Colbert

Someone may have awarded Little Rhody three new congressional districts while we weren’t looking.

We thought there were just two until last week, when we surfed over to Recovery.gov, the Obama administration’s Web site that tracks federal stimulus spending.

More than $662 million has been awarded to Congressional Districts 1 and 2, creating or saving 1,954 jobs so far, according to figures posted for most of the week. That’s clear enough.

But there was more.

More than $10 million was earmarked for the 86th Congressional District, which has apparently already seen the creation (or salvation) of 57.9 jobs. And the feds didn’t ignore District 5 ($1.3 million) or District 00 ($336,000) either.

We weren’t sure whom to call to clarify the confusion.

“We do not know who represents the 86th and 5th Congressional Districts,” Governor Carcieri’s spokeswoman Amy Kempe told Political Scene with a chuckle. “Unfortunately, I don’t have those phone numbers for you.”

The phantom districts here and elsewhere were part of a national embarrassment for the Obama administration that was ultimately attributed to a glitch in the reporting system. Virtually all data on the site are posted by grant recipients, which range from state governments to universities to private contractors.

The Obama Administration’s Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, at the direction of the Office of Management and Budget, investigated and adjusted the figures for several states late in the week.

Congressional District 5 was actually a company headquartered in Massachusetts’ 5th District doing work in Rhode Island, according to the governor’s office. District 00 represents money entered by the state reflecting crime victim compensation funding and a security grant.

And 86 “appears to be the Providence Housing Authority,” Kempe told Political Scene.

“We don’t know how or why that happened,” she said.

Dennigan gets boost

Elizabeth “Betsy” Dennigan has earned the endorsement of the “largest organization of feminist activists in the United States.”

The National Organization for Women is backing the former East Providence state representative, who moved to Narragansett and hopes to unseat 2nd Congressional District incumbent U.S. Rep. James R. Langevin in a September 2010 Democratic primary election.

“Ms. Dennigan has been and will be unequivocal in her support of issues that improve the lives of women and as a result for families in Rhode Island and across the country,” said Carolyn Mark, president of NOW’s Rhode Island chapter, in a statement. “Now, more than ever, we need legislators who will stand up for women and Ms. Dennigan will do just that.”

The endorsement is not a surprise — Dennigan is pro-choice and Langevin is not — but it could pay dividends.

Dennigan has struggled with early fundraising efforts — she loaned her campaign $100,000 in the last quarter — and may now have access to NOW’s national network of political donors.

The move also suggests that like-minded organizations, such as Emily’s List, may not be far behind.

Colbert hits home

Governor Carcieri landed on national television last Monday night as the “star” of a biting — but laugh-out-loud — segment on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” about his veto of a bill that would have given gays the right to claim the bodies and make funeral decisions for their same-sex partners. Not a funny topic?

Tune in to the segment titled “Skeletons in the Closet” in which Stephen Colbert asks, “How is the governor of Rhode Island supposed to rest in peace knowing that a couple of plots over, two dudes are being gay dead?” — and decide for yourself.

With The Journal’s front-page story about Carcieri’s veto as his starting point, the mock-conservative Colbert begins broadly with this observation — “Gays ruin everything sacred, just look at what Michelangelo did to the Sistine Chapel. They’ll never scrub that stuff off” — then zeroes in on the case that prompted the legislation.

A sampling:

“I believe that the governor might not be going far enough if we really want to protect the sanctity of traditional decomposing … It might be time to bar gays from having funerals … and hear me out … I am not a monster … I am in favor of civil end-of-life ceremonies. It’s just like a funeral … except legally you don’t have to bring a covered dish … And instead of defiling our traditional graveyards, gay people can have their own same-sex cemeteries. We’ll call them ‘same-eteries’.”

By way of response, the Carcieri administration disseminated copies of an existing state law that allows people to fill out a form to designate a funeral planning agent. But he didn’t address the circumstances that led state lawmakers — even those adamantly opposed to same-sex marriage — to pass the vetoed bill in the first place: the refusal of state authorities to allow Mark Goldberg to claim the body of his partner of 17 years, despite his attempts to show them their marriage certificate from another state, living will and other documents.

Watch the spoof in its entirety online. But view with caution, as the 5-minute, 45-second piece does include some off-color references. The Rhode Island-specific portion begins about 1 minute and 45 seconds in.

Messages for troops

Two of the four Kilmartin brothers from Pawtucket are headed to Germany on the day after Thanksgiving to deliver a stack of greeting cards — and yes, that includes House Majority Whip Peter Kilmartin and his brother Paul, who is currently a councilman in Milton, Fla.

Rep. Kilmartin explains: they are going to visit Paul’s wife, Lt. Commander Pamela Kilmartin in the Navy Reserve, who is a nurse anesthetist assigned to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where seriously wounded soldiers are sent for treatment.

Once the idea of visiting her and the wounded soldiers took root, Peter Kilmartin said: “Paul and I asked local elementary schools in our respective cities to create greeting/get well cards for the soldiers.”

He was so touched by some of the handwritten greeting cards, he brought them to the State House for his own version of show-and-tell.

What one lacked in punctuation, it made up for in sentiment. A sampling: “We need you now the whole world needs you But get better.”

A second began: “My name is Danielle. I am in 6th grade and I go to Flora Curtis Elementary school. Please get well soon. So you can come home safely for the holidays.” Another said: “Thank you for being brave … Thank you for letting us have a life.” And another: “Thank you for saving us from terrorists.”

“As you can see by the samples I left you, the messages from the children have a measure of both insight and innocence. They really are touching,” Kilmartin said. “If anyone in Rhode Island has a loved one there, please have them e-mail me at rep-kilmartin@rilin.state.ri.us.”

speoples@projo.com