Photo by MudflapDC This year’s annual Congressional Baseball Game for Charity is tomorrow and, although the Democrats have pretty much dominated in recent years, the GOP thinks this might be their year, the National Journal reports. In an article appearing in the June 8th edition, National Journal’s Ben Terris profiles Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.)—the 34-year-old first-term House member from Florida—who is the GOP’s ace in the hole this year. According to Terris, the Republican…

During yesterday’s roll call of the state delegations to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, Mayor Vince Gray pledged the city’s 45 delegates to Presidents Obama while making a plea for D.C. voting rights and statehood.

“Yeah Energy and Commerce!” “Go back to the minors. Go back to local government. The school board!” “G-O-P. G-O-P.” “No you can’t!” “That’s for not co-sponsoring my bill.” “Eeeeeaar-maaarrk. Eeeeeaaar-maaarrk.” And so it went from the crowd at last night’s 48th Annual Roll Call Congressional Baseball Game. Interns saved not patches of grass on the Mall but rows of seats behind the dugouts. Junior staffers donned colorful campaign trail T-shirts and waved homemade signs as…

One of the dumbest stories we’ve read all day was written by Jessica Brady of Roll Call, a piece titled “In Congressional IDs, Badge Envy Is Rife.” That link is subscription-only, but here’s a little taste:Some observers of Capitol Hill might think that power and position are simple things, based on status, seniority and face recognition on the Sunday morning talk shows. They’ve never seen true vanity, though, until they walk through the doors of…

On Capitol Hill, “March Madness” might refer to any number of psychoses. Surely a lot of college basketball fans took heart/umbrage in March 2006 when Duke (Cunningham) was sentenced to prison over charges of bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud, and tax evasion. Now Roll Call is rendering NCAA brackets in a language that sports-averse D.C. wonks will understand. The newspaper’s Final Four, as represented by the Representatives associated with the top-seed schools that survived sports’…

Good morning, Washington. Yesterday afternoon Roll Call had the story of a potential suspect finally being identified in all those strange Senate bathroom fires from the last few months. Capitol Police Officer Karen Emory recently has been suspended in connection with the fires, although it still hasn’t been confirmed whether she is definitely a suspect in the case. No charges have been filed, but color us a little disappointed if it turns out a…

Roll Call had a subscriber-only story up yesterday about today’s kick-off of an effort on the part of non-profit Trust for the National Mall to raise $350 million to revitalize Washington’s top tourist destination. Students from Ann Beers Elementary School in Southeast are getting things going today by planting 3,000 daffodil bulbs in Constitution Gardens. Citing maintenance needs due to heavy use like cracked walkways and patchy grass, the Trust will be working alongside the…

In case you missed it in the briefly noted in this morning’s news round-up, someone has been setting garbage can fires in Senate bathrooms for a few days now. On Wednesday there were four such fires between 10:45 a.m. and 2 p.m., thankfully quickly extinguished. Police say Wednesdays’ fires are connected (duh). And it turns out that similar fires were lit last week. From (subscription-only) Roll Call:Three of the fires set Wednesday took place in…

After being removed from committee postings by his Republican colleagues in the Senate and being called upon to resign by the likes of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), embattled Sen. Larry Craig went “on vacation” with his wife Wednesday, according to the Washington Post. The fallout surrounding his guilty plea to lewd conduct in a men’s bathroom in the Minneapolis airport has only intensified since Roll Call first broke the…

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters yesterday that he would definitely not bring the D.C. Voting Rights Act to the floor before September. This is pretty much what we’ve been expecting for the last week or so, but it’s now officially confirmed. It’s a little bit disappointing to have to continue to wait, but considering Reid also described the bill’s status as being “close” to having 60 votes, which would be enough votes…