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…

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…