If you haven’t received the missives of Andrea LeBlanc, deputy director of communications for House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-Va.), you’re sincerely missing out.

The most recent of LeBlanc’s oddly personal e-mails was dispatched Monday afternoon.

“How was your weekend?” she wrote. “I hope this email finds you well. Perhaps you were either a ‘giver’ or a ‘receiver’ of the annual, really bad necktie this weekend. If on the ‘receiving’ end, where will you decide to wear your new fashion statement? I wish there was a holiday in June that honored single women for surviving on our own. Substitute ‘annual necktie’ for ‘yearly Manalo [sic] Blahnik’ and I would proudly show off my gift at work, just like the rest of you.”

Though it sounds like the ramblings of a blog, the above quote is actually a lead-in to the committee schedule that is circulated to reporters each week. LeBlanc goes on to say the Thursday business meeting has been postponed and mentions a committee hearing scheduled for today.

In an e-mail Friday, she wrote, “How are you? I hope you are well. Has your favorite old 70’s or 80’s band come back for reunion yet? Who would you pick? My friend just bought Journey tickets. Love to hear if you have a good story about your old favorites making a trip back to ‘spandex’. Attached below is our schedule for Government Reform.”

She began a June 2 e-mail by writing, “How are you? It was a 4-day week. Did it really seem like 4?”

LeBlanc said that she isn’t necessarily trying to be funny. “Just trying to connect with reporters on a human level,”  she said.  So is it working? “People are responding to me,” she said.

LeBlanc began her position on the committee in early April. She is not new to Washington but is new to Capitol Hill.

Somehow it wouldn’t be fitting for Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.) to have a boring fundraiser in a boring banquet room on Capitol Hill.

So it’s not terribly surprising that the upcoming June 28 fundraiser being thrown for Ford’s run for Senate is being held at Buck’s Fishing & Camping, the hip hot spot in Upper Northwest D.C.

In a rare move, restaurant owner and longtime Democratic supporter James Alefantis is throwing the congressman a fundraiser that will suit him just fine, considering it’s a Memphis-style barbecue with corn on the cob, pork ribs, grits and corn bread. There will also be a blues band.

Co-hosts of the fundraiser include lobbyist power couple Heather and Tony Podesta, former President Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta and Alefantis’s domestic partner, David Brock, a former right-wing journalist. Other bigwigs expected to attend include former White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry and former Clinton press aide Ann Walker Marchant.

Alefantis definitely doesn’t want his shindig to be boring. “I tried to make it sort of fun because you go to these things and it’s a bunch of lobbyists drinking,” he said, explaining that the low-dollar affair will hopefully draw a mix of old Washington and younger people.

He has hosted fundraisers in the past — one for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) at Heather and Tony Podesta’s home. “Whenever we do it together it becomes this festive sort of thing,” he said, “and with Ford it will be young and fresh.”

Alefantis says he has never met Ford but is looking forward to the event. He says he has been hesitant to mix business and politics but recently decided to “just go for it.”

Regular folks may attend the fundraiser by paying $250. RSVP to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it or call (202) 879-9302.

The feisty wife of Rep. Bill Young (R-Fla.) does not beat around the bush.

At last week’s second annual Armed Forces Foundation congressional gala, Beverly Young recounted that fateful night of the State of the Union address when she was thrown out for wearing a T-shirt that said “Support Our Troops.”

She was removed from the hall as a war protester but was handled by a female police officer who had no inkling of who she is. Mrs. Young recalled to the audience that she took off her shoes, ready to fight, and said to the cop: “Come on, bitch!” She admitted, however, that if the officer had wielded her gun, the officer would have won the fight.

Mrs. Young is on the executive board of directors of the Armed Forces Foundation and tirelessly combs the military hospitals in the area to help the soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan and their families.

As she made her presentation during the gala, Mrs. Young recalled that “one powerful man on Capitol Hill” told her that she was “a bleeding-heart.” She said she did not know how to respond to that, but in front of an audience of congressional and military leaders her message to that powerful man on Capitol Hill was: “Screw you!”

While most Capitol Hill offices accept one to three interns each summer, Rep. Bobby Jindal (R-La.) is trying something new — hiring “15-ish” interns. In all shapes and sizes, hair colors and sexes, the twenty-somethings are swarming his Longworth office.

Thankfully, computer people were recently on hand, setting up laptops for them to use for their summer stay.

“Everyone wants to be here,” remarked Kelli Bondy, Jindal’s executive assistant.

 Jindal spokeswoman Kim Allen gave out the “15-ish” number, saying, “They’re from all over Louisiana.”

Where will they all sit? “That’s a good question,” she said.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver will turn 85 on July 10 and is still going strong, at least according to her publicist, Stephen Rivers.

That evening, President Bush and first lady Laura Bush will host a special dinner in Shriver’s honor. The dinner is also meant to celebrate Shriver’s founding of the Special Olympics in her suburban Washington back yard.

It has been more than 40 years since Shriver founded the Special Olympics. Since then it has grown into a worldwide movement that has profoundly changed how individuals, societies, cultures and governments have dealt with people who have intellectual disabilities.

“In public life she has always been totally overshadowed by her brothers, of course (and now Maria and Arnold), but as much as someone as prominent as she can be considered an unsung hero, she is responsible for having touched and changed the lives of many millions of people around the world,” stated an e-mail pitch from Rivers.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver had seen people turn away from her mentally handicapped sister, Rosemary, all her life.

Shriver is the fifth of nine children to Joseph P. and Rose Kennedy. She and husband Sargent Shriver are parents to Maria Shriver, newswoman and first lady of California.

Oxley aide goes to great heights to get engaged
Oxley’s son pops question at White House picnic

James Maday, 27, a legislative assistant to Rep. Mike Oxley (R-Ohio), got engaged while on a Dome tour of the Capitol on Friday. The Cleveland native proposed to his girlfriend of two years, Natalie Stanley.

Stanley, 26, grew up in Sacramento, Calif., and is a property manager at Hines, an international real-estate firm.

Maday proposed on the top, right below the statue of freedom. As required by Capitol rules, Oxley took the small group of aides to the top. They were all in on the engagement — except Stanley.

“It was awesome,” Maday says, adding that his boss was “100 percent” happy to do it. “Up the stairs and through the Rotunda. You see the original Capitol.”
In other Oxley matrimonial news, Oxley’s son, Elvis, 33, popped the question to his girlfriend of nearly two years, Jennifer Gennaro, 33, at the White House picnic last Thursday. Elvis Oxley said he wanted to propose in front of family and extended family. “The White House provided a perfect venue,” he said. “It was very exciting.”

Everyone was surprised, including the bride to be, when Elvis dropped to one knee with the Marine Corps band to his back.

“She couldn’t believe it at first,” he said of his fiancée. “Once I stood up and actually presented her with the ring, she got the picture.”

Thankfully, his father was there. “As soon as I brought out the ring, Jennifer started to shake a little,” Elvis Oxley said. “He held her up just because she got a little wobbly.”

Elvis works in government affairs for the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association. Gennaro is vice president of sales and marketing for the Electronic Retailing Association.

No date has yet been set for the wedding. “We’re just enjoying the moment,” Elvis said.