Cathy Lanier—DC’s new top cop seems, like her boss, to be innovative and everywhere, and it may be working: Crime is down.

Ronaldo “Nick” Nicholson—The regional director of Virginia’s Department of Transportation is the guy you want to talk to about bridge safety and those long commutes on I-66.

Nico Pitney—As online news proves all the more critical in the 2008 presidential campaign, the new politics editor for the Huffington Post has lots of ideas to shake up the city.

Gene Upshaw—As the debate over doping comes front and center in sports, the legendary head of the NFL players’ union has some strong opinions.

Alvin Drew—Speaking of flight, this astronaut, a native of Fort Washington and graduate of Gonzaga High, is sure to have good stories to tell of his flight aboard the space shuttle Endeavour.

Jenna Bush—The once hard-partying Bush daughter has written a book on AIDS in Latin America. It’s called Ana’s Story, it’ll be published in October, it’s creating buzz in publishing circles: Moving and serious, it’s better than anticipated.

Howard Wolfson—The top strategist for Hillary Clinton’s campaign is finally moving from New York to DC’s Woodley Park.

This month we’d want dinner cooked by Rahman “Rock” Harper, the chef from Union Station’s B. Smith’s restaurant who recently won the reality cooking show Hell’s Kitchen.

Leslie Hill—One of the Bancroft family members against selling the Wall Street Journal to Rupert Murdoch was this retired American Airlines pilot who lives in Chevy Chase.

3.5 — Amount, in millions, of an earmark requested by Representative Bob Inglis, a Republican from South Carolina. The money was mistakenly directed in a defense-spending bill to the lobbying firm Cassidy & Associates, as reported by Congressional Quarterly Today. The money was intended to go to a textile-manufacturing company but was sent to its lobbyists instead, raising more questions about how closely the earmark system is scrutinized.

38 — Percentage of flights at Reagan National Airport that were late in June, the highest in the region.

88 — Percentage of the time that US Airways Flight 2184, the 7 pm shuttle from Reagan National to New York LaGuardia, was late in June, the worst of any Washington flight.

65 — Average number of minutes it was late in June.

2.3 — New selling price, in millions, for Ted Koppel’s 9,000-square-foot house in Potomac. The house was first listed in May 2005 for $4.1 million.

306,000 — Number of supporters in the Facebook.com group “One Million Strong for Barack” when Slate discovered that Rudolph Giuliani’s daughter, Caroline, was a member of the group.

5.21 — Career ERA of Nationals pitcher Mike Bacsik, who gave up the 756th home run to Barry Bonds when he broke Hank Aaron’s record.

Want to see more photos from Washington events and parties? Click here for Washingtonian.com's photo slideshow page.

What: Good Magazine One-Year Anniversary Party in Washington, DC.

The Magazine aims to be ““media for people who give a damn,” or so claims founder Ben Goldhirsh. One-hundred percent of the magazine’s subscription price goes to a charity of the subscriber’s choice, and the magazine focuses on a wide range of subjects in design, culture, technology, and politics.

When: Friday, September 7, 7:30 pm

Where: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Who: Hundreds of (mostly) hipster twenty- and thirty-something’s who either work in media, subscribe to the magazine (subscribers got in free), or went to a liberal-arts school with someone who worked at the magazine. Thievery Corporation—local musical celebrities gone big—handled the wheels of steel.

Food: A plate or two of vegetables and dip located near the center fountain.

Drink: Silk Soymilk and Christiana vodka White Russians, Sapporo brew.

Scene: The party didn’t belong to any particular industry, though it was a very young and largely single crowd. Absent were notable media or political types, Washington celebrities, or boldfaced names. Groups of friends checked out paintings by the likes of Milton Avery, Philip Guston, and Thomas Eakins, grabbed drinks, and danced outside in the courtyard or in a specially set-up room on the third floor.

Unoffical after-parties included popular nightspots 18th Street Lounge (owned by Thievery Corporation) and Bourbon Bar in Adams Morgan.

Ratings (out of 5):

Boldface names: 0

Swankiness: 3

Food and drink: 3

Exclusivity: 2

Total score: 8 (out of 20)

What: GQ’s Most Powerful People in Washington party

When: Monday, September 10, 6:30 PM

Where: Café Milano

Who: Because those on the list were powerful and busy, most didn’t show, meaning the gathering was largely a mix of journalists, PR types, and politicos. Those on the list in attendance—from the ONE Campaign’s Susan McCue to the New Democrat Network’s Simon Rosenberg to Senator Pat Leahy and the Palm’s Tommy Jacomo—seemed outnumbered by local gossip columnists including John McCaslin of the Washington Times, both halves of the Washington Post’s Reliable Source, and Wonkette’s Alex Pareene. Other notables, not on the list, included the White House’s Leslie Fahrenkopf, AOL’s Jim Kimsey, CNN’s Ed Henry and Suzanne Malveaux, the Ashcroft Group’s Juleanna Glover Weiss, the Post’s Jonathan Capehart, GM’s Debbie Dingell, and the always dapper Franco Nuschese. Also present were GQ’s men of the hour—correspondent Richard Draper, author of the new Bush blockbuster Dead Certain, and Ryan Lizza, who penned the Most Powerful issue’s cover story on Barack Obama.

According to organizers' tally, 20 of the 56 "Most Powerful People" actually showed for some portion of the evening, although none of the list's biggest names. Beyond Leahy, Rahm Emanuel was the only government or elected official who put in an appearance, according to organizers.

Food: A surprisingly modest selection of passed-around appetizers.

Drink: Open bar, but the drink of choice was lots of water.

Scene: When Qorvis, the PR company that ran last night’s party, promised it would be one of the fall’s “hottest” events, no one guessed that was meant literally. The steaming party, where the 85-degree outdoor air felt like a cool breeze, left guests embarrassingly dripping in sweat and grasping for drinks of water. The party, which reached critical mass by about 7:30, largely emptied out quickly as the heat got to guests. The paucity of boldface names also left people scratching their heads: By naming the city’s most powerful, did GQ actually limit its guest list—powerful players in the city who didn’t make the list weren’t about to show up to a party where they didn’t rate? For instance, Maureen Dowd, who didn't make the list, spent last night dining at the nearby Hook.

Ratings (out of 5):

Boldface names: 2.5
Swankiness: 3
Food and drink: 2.5
Exclusivity: 3

Total score: 11 (out of 20)

More photos below. 

Spotted: Russell Crowe, in town to film Body of Lies (based on the novel by the Washington Post's David Ignatius), dining last night at Old Glory in Georgetown. The Australian star dined with two athletic-looking fellow male Aussies on a platter of ribs and a heap of side dishes washed down with a Budweiser and was generous to staff and gawkers.

Chevy Chase author Jay Winik tackles The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World, 1788–1800. The book looks at our nation’s early years alongside the turmoil within the era’s other major powers, Russia and France. Winik’s last book was April 1865: The Month That Saved America.

Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivalries That Ignited the Space Age by DC’s Matthew Brzezinski is a lively retelling of the international political and technological tensions of the 1950s.

Michael J. Neufeld, a National Air and Space Museum historian, looks at Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War, a biography of Wernher von Braun, the former Nazi who helped develop the US space program.

US senator Christopher Dodd has compiled letters from his father, Thomas Dodd—who also became a senator—to his mother while he was helping to prosecute Nazi war criminals. The book, full of personal and historical details, is Letters From Nuremberg: My Father’s Narrative of a Quest for Justice. Chapters by the younger Dodd, with coauthor Lary Bloom, provide context and perspective.

New Yorker writer Jeffrey Toobin looks at the nation’s high court under Chief Justices William Rehnquist and John Roberts in The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court. It covers controversial nominations, including that of Harriet Miers, and has a chapter on the 2006–07 term.

Washington Post movie critic Stephen Hunter’s new thriller, The 47th Samurai, is out this month. It marks the return of his sometime hero Bob Lee Swagger. The recent movie Shooter, based on Hunter’s Point of Impact, starred Mark Wahlberg as Swagger.

Attorney Ron Liebman, a partner at Patton Boggs, has written two nonfiction books about the law, Shark Tales and Grand Jury. Now he turns to fiction with Death by Rodrigo, a funny and fast-moving legal thriller.

For those disappointed that 2008 won’t have a “Condi versus Hillary” contest, be patient. That catfight for the White House didn’t materialize, but Condoleezza Rice might have a future in politics.

“I see governor of California as a distinct possibility,” says Glenn Kessler, author of a new book, The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy. “She leaves the State Department, makes some money. Once Schwarzenegger steps down, she runs.”

Rice, through a spokesman, declined to comment.

Kessler has been the Post’s diplomatic correspondent covering Rice since 2002. His book catches her walking and talking and flying, huddling with diplomats, joshing with reporters, and protecting her patron, President George W. Bush.

Kessler says that Rice writes Bush a note every night—on paper, with pen. The Secretary of State does not write e-mails.

Rice, like Bush, prides herself on working out and staying fit. Kessler tells about Rice kicking off her shoes at a dance party hosted by Coit Blacker, a friend of Rice’s. Blacker speculated to his partner “that if he aimed a quarter at her butt, it would bounce off like a rocket.” He did; it did. “She was flattered,” Kessler writes, “—and proud.”

Don’t expect a thorough biography. Kessler offers a narrative of Rice’s diplomatic years, her few victories and many blunders.

“History likely will not be kind to her,” Kessler says. “In her favor, she was close to the President, but she’s trapped by many of the decisions she made as national security adviser. She’s not in the league of George Shultz or James Baker.”

This criticism comes from the journalist described as Rice’s favorite reporter by an article in the Atlantic.

“She was at the core of decision-making on going to war in Iraq,” Kessler says. “She was in charge of managing the process. It’s not something she’s good at.”

Kessler grew up in Cincinnati. Both parents are from the Netherlands. Kessler got a degree from Brown University and a master’s in international affairs from Columbia. He did business reporting in New York, political reporting in DC for Newsday, and in 1998 went on the business desk at the Post.

“I always wanted to write about international affairs,” he says. “It just took me 20 years in journalism to get there.”

Bush describes Rice as “my sister.” Kessler says they are indeed like family.

“Their history started with 9/11,” he says, referring to the attack on the World Trade Center. “That’s where their connection is.”

Like Bush, Rice came to Washington with a relatively narrow view of global conflict. Her expertise was Soviet and Eastern European affairs. She had little experience in the Middle East, Asia, or Africa. And she didn’t know Washington when Bush asked her to be his national-security adviser.

“In some ways,” Kessler says, “it was an unfair position the President put her in.”

Kessler says State Department reporters get a uniquely intimate look at a Cabinet secretary because they travel around the world on the same plane for weeks at a time. “She wanders back to talk to reporters,” he says. “She sets aside an evening with the press on long trips. It’s a little family.”

After reading the book, Rice might want to throw Kessler out.