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Jennifer Harper

Jennifer Harper

jharper@washingtontimes.com

Jennifer Harper wrote the daily Inside the Beltway column for The Washington Times.

Articles by Jennifer Harper

Man Town, First Down, Riding Mower and 2x4 are the scents in the Yankee Candle Co.'s new Man Candles Collection. The "down-to-earth fragrances" are meant to suit one's basement, garage, car, man cave or bachelor pad. (Village Candle Co. Inc.)

Inside the Beltway: Scents and sensibility

The public debate over gender issues may never be the same: It's the first-ever Man Candles Collection in such he-man scents as Riding Mower and 2x4 from the Yankee Candle Co., which normally caters to the rose and gardenia crowd. Perhaps they should offer a line for Washington politicians with names such as Hallowed Halls, Power Lunch and Cloakroom.

May 15, 2012
Jesse Ventura, the former wrestling star and Minnesota governor, is releasing a book titled "DemoCRIPS and ReBLOODlicans: No More Gangs in Government." (Skyhorse Publishing)

Inside the Beltway: Bipartisan gangland

The ever-fierce Jesse Ventura says it doesn't matter who wins the presidential election any more because the office has devolved into a kind of bipartisan gangland. To make his point, the former Minnesota governor and wrestling god has written a new book titled "DemoCRIPS and ReBLOODlicans: No More Gangs in Government."

May 14, 2012

Inside the Beltway: Meet the meat police

Behold, it's "climate smart" beef, sure to heighten the hubbub from global warming alarmists over cow flatulence, industrial agriculture and the collective impact of meat-eaters upon the Earth's atmosphere.

May 13, 2012

Inside the Beltway: Romney’s graduates

Forget shabby politics, an evolving White House and the "Celebrity-in-Chief" for a moment: It's God, country and education at Liberty University on Saturday morning, when 14,012 students receive degrees from a school administration unapologetic about its religion-based curriculum with Mitt Romney delivering the commencement address.

May 10, 2012
Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin disputes any pundit or press claims that the tea party movement is dead or irrelevant. (Image from Jenny Beth Martin)

Inside the Beltway: Tea party glee

Cynical pundits who insist that the tea party is dead or irrelevant must rethink their message now that Richard Mourdock publicly credited "thousands" of devoted tea party volunteers for ensuring his defeat of Sen. Richard G. Lugar in the Indiana Republican primary Tuesday. Declarations of the grass-roots movement's demise appear premature.

May 9, 2012
Partisan pajama tops are part of the new "Political PJs" collection at Cafe Express, which says they're a particular favorite of Republicans. (CafePress)

Inside the Beltway: Bedtime not for Bonzo

While the strategists duke it out on the campaign trail, consider that politically charged pajamas have emerged from the entrepreneurial wags at Cafe Press, and they are proving a Republican favorite.

May 8, 2012
"We must make certain they do not harm the economy by drowning small business lenders in a sea of red tape," says Rep. Spencer Bachus, Alabama Republican, of the health care law.

Inside the Beltway: Dodd-Frank=5,320 pages

Taming the Dodd-Frank Act: It's a daunting job, but someone equipped with a whip and a chair may manage to do it. Federal regulations emerging from the new law are occupying many pages - already twice as many as health care reform legislation - and officials are not even half finished with their task.

May 7, 2012

Inside the Beltway: The calm GOP

"Republicans have higher levels of well-being than do Democrats," says a huge Gallup health survey of 405,000 U.S. adults that tallies a half-dozen "well-being" indexes that include physical and emotional health, positive behaviors and workplace perceptions. Even the pollster acknowledges that religion could have something to do with it.

May 6, 2012
Filming is now underway for "Atlas Shrugged, Part II" in Los Angeles, timed for national release a few weeks before the November elections. (Image from The Strike Productions).

Inside the Beltway: Ayn Rand, Part 2

It's on the way: "Atlas Shrugged Part II" is now filming in Los Angeles, the second installment of an ambitious independent movie project — due for commercial release in October, just as the presidential election looms.

May 3, 2012
Pajamas Media writer Stephen Green suggested a composite name, "Payma Fair Share," for the president's erstwhile "composite girlfriend." (Photo provided by Stephen Green)

Inside the Beltway: Sharon Yourwealth

An excerpt of "Barack Obama: The Story" by Washington Post associate editor David Maraniss appeared in Vanity Fair on Wednesday, offering details about the women the young Mr. Obama dated during his "existentialist stretch" as a student in New York.

May 2, 2012

Inside the Beltway: Enough already

The U.S. should stop "reflexively exploiting major national security threats as a political ping-pong ball between right and left," says Zuhdi Jasser, president and founder of American Islamic Forum for Democracy. Get down to business and start crafting a practical strategy to defeat the threat of Islamist militancy both at home and abroad, he says.

May 1, 2012
Occupy Wall Street plans May Day events in 125 cities on Tuesday. (image from Occupy Wall Street)

Inside the Beltway: Still occupied

"May Day, 2012. Take to the streets! Wherever you are, whoever you are: no work, no chores, no banking, no shopping, no school. Block the flows, be the crisis," proclaims the official Occupy Wall Street motto for Tuesday, which is, the group says, "a day without the 99 percent, a general strike, and more."

April 30, 2012
Kim Kardashian was among the guests providing celebrity glitter at the 2012 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. (Associated Press)

Inside the Beltway: Keith Urbahn’s moment

A subculture has emerged around the first anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden, which is Tuesday. To politicize, or not to politicize? That is the question.

April 29, 2012
ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel will be the master of ceremonies for this year's convergence of Hollywood and Washington, otherwise known as the White House Correspondents' Dinner. (Photo provided by White House Correspondent's Association)

Inside the Beltway: The dinner primer

It's the glint of top brass and the gleam of glitter, a hybrid mix of political theater and silver screen spectacle: 2,800 guests are expected at the 98th White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday night, to mingle at the odd nexus of Washington and Hollywood.

April 26, 2012
In this photo taken Monday, April 23, 2012, Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks at Consol Energy Research and Development Facility in South Park Township, Pa. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Inside the Beltway: Reading Romney

Forget about "inevitable." Is Mitt Romney a fierce conservative or an agile, middle-of-the-road guy? As the Republican hopeful barrels down the campaign trail and toward a spate of fundraisers in New York and New Jersey, strategically minded Democrats wonder how to categorize President Obama's rival-in-chief.

April 24, 2012
** FILE ** A Metropolitan Police cruiser in downtown Washington (The Washington Times)

Americans give peace a fighting chance

Though Hollywood and the news media often portray the nation as a chaotic crucible of gangsters and crime, the U.S. is more "peaceful" now than in the past two decades, says the United States Peace Index.

April 24, 2012
Presidential candidate Bill Clinton set the stage for other politicians to appear with pop culture figures in the search for young voters. In 1992, he played the saxophone on the late-night show hosted by Arsenio Hall. (Associated Press)

Inside the Beltway: Clinton was advised to ‘do’ Rush

President Obama's work week has been framed as "hilarious" in press accounts because his schedule includes a stop Tuesday night on NBC's "Jimmy Fallon" and a starring role at the behemoth White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday opposite ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel, toastmaster and political roast master for the night.

April 23, 2012
Analysis of campaign coverage by the Pew Research Center involving more than 11,000 news outlets says GOP candidate Mitt Romney received the lion's share of attention after the Michigan primary, when his nomination became "essentially inevitable." (Associated Press)

Romney received most scrutiny

The press exacted a price on the "inevitable" Republican candidate Mitt Romney, who was subjected to the closest scrutiny among his rivals, says a massive analysis of candidate coverage released Monday by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.

April 23, 2012
"Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek (Associated Press)

Inside the Beltway: The press in jeopardy

Longtime "Jeopardy" host Alex Trebek thinks there's something actually powerful about the 15 media heavies, former political operatives and celebrities who will play for charity when the show tapes its "Power Players Week" episodes at DAR Constitution Hall this weekend.

April 19, 2012