Megan Schmidt echoes Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s deepest unspoken desire: to one day have as many Twitter followers as Justin Bieber.

PIZZA @ LEO’S asks the Secretary of State to endorse Leo’s pizza. Perhaps we can expect an editorial from PIZZA@LEOS on why its voting for Obama. Or maybe this account is just a viral marketing campaign started by Aramark, which explains its lack of effectiveness.

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Vox is saddened to report that Tucker Cholvin‘s tweet will remain hypothetical. With so many representatives, DC may have a valid argument for becoming a real state.

After reading Beth Mueller‘s tweet, Mitt Romney immediately chose Mr. Potato Head as his potential Secretary of Agriculture in hopes that the Hasbro toy’s consistent political record would win the support of the FFA.

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Georgetown has “almost entirely shed itself of its Catholic character,” according to a report published by Campus Reform, a conservative social networking website.

Campus Reform, which assessed political attitudes at Georgetown as part of its guide to the nation’s top colleges, also bemoaned the prominence of liberal student groups, which outnumber conservative groups threefold.

So, what else makes Georgetown a den of liberalism?

The university has a sociology department “dominated by the Marxist categories of class, race, sex, and sexuality,” the Women’s and Gender Studies department focuses on “feminist social and political indoctrination,” and liberal student groups outnumber their conservative counterparts threefold.

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In a recent study of university employees’ political donations, the Center for Responsive Politics concluded that American colleges generally support Democrats. When a college does favor Republicans, it tends to donate much less money.

“Democrats are the primary beneficiaries of educators’ federal political donations,” Lauren Hepler, a Center intern, wrote.

The top donors during this election cycle, according to the study, include the University of California system ($483,981), Harvard ($424,478), Stanford ($375,553). All three schools heavily favored Democrat donations.

Although Georgetown didn’t crack the top ten, the study inspired us to do one of our own.

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Although she opened her speech quietly and in a strained voice Monday night in Georgetown University’s ICC Auditorium, Eleanor Holmes Norton was soon speaking loudly and passionately about the defining issue of her nine Congressional terms: voting rights for the District of Columbia.

“We are on the verge of getting this bill through both houses,” she said of a follow-up to the D.C. House Voting Rights Act of 2009. Hinting at the significance of Emancipation Day this Friday, April 16, Norton was optimistic that D.C.’s “200 years of struggle” would soon be coming to an end, and said that the hard work put into the bill by Democratic leadership would soon “bear fruit.”

Norton said she has been working hard to rid the bill of “an odious amendment” that would limit D.C.’s ability to restrict guns, and repeal gun registration requirements and D.C.’s semi-automatic ban. a mission that took on new meaning for her after the gunshot deaths of four D.C resident’s two weeks ago. Despite efforts by the NRA’s powerful lobby, Norton said she would “try to save as much of D.C.’s gun laws as possible.”

Turning to other issues, Norton stressed the importance of bringing “incremental change” to the country, but she also said it is because of a dogged unwillingness to compromise that some Democrats will lose their congressional seats in November’s midterm elections. “Be prepared to lose congressional seats,” she said, because Democrats “were not willing to sell our souls and not sell out the American people on health care.”

Turning to the College Democrats, who brought her to speak on the Hilltop Congresswoman Norton issued a challenge to some of the most active members of her party, saying that recent losses in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts “should sober Democrats still drunk from Inauguration.” Norton charged the same Democratic base that helped elect President Obama with proving that he “not only has landing power, but also has staying power.”

“The fight is on, bring it on,” she said. If 2009 was all about Obama, “in 2010 it is going to be about all of us.”

Photo by Shira Saperstein

Tariq Ramadan, a world-renowned Swiss Islamic scholar, is currently making his first appearance in the U.S. since the State Department barred him from entering the U.S. in 2004. On Monday, he spoke at Georgetown University in Gaston Hall along with School of Foreign Service Professor John Esposito about the need for the radical reform in Islam.

Ramadan’s visa was revoked six years ago as he was about to travel to the U.S. to become a professor at the University of Notre Dame. The State Department cited small donations Ramadan made to a pro-Palestinian group in from 1998 to 2002 which was suspected of giving money to Hamas, a group that made the State Department terrorist list in 2003.

In Gaston, Ramadan talked about the theory driving his recent work, that Islam needs “radical reform.” Speaking animatedly and rapidly on the stage from which, three years earlier, he had spoken by satellite because of his travel ban, he said that Muslims should reject the notion that tradition is immovable and that sacred texts cannot be reinterpreted in a contemporary context.

“We need a radical reform in the way we deal with [religious] texts in the context of our time,” he said, adding that while there is an impulse for Muslims to adapt interpretation of sacred texts to the changing world, Muslims also “need to come back with a more approach in light of the text to transform the world.”

“Tradition is moving,” he said. “Show me one tradition that isn’t moving. It doesn’t exist.”

Esposito asked Ramadan to clarify his use of the word “radical.”

“It’ll make a great headline,” Esposito joked. “Tariq Ramadan advocates for radical reform of Islam at Georgetown University. And then we’re in trouble.”

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Surprise! There are a lot of Hoyas serving in the House and Senate. By Vox‘s count (OK, Matt Stoller’s (COL ’08) count), 19 Georgetown graduates cast their votes for or against Health Care Reform last night on the Hill. Here’s the breakdown (none of the House members had votes that differed between the Senate bill and the bill with reconciliation fixes):

Voted ‘Yes’ on Health Care Reform:

Senate

Sen. Dick Durbin (D—IL) (SFS ’66, LAW ’69)

Sen. Jim Webb (D—VA) (LAW ’75)

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D—VT) (LAW ’64)

House

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D—TX) (COL ’78)

Rep. John Dingell (D—MI) (COL ’49, LAW ’52)

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D—MD) (LAW ’66)

Rep. Mazie Hirono  (D—HI) (LAW ’78)

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D—MD) (LAW ’90)

Rep. Peter Visclosky (D—IN) (LAW ’82)

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Last year, former D.C. Councilmember Harold Brazil was charged with assault for getting into a physical fight with an employee at Jinx Proof Tattoo parlor.  Brazil, then 59-year-old, walked into the M Street shop with two women, one of whom was getting a tattoo.  When Brazil tried to follow her into the back of the shop, he got into an altercation with one of the employees.

The May court hearing about the incident revealed that in addition to exchanging punches and expletives with Jinx Proof employees, Brazil also peed on the store’s floor.  Brazil was found guilty, and was sentenced to a 30-day suspended sentence, 6 months unsupervised probation, and a $100 fine.

But Brazil’s not willing to accept the verdict.  He’s now appealing his conviction and suing the parlor for $5 million, accusing them of assault, the Washington Business Journal reported.

Saying that the witnesses who reported the incident had request that the case be dropped, Brazil told the Business Journal that he questions “the true motive … behind the prosecution and the unfairness of prosecuting a former politician for no articulable reason.”

Click image to enlarge, or download the PDF

There are elegant townhouses aplenty in Georgetown, but have you ever wondered who exactly our influential neighbors residing in the multimillion dollar abodes are?

Lucky for you, this week’s issue of The Georgetowner features a two-page spread (above) showing where some of the most important and influential Georgetown residents live. Though the map is a bit hard to read, the list of VIPs is quite impressive, consisting mostly of politicians, influential journalists, and other Washington heavyweights.

John Kerry and Teresa Hines and New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd show up on N Street, while Senator Arlen Spector and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi appear down near K Street. Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn, two former Washington Post editors, live on 30th Street, just a block away from famous Watergate journalist and author Bob Woodward.

The wide world of sports is represented, too—Paul Tagliabue, former NFL commissioner (and current chair of Georgetown’s Board of Directors), and Mark and Judy Lerner, owners of the Washington Nationals, live in Hillandale and by the waterfront, respectively. The rest of the list is rounded off by a mixture of television and print journalists, White House advisors, and philanthropists.

It’s a wonderful politically powerful day in the neighborhood!

If last night proved anything, it’s that nothing gets a Georgetown classroom packed like one of the most liberal members of Congress discussing what he considers “the next civil rights movement”—healthcare.

During his speech, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D—Ohio) focused primarily on the importance of passing the bill he co-authored, HR 676, or, “Medicare for All.”  The bill would take the existing Medicare system and expand it cover everyone.

Of course, the big question is how such an expansion would be paid for.  Kucinich’s comeback to that concern was that “We’re already paying for a universal standard of care we’re not getting.”

“2.4 trillion dollars a year we spend on healthcare in America,” he explained in his speech. “One out of every 3 dollars, or $800 million a year goes for corporate profit, stock options, executive salaries, advertising, and the cost of paperwork. So the for-profit healthcare system has a lot at stake here.”

Kucinich also mused on the current healthcare bill’s prospects in Congress, saying he predicts the House will have a public option in its version, but the Senate won’t.

“The public option is not likely to survive a conference committee,” he said.

During the question and answer portion of the talk, he also expressed disagreement with the idea that passing Senate Finance Chairman Max Bachus’s (D—Mont.) healthcare bill would be “better than nothing” and criticized the power that has been given to insurance companies.

Photography by Jackson Perry.