Mary Katharine Ham, the shining fresh face of the anti-statist party

 

Mary Katharine Ham of The Weekly Standard, the fresh new face of the right side of the aisle. The lady's not for conning. Eat your heart out, Rahm Emanuel.

"Just walked into my first WH Correspondents dinner, ever, in between Gov. Mark Warner and Ludacris. Weird night in D.C. Ha," twitters the shining fresh face of the anti-statist party, our own smart-as-a-whip and totally adorable Mary Katharine Ham, known on Twitter as mkhammer. She has the looks of a fancy-free school girl, the "relentless, unflagging optimism" of a Jack Kemp and the ability to articulate the notion of a nation of laws, not of men, in debate with the best of what the other side has to offer on the Number One cable show out there, the unwatchable O'Reilly Factor. When she's on, we always have to mute when O'Reilly or her sparring partner of the day bloviates, but she is always a joy. You ask why we twitter? Mkhammer's news reports and insights alone make it worthwhile.

Now this tweet from WaPo A-list beltway gossip columnist Howard Kurtz, who offers "some pics of the big afternoon pre-party on my Facebook page," noting that it's a "Good day to put out bad news as all journos otherwise engaged":

Todd Palin seemed like a very nice gent, for the record. I just wasn't expecting to see him at this shindig  …

Sometime in the last few yrs the WH dinner turned into spring prom week for Beltway nerds. And Hollywood decided it was a stop on the tour …

I'm virtually certain MSNBC has never covered the WH dinner live before. Bush loyalists, take note!

Fun stuff. We're delighted to learn that C-SPAN is covering the event live. Will be looking for Mary Katharine. Can't wait to see her dress, her escort, her sparkling presence amongst the jaded and corrupted powers that be.

Update: "'Nerdprom' prompts Twitter buzz" [#nerdprom is the tag given to the event by twittering dinner attendees]:

CNN White House correspondent Ed Henry said Twitter has become one of the new status symbols, tweeting: "new status symbol at #whca #nerd prom: @howardkurtz reminded me last nite he has over 6k followers. must catch up!"

We've got 115 followers and counting. Where it all may lead, who knows? Annie Gottlieb links to Ad Age's provocative "The Coming End of YouTube, Twitter and Facebook Socialism" with her usual wry wit in 140 characters or less:

Twitter cd just disappear? 'Cause no one's making money from all this tweeting. Venture capital supports addiction

Now we hear the folks who brought you Twitter are fixing to release "something new and entirely different" called Squirrel, a "service that allows anyone with an iPhone to become a merchant." The business of America is business. Sounds like a good idea to us.

Update: Talk about fun stuff, Instalanche!

Update II: "We need 100,000 MK Ham's," writes Dorothy Jane in the comments. Or, as the Professor might put it, An ARMY of MK Hams.

Update III: "Thousand thanks for writing such nice things about me. You're too kind, but I'll try my best to be fresh, shining and ALWAYS anti-statist!" twitters the fresh, shining and ALWAYS anti-statist mkhammer.

Update IV: Once more with feeling from the Professor: "The delightfulness of Mary Katharine Ham.

Comments

[Dorothy Jane]

We need 100000 MK Ham's -

[buddy larsen]

hi,

me too --LOVE the gal --

[Sissy Willis]

Dorothy Jane: An ARMY of MK Hams!

Hi, Buddy. Thanks for stopping by. :-)

[Laura Lee Donoho]

Mary Katharine spells her name correctly! She is a breath of fresh air and a bright, unaffected, happy warrior in the never ending war against statism. I've been reading Mark Levin's book, Liberty and Tyranny (a Conservative Manifesto) and like Levin, M.K. doesn't cut corners when she explains conservative ideas. She gets it.

[AKDan]

I just want to MARRY Mary Katharine (MKHam)!!!

[buddy larsen]

Thanks, Sissy -- and you, AKDan, get in line! Wanted to say, you gotta hand it to Fox --or O'Reilly -- for signing up the young lady -- even tho O'Reilly never lets her get more than her preamble said before he wades back in. I sometimes imagine tv news life without Fox and it is very, very chilly -- a Prague Winter, so to speak.

[Dave Lincoln]

I only need one Mary Catherine Ham....

... oh, you mean our country. I see, yeah maybe a coupla million would be nice.

[Morton A. Goldberg, DVM]

She's a remarkable young lady. Seems perfectly at ease at all times, even when up against pompous ass O'Reilly. As long as we have people like Mary Katharine Ham, I am certain that our side will ultimately prevail.

[Reggie1971]

Agree 100% about Mary Katharine.

Er, but O'Reilly is unwatchable? It must have the highest ratings ever for a show that is "unwatchable".

[Greta]

And she looks good in a tiara like you do!