beef tasting. Tastings actually. They’re free, they’re open to the public and all you have to do is “rate the meat on juiciness, flavor, and overall likeability.”

We did the same with boyfriends. Details after the jump.

MORE »

What can we say? We started drinking early yesterday. MORE »

Betsy Rothstein has learned a lot from running the “50 Most Beautiful People of Capitol Hill” contest, most of it we assume is unprintable. Then there’s this: “The experience showed that there is such a thing as being photogenic.” Also: “Startlingly, wherever we turned we found celebrity look-alikes,” which would explain that Howard Fineman impersonator we saw dart into the ladies room. (Impersonator, right?) One thing Rothstein’s reporting doesn’t seem to have taught her? There are not 50 beautiful people on the hill. MORE »

• Roberts hits Capitol Hill for meet-and-greet sessions with senators; day was carefully orchestrated by Ed Gillespie to monopolize the news cycle. Bush: “We’re lucky to have a man of such wisdom and intellectual strength willing to serve our country.” [WP, NYT, WT]
• State Department memo clearly designated a paragraph about Plame as “secret.” [WP]
• Bush reportedly “relied as much on chemistry and intuition as on policy and legal intellect” when interviewing candidates. Bartlett: “He likes to size people up himself, make his own judgment.” [NYT]
• Democrats resigned to Roberts‘ confirmation. Democrat staffer: “Bush won. . . A lot of people are feeling that this is probably a guy who gets confirmed.” [WSJ, LAT]
• Panel calls for repeal of alternative minimum tax. [USAT]
• Roberts‘ legal record “is simultaneously skeptical of federal power over the states and supportive of executive-branch power in foreign and military affairs, and his sparse judicial record resembles the conservatism of” Rehnquist; his words on abortion are dissected. [WP, WP, USAT]
• Confirmation debate likely to focus on just how conservative he is. Edwin Meese: “The president is convinced that he is a constitutionalist in the same way that Scalia and Thomas are.” [WSJ]
• Administration advocates extension of Patriot Act as Congress tackles issue today. [WP, NYT, WSJ, WT, USAT]

MORE »

• Bush surprises Beltway with selection of John Roberts Jr.; Reid cautiously praises “suitable legal credentials.” Bush: “I believe that Democrats and Republicans alike will see the strong qualifications of this fine judge.” [WP, NYT, WSJ, LAT, WT]
• Analysis: Roberts “is at least good enough for conservatives, who hailed the nomination with a barrage of favorable reaction. . . yet someone who is genial and enigmatic enough to confound Democrats as they head into what they had long expected to be a difficult battle.” [NYT]
• Analysis: “Bush appeared to have the court’s future and the confirmation process in mind. . . Bush displayed his determination to put a more conservative stamp on the court.” [WP]
• Analysis: “Bush reaffirmed his commitment to a bold-stroke presidency

• Names & Faces: Lacrosse team criticized for wearing flip-flops on White House visit with Bush. . . Gore announces cast of Current are unknowns. [WP]
• Inside Politics: White House correspondent Raghubir Goyal complains about two-question policy for joint-pressers. . . RNC collected $59m in first half of ‘05, a record for an off-year. . . Buchanan says “White House press corps has begun treating McClellan not like a man who misspoke, but like some defiant inmate at Guantanamo.” [WT]
• Under the Dome: Sen. Conrad receives only one question at his press conference. . . Bork attacks Supreme Court as “one of the less attractive hangovers from the Sixties”. . . Democratic speechwriter Roger Wolfson now writes for TNT’s “The Closer”. . . Associate Senate Historian Don Ritchie was near the London tube during the bombings. [The Hill]