<strong><span class="subhead">Wonderful sounds</span></strong></p><p>Michelle and Barack Obama sat one table over from J. Lo and Marc Anthony, and all four of them were rocking in their seats as Sheila E. shook the house &mdash; well, the tent. </p><p>The latest installment of the White House music series was too big for the East Room, so a high-wattage assortment of Latin musicians sent pulsating, can&rsquo;t-help-but-bob-along rhythms tumbling out of a giant tent on the mansion&rsquo;s South Lawn. </p><p>As it happens, music of all sorts &mdash; rock, jazz, country, classical &mdash; has been busting out of the White House all year long. And they&rsquo;re not just tapping safe, living legends: Fresh faces like bachata band Aventura and Mexican pop sensation Thalia shared a stage with veteran performer Jose Feliciano at last week&rsquo;s Fiesta Latina. </p><p>The Obamas&rsquo; musical push started on day one when the Wynton Marsalis Quintet played for a private inaugural celebration party of 100 at the White House. Not long after that, the Obamas hosted an East Room tribute to Stevie Wonder that featured Tony Bennett, Martina McBride and Wonder himself. </p><p> The president called it &ldquo;the most accomplished Stevie Wonder cover band in history.&rdquo; </p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Back in flight</span></strong></p><p> West Virginia Democrat Robert Byrd reappeared on the Senate floor last week with some of his old bluster back after a season of frailty, this time to manage a $44.1 billion homeland security spending bill.</p><p> &ldquo;There are some people in this country who have become complacent about the threat of another attack,&rdquo; Byrd, chairman of the homeland security subpanel of the vaunted Appropriations Committee, said in a clear voice. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t count me as one of them.&rdquo;</p><p> Don&rsquo;t count him out either. Byrd, 91, is the longest-serving senator in history and has come back from a debilitating illness before.</p><p>Byrd spent the spring and summer fighting life-threatening infections, most recently after suffering a fall at his home in northern Virginia.</p><p>The Buzz says: Old senators never die. They just keep spending until all the money is gone.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Pronunciation guide</span></strong></p><p> You, too, can be on a first-name basis with a freshman congressman from New Orleans &mdash; because people can&rsquo;t seem to get his last name right.</p><p> Republican Anh &ldquo;Joseph&rdquo; Cao won election last December. Since then, he has heard his name mispronounced &mdash; usually as &ldquo;cow&rdquo; or &ldquo;chow&rdquo; &mdash; by newscasters and public officials, including President Barack Obama.</p><p> And he&rsquo;s noticed debates about the pronunciation on Internet blogs. So he has issued a tongue-in-cheek open letter humorously trying to set the record straight.</p><p> To pronounce it correctly, start with a hard &ldquo;g&rdquo; sound, as in go, and then make it rhyme with &ldquo;pow&rdquo; or &ldquo;how.&rdquo; But in the end, Cao seems resigned to his last name being botched.</p><p> &ldquo;On second thought, never mind,&rdquo; he advises. &ldquo;Just call me Joseph.&rdquo;</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">What goes up&ensp;&hellip;</span></strong></p><p>Gallup.com reports that President Barack Obama averaged 52.9 percent approval in his third quarter in office, down sharply from a 62 percent average in his second quarter. That is the largest drop between those quarters for an elected president since 1953, and one of the largest quarter-to-quarter drops for any first-year president.