In a recent Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee hearing on the effort to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina, Sen. Barbara Boxer’s (D-Calif.) opening statement described New Orleans as a “toxic soup” with a layer of “sludge” that had caused illness and death.

An ITK spy reports that Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) took great exception and chastised Boxer her for scaring his constituents and visitors with exaggeration.

Boxer walked over and knelt down behind Vitter’s seat at the dais, apparently to patch things up. But Vitter wouldn’t have any of it and kept his back to Boxer. When she persisted, he shrugged her off.

Boxer rose and returned to her seat visibly angry.


Be the first ‘It Girl’ at Bubbles salon

So it’s not the 50 Most Beautiful People on Capitol Hill, but it is a beauty contest.

The Bubbles salon on Capitol Hill (205 Pennsylvania Ave. S.E.) and the K Street salon (2020 K St. N.W.) will hold an open call today from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Women can enter through the end of the month, and the winner will be announced in January.

So just who is the “It Girl?” “She needs to be style-conscious, she needs to have a modern attitude, be in tune with what’s hot in fashion, beauty and entertainment,” said Marie Manning, spokeswoman for Bubbles. “She needs to be savvy enough to take a look at the runway and translate that into her personal life, and of course, she’ll need to have fabulous hair.”

The “It Girl” will win one year of complimentary services — everything from cut, color and highlights to whatever makes her look fabulous.


Harry Connick Jr. lights up Senate Finance Committee

Capitol Hill is accustomed to celebrities prowling its tunnels on their way to testify before one committee or another, but it’s always fun to watch a star find his inner pol.

Such was the case when neo-Sinatra crooner Harry Connick Jr. appeared before the Senate Finance Committee last week in his capacity as honorary chairman of Habitat for Humanity’s Operation Home Delivery, a program delivering new homes to hundreds of Hurricane Katrina victims.

“We need to get away from this black-white thing, this upper-class, lower-class thing,” Connick told senators during his testimony after visiting his hometown of New Orleans in the disaster’s aftermath. Connick even mentioned the three children he has with former Victoria’s Secret model Jill Goodacre. When they recite the Pledge of Allegiance, he is skeptical.

“When they talk about ‘one nation,’ man, we’re not talking about one nation now,” Connick said of Katrina recovery efforts.

Perhaps someone should send the crooner a copy of Laura Ingraham’s best seller, Shut Up And Sing.


Rep. King says he’s in ‘culture shock’

Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) says his new role as Homeland Security Committee chairman has changed his life.

For example, he has “talked to more Republicans in the last few months than” ever before.

“It’s a culture shock,” he said at a recent cocktail party at La Colline, explaining that part of the reason he has been unable to spend more time with reporters is that he’s forced to spend more time on the floor chatting up lawmakers who believe they now have important issues to raise with him.

Sighting: Reps dine late night at Greek Taverna

Taverna — The Greek Islands on Capitol Hill was the venue for a quintessential late-night bull session Thursday.

While Reps. Melissa Hart (R-Pa.) and Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) dined al fresco with an undisclosed gentleman, Rep. Marty Meehan (D-Mass.) dined inside with a gaggle of young aides. The topic of the evening was, of course, politics.

Hart, McCotter and company spoke of the rough and tumble of American politics, discussing everything from Fox News to Rush Limbaugh to the late President Ronald Reagan. Meehan, meanwhile, drank a light beer and chatted with dinner guests about various pieces of legislation. At the end of the evening he marveled at how many of his staffers have gone on to bigger and better things and that he helped to make them who they are.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Rep. Farr’s spokeswoman to wed Iraq war vet

McCall Cameron, communications director to Rep. Sam Farr (R-Texas), is engaged to Capt. Tyson McCallister Avery.

Avery proposed in August; the night after, they and their families celebrated with dinner on the beach in La Jolla, Calif.

Avery, a veteran of the war in Iraq, has been an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps since 1997. He now works at the Pentagon in the Judge Advocate Support Division.

The couple met in La Jolla nearly a year ago after former San Marino resident Suzanne (Knaphurst) Roberts introduced the pair because, in her words, they “both love being Americans.”

Cameron, 32, now of Alexandria, Va., and Avery, 31, who lives in Arlington, Va., plan a May 2006 wedding in San Marino, Calif.