The Important Dinner for Women isn’t important because of the women who are there (though there were lots of important women there: Queen Rania, Indra Nooyi, Sarah Brown, Ann Curry, Susan Axelrod, Naomi Campbell, Wendi Murdoch, Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts, Tyra Banks … the list goes on), but because of the important cause that brings them together.

Cindy Adams quotes Sarah Brown in her NY Post article:

“Women are more likely to die giving birth than to go to school. Women are considered zero. A woman’s only asset is her body. And each year half a million die in childbirth.”

Read the rest of Cindy’s article here: “Lovely ladies spotlight female mortality rate”

And check out some of the photos from the event:

thaddad Event Coverage Ann Curry, Cindy Adams, Indra Nooyi, Naomi Watts, Nicole Kidman, Queen Rania, sarah brown, tyra banks, Wendi Murdoch

In part two of our interview with White House Visitors Office Director Ellie Schafer, she tells us about learning the history of the White House, meeting guests like Captain Richard Phillips, who came for a tour and visit with the president after being freed from Somali pirates.



Ellie Schafer at the White House from whcinsider on Vimeo.

Ellie told us she has to “pinch herself” to remember she is really at the White House;  it’s been quite a trip for a woman who started out with President Obama in 2007, working on his advance.

Even a bad day is “still a pretty good day at the White House,” Ellie said.  And that’s easy to see — her office contains photos of her with First Lady Michelle Obama, with the President, and Nancy Reagan.  President Reagan and Ellie’s grandfather were racheros together: that’s some history!  Ellie brings a pretty impressive sports history to the Visitors office.  She played Mushball (it’s a Chicago thing), and her softball team won the league championship – they went all the way to the Gay Softball World Series!

Check out more photos here.

gtruong White House History Barack Obama, Ellie Schafer, White House

Release Party for the Beatles Rock Band

The Obama campaign team famously hung together in Chicago and reportedly spent what little “down time” there was available playing Rock Band.

Tuesday night looked like a campaign reunion with Katie McCormick Lelyveld on drums, Jon Favreau on bass, Jenny Cizner and Adam Frankel on vocals, and Katie Johnson on guitar at the Entertainment Software Association’s release party for the Beatles Rock Band video game.

At Gibson Guitar’s showroom in downtown D.C., politicos joined media mavens living the dream on the video game stage. The floor rocked when Viacom’s DeDe Lea (who revealed she was born 9 months after the Beatles first appeared on the Ed Sullivan show) and Senator Jim Webb’s Kim Hunter were joined by White House Visitors Office Director Ellie Schafer, Craig Hagen, Director of Governmentt Affairs, Electronic Arts and Rich Taylor from ESA. (And yes, he really did reenact Kanye West’s MTV awards show contretemps to the roar of the crowd.)

Also stepping up to the microphone: Representatives Jesse Jackson, Jr., and Joe Crowley, who won rave reviews for their performance of Beatles favorites.

Rock Lighter ruled and there was no mention of health care.

Check out the rest of the photos here!

thaddad Event Coverage, Washington Events Adam Frankel, Craig Hagen, DeDe Lea, Ellie Schafer, Jenny Cizner, Jesse Jackson Jr, Jon Favreau, Katie Johnson, Katie McCormick Lelyveld, Kim Hunter, Rich Taylor, Rock Band

Jay Leno premiered his new show last night on NBC and asks President Obama about owning a lot of cars, the ladies of The View, the future of his show, among other “hard-hitting” questions.

gtruong News Media Barack Obama, Jay Leno

Valerie Jarrett, Desiree Rogers Offer Support

Capricia Marshall and family with Sec. Hillary Clinton

The Ben Franklin Room of the State Department was filled with stars and stargazers, as well as family and friends, as Secretary Hillary Clinton presided over the swearing-in ceremony for her longest-serving aide, Capricia Penivac Marshall, as chief of protocol.

Marshall, the former Clinton White House social secretary and campaign veteran, came to Washington with the Clintons in 1992. Secretary Clinton shared a hilarious Inauguration story about Marshall being stuck outside the White House gate.

It wasn’t just Clinton friends. Top Obama pals Valerie Jarrett, Desiree Rogers, and First Lady Michelle Obama’s Chief of Staff Susan Sher, were there to pay tribute to the newest executive in charge of diplomatic activities for President Obama. Roger’s deputies Ebs Burnough and Joe Reinstein had a crowd of admirers lined up to say hello.

CLICK here to see Marshall’s official list of duties.

Marshall’s protocol team includes some Washington’s savviest veterans, including deputies Lee Satterfield and Dennis Cheng. Her team debuts on the world stage this month with one of the biggest diplomatic gatherings of the year: the G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh.

Obama State Department Ambassadors Elizabeth Bagley (Global Partnerships) and Melanne Verveer (Global Women’s Issues) added their shine to the large crowd. Clinton family members, from mom Dorothy to daughter Chelsea, cheered for their close friend. Marshall’s 9-year old son Cole mugged and husband Rob Marshall looked shocked by Clinton’s shout out to him as “the best cardiologist in the world.”

Parents Frank and Mary Penavic beamed and assorted cousins from her hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, watched the ceremony.

Former protocol ambassadors Lucky Roosevelt, Lloyd Hand, Lea Berman, Evan and Kit Dobelle joined former White House Social Secretary Ann Stock and veterans of other administrations in their own mini-reunion

Celebrity guests included: Greta Van Susteren and her husband John Coale, Mandy Grunwald, Janet Howard, Ann Orr, Claire Shipman, Michael Feldman, Melissa Moss and her husband Jonathan Silver.

Pam Stevens, once Condoleezza Rice’s press secretary and now press adviser to Ambassador Nancy Brinker and Race for the Cure, caught up with old friends as Betsy Fischer and other media types worked the room. New York’s fabulous event planner, and Marshall pal, Bronson Van Wyck drew his own crowd.

Terry McAuliffe had a double-barreled receiving line around him; no surprise there. He also hosted a Friday night gathering at his McLean home.

Check out the photo gallery:

thaddad Event Coverage, Washington Events, White House Staff Ann Orr, Ann Stock, Betsy Fischer, Bronson Van Wyck, Capricia Marshall, Claire Shipman, Dennis Cheng, Desiree Rogers, Ebs Burnough, Elizabeth Bagley, Evan Dobelle, Greta Van Susteren, Hillary Clinton, Janet Howard, Joe Reinstein, John Coale, Jonathan Silver, Kit Dobelle, Lea Berman, Lee Satterfield, Lloyd Hand, Lucky Roosevelt, Mandy Grunwald, Melanne Verveer, Melissa Moss, Michael Feldman, Pam Stevens, Susan Sher, Terry McAuliffe, Valerie Jarrett

WHC Insider founder Tammy Haddad asks Politico Chief Political Correspondent, Mike Allen to analyze Obama‘s health care speech to the joint session of congress, GOP response and his post speech plan.

Mike Allen on WHC Insider from whcinsider on Vimeo.

gtruong Correspondents, Washington Events

Obama’s Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues, Melanne Verveer, thanks them for their efforts.

If you want to change the world you go to Washington, so it wasn’t a surprise that Pulitzer prize winners and the New York Times columnist, Nick Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, came to the capitol city to bring the message of their web site and book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, to the development, political, and media crowd.

Kristof and WuDunn addressed the crowd explaining the  title of the book (Chinese Proverb), how they got so many women to risk their lives to talk to them, and how the global economic situation would change dramatically if women had basic rights.  WuDunn talked about their role as journalists and said, “Basically we’re the messenger, but we also know the messenger has to get the message right… the central moral challenge of this century is gender inequity… Women are not the problem, they are part of the solution.”

Kristof said, “There is a tipping point on this issue… now, increasingly, the role of women is seen, not only as a good thing to do but as a security issue as well as an economic issue, and all these things are coming together and I think, making it the time to address this truly as the cause of our time.”

The crowd cheered as President Obama’s Ambassador-At-Large to Women’s Global Issues Melanne Verveer took the microphone to thank the Kristofs. “This may be just the happening that pushed us over the tipping point and our world realizes what an outcome we will have if we truly let women release their potential around the globe.”

Verveer is America’s first Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues which for many longtime advocates say is fitting since Verveer was First Lady Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff when Clinton made her historic global call to action in Beijing at the 1995 World Conference on Women.

The White Ribbon Alliance, Mothers Day Every Day, and CARE created the evening. Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women, a five-year campaign to provide business and management education to women around the world, run by Washington favorite Dina Powell, was the sponsor of the evening.   Mothers Day Every Day leader Susan McCue joined advisory members including journalist Elsa Walsh and Anita McBride, Laura Bush‘s White House Chief of Staff, and Mike McCurry.

Read more…

gtruong Washington Events Half the Sky, Nicholas Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn

Mothers Day Every Day, the White Ribbon Alliance and CARE, in partnership with the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Initiative, celebrate the new book from New York Times columnist and reporter Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.  Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide tells the important story about the importance of empowering women and girls around the world. This is more than a book: it’s a movement.

Photos and Video coming soon!

gtruong Washington Events Nicholas Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn

Republican political strategist John Feehery has some unexpected advice for President Obama this morning, on how to get his health care reform plan through Congress: “Act like the GOP controls Congress.”

From Feehery’s piece in Politico:

“Usually, a president overreaches badly when he has such complete control over the legislative process, as Obama does, and is then badly hurt in the next election when the American people decide that they need a check on the president’s power.”

Read the rest of the article here.

gtruong News Media John Feehery, President Obama

A meeting with Senior Advisor David Axelrod and Communications Director Anita Dunn had some unexpected rules in place.

Check out the full story on FishBowl DC HERE.

gtruong Correspondents Anita Dunn, David Axelrod

The White House has long been known as “the People’s House” and President Barack Obama promised to make it an open, friendly and welcoming place. Over the last week, the hardest working staff at the White House hasn’t been the health care team … it’s been the Visitors Office. With only five staff members, they have ushered roughly 6,000 people a day through the White House gates with extended tour hours: 12-hour days instead of six. Every congressional office request was honored.

White House Correspondents Insider co-founder Tammy Haddad spoke with White House Visitors Office Director Ellie Schafer and her team for the inside scoop on what goes on behind the scenes at the only building in the world which is simultaneously the home of a head of state, the executive office of a head of state, and a museum open to the public.

The White House Visitors Office from whcinsider on Vimeo.

Schafer is testing out guided White House tours — which were dropped after 9/11. For the past eight years, visitors have walked through on their own, with Secret Service officers looking on. The Obama WH visitors team is getting kudos from White House veterans for allowing visitors into the always popular china room for the first time.

gtruong White House Staff Barack Obama, Ellie Schafer, Tammay Haddad