Politics

(Marlon Correa) Last Call!

Friday’s the deadline for entries to the Loop’s contest to figure out where Congress should put that East Coast missile defense site. A really good suggestion may induce the Senate to agree with the House’s proposal to protect us — now that the Nationals are finally winning — from Iran’s potential long-range missiles.

You can leave your entry as a comment on the blog — you may want to double-check that there’s an active e-mail address associated with your washingtonpost.com log-in.

You can also e-mail us at intheloop@washpost.com. (Please make sure you include a home or cellphone number so we can contact you.)

The top five winners will receive a coveted In the Loop T-shirt and the usual bragging rights when we announce winners. (If you need to enter “on background,” that’s fine.)

Good luck.

Blind activist Chen Guangcheng, center, holds hands with U.S. Ambassador to China, Gary Locke, at a hospital in Beijing. (Associated Press) The Beijing Daily, the propaganda organ of the city’s communist party bosses, has oft-criticized U.S. ambassador Gary Locke for doing things like flying in economy class, carrying his own backpack, buying coffee with a discount coupon and being frugal in general.

The criticism grew as the case of blind human rights activist — and now New York University student — Chen Guangcheng heated up.

The paper has said that Locke’s acting like a “common man” was just a show. Worse, the University of Hong Kong’s media project reported last week, that the paper said Locke’s actions “create conflict” in that supposedly classless country, where government officials somehow manage to amass enormous wealth.

But when the Beijing Daily tweeted that Locke should reveal his personal assets, the suggestion backfired.

Barney Frank is marking a quarter-century of being out of the closet — with a fundraiser. (Jay Mallin - Bloomberg) The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is planning a coming-out party. But don’t expect debutantes in white dresses — the campaign is feting Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) on the anniversary of his own coming-out ... of the closet.

“Barney is an inspiration to all of us as one of the first openly gay Congressmen to serve in the House,” wrote Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), who is also gay, in an e-mail invitation. “This event will be particularly moving for me as it will be one of our last events with him before he retires this year.”

Frank, who is retiring after 16 terms, came out in 1987 after serving in the House for six years. He recalled to the Boston Globe that he did so in a Globe story that appeared on Memorial Day of that year. “While I did it primarily for myself, I also wanted to make a point that this was me, this was a part of me, and this was not going to be used to hurt me,’’ he said.

And for the DCCC’s party, bringing your dancing might not be enough — tickets to the rooftop party at Mexican restaurant El Centro D.F. start at $100, and go up to $5,000 for host-level billing.

After all, if Frank can come out — so can the checkbooks.

(Kevin Lamarque - Reuters)

Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, might have been at the center of the storm early this year when President Obama made his controversial recess appointment to head the newly created agency.

But Cordray’s not exactly a bombastic, limelight-seeking type — he’s actually mild-mannered and just a little nerdy (he’s a five-time Jeopardy! champ). He answered the Loop’s questions for the inaugural edition of a new Q & A feature we’re calling Background Check, in which we grill various government types about their lives on and off the clock. (You can send suggestions for future subjects to intheloop@washpost.com).

Cordray spills about how his parents inspired him — and about his likeness to the actor who plays Kenneth the NBC page on the show “30 Rock.”

What’s your favorite non-work-related Web site/app/magazine?

Sports Illustrated

Fill in the blank: People would be surprised to know that I ______.

Was persuaded to rent a Kindle from my son for $7 a month (the dark side of financial savvy).

What’s your dream job?

Writer

Here’s what the Loop’s reading this morning:

U.S. Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan testified. (Charles Dharapak - AP) What scandal? — Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan put in an entertaining performance while testifying before Congress about his agency’s prostitution scandal, according to our colleague Dana Milbank. His blithe denials “had the effect of elevating the scandal category from embarrassment to possible coverup.”

Vanilla veep — Here’s why Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) would make a perfect vice-presidential candidate, in his own words: “I’m so boring that I didn’t even know I was boring,” he says, according to our colleague Michael Leahy.

Courtroom drama — Jurors in the case against former Sen. John Edwards are following the “Bunny money,” our colleague Manuel Roig-Franza reports. Meanwhile, our colleague T.W. Farnam reports that legal experts are giving the edge to Edwards — if he’s convicted, they say he’s likely to win an appeal.