About two years ago, DCist overheard a sadly familiar exchange by two young Republican Hill staffers on an Amtrak train from New York to D.C. As far as we could tell just by eavesdropping, one of them worked for then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, and she was complaining, or really just explaining in an emphatically loud voice, that the senator would not let female staffers into meetings who were not wearing a skirt suit with…

TUESDAY We were wondering what the best way to entice you to come hear Maria Arana discuss her new book Cellophane, an alternately hilarious and disturbing tale of her native Peru, but then we remembered it was being held at the Inter-American Development Bank Conference Center Auditorium and we thought, heck, who DOESN’T spend Tuesday night at the Inter-American Development Bank Conference Center Auditorium? 1330 New York Ave. NW. at 6:30 p.m. Free. WEDNESDAY Over…

We’ve been looking forward to the launch of Patrick Gavin and Jeff DuFour’s new daily Beltway column, “Yeas and Nays”, for a few weeks now, largely so we could finally be sure just what sorts of topics the two would be covering under the somewhat inscrutable decscription of “people, power and politics.” C’mon guys, that could be about anything from the current brouhaha at The New Republic to what kind of toilet paper Vice President…

Swimming pools. Cookouts. Cocktails al fresco. All great signs of summer. But linen pants? While there are a myriad of summer delights to which we aren’t quite ready to bid adieu, DCist compiled a list of some warm weather looks we hope get filed away with the tiki torches… 5. Madras Pants: For reasons unknown, something about patchwork plaid fabric guarantees that the wearer will be “that guy” at the party. Madras pants might be…

It may be a first, but it’s a first that District voting rights activists have been waiting for and one which they are sure to celebrate — an international endorsement of their cause. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a 55-member regional security organization, is holding its annual meeting in Washington starting tomorrow, during which they plan on considering a resolution that expressly calls for the U.S. government to grant residents of the…

Various DCist contributors and readers have reported seeing police-escorted convoys of old, empty Greyhound buses noisily making their way through the city since Saturday. Sirens wailing and lights flashing, these convoys have been spotted on Connecticut Avenue just north of Dupont Circle, along U Street, and in the vicinity of Chinatown. Rumors have been quick in coming — A foreign dignitary? A city-wide test of the civil emergency response system? A couple of cops and…

A New Threat to Capitol Hill?: Sen. Mark Dayton, a Minnesota Democrat, has closed his Capitol Hill offices sending some of his staff home to Minnesota, others to an undisclosed location in Washington through Election Day. According to numerous news outlets, Dayton is citing a threat from classified information given to the Senate from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican. But nobody is disclosing what the threat is or what alarming information is….

Over the weekend, DCist noticed this lawn sign reading “KERRY” on Potomac Avenue NW near Arizona Avenue in the Palisades. While such a landscape political statement isn’t necessarily anything new (Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee had “BUSH” sculpted into a hedge outside his Northwest Washington home), the landscaping supporting Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry’s presidential bid has two distinctive characteristics. First, it appears that the landscapers intended the sign to be seen from planes…

– The Washington Post reports that “Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) shows his enthusiasm for the Bush/Cheney ticket by planning to have their names trimmed into the hedge at his home in Northwest Washington,” but also includes a photo of the hedge, already trimmed. Can a hedge be both not trimmed and trimmed at the same time? – The Post doesn’t seem too impressed with the Capitol Police checkpoints:” … Practices varied from checkpoint…