Photograph by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Beyonce and Bibi McGill perform during the Pepsi Super Bowl XLVII Halftime Show at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on February 3, 2013 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

As “The Few, The Proud,” the Marines deserve their reputation with the press as mostly quick to respond with facts to a query — be it on Iraq, Afghanistan, the V-22 Osprey or Hurricane Sandy assistance.

But when it comes to singer Beyonce Knowles-Carter they seem to have a warm and fuzzy mother instinct to protect her — in this case with a heavy-handed use of the Freedom of Information Act’s privacy exemption — the so-called “(B)(6)” — this being the same Beyonce drawing headlines for bawdy bodysuits on tour.

Our FOIA saga began Jan. 23 when we submitted a request for all e-mails concerning the mini-flap over whether she did or did not lip-sync the National Anthem at President Barack Obama’s second-term Inaugural ceremony.

We asked for all documents and e-mails generated between Jan. 21 and 23 — when  “Syncgate ” broke — among the Marine Corps Band, Marine Headquarters PA, the White House and Beyonce’s public relations team. And we did learn how concerned they were about it all — they figured they could beat it if they “hunkered down.”

We were looking for insight into the situation to include the back and forth after an initial Marine Band statement that confirmed she lip-synced and a later one that backed off. We figured there must have been some rich back and forth — maybe even from the West Wing.

Recall that Obama issued a FOIA policy memo in 2009 directing that “all agencies should adopt a presumption in a favor of disclosure.”

We got 172 pages.

The e-mails started in mid-December with back and forth about musical arrangements for the Inaugural ceremony and after the 22nd the lip-sync fallout. They make for mostly non-fascinating reading.

Except for the Marine Corps cover letter to yours truly answering our request, not once was Beyonce’s name mentioned on any single page — not even in reprints of statements initially released to the press that had mentioned her.

Instead, Beyonce was ‘(B)(6)’d.

The exemption “prohibits disclosure of personal information when an individual’s privacy interest outweighs any public interest,” we were told in the letter.

The Department of Justice official FOIA Guide says (B)(6) is designed to safeguard information about individuals “in personnel and medical files and similar files” when the disclosure “would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”

It quotes a District of Columbia Circuit opinion that directs FOIA professionals to analyze disclosure options because under Exemption 6 “the presumption in favor of disclosure is as strong as can be found anywhere in the Act.”

There didn’t seem to be much analysis at the Marine FOIA office, however.

For example: A Marine spokesperson in January initially released a public statement that said: “We don’t know why Beyonce decided to use prerecorded music,” adding that, while the Marine Band performed live, “we received last-minute word that Beyonce wanted to use the recording.”

The same paragraphs in the emails we received said , “We don’t know why “(B(6)” decided to use prerecorded music…”

Then there was the later statement the Marines issued saying, “The Presidential Inaugural Committee requested the Marine Band accompany Beyonce Knowles-Carter in the performance of the Star Spangled Banner…”

The FOIA-released emails contained the once-public statement, but “Beyonce Knowles-Carter” was “(b)(6)’d” — you get the picture.

This goes on for many of the 172 pages released where Beyonce is clearly mentioned.

Our Jan. 23 request to Marine Corps spokesman Captain Greg Wolf asking for the phone number and email of the Marine FOIA office was similarly redacted with a (B)(6).

Still, our request did generate some buzz, according to a released e-mail.

Wrote one “(B)(6)”d Marine communicator: “I’ve just taken a quick look through the e-mails and think we are fine even if we have to turn them over. They all support our statement (funny how the truth works, isn’t it?) ” The aide continued:  “And I don’t see anything else embarrassing other than a few comments about the challenges of the situation. Because some of the emailing happened from work and some from my laptop, it will be a bit of a logistical challenge to put them together but I’m sure we can figure something out.”

The harried Marine PA staff got some good news Jan. 23, according to another e-mail: “Just need everyone to stay hunkered down for another 24 hours. We have a bona-fide breaking news piece tomorrow that will knock this one off of Drudge.”

Guess they forgot to put a (B)(6) on The Drudge Report.

Late update:

So now Drudge, where the lip-sync story played well, is having some fun of its own.

Original post is Beyonce: B6 in Marine Corps’ Eyes (‘Funny How the Truth Works’) by Political Capital.

Photograph by Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

President Barack Obama bows his head during a prayer at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington on Feb. 2, 2012.

President Barack Obama approached the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington this morning with a mixture of humor and humility, some insight into what he was thinking as he asked for another chance to look out upon that crowd at his second inaugural ceremony at the Capitol and a lament about the real Washington to which he returns after church today.

Following an introduction of the president, Obama joked: “I thought he was going to talk about my gray hair…  It is true that my daughters are gorgeous.  That’s because my wife is gorgeous.  And my goal is to improve my gene pool.”

He spoke of faith and conviction and spoke of the Bibles on which he had sworn his oaths of office.  He spoke of his friend and director of the Faith-Based Office, that office a carry-over from the administration of George W. Bush. The current director, Joshua DuBois, sends Obama a daily meditation via e-mail, a “snippet of Scripture for me to reflect on.”

“Recently I had occasion to reflect on the power of faith,” Obama said. “A few weeks ago, during the inauguration, I was blessed to place my hand on the Bibles of two great Americans, two men whose faith still echoes today.  One was the Bible owned by President Abraham Lincoln, and the other, the Bible owned by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  As I prepared to take the sacred oath, I thought about these two men, and I thought of how, in times of joy and pain and uncertainty, they turned to their Bibles to seek the wisdom of God’s word — and thought of how, for as long as we’ve been a nation, so many of our leaders, our Presidents, and our preachers, our legislators and our jurists have done the same.  Each one faced their own challenges; each one finding in Scripture their own lessons from the Lord. ‘

After his ceremonial inauguration outside the Capitol on Jan. 21, the second-term president paused, explaining that he wanted to take another look at a scene on the national mall that he wouldn’t see again.

“As I was looking out on the crowd during the inauguration I thought of Dr. King,” Obama said today. “We often think of him standing tall in front of the endless crowds, stirring the nation’s conscience with a bellowing voice and a mighty dream.  But I also thought of his doubts and his fears, for those moments came as well — the lonely moments when he was left to confront the presence of long-festering injustice and undisguised hate; imagined the darkness and the doubt that must have surrounded him when he was in that Birmingham jail, and the anger that surely rose up in him the night his house was bombed with his wife and child inside, and the grief that shook him as he eulogized those four precious girls taken from this Earth as they gathered in a house of God.”

“And I was reminded that, yes, Dr. King was a man of audacious hope and a man of relentless optimism.  But he was always — he was also a man occasionally brought to his knees in fear and in doubt and in helplessness.  And in those moments, we know that he retreated alone to a quiet space so he could reflect and he could pray and he could grow his faith.”

“We know Lincoln had such moments as well,” the president said. “To see this country torn apart, to see his fellow citizens waging a ferocious war that pitted brother against brother, family against family — that was as heavy a burden as any president will ever have to bear.”

“Today, the divisions in this country are, thankfully, not as deep or destructive as when Lincoln led, but they are real,” he said. “The differences in how we hope to move our nation forward are less pronounced than when King marched, but they do exist. ”

Thinking, finally, of that Capitol where he pledged to carry out a second term as president, Obama said this, again eliciting some laughter:

“I have to say this is now our fifth prayer breakfast and it is always just a wonderful event.  But I do worry sometimes that as soon as we leave the prayer breakfast, everything we’ve been talking about the whole time at the prayer breakfast seems to be forgotten — on the same day of the prayer breakfast.  I mean, you’d like to think that the shelf life wasn’t so short.  But I go back to the Oval Office and I start watching the cable news networks and it’s like we didn’t pray.”

His hope, he said, is that that humility “carries over every day.”

Original post is Obama’s Prayer for Humility in D.C. by Political Capital.

Photograph by Sascha Darmer/DAPD/AP Photo

Beyonce in Berlin in this file photo.

Beyonce played Obama’s inauguration.

Beyonce is going to play the Super Bowl.

The singer was lip-syncing outside the Capitol on Inauguration Day.

She was not lip-syncing, it appeared, at her news conference today in advance of her Super Bowl half-time performance Sunday.

The singer asked the attendees of the conference to stand.

Then she belted out the National Anthem a cappella.

“Any questions,” she asked.

Yes, there was a question about that inaugural performance.

“I am a perfectionist,” she explained, somewhat nervously. “I practice until my feet bleed… I did not have time to practice with the orchestra (The President’s Marine Band) … I did not feel comfortable taking a risk” in the singing of the anthem for President Barack Obama’s second swearing-in on Jan. 21. “I am very proud of my performance.”

Come Sunday, the show will not be on Memorex: “I will absolutely be singing live,” she said of Super Bowl XLVII. “This is what I was born to do.”

Original post is Beyonce Belts Out Anthem: Super Bowl Preview by Political Capital.

Photograph by Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg

An attendee holds an American flag with an image of President Barack Obama before the start of the presidential inauguration in Washington on Jan. 21, 2013.

With 60 percent of Americans surveyed voicing a favorable view of President Barack Obama at the start of his second term, his popularity is at its highest since his first year in office, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll. His rating has gained 10 points since last summer, in the heat of the presidential election contest.

Obama last saw this level of approval in November 2009, according to the poll run by Langer Research Associates. His popularity had peaked at 79 percent days before he took office four years ago.

A narrow majority also approved of his second-term inaugural address last week – 51 percent approve in this poll — while just 24 percent disapproved, a 2-1 ratio in favor of the speech. A quarter of Americans surveyed offered no opinion of it.

Langer notes: “Favorability – which differs from job approval – is the most basic rating of a public figure’s personal popularity. Obama’s exceeds (George W.) Bush’s at the start of his second term by 5 percentage points, but trails (Bill) Clinton’s by 5 and (Ronald) Reagan’s by 12.”

More people voiced a “strongly” favorable opinion of Obama than those who had a strongly unfavorable one, 39 percent versus 26 percent, and twice as many strongly approved of his inaugural speech as those who disapproved. Langer: “It’s the first time he’s been significantly more strongly popular than unpopular since early 2010.”

The polarization of the American populace has not disappeared, however: The president remains highly popular within his own party, with 92 percent favorability. And it’s noteworthy that 60 percent of independents see him favorably, also a best since his first year in office. He remains unpopular among 80 percent of Republicans.

See the full results of the poll, a survey of 1,022 adults conducted Jan. 23-27, with a possible margin of error of 3.5 percentage points, here.

Original post is Obama More Popular than Bush — Less than Clinton, Reagan, at Second Start by Political Capital.

President Barack Obama, who pledged as a presidential candidate in 2008 to strengthen the Federal Election Commission and nominate members “committed to enforcing our nation’s election laws’, is now creating “an unprecedented vehicle for potential influence-buying, influence-selling and government scandals for his administration during his second term.”

So says Fred Wertheimer, a longtime advocate of more restrictions on campaign fundraising and president of Democracy 21, a Washington-based advocacy group, as he called on Obama to shut down his new grassroots lobbying group.

Wertheimer is referring to Obama’s decision to convert his re-election campaign committee to a nonprofit group, Organizing for America, which can take in unlimited corporate, union and individual contributions and can keep its donors hidden from public view.

While the committee has said it will disclose its contributors, Obama’s inaugural fundraising committee pledged to do the same, though simply provided a list of names without any identifying occupations, addresses or amounts.

Obama criticized the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which removed limits on corporate and union spending in campaigns. Now, Wertheimer suggested, Obama is “opening a cashier’s window with his name on it.”

The Obama campaign committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Original post is Obama’s ‘Cashier’s Window’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by Alex Wong/Getty Images

A Washington, D.C. ‘TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION’ license plate on Vice President Joseph Biden’s limousine.

Taxation without representation.

It’s a storied complaint in American history.

In Washington, D.C., it’s a license plate.

For all the failures of Washingtonians to gain recognition from the Congress that operates in their own home town, a long-denied bid for statehood for the District of Columbia or even some measure of independence more stately than the landlord relationship they have with the congressional committees that approve their civic budgets has yielded little more than the license plates complaining about all the taxes people pay in the district with the nation’s highest wages and the lack of representation they have in the House and Senate.

They did convince President Barack Obama to slap the “Taxation Without Representation” D.C. plates on his armored limousines for his inauguration.

“Attaching these plates to the presidential vehicles demonstrates the president’s commitment to the principle of full representation for the people of the District of Columbia and his willingness to fight for voting rights, home rule, and budget autonomy for the district,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said on Jan. 17,

And now, once again, senators are introducing a statehood bill. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin of  Illinois has joined Sens. Tom Carper of Delaware, Barbara Boxer of California and Patty Murray of Washington in introducing the perennial D.C. statehood bill.

Call it New Columbia.

The 51st state would have full voting rights in Congress, and a federal district called Washington, D.C., encompassing the White House,  Capitol, Supreme Court and National Mall would still remain under the control of Congress, as the Constitution mandates, under the bill. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton , the non-voting delegate from D.C., introduced companion legislation in the House earlier this month.

“”Washington, D.C. is not just a collection of government offices, monuments and museums; it is home to more than 600,000 people who work, study, raise families, and start businesses,” Carper says. “These citizens serve in our military, fight in our wars, die for our country, and pay federal taxes. But when it comes to having a voice in Congress, suddenly these men and women do not count.”

“With the 57th presidential inauguration just days behind us, it might surprise some students of American history to know that it wasn’t until the 1964 election that residents of the District of Columbia were finally able to cast a ballot for President and Vice President of the United States,” says Durbin. “”Unfortunately, the disenfranchisement of these citizens is not yet a relic of history.”

“We live in the only democracy in the world that denies voting representation to residents of its capital city,” adds Murray. “Residents of the District of Columbia have been denied their right to fully participate in our democracy for far too long, and this legislation would finally give them a voice.”

Original post is Washington Statehood: ‘New Columbia’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Singer Beyonce performs the national anthem during the presidential inauguration in Washington on Jan. 21, 2013.

Updated Jan. 23

Is it Karaoke, if it’s your own song?

Is it real, or is it Memorex?

Beyonce’s lip-synced rendition of the National Anthem at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration wasn’t ground-breaking: Cellist Yo-Yo Ma bow-synced his performance at Obama’s first inauguration because it was so cold there.

Jennifer Hudson lip-synced the National Anthem at the 2009 Super Bowl, and Whitney Houston lipped it at the 1991 Super Bowl.

The Times of London broke the news about Beyonce — The New York Times followed with a tweet: “Beyonce it ain’t so” — with a statement from the Marine Corps Band’s spokeswoman: “We did pre-record it and it was Beyoncé’s decision at the last minute to go with the pre-recorded version. We pre-recorded all music as a matter of course and have done since time immemorial. This is our 54th inauguration… There is no question of there not being any music — it’s not because the performer cannot do it.”

Master Sgt. Kristin duBois of the Band (the Marines’) told the New York Times the weather was favorable and the players were having no troublewith the prelude to the ceremony: “We don’t know why (Beyonce went with the prepared tape). But that is what we were instructed to do so that is what we did. It’s not because Beyoncé can’t sing. We all know Beyoncé can sing. We all know the Marine Band can play.”

Byy Tuesday afternoon, the Marine Corps was backing off duBois’s statement, saying that the band had not played live though was not in a position to know if Beyonce had sung live or not. Capt. Gregory A. Wolf, a Marine Corps spokesman, told the New York Times that the corps had determined that a live performance of the anthem was ill advised because its members had little time to rehearse with the singer.

Aretha Franklin, who performed the National Anthem for Obama’s first inauguration, is quoted by the Daily Mail — they seem to be having no end of fun with this story in Great Britain — as saying:  “’When I heard the news this evening that she was pre-recorded I really laughed. I thought it was funny because the weather down there was about 46 or 44 degrees and for most singers that is just not good singing weather. ‘When I heard that I just really cracked up. I thought it was really funny, but she did a beautiful job with the pre-record.’

Milli Vanilli got a Grammy revoked for taking the Greyhound route through the recording studio: The band-leaders let others do the singing for them.

Ever since former President George H.W. Bush sealed his later-broken 1988 promise not to raise taxes with his “Read My Lips,” Washington has been watching every movement of the mouths at momentous times.

They’ll be watching closely in four more years.

Original post is Beyonce’s Watch-My-Lips-Spangled Banner by Political Capital.

Photograph by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Vice President Joe Biden arrives during the presidential inauguration on the West Front of the Capitol on Jan. 21, 2013 in Washington.

President Barack Obama skipped the American Legion’s veterans ball for the second time, favoring his own inaugural event for service members.

About two dozen recipients of the Medal of Honor joined hundreds attending the organization’s “Salute to Heroes” ball, a 60-year tradition designed to recognize soldiers given the top military award for valor in combat.

Vice President Joe Biden subbed in for Obama. He arrived shortly after attendees finished their entrées — beef medallions and swordfish — and after the dinner soundtrack had played country star Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red White and Blue” for the second time in two hours.

“The entire country owes you,” Biden told the veterans and their families gathered at Marriott International Inc.’s Renaissance hotel in downtown Washington. `”Where your service ends, as citizens, our obligation begins.”

Biden’s eldest son, Beau, Delaware’s attorney general, served in Iraq for a year as a member of the Army National Guard. Hunter Biden, Beau’s younger brother, is about to be sworn in as a Navy officer, the vice president said last night.

Jeff Miller, a Florida Republican who chairs the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and attended the American Legion event, praised Biden’s speech. The vice president “truly understands” the sacrifice of military families, Miller said.

Less than two miles away, Obama again hosted his own inaugural gathering for troops, the Commander-in-Chief’s Ball, at the Washington Convention Center.

This is the second time Obama hasn’t made the American Legion event. In 2009, he became the first president to miss the ball since it was first held in 1953 and Dwight Eisenhower had just taken office.

“We know he has a lot going on,” Marty Callaghan, an American Legion spokesman, said midway through last night’s event. “The president is always welcome here.”

Original post is Veterans Partied on Without Obama by Political Capital.

Photograph by Mario Tama/Getty Images

Singer Alicia Keys performs during the Public Inaugural Ball at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on Jan. 21, 2013 in Washington.

Alicia Keys took the stage at the Inaugural Ball, playing piano for a ready crowd with a revised rendition of her “Girl on Fire:”

“Obama’s on Fire.”

“He’s the president, and he’s on fire,” Keys sang to a delighted audience. “He’s living in a world and it’s on fire… filled with catastrophe, but he knows he can’t fly away. He’s got both feet on the ground, and he’s burning it down.”

The president and first lady took the stage at 9:55 p.m. and danced to “Let’s Stay Together,” sung by Jennifer Hudson.

On this inaugural day for a second term, the first president elected twice with 51-percent-plus margins of victory since Republican Dwight Eisenhower’s re-election in 1956 was not only intent on keeping his electoral coalition together — with an address reciting the core beliefs of a progressive political agenda. He also was intent on firing up that base for a new round of debates with Congress over everything from immigration and climate change to entitlement spending and gun control.

“All fired up, ready to go,” chanted some of the diners at the post-inaugural luncheon in the Capitol.

“Our work begins today,” the president tweeted from church yesterday. “Let’s go. -bo”

Now comes the cold, clear daylight of a wintry day in Washington, where the House Ways and Means Committee is holding a hearing on the debt-ceiling increase that the president is seeking. The House’s Republicans are inclined to give him only a three-month extension.

Now comes the e-mail from Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, warning supporters that Obama and his allies are “coming for your guns.”

“You and I are literally surrounded,” McConnell writes in an e-mail first reported by The Hill. “The gun-grabbers in the Senate are about to launch an all-out-assault on the Second Amendment. On your rights. On your freedom.”

McConnell campaign manager Jesse Benton spotlights three prongs of the new push for gun control following the shootings at Newtown, Connecticut. They include “the Feinstein Gun Ban,” California Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s legislation to ban assault weapons. “It is almost hard to believe the sheer breadth and brazenness of this attempt to gut our Constitution,” Benton writes.

Feinstein will roll out her legislation this week. Feinstein also will meet with Florida’s Republican Sen. Marco Rubio on the farm-worker provisions of a potential immigration bill. The opposition to any such reforms stands ready to pounce there as well.

The president may have fired up his base this week, yet the Republican ranks of McConnell’s forces in the Senate and House Speaker John Boehner’s fractured caucus in the House stand ready with a fire hose for much of what the White House will put forth.

Original post is ‘Obama’s on Fire:’ Alicia Keys — Boehner-McConnell Have Hoses by Political Capital.

St. Thomas More

For all the designer fashions festooning the inaugural ceremonies for President Barack Obama’s second term today, none appeared quite as inscrutable as the hat donned by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

However, it took a mere reminder of the last inauguration, when the justice appeared with another notable skull cap, to understand the justice’s fashion statement.

“This year’s hat was a custom-made replica of the hat depicted in Holbein’s famous portrait of St. Thomas More” (see above), legal expert Jeffrey Toobin noted, as the Atlantic Wire explains. “It was a gift from the St. Thomas More Society of Richmond, Virginia, presented to him in November 2010 as a memento of his participation in our 27th annual Red Mass and dinner.”

The justices of the court, as pictured above left, may have had something else on their minds this morning — like the breakfast served at the court.

Original post is Scalia Channels St. Thomas More by Political Capital.