Patrick Ottenhoff, my colleague here at New Media Strategies and the relentless slavedriver behind the truth-telling, freedom-loving blog The Electoral Map, uses intra-office e-mail to send this note:

I noticed your shout-out to Pearl Harbor.

In a little bit a Virginia war history, Dec 11 will mark the day when the Union torched Fredericksburg in the winter of 1862.   Two days later, they tried to take the heavily fortified heights surrounding the town and were mowed down.  One Union officer said that their assaults appeared to melt like snow hitting the ground (Union troops actually chanted “Fredericksburg” during Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg when it was the Union who controlled the heights).

The date’s important because on Dec 11, 2007 the voters of Virginia’s 1st District, anchored in Fredericksburg, will elect a new congressman.  Right outside of town are symbols of Virginia new and old – Stratford Hall (Robert E. Lee’s birthplace) and Fort A.P. Hill (who was a Confederate general) and Millennial Gov. Mark Warner’s farm on the Northern Neck.

As most political junkies know by now, the Manchester Union Leader Sunday endorsed John McCain for president.

How important is the newspaper’s endorsement to determining the winner of the New Hampshire primary?

Here’s a recent history:

1972 — endorsed John Ashbrook (did not win the NH primary)

1976 — endorsed Ronald Reagan (did not win the NH primary)

1980 — endorsed Ronald Reagan (won the NH primary)

1988 — endorsed Pete DuPont (did not win the NH primary)

1992 — endorsed Pat Buchanan (did not win the NH primary)

1996 — endorsed Pat Buchanan (won the NH primary)

2000 — endorsed Steve Forbes (did not win the NH primary — John McCain did)

Extreme Mortman’s intrepid real estate reporter was recently dispatched into the field to cover the open house of 4308 Forest Lane, also known as Richard Nixon’s home during the second term of his Veep days, located in Washington’s Wesley Heights neighborhood.  Our faithful man in the field files this report:

These days you don’t have to leave your desktop to tour real estate, of course.  See the virtual tour here.

But, alas, to appreciate this 8-bedroom home — listed at $4.5 million by Long & Foster’s superb agent Meg Crowley — requires a site visit.  And don’t forget the digital camera.

It’s the perfect home for anyone with seven children, essentially.  Or a need for a putting green in the backyard and a 15-minute commute to K Street.

My earnest recommendation: Buy this house.

And when you do, make certain to demand that the photograph in the gold frame of the master bedroom conveys with the title.  It’s a piece of history that should remain with the house forever.

So, what do you do when you’ve got your two kids in the backseat of the car for an afternoon of ‘forced family fun’ with a site visit of an open house of Dick Nixon’s former home? (Actual quote: ‘Aw, c’mon Dad, do we really have to do this?’)

Of course, you turn it up a couple notches and force them to also go see eight other former residences of future Presidents in DC’s upper NW neighborhoods. (Actual quote: “Yes, you do. And since you’re complaining about it, we’ll go see a couple other Presidents’ homes too.”)

Richard Nixon former residences:
4903 Forest Lane, NW, Washington, DC  (1957-1961)
4801 Tilden Street, NW, Washington, DC (1951-1957) The Broadmoor Hotel, 3601 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC (1947)

George W. Bush former residences:
4429 Lowell Street, NW
4910 Hillbrook Lane, NW
5161 Palisades NW
4400 block of Cathedral Avenue NW

LBJ former residence: 4040 52nd Street, NW

All told, it’s about a 45-minute tour by car (thank you MapQuest!).  And, just like the forced family fun of our youth, you get to go get ice cream afterwards.”

Sources & Links:

1) Box 1 Folder 28: Committee on Building Lands–correspondence and meeting minutes, 01/26/1957; Text on folder “Approval of sale of residence of late Homer Stille Cummings at 4308 Forest Lane, N.W., at a price of $75,000.00 net. Executors to be so advised.”

2) The Bushes also lived on the 4400 block of Cathedral Avenue and the 4400 block of Lowell Street, according to information supplied by the Bush Presidential Library.

They then moved to a €œwonderful new,four-story house not far from Sibley Memorial Hospital on the 5100 block of Palisade Lane in the neighborhood of Kent, just a few blocks from Spring Valley.

The house was on Hillbrook Lane. Barbara Bush described it as a really old house.

3) 4429 Lowell Street NW

4) 1968 George H.W. Bush Christmas card for sale on eBay: 4910 Hillbrook Lane, NW

5) 1969 George H.W. Bush Christmas card for sale on eBay: 5161 Palisades Lane, NW

6) LBJ: 4040 52nd Street, NW

Assuming that Michael Mukasey will be the next U.S. Attorney General, Extreme Mortman went to our resident team of diverse experts with this question: Will Mukasey be America’s highest ranking Orthodox Jewish cabinet official ever?

The happy news: Yes.  Presuming that none of these gentlemen were or are Orthodox, regardless of cabinet rank:

• Michael Chertoff (Bush’s homeland security secretary)
• Nicholas Katzenbach (Johnson’s Attorney General)
• Edward Levi (Ford’s Attorney General)
• Henry Kissinger (Nixon’s secretary of state)
• Henry Morgenthau (Roosevelt’s treasury secretary)
• Bob Rubin (Clinton’s treasury secretary)
• Mike Blumenthal (Carter’s treasury secretary)
• Arthur Goldberg (Kennedy’s labor secretary)
• Dan Glickman (Clinton’s agriculture secretary)

There are a few others.  But Mukasey stands alone.  Unless you include Judah Benjamin.  He got the Triple Crown: Attorney General, War Secretary, and Secretary of State.  For the Confederacy.

“I want to lob one in the men’s room of the Kremlin and make sure I hit it.”

Larry Craig? Nope. Barry Goldwater.

Political trivia lovers should be on heightened state of alert as the Larry Craig story develops.

Why?  Because if Craig holds onto the seat and wins reelection next year then serves an additional full term, he’d become the longest-serving member of Congress ever from Idaho.

Who currently holds the title?

The incredbily illustrious and fascinating Sen. William Borah, who served 33 years in the early part of the last century.

Borah may not be well known now, but during his time he had a huge impact on politics and policy — particularly foreign relations.

Here’s a taste, from Time magazine in 1926:

Mr. Borah: “The Senator is preaching the doctrine of Trotsky here in the Senate of the United States!”
Mr. Bruce: “Oh, no.”
Mr. Borah: “Yes, the Senator is; he is preaching anarchy.”
Mr. Bruce: “It is not the Senator from Maryland, but the Senator from Idaho, who wishes us to recognize the Soviet government.”
Mr. Borah: “I do. I think it would be really an example for us, the way we are pursuing things in this country at this time. I think we could learn lessons from them.”

Borah, by the way, was a Republican.

And another peek into Borah history…

Great anecdote from Lady Bird Johnson’s memorial service in today’s Post:

Harry Middleton, the retired director of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, told of a breakfast meeting at New York’s Plaza Hotel when he and Johnson were seated near the Village People, who were dressed in full costume.

One of the band members came over and expressed his admiration of Johnson, then asked if she would have her picture taken with her. She graciously agreed, Middleton recalled, although she didn’t know who the people were. Told later that they were a singing group, Johnson smiled and said, “Well, I wonder if we just made the cover of their next album.”

Alas, looks like they went with cowboy, instead.

Yes, Lady Bird Johnson loved flowers. But as we wistfully remember her fondness for daffodils and tulips, might we also remember her husband’s affection for a flower far more sinister … the daisy?

We learn this from the “Reliable Source” column:

President Bush weighed in on the great watch debate yesterday, dismissing speculation that an Albanian pickpocket lifted the timepiece from his wrist. “I have never seen such a ludicrous story,” he said. “Unbelievable.”

The fact is, Presidents Bush current and past have been wound up by watches.  41’s response was a bit saltier than 43.

Rewind to the 1992 Richmond presidential debate with the elder President Bush, Bill Clinton, and Ross Perot.  Bush is caught looking at his wristwatch.  Bush later explained to Jim Lehrer:

Now, was I glad when the damn thing was over. Yeah.  And maybe that’s why I was looking at it, only 10 more minutes of this crap.

John McCain says this about Mitt Romney’s stance on immigration:

“Maybe his solution will be to get out his small varmint gun and drive those Guatemalans off his lawn.”

The Washington Post points out:

The comment managed to tweak Romney on both his support for gun rights (he once bragged about bagging small varmints) and a past controversy involving his lawn service employing illegal immigrants, including one from Guatemala.

Good tweaking.  But political history buffs might want to remember another lawn-related campaign classic, from Ross Perot.

Long ago, Roger Simon reported this from the 1992 presidential campaign:

“The Vietnamese had sent people into Canada to make arrangements to have me and my family killed,” Perot said. “The most significant effort they had one night is five people coming across my front yard with rifles.” This attempted hit was taking place in 1969 and the reason the North Vietnamese had hired the Black Panthers to kill Perot is that Perot was trying to get our POWs out of Vietnam.

No telling if the Black Panthers were armed with varmint guns.