“Constantino Brumidi, the Italian-born fresco artist whose ornate Renaissance- and Pompeian-style murals decorate much of the United States Capitol,” remains a relatively unknown figure in the corridors of Washington power. “Enter [Joseph] Grano, a fast-talking lawyer and civic gadfly whose causes include historic preservation, and who is now dedicated, he said, to making Brumidi “a folk hero for Americans.” As chairman of the Constantino Brumidi Society, a loose-knit group he runs out of his apartment here, Mr. Grano has spent five years poking and prodding Washington’s power elite to honor Brumidi: on coins and stamps, with Congressional resolutions, even the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.”