Good morning, Washington. It turns out that House Pages don’t need lecherous congressmen’s help to make scandalous headlines: two have just gotten busted for inappropriate behavior in a House elevator. They’ve been dismissed, bringing the year’s total fired pages to five — two others were caught shoplifting, and one was booted for fighting. Needless to say, it looks like the program — the oversight of which has been in turmoil — will be getting…

Good morning, Washington. It looks like California’s still on fire, and likely to remain so. Most versions of the aforelinked AP story include the phrase “firefighters all but concede defeat,” and the Post is calling the resulting evacuation the largest in modern history. It all sounds pretty grim. Good luck, West Coast. Yet More Stadium Parking Controversy: The Post reports on the latest in a seemingly neverending series of deliberations over parking at the…

>> D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton’s plans to hold a “major Katrina anniversary hearing in New Orleans” on Aug. 27 fell apart due to congressional vacation schedules. A new date for the hearings has not been set. [City Desk] >> Former Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn (R-Wash.) died unexpectedly Tuesday night in Alexandria from a pulmonary embolism. As we mentioned earlier, Rep. Paul Gillmor (R-Ohio) also passed away last night unexpectedly, reportedly from natural causes, in…

While the jury is still out on the number of people who attended for yesterday’s voting rights march, one pleasant addition to the day was a reception for organizers hosted by Sen. Joe Lieberman. About 200 people escaped the elements and made their way to the Dirksen Senate Office Building for drinks, snacks and speeches from Lieberman, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton and others. Preceded by a trumpet call from the festively dressed Faith, perennial…

Jagshemash! Borat is a hit. It’s grossing millions and definitely the most quotable thing we’ve seen in ages. But Borat himself seems to have missed most of the -ist cities, and we were all wondering how the film would have been different if he’d made his way around the world on the -ist tour. In Shanghai, Borat would be observing Inane Learnings of Penis Photos for Make Benefit Glorious Flat World of Handmade Toy…

> > Pour one out for Coach Janky Spanky. Clinton Portis will receive surgeries for his bum shoulder and broken hand, which means he’s headed to the IR for the rest of the season. It’ll be up to Ladell Betts to carry the rock, though, who knows? Maybe the coaches will remember their costly impulse-buy TJ Duckett, mouldering on the bench. [Washington Post] > > The U.S. House of Representatives is filled stem to stern…

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), our non-voting representative in the U.S. Congress, yesterday requested that the District be allowed to place two statues in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall, at right, where each state is granted the right to place two statues of prominent citizens. The request came during a debate on New Mexico’s request to place a statue of Po’pay, a Native American leader who launched what has been called “the first American Revolution”…

Ambivalent Images took this photo of a statue and monument in Lafayette Square across from the White House, but didn’t know who it memorialized. Well it’s Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau, the French general sent to aid George Washington during the American Revolution. This statue was Checkpoint No. 3 in the 2003 Urban Challenge, which this DCist ran. Now on to the Morning Roundup … More on Anthrax Scare: While it looks…

“The West Wing” returns for its sixth season tonight at 9 p.m. on NBC, unfortunately going up against Game 7. When we last saw our public policy heroes they were in various levels of distress, dealing with the fall out from a terrorist attack on a visiting American delegation in the Gaza Strip. The car bomb killed Adm. Fitzwallace (sniff) and various members of Congress but spared Congresswoman Wyatt (the mother of Toby’s kids) and…