The Redskins were 8–8 last year in coach Jim Zorn’s first season, compared with 9–7 in Joe Gibbs’s last. For the decade, they’re 67–80, and three times (2000, 2001, and 2008) they went 8–8. This year the Redskins will get enough out of owner Dan Snyder’s big-spending ways to remain promising, but Snyder and his sidekick, Vinny Cerrato, don’t spend wisely enough to be Super Bowl contenders.

The Redskins like to think they’ll become one of those surprise teams like Arizona was last year. They hope that signing Albert Haynesworth, retaining DeAngelo Hall, and drafting linebacker Brian Orakpo will make the defense tougher and that quarterback Jason Campbell will have a breakout season. The reality is that they may not have the offensive line to protect Campbell, they play in a tough division, and they’re a long shot for the playoffs.

This is likely to be another of Dan Snyder’s wait-till-next-year teams. Here are our predictions:

• “Daniel silva’s new novel the defector is number one on the ny times list I recommend it very highly will keep you reading with excitement”

• “[My wife] callista and I love Antrim 1844 in taneytown md and we put it in our novel gettysburg it is a great bed breakfast and restaurant”

• “Callista and I watched mama mia the other night. I liked the dancing queen sequence so much watched three times. meryl streep did great job”

• “Chef geoff has a great new restaurant next to tiffanys at tysons The food is superb and interesting Sitting outdoors is best Newt”

—Compiled by Sophie Gilbert

This article first appeared in the September 2009 issue of The Washingtonian. For more articles from that issue, click here. 

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Paul Clement. Photo courtesy King & Spalding

George W. Bush’s Justice Department didn’t exactly churn out highly coveted lawyers for the big firms—two years after resigning as attorney general, Alberto Gonzales finally landed a teaching spot at Texas Tech. But at least one top Justice official had law firms across Washington eager to hand over millions: former solicitor general Paul Clement.

Now head of King & Spalding’s appellate practice, Clement is rumored to be raking in $5 million a year—a figure seemingly confirmed during a panel discussion in July about the future of DC law firms. One of the panelists, O’Melveny & Myers’s DC managing partner Brian Brooks, let slip that O’Melveny had been in the running to land “a top DOJ official” but dropped out of the bidding when the annual ante reached $5 million—with three years guaranteed. “Everybody in the know knew it was Paul,” says a lawyer who attended the event.

Brooks dispelled remaining doubts when, moments later, he quipped that former solicitors general now “make $5 million a year.” Later Brooks laughed when asked about his comments, then coyly said, “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Conspiracy theorists are awaiting Dan Brown’s new book, The Lost Symbol. Building on his super-bestsellers The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, about conspiratorial elements of the Catholic Church, Brown’s latest—set in Washington—is expected to feature another secret society with an elaborate history and illustrious membership: the Freemasons.

As a May 2006 Washingtonian article explored, the Washington area has a deep, rich history with the Masons. (To read the article, go to washingtonian.com/masons.) As the new book’s release approaches, Brown fans have been looking for hints to the plot—and some have been released on The Lost Symbol’s Twitter feed. Here’s what might come up in the novel:

Last month, we wrote about Newt Gingrich’s frequent Twitter reviews of restaurants. Since then, he’s continued his dining reports, although this month his favorites have been much more pocketbook-friendly:

• “Having a good lunch at the mcdonalds in osseo with [my wife] callista and her mother bernita. Good crispy chicken sandwich, great fries, good coffee.”

• “Drugans restaurant and golf course in holman wisconsin has great food and a seven foot tall wooden troll. They do a wonderful job.”

• “now cjuck [chick] fil a is something else. I love the dwarf house in hapeville. It is the home of chick fil a.”

• “Reynolds plantation has some wonderful facilities and great staff. The linger longer steak house (yes that is its name) is very impressive.”

This article first appeared in the August 2009 issue of The Washingtonian. For more articles from that issue, click here.   

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An anthropologist by training, David Kilcullen is a combination of boots-on-the-ground soldier and ivory-tower thinker. He’s served in hot spots from East Timor to Afghanistan while doing fieldwork for a doctoral dissertation on counterinsurgency strategy. On loan to the United States from the Australian military, he worked with General David Petraeus in Iraq, Condoleezza Rice at the State Department, and US officials around the world. The recent book that grew out of his thinking and experiences, The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One, became a bestseller. He has now joined the Washington-based Crumpton Group, where he advises policymakers and military leaders.

While people in many other places are turning to a thriller, romance, or Harry Potter book for summer reading, lots of Washingtonians are trying to understand what’s happened to the economy and what Washington should be doing about it. Here are recommendations of the best books on the economy from leaders in the field.

Brookings Institution fellow Justin Wolfers recommends Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism by George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller.

Why: “The two authors are stellar writers and natural authorities,” says Wolfers. “Akerlof is an economic Nobelist, and Shiller is one of the few economists who forecast the current downturn. It’s not so much a diagnosis of what happened in the crisis but rather an argument for a new kind of economics that takes our psychological imperfections seriously.”

Brief review: Unlike many treatises on free-market capitalism, Animal Spirits is an entertaining read, describing Wall Street as “wildly drunk” on its own excesses and accountants—forever maligned as detail-oriented stick-in-the-muds—as the “cool-minded sheriffs of [capitalism’s] Wild West.”