Freshmen go house-hunting

Not only are freshman members of the 111th Congress getting a crash course in legislative sausage-making this week, many are scouring ads to find a place to live in their new hometown.

Sen.-elect Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) seemed determined to find a space that suits her needs.

“I’ll have something by January the 6th,” she said while walking through the Capitol to meet Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for a photo.

Her new colleague, Sen.-elect Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), appeared less enthusiastic about house-hunting.

She offered a clipped “No” when asked if she had found a place to live yet.

Freshman House members seemed to be having more luck.

Rep.-elect Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) happily shared his news outside the Cannon Caucus Room.

“I was able to find a place yesterday,” he said. Though the hunt went quickly, Coffman is still coming down from sticker shock. He joked that the rent for the “little bitty efficiency apartment” in the nearby Hill House “isn’t far from the mortgage I pay back home.”

Rep.-elect Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) was still in the throes of the housing search.

“I’m doing that as we speak,” she said. “We don’t know where to start.”

Fudge said she’ll likely rent a room from a friend who owns a place in the city. That way, she said, she can settle into her new job and decide where she wants to live.

At least one new member was spared the housing headache. Rep.-elect Gerry Connelly’s (D-Va.) district is in Northern Virginia. “I live over there,” he said, pointing yonder into the nearby suburbs.

William Ayers: ‘I was created as a monster to bring Obama down’

William Ayers, an anti-war activist made famous in the early ’70s, has not been silent during the 2008 presidential election.

Instead, he has been demonized and forced into “silence,” he told a packed audience at All Souls Church in Washington on Monday night.

“What I haven’t done is that I haven’t wanted to give a sound bite to the sound bite culture,” said Ayers, who proceeded to provide countless nuggets of gold for a reporter.

“I find it stupid and superficial,” he said of his celebrity, noting that when he appeared on “Good Morning America” he was proud because he “didn’t throw up or faint.”

“I don’t for a minute want to harsh anyone’s mellow about the moment we’re living in,” he said. “Let’s remember that no president takes you to the promised land. Yes we can … what?”

The church hired security after learning on blog posts that protesters would attend. Four protesters with signs picketed the sidewalk — one nonchalantly puffed away on a stogie as he marched with a sign that read, “Bill Ayers Typical Domestic Terrorist.”

Ayers, soft-spoken and elegant in speech and manner, looked the part of an aging hippie. The 62-year-old professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago dressed in blue jeans and a dark blazer. He wore a silver stud in his left earlobe.

He called the Republican portrayal of him a “profoundly dishonest narrative.”

“Somehow I’ve been violent,” he said. “Somehow I’ve killed people. All of it false.”

Ayers has previously admitted he participated in the 1970 bombings of New York Police Headquarters, of the Capitol building in 1971 and the Pentagon in 1972. As part of the Weather Underground, Ayers claimed responsibility for 12 bombings.

“Every time Gov. Palin or Sen. McCain mentioned my name, their poll numbers dropped. That’s great. That’s a tribute to common sense,” he said Monday.

Ayers discussed his alleged “shadowy relationship with this president,” referring to President-elect Barack Obama. “Guilt by association has no place in our politics,” he said. “I was created as a monster to bring Obama down.”

Ayers deflated the idea that he launched Obama’s political career in his living room. “I had a relationship with Obama that he had with thousands and thousands of people,” he said.

Heavy discussion aside, Ayers had advice for voters: “Now that the election is over, please read a novel. A big, fat Russian novel and you’ll be on your way to recovery.”

Sighting: Jackson spotted in the Senate — checking out his new digs?

Minutes after the Senate opened at noon Monday for its lame-duck session, the only lawmaker milling around the second-floor elevator banks was … Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.).

Though Jackson is a leading candidate to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the Senate, Illinois Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich has yet to make his appointment.

So what was Jackson doing on the wrong side of the Capitol?

“MSNBC,” he said, explaining he had a TV appearance on the Senate side.

Nevertheless, it did seem Jackson was walking more slowly, checking out the Senate hallways, imagining what it might be like for him should he be tapped to fill the seat.

Asked if he knew anything about Obama’s replacement, he replied, “I don’t, I don’t.”

Jackson boarded the public elevator just to the right of the “Senators Only” elevator as a male aide explained in a hopeful tone that Blagojevich plans to announce his appointment around Christmas but definitely before New Year’s.

“We just have to wait,” the aide said anxiously.

Officer Thompson to stay longer than expected

ITK recently reported that longtime Capitol Police Officer Garland Thompson must retire because he’s 57.

Everyone knows Thompson — he’s the white-haired cop who yells at you if you cross the street on C and 1st streets SE when the light is red.

Thompson is delighted to report that he’ll stay until June of 2009.

Jaywalkers, however, may want to steer clear of the corner until then.

Brown, McClintock go through freshman orientation

Some might call it nerve. Their spokesmen deem it smart thinking.

Both Charlie Brown (D) and Tom McClintock (R), still in contention for California’s 4th congressional district, are going through freshman orientation this week.

“To forge this new era of bipartisan problem-solving should have no beginning or end,” said Brown spokesman Todd Stenhouse. “It is part of Charlie’s DNA.”

Stenhouse had another point. “These are our colleagues,” he said. “Once in Congress, he’ll be furthering a relationship with them.”

Bill George, McClintock’s spokesman, said he, too, believes bipartisanship is a good idea, but he didn’t want to get medical about it. “Wonderful,” he said. “If you can work with people to get things done that is obviously what he wants to do.”

On the subject of freshman orientation, George said, “It was important for him to go through the process so he can hit the ground running when he begins his term.”

Time will tell.

Overheard: Woman swears at Capitol South Metro

Of course, this could be any of us on a bad day.

Late last week a well-dressed woman in black traveling down the escalator at Capitol South Metro was heard talking loudly on her cell phone in a thick New York accent: “Allie, stop treating me like s–t,” she snapped. “Every time I call, you’re an a—–e.”