Cliquey sens. muse on ties; Chafee treated like outcast

Sometimes a tie is just a tie, and sometimes it carries a deeper meaning, as in the case of a couple of chummy senators who ganged up on a liberal Republican just before the recess.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) was traveling northbound up the stairs from the Senate Dining Room to the floor when he spotted Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) coming down the stairs. Both men were wearing yellow ties.

“Did you get the memo on the yellow ties today?” Leahy asked Craig.

“I did, but guess who didn’t,” Craig replied.

Mere steps behind Leahy was the unassuming Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) in a dark-blue patterned tie, who remarked, “Out of step as usual.”

Rep. Gene Taylor — will he build a shack or cottage?

For the moment, Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) is still technically homeless as he continues his pleasant freeloading at his brother’s spacious abode in Kiln, Miss.

As you may remember, Hurricane Katrina destroyed Taylor’s coastal home. In a couple months, however, Taylor’s hoping to change his homeless status by building something in the same place where his home was leveled by the storm.

“I’m hoping to have some kind of roof over my head by May,” Taylor says. “I call it a shack; my wife calls it a cottage. If the insurance company can ever treat us right, we’ll build it. I want to be out of his [the brother’s] hair by May.”

Hill flacks throw ‘Greatest American Heroes’ party

Relatively good and wholesome fun was had last weekend at a party on Capitol Hill hosted by roommates David All, press secretary to Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), and Ken Spain, spokesman for Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas).

All dressed up as Ali G in the full regalia of a bright-yellow soccer shirt, ski goggles and gaudy jewelry. Spain, meanwhile, kept it simple with a black-and-white-striped shirt, Hawaiian shorts and handcuffs — he was former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.).

Brian Walsh, spokeswoman for Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), was dressed fittingly in a long black robe — he was Jack Abramoff’s judge. Brad Dayspring, spokesman for Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), was dressed as Michael Knight from the early-’80s TV series “Knight Rider,” as was John Goodwin, spokesman for Rep. Rob Simmons (R-Conn.).

Scott Graves, another Conaway aide, was Magnum PI. Brendan Belair, a legislative assistant for Rep. Charles Norwood (R-Ga.), was Pee-wee Herman. There was also a phony Jenna Bush who mingled with a clipboard, asking guests to sign up for her exclusive Smith Point list.

Mike Gula, a Capitol Hill fundraiser, came dressed as Don Johnson from “Miami Vice.”

One of the more memorable costumes of the evening was worn by Jay Perron, a fundraiser for House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who donned green scrubs and a stethoscope and fluffed his hair for his rendition of McDreamy, i.e. Dr. Shepherd from the hit ABC drama “Grey’s Anatomy.” Throughout the evening he used the stethoscope to check the hearts of female guests to apparently make sure they had no palpitations.

Sherman (aka Sandy Keller) sends supporters ‘Colbert Report’ alert

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) is obviously proud of his recent appearance on “The Colbert Report” — but should he be?

This week the California lawmaker’s reelection campaign sent 11,000 e-mail alerts, complete with a direct video link to his performance, to potential voters.

In the course of his “Better Know a District” segment last week, Stephen Colbert repeatedly turned Sherman’s San Fernando Valley district into a haven of pornography, despite Sherman’s placid protests. Sherman, at one point, pretended to be a robot, to which Colbert looked at him, perplexed, and asked, “What are you doing?”

Sherman’s campaign e-letter is signed “Rep. Brad Sherman (aka Sandy Keller),” the pornography name Colbert created for him.

Healthcare lobbyist to judge another beauty pageant

Judging beauty is starting to become a routine matter for Jeff Kimbell, a healthcare lobbyist for Kimbell & Associates. Last year he was a judge at the Miss Universe pageant in Bangkok, Thailand. This year he’s a preliminary judge for the Miss USA pageant April 21 in Baltimore.

There are strict rules against fraternizing with the beauties. “You can have no interaction or relationship with any of the contestants in any form prior to the event,” he says.

Kimbell, who made The Hill’s 50 Most Beautiful People on Capitol Hill last year, believes he is qualified to judge beauty.

“I went to Southern Methodist University in Dallas, which was a pretty solid warm-up for this type of work,” he wrote in an e-mail. “On a per capita basis, I believe SMU has the strongest female heat in the country for the exception of Ole Miss.

“I’ve now been to three Miss Universe events and four Miss USA events in the past four years, which probably makes me a seasoned and crafty veteran of the sport.”

Shaw’s intern is an ESPN long-drive champion

Some lawmakers and lobbyists fancy themselves golf connoisseurs, but Rep. Clay Shaw (R-Fla.) has a real live pro in his office, an intern who is an ESPN long drive champion.

“I grew up on a golf course,” says Hank Kurusz, 23. “We’d go out at night, my dad and I.”

Kurusz lived on golf courses in Allentown, Pa., and West Palm Beach, Fla. He played junior-circuit tours in high school, where he was on the varsity golf team, and won a tournament at Florida State University during his freshman year, the same year he blew out his knee.

That is when he became involved in long-drive tournaments. In 2003 he won cash prizes — $15,000 in Dallas against a No. 1-ranked long driver, $10,000 for the Pinnacle Distance Challenge in Mesquite, Nev., $1,800 at the Long Drivers of America in Atlanta and $100 at the Cotton Classic in Macon, Ga.

His longest drive in competition: 421 yards.

For now, Kurusz is giving Capitol tours and helping the other legislative correspondents get their letters filed and batched. His major in college: criminology.

The intern, who has been sponsored by both Bang Golf and Mercury Golf, says it has been an adjustment moving to Washington’s colder climate and he hasn’t had much of a chance to golf around here.

His dream golf partner? “I heard the president plays,” he said. “That would be quite neat.” For now, he says, it would be an honor to hit the green with any member of Congress.

For the past several weeks, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) has been occasionally using a shoe cast on his right foot to help heal a hairline fracture. But when asked what happened, Gutierrez’s office uses a line that’s often used in the nation’s capital: The congressman can’t recall.

“He told me he wasn’t sure exactly how it happened but it may have been that he kicked the television during one of President Bush’s press conferences,” spokesman Scott Frotman says, assuring ITK that his boss was only joking.

The cast, which Frotman says looks like a Rollerblade skate minus the wheels, isn’t like the traditional plaster models that are signed by your friends. Gutierrez’s cast is more like a ski boot that requires no crutches.

Frotman, who says he’s no doctor and therefore unqualified to go into the minutiae of his boss’s fracture, says his boss wears the cast only when his foot hurts.

Schmidt’s chief of staff welcomes first child

Barry Bennett, chief of staff to Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio), and his wife, Melissa, had a baby girl, Ella McDowell, on March 8. The newborn weighed in at 7 pounds, 3 ounces.

The congresswoman is “very happy for them,” reports spokesman John Ashbrook, who says the office did not throw the couple a baby shower but bought them a little baby cap and shirt.