Inside the Beltway

NEWS AND OPINION:

READ IT AND WEEP?

A source has stepped forward with news that sales of “Tears of a Clown: Glenn Beck and the Teabagging of America” by The Washington Post’s syndicated political columnist Dana Milbank were, well, tepid. In the hundreds. Not promising for a book with an initial printing of 38,700, on bookstore shelves for 15 days.

“Sounds absurd to me. Have not seen any numbers but I saw it was on the Washington Post political bestseller list and was leading a couple of Amazon categories. That said, I highly doubt it’s selling like a Glenn Beck book,” Mr. Milbank tells Inside the Beltway via e-mail.

Is this weepable? Hard to tell. In our zeal to remain civil, here are the unembellished Amazon sales numbers: Mr. Milbank’s book stands at 5,300 on the overall “bestseller” rank, but No. 5 in the history and criticism category, No. 10 in the journalism division and No. 11 on a list charting biographies of “TV performers.”

TIGHTWAD CHALLENGE

If White House senior adviser David Axelrod and company are really paying attention, this could be the next stop on President Obama’s vigorous campaign touring as the midterm elections loom:

“I’d like to see President Obama walk through Tightwad and see how things are. I’d like to sit him down at my table. I have to calculate each portion according to what I can afford. I have two or three pairs of shoes. I can’t spend money on frivolous things. Politicians all seem to be in it for themselves. It’s easy to be greedy when you have other people’s money to spend, Suzette Corpier, an undecided voter in Tightwad, Mo., tells the Daily Telegraph.

“It would only take the president about 30 seconds to walk through our town. But I can assure you we have plenty of opinionated people in Tightwad, even though our population is only 63 on the last count. So we would welcome it,” Kelly Huey, an owner of the Tightwad Bait & Tackle, tells Inside the Beltway.

As Missouri goes, so goes the nation? In August, voters in the swing state overwhelmingly passed Proposition C, which prevents the state government from mandating that citizens carry health insurance, in direct conflict to Obamacare. The Grand Old Party — including House Minority Leader John A. Boehner and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele — celebrated the vote. “The citizens of the Show-Me State don’t want Washington involved in their health care decisions,” state Sen. Jane Cunningham, a Republican sponsor of the legislation, said at the time, crediting “tea party and patriot groups with building support for the anti-Washington proposition.”

DIDN’T SAY IT

Four little words heard ’round the county: The campaign plot is thickening on the rolling back roads of Maryland’s 5th District, where former Marine and Republican conservative Charles Lollar is challenging House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer for U.S. Congress. Earlier this week, Mr. Lollar’s campaign drew attention to a remark Mr. Hoyer made after a public debate between the two. Mr. Lollar and audience members said they overheard Mr. Hoyer say, “I’m coming after you” to Mr. Lollar, who simply grinned. Mr. Hoyer then repeated his aside.

A source close to Mr. Hoyer denies it, though.

“Congressman Hoyer did not say that. The Lollar campaign said they had video proof of this. But they haven’t come up with it yet,” the source says.

“After that debate, a frustrated Mr. Hoyer leaned over and stated to me that, I’m coming after you,” that he’s was coming after me,” counters Mr. Lollar. “I believe that Steny may be a bit confused in his arrogance, that he hasn’t noticed that the constituency of the 5th Congressional District is actually coming after him, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as well.”

BUMPER PATROL

“Do we HAVE to have a president???”

— Bumper sticker spotted in Roanoke, Va.

THE SCIENCE CORNER

“Motherhood may actually cause the brain to grow, not turn it into mush, as some have claimed. Exploratory research published by the American Psychological Assoc. found that the brains of new mothers bulked up in areas linked to motivation and behavior, and that mothers who gushed the most about their babies showed the greatest growth in key parts of the mid-brain.”

Based on magnetic-resonance imaging of 19 new mothers at Yale-New Haven Hospital, neuroscientist Pilyoung Kim of the National Institute of Mental Health and a research team speculated that hormonal changes right after birth may help make mothers’ brains susceptible to “reshaping” in response to the baby. A comparison of images taken months later showed that the new moms’ “gray matter volume increased by a small but significant amount.”

And listen to this: “Mothers who most enthusiastically rated their babies as special, beautiful, ideal, perfect and so on were significantly more likely to develop bigger mid-brains than the less awestruck mothers in key areas linked to maternal motivation, rewards and the regulation of emotions,” the researchers say.

POLL DU JOUR

• 74 percent of likely voters say Republicans will not “seek compromises” with the Obama administration if they retake Congress.

• 59 percent of Republicans and 87 percent of Democrats agree.

• 54 percent of voters overall say Republicans will “propose new ideas” if they win control of Congress.

• 90 percent of Republicans and 24 percent of Democrats agree.

• 48 percent of voters overall would prefer “divided government that leads to gridlock” over Democratic control of both Congress and the White House.

• 86 percent of Republicans and 14 percent of Democrats agree.

Source: A Zogby Interactive poll of 1,963 likely voters conducted Oct. 12 to 14.

• Hue and cry, the pitter-patter of polite applause to jharper@washingtontimes.com.