B.B. King, center, and others performed at a concert in the East Room of the White House earlier this month. The concert, part of a White House music series, was a salute to the blues in recognition of Black History Month and airs Feb. 27 on PBS. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

Want to hear Obama sing the blues? Best chance is tonight on PBS.

By Peter Grier, Staff writer / 02.27.12

Will President Obama sing Monday night on national television? We think there’s a pretty good chance the answer to that is yes. Mr. Obama crooned a few bars of “Sweet Home Chicago” during the taping of “In Performance at the White House: Red, White, and Blues,” which will be broadcast on PBS the evening of Feb. 27. We’d lead the show with that, if we were the producers.

After all, few presidents have had a chance to sing along with both B.B. King and Mick Jagger, on the same song.

But many presidents have enjoyed White House musical events. In fact, the White House is perhaps the nation’s oldest showcase for the performing arts.

“It’s a stage like no other,” writes musicologist Elise Kirk in her book “Music at the White House: a history of the American spirit”.

When Mr. Obama hosted blues singers for a concert held in conjunction with Black History Month he was continuing a long history of such musicales. The US Marine Band performed at the first White House public reception, held on New Year’s Day 1801, during the John Adams administration.

The golden age of White House music was the early 20th century, writes Ms. Kirk. Steinway & Sons donated a magnificent concert grand piano to the White House in 1903, and great pianists such as Josef Hofmann and Ignacy Paderewski played it for President Theodore Roosevelt and his family. 

As the decades rolled on, the diversity of American popular music became more prominent. Dwight Eisenhower’s after-dinner entertainment for Chief Justice Earl Warren in 1958 featured then-current Broadway tunes, according to the White House Historical Association.

President Kennedy and his wife were intensely interested in the arts – and the media were intensely interested in them. The result: White House concerts for the first time received television exposure, setting a pattern that continues to this day.

The current PBS series of hour-long programs broadcast from the East Room began in the Carter administration. The first was a 1978 performance by pianist Vladimir Horowitz. Since then the series has featured artists from Linda Ronstadt to Lou Rawls, Leontyne Price, and Larry Gatlin.

Which presidency produced the most PBS performance shows? That’s easy – Ronald Reagan’s. As the only professional performer to win the Oval Office, he hosted 17. The last was a salute to Broadway recorded Aug. 6, 1988, directed by the great Marvin Hamlisch. 

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David Wenhold, formerly head of the American League of Lobbyists, meets in 2009 with client Elizabeth Hurst, with the National Court Reporters Association, at the Willard Intercontinental Washington hotel. About 12,600 registered lobbyists work in Washington, a number that hasn't jumped all that much since 1998 – even as spending on lobbying has grown exponentially. (Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff/File)

So much money, so few lobbyists in D.C. How does that math work?

By Peter Grier, Staff writer / 02.24.12

When is a lobbyist not a lobbyist? We ask that because apparently a lot of influence-peddling in Washington is done by robots, ghosts, vampires, or other nonhumans. Total spending on lobbying the federal government has almost tripled since 1998, to $3.3 billion, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Yet the number of registered lobbyists has jumped only about 20 percent, from 10,407 to 12,633.

It’s possible those official lobbyists are just doing a lot more business. But we don’t think that’s it. As presidential aspirant Newt Gingrich has demonstrated via his past work for Freddie Mac, it’s easy to do work that appears lobbyesque yet avoid the scarlet ‘L’ of lobbyist registration. 

One way is to claim that in essence you’re a part-timer. Here’s how this works: Say you’re a Washington consultant and your client is a government-backed mortgage entity. If less than 20 percent of your work time for that client is spent on lobbying activities over a three-month period, then you don’t have to register as a lobbyist, according to the Lobbying Disclosure Act. 

Plus, the definition of “lobbying activities” has some loopholes. Lobby activities include unsolicited calls to lawmakers or US officials, lobby campaign planning, and other stuff intended to influence a particular federal decision or piece of legislation. Yet modern lobbying is a sophisticated activity that involves general polling, ads, commissioned studies, and other work not directly related to any bending of congressional elbows about an amendment to a House bill.

“Each of these can be an effective component of a lobbying campaign, but even registered lobbyists don’t need to disclose them,” wrote Howard Marlowe, president of the American League of Lobbyists, in a Hill op-ed on the subject late last year.

Activities defined as educational don’t count, either. An ex-pol can give lots of speeches at seminars sponsored by corporate clients without triggering the lobbyist label.

Thus, anybody who is a good lawyer or who has one can figure out how to get around the lobbying registration requirements. And in D.C., good lawyers are not in short supply, which may be why, on the surface, it seems that lobbyists are. 

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Why you should stop calling today Presidents' Day (+video)

By Peter Grier, Staff writer / 02.20.12

We don't care what that mattress sale ad says – there is no such thing as a national Presidents’ Day. It’s a myth, like the story about George Washington chopping down a cherry tree and throwing it across the Potomac at Abe Lincoln.

Yes, there is a federal day off on Feb. 20, 2012. But its official name is “Washington’s Birthday.” We’re supposed to celebrate the life and legacy of the Father of Our Country, not the rest of those Mount Rushmore guys. They can get their own holiday. Thomas Jefferson, we’re looking at you.

OK, we know we're swimming upstream here, because every sale ad in the US this morning will talk about special Presidents' Day prices. Other media routinely refer to this as Presidents' Day. It is Presidents' Day in the popular mind. It just isn't Presidents' Day in US law.

Presidents’ Day: five facts you didn’t know about George Washington

Let's look at the record: Washington’s Birthday has been a federal holiday since 1885. For more than 80 years it was celebrated on Washington’s actual birthday, Feb. 22. This ensured that proponents of, say, William Henry Harrison didn’t try to muscle in on the proceedings.

But by the middle of the 20th century some US lawmakers began to agitate for a more generalized recognition of presidential achievement. In 1968, this desire collided with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, legislation that aimed to shuffle certain US holidays around to create three-day weekends for increased leisure and sellathon purposes.

Early drafts of this law did indeed change Washington’s Birthday to Presidents’ Day.This name change was pushed in particular by one of the bill's main proponents, Rep. Robert McClory. As a Republican from Illinois, McClory was interested in stretching the holiday to honor Abraham Lincoln.But the bill stalled in committee. Eventually Rep. McClory dropped his Presidents’ Day proposal to mollify lawmakers from Virginia, who wanted Washington’s prerogatives preserved, according to an account of the legislation in “Prologue”, a magazine published by the US National Archives.

Anyway, if you don’t believe us, look at the US Office of Personnel Management list of 2012 holidays for federal workers. It says nothing about "Presidents' Day". It lists “Washington’s Birthday,” with an explanation. “Though other institutions such as state and local governments and private businesses may use other names, it is our policy to always refer to holidays by the names designated in the law,” says OPM.

As OPM notes, some states have gone the Presidents’ Day route. Localities hold Presidents’ Day parades, and many retailers have Presidents’ Day sales, too – perhaps they believe their fliers look better with cartoons of numerous presidents. These references have carried the day, so to speak, and most Americans today believe the three-day holiday celebrates all US chief executives.

But we're sticklers. On Feb. 20 we’ll be celebrating all things George Washington. How? We cannot tell a lie – there’s a weed cherry tree behind our garage. We’ll be going after it with a hatchet.

Presidents’ Day: five facts you didn’t know about George Washington

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A couple share a moment during their visit to the Abraham Lincoln Memorial after midnight in Washington. Sunday is the anniversary of the birth of America's Civil War president, Abraham Lincoln. (Jason Reed/Reuters)

Why Abraham Lincoln's birthday isn't a federal holiday

By Peter Grier, Staff writer / 02.12.12

Abraham Lincoln may be the greatest of all US presidents. He ended slavery, won the Civil War, and ensured that the United States would remain united in the modern world. His face is printed on the five-dollar bill and stamped on the penny. The Lincoln Memorial is one of the nation’s iconic sites.

But Lincoln’s Birthday on Feb. 12 is not a national holiday, and it never has been. Nor is Lincoln officially remembered on a federal President’s Day in late February. That’s just not the case, despite a widespread belief to the contrary.

True, people have tried to make Lincoln’s birthday a US day of commemoration. One of the first was Julius Francis, a shopkeeper from Buffalo, N.Y. Beginning in 1874, he made the public remembrance of the 16th president his life’s mission, according to a 2003 Buffalo News article on the subject. He petitioned both Albany and Washington. New York went along and made Feb. 12 a state holiday. Washington and Congress did not.

Remember that for decades following the Civil War the South and North remained split as to how to remember its sacrifice and heroes. Days to remember the fallen arose on separate dates in the two regions. In was only with the nationalizing tragedy of World War I that these combined into the Memorial Day we now celebrate.

Thus, a national Lincoln holiday would have been controversial to many in the South until well into the 20th century. Perhaps that’s why Congress as a whole remained resistant.

That didn’t stop states, of course, and many state governments followed New York’s lead in establishing Lincoln’s birthday as a holiday. On Feb. 13, 2012, state offices in Illinois will be closed to honor the Great Emancipator.

But in recent years, some states have ditched Old Abe, in part because it falls near the federal holidays of Washington’s birthday and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In 2009, the California legislature passed a bill ending Lincoln’s birthday as a paid state holiday.

Then there is the persistent legend of President’s Day – a legend formed around a nugget of truth.

In 1968, Congress considered the Uniform Monday Holidays Act, legislation that aimed to shuffle certain US holidays around so as to create three-day weekends and increased sell-a-thon opportunities.

Early drafts of this bill did include a Presidents’ Day meant to supplant the existing Washington’s birthday holiday. This name change was suggested by one of the bill’s main proponents, Rep. Robert McClory, who was – you guessed it – a Republican from Illinois.

But the bill stalled in committee. Eventually Congressman McClory dropped his Presidents’ Day proposal to mollify lawmakers from Virginia, who wanted Washington’s prerogatives preserved, according to an account of the legislation in “Prologue,” a magazine published by the US National Archives.

Momentum was restored, and the bill passed, creating the framework of three-day federal holidays Americans enjoy today. The name of the celebration on the third Monday in February remains “Washington’s Birthday,” as is clearly stated on the cover of the legislation.

Still don’t believe us? Check out the US Office of Personnel Management list of 2012 holidays for federal workers. It lists “Washington’s Birthday,” with an asterisk, which leads to an explanation.

“Though other institutions such as state and local governments and private businesses may use other names, it is our policy to always refer to holidays by the names designated in the law,” says OPM.

In February 2001, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, a Maryland Republican, made a final try at raising Old Abe’s holiday profile by introducing a “Washington-Lincoln Recognition Act.”

This bill called for the legal public holiday known as “Washington’s Birthday” to be known by that name and no other. But it also requested that the president “issue a proclamation each year recognizing the anniversary of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln and calling upon the people of the United States to observe such anniversary with appropriate ceremonies and activities.”

This legislation was assigned to the House Committee on Government Reform, and there it languished, unpassed. Thus, 203 years after his birth in humble circumstances in rural Kentucky, Abe Lincoln still doesn’t have a federal day to call his own.

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Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Max Baucus (D) of Montana speaks during a meeting of the Payroll Tax Conference Committee, Wednesday, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

How to get House and Senate bills to match up on payroll tax cut?

By Peter Grier, Staff writer / 02.01.12

Here are some things that have become obsolete in the time we’ve covered Washington: rotary telephones, wide lapels, typewriters, and congressional conference committees.

OK, maybe conference committees haven't exactly gone the way of the four-speed Pinto. There's a big one meeting Feb. 1, in fact: a congressional conference committee appointed to try to get past the impasse over extending the payroll tax cut. But this method of resolving House and Senate differences over important pieces of legislation is much less common than it used to be. It may still be a part of every Government 101 lecture on “How Bills Become Law,” but in today’s fractured Congress, leaders often turn to easier methods.

Do we need a little Gov 101, too? Often, the House and Senate pass different versions of big stuff (such as President Obama’s health-care reform). The speaker and majority leaders then appoint lawmakers to a conference committee split between Republicans and Democrats in rough proportion to their electoral strength.

These folks then get together in a room in the Capitol and horse-trade until they’ve got a deal. Then both chambers vote on it, and voilà, you’ve got a 98 on your Gov 101 final.

For many years, about 95 percent of bills that had House and Senate versions were finished off this way. But by the Congress that ended in 2010, only about 58 percent of House-Senate differences over impending laws were settled via conference, according to Congressional Research Service numbers. 

So when Speaker John Boehner in late December called for a conference committee to resolve differences over the payroll tax-cut bill, the Senate reacted as if he were asking to communicate via Teletype, or some other old-fashioned technology.

Why the decline in conference committees? Trends in partisanship, of course. Minority parties are more inclined to try to throw sand in the legislative gears, and the formal structure of a conference makes that fairly easy. So majority parties are apt to ignore them completely and just send amendments back and forth until House and Senate versions of a bill are identical.

This is called the “ping-pong” method of bicameral relations, for obvious reasons. It’s not in the Constitution. But neither are conference committees. We think the press gallery still has some rotary phones, though: Things change pretty slowly up there.

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Voters in the Florida Republican presidential primary are shown at a polling place in Sugar Sand Park in Boca Raton, Florida, Tuesday. (Joe Skipper/Reuters)

Florida primary: Why it's one of the last few winner-take-all states

By Peter Grier, Staff writer / 01.31.12

The prize for the winner of Tuesday's Florida primary is delegates, 50 of them. Florida is a winner-take-all primary state, so whoever gets the most votes will receive every last one of the Sunshine State’s votes for the GOP national convention in Tampa.

But not every state’s primary is so simple. In fact, the Republican presidential race is now entering a period when you might need a degree in statistics to figure out what’s going on. 

Why is that? Delegate allocation rules, that’s why. Maybe you thought that in every state the candidate who gets the most votes in a primary wins that state’s delegates to the GOP convention. Not so fast, Newt Gingrich! It’s much more complicated than that. Candidates get a number equal to their proportion of the vote, divided by the statewide ratings of “Fox & Friends,” then multiplied by Mitt Romney’s tax rate. Unless Jupiter aligns with Mars, in which case Ron Paul gets everything if he can beat Rick Santorum in a 50-yard dash.

OK, that’s not how it goes. But the Republican Party has been pushing states to adopt a more proportional primary delegate system. States have resisted, because they like having a big prize to dangle in front of candidates. The result: a confusing patchwork of rules.

Here’s the real story, from data compiled by the Center for Voting and Democracy. Seven states and territories remain winner-take-all, in terms of delegates. These include Florida, New Jersey, and Puerto Rico.

Five states have winner-take-all statewide, plus a congressional district bonus. The overall winner gets a certain number of delegates, with the rest divvied up according to the winner in each congressional district. California and South Carolina follow this recipe.

Fifteen states, including Texas and Massachusetts, use proportional representation. If you get half the vote, you get half the delegates. Generally, you have to hit a threshold of 15 percent or so to get anything. Sorry about that, Buddy Roemer.

Seven states have a hybrid winner/proportional system. In Michigan, for instance, statewide delegates are allocated on a proportional basis, while congressional district delegates are allocated winner-take-all.

Six states, including New York, mete out delegates on a winner-take-all system if the winner gets more than 50 percent of the vote. If they get less, the divvying is proportional. 

The rest use miscellaneous approaches we won’t outline because we have only 400 words to explain it here. 

The bottom line: Winning isn’t everything. Even losers get some delegates, and that will make the already-confusing GOP race even more complex – and possibly longer.

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Election 101: Who are Florida primary voters, and how are they different?

By Peter Grier, Staff writer / 01.23.12

Who decides who gets to vote in presidential primaries? We ask because the rules on this aren’t the same in every state, in case you haven’t noticed.

The upcoming Florida primary is a great example of why this question matters, too. In Florida, only preregistered Republican Party members can vote in the GOP primary. That’s different from South Carolina, where independents and even Democrats could cross over and participate in the Republican primary if they wanted to. It’s also different from New Hampshire, where independents (but not Democrats) could go GOP.

Then there’s Texas, where anybody can vote in either primary, but the second the lever is pulled, he or she then becomes a registered member of that party and gets branded by a red-hot “R” or “D” poker on the way out.

OK, we’re kidding about the brand. But the rest of that stuff is true. Who’s responsible for the tangled mess?

Amazingly, this is not Congress’s doing. Not directly, anyway. The rules governing presidential primaries are set by state legislatures and the parties themselves. Broadly speaking, there are four types of such elections:

Open primaries. These allow voters of any affiliation to vote for a candidate of whichever party they choose. Democrats can vote in the Republican primary and vice versa. Thirteen states have completely open primaries, according to FairVote.org.

Closed primaries. Only members of the party in question can vote in closed primaries. Twenty-two states, plus the District of Columbia, have closed primaries for both parties. Florida's is the first primary in which only tried-and-true Republicans can vote.

Semi-closed. In this option, members of a party can vote only in their party’s primary. Independents, however, can vote in either primary. (Only one per election, though.) Seven states have semi-closed systems for both the GOP and Democrats.

Hybrids. Eight states have hybrid systems, in which the rules for one party’s primary are different from the other’s. 

Is this confusing? Yes. Is it fair that in some states, such as Connecticut and Maryland, the parties themselves get to draw up the rules for primaries that are paid for with tax dollars, and that those rules can change quickly year to year? Maybe not.

“The system in place is a tangled mass of state and party rules. This jumble could and should be simplified and standardized, or voters will find themselves too exasperated to care,” wrote FairVote legal fellow Elise Helgesen in December after compiling a comprehensive list of state primary types.

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Volunteer Justin Brown takes the vacuum where few have ventured above the library in the chapel at the substance abuse treatment center, FirstStep House in Salt Lake City, Saturday. Martin Luther King Day is also Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service. (Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune/AP)

The other Martin Luther King Jr. holiday: how it's observed

By Peter Grier, Staff writer / 01.16.12

It’s that time of year again, and we don’t mean the NFL postseason. Yes, Martin Luther King Day is upon us.

As many Americans know, the King commemoration is an unusual holiday in a number of respects. It’s one of only three federally authorized celebrations of individuals, the others being Washington’s Birthday and Columbus Day. It’s the newest US holiday, created in 1983. It’s been bolstered for 2012 by the opening of the new King memorial on the National Mall in Washington.

But here’s something many citizens may not know: It is really two holidays in one.

There’s the overall King Day, set in ’83 when President Reagan signed a bill putting it in federal law. And there’s the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, established when President Clinton signed the King Holiday and Service Act of 1994. King Service Day is meant to be a day of personal action in Dr. King’s memory on or near his holiday – as its boosters say, a day on, not a day off. It’s promoted by the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency that also runs AmeriCorps and similar initiatives.

Last year in Philadelphia, for instance, computer professionals got together to donate used PCs to city families who lacked Internet access. In Washington, President Obama and his kids helped paint a middle school. In Des Moines, Iowa, members of Habitat for Humanity built 25 sheds for needy homeowners.

Many cities have organized King Service Day efforts. Philadelphia may be the most notable example: This year organizers expect to attract 85,000 volunteers to some 1,300 projects.

But if your city isn’t doing that, or if you don’t live in a city, you can go to the official King Service Day website (mlkday.gov), enter your Zip Code, and find projects that are asking for volunteers.

Or organize your own. Plant trees in your neighborhood. Organize a book drive. Write letters to troops (the King website has tips on what to say and where to send them).

As King himself said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’ ”

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