Rep. Harman fires spokesman after two weeks
 
Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), known for being tough in politics and demanding on her aides, fired her press secretary, Ari Goldberg, after just two weeks on the job. The reason: He commented too many times on the record.

Past and present aides to Harman won’t say on the record what it is like to work for her, but it is well known that she, like a number of Capitol Hill lawmakers, does not typically allow her spokespeople to speak for her.

“We’re not going to go into details,” said Adam Blickstein, the congresswoman’s press assistant, referring to Goldberg. “He’s no longer with us. We’re not discussing any kind of internal details.”

What was the comment that broke the camel’s back? Hard to say, but the last quotation given by Goldberg appears to have been printed on Sept. 26 when he said, “This morning at the National Press Club, Jane Harman did say there is [a National Intelligence Estimate] on Iraq.” Goldberg said he hadn’t read the report, but believed it to be “grim.”

As of Tuesday, Goldberg’s still-ringing cell phone had the following voicemail message: “Hi, this is Ari Goldberg, communications director for Congresswoman Jane Harman. I am temporarily unavailable but you leave me a message, or send me an e-mail … I will quickly respond to you.”  

Goldberg, who is in his early 30s, has a wife and children. He previously worked for former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

He did not return phone calls seeking comment. Harman’s chief of staff, John Hess, also said, “We don’t discuss personnel matters.” 

 Rep. Cunningham could use a spelling lesson

Ex-Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.), in prison and heading for divorce, has bigger things to worry about than his spelling. But still, his angry letter to Marcus Stern, a reporter for Copley News Service, which was printed in The Los Angeles Times, was notably riddled with errors.

The word “decisions” was rendered “decissions,” and “whipping” became “whiping.”  The former lawmaker’s grammar and vocabulary also went on the fritz when he wrote that the “truth will come out and you will find out how liablest [libelous] you have & will be.”
 

Hillary, watch out. Could there be a Dutch Ruppersberger for Prez?

“Dutch Ruppersberger for President” certainly has a nice ring to it. The idea recently came up when the Maryland Democratic congressman turned up in the script of a play called “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” at the Hippodrome in Baltimore.

Near the end of the production, the cast win trophies and are asked what they’d like to do with their lives. One character’s life-desire: “I want to work for President Dutch Ruppersberger.”

Wow.

Carol Norton, Ruppersberger’s younger sister, was in the audience with an aide to the congressman, and they “almost fell out of their chairs,” remarked the lawmaker’s spokeswoman Heather Molino.

Norton, 19 years younger than Ruppersberger, couldn’t stop laughing at the idea of her brother in the White House. “Let’s just say I’ve always looked up to Dutch,” she says. “That would just be another way of looking up to him.”

 
Lawyer/Lobbyist receives “best boss” award from Fortune magazine
 
Megan Glasheen, 40, managing partner at Reno & Cavenaugh, recently won the best boss award from Fortune magazine. It wasn’t easy.

“It’s a nice shot in the arm,” said Glasheen, who cut her teeth as a press aide on the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign in 1988, adding, “We’re doing something different here.”

Some of the “different” things include allowing both high- and low-ranking employees to evaluate one another. It’s anonymous, so no one ever knows who thinks badly of whom.

“I really want this to be different than Washington,” Glasheen said. “I don’t want people to say their badge of honor is ‘Oh, I worked until 2:30 in the morning.’”

Some of the ways Glasheen’s workplace shines:
•A massage therapist visits the office every few months.
• Paid family leave for three months for men and women.
•People may work at home; the emphasis is not on “face time.”
•Regular parties ranging from ice cream socials to picnics.
•Personalized notes of appreciation.
•Moving holiday party to Chinese New Year to avoid  stress during holiday season.

When an employee completes an important project, Glasheen gives them a gift — earrings, or in one case, a $300 gift certificate for rock climbing. She gave one employee a week at a bed-and-breakfast because he had needed to do unexpected work while on a cruise vacation. 

Glasheen and her husband, whom she met on the Jackson campaign, have been married 15 years and have a 6 1/2-year-old daughter.