Rep. Berkley’s plastic surgery working like a charm

Has she done something with her hair? Has she gotten a lot of rest? Is congressional life agreeing with her?

These are just some of the questions that Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) has received in the past six months since getting her August face lift. The Las Vegas congresswoman, proud and open about the surgery, is still looking good, still firm in the face.

“I now have a 20-year-old neck on a 54-year-old body,” she says.

Before the surgery, she says, “all I could do was look at my neck and see this hanging thing,” and going on TV made her self-conscious.

So she went to a plastic surgeon — she raves about hers, Dr. Goesel Anson of Las Vegas — to see what could be done. Berkley trusted her. She had operated on a couple of girlfriends. The congresswoman thought she needed liposuction, but Anson balked, saying it was unnecessary.

Berkley loves the way she feels now that the surgery is done. “I live in Las Vegas, of course,” she says. “Just a town of good-looking women. Nobody would think I had anything done, and that is the look I wanted.”

The pain wasn’t too bad. “It was a little uncomfortable, a little swollen,” the congresswoman says, but “very little bruising. It’s still numb. This, too, will pass.”

Nowadays, Berkley says, she demands to go on TV so that she can show off her new lift.

Sen. Eugene McCarthy’s daughter works in the House

The late Sen. Eugene McCarthy (D-Minn.), who served in the Senate from 1959 to 1971 and died over the weekend, has a daughter who works in the House of Representatives.

His daughter, Ellen McCarthy, is a longtime aide who works for the Franking Commission on the Democratic side of the House Administration Committee. She is a 1972 Georgetown University graduate.

Lawmakers cast New Year’s resolutions

• Rep. Charles Gonzalez (D-Texas): “None. They are ultimately so unattainable, so I decided not to disappoint myself.”

• Rep. Ric Keller (R-Fla.): “I’m going old-school, with more exercise and less calories.”

• Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho): “Not to make a New Year’s resolution.”

• Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.): “Help get control of government spending, but that was last year’s. I run four miles 365 days a year. I’m not giving up good food and beer.”

• Rep. Butch Otter (R-Idaho): “I want to stop flying back here every week, as I win the governor’s race in Idaho.”

• Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii): “I’m from Hawaii. I don’t need a New Year’s resolution. My resolution is to get back to Hawaii as quick as I can.”

• Rep. John McHugh (R-N.Y.): “To resolve every day to do better. Just be a better person. I can’t afford to do that once a year.”

Late last month, Gina Cherie Piek, 26, an aide to Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), participated in the Miss District of Columbia USA pageant.

She didn’t win or place, but she still wants to pursue a part-time beauty-pageant career. Last year, she participated in a beauty pageant in Virginia.

The Miss D.C. pageant took place at the GW Marriott. For the evening-gown portion of the event, she wore a Colonial blue gown with heart-shaped neckline. For the swimsuit contest, she wore a brown-with-copper-sparkle bikini.

Piek says she would like to participate in future pageants but explains she’s too old for much of the pageant system. “I’m not sure what other pageants exist out there, but I haven’t ruled it out for the future,” she says. “It’s a very different world from the Hill.”

Andy Fisher is the top dog in the press operation of Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.). But he only calls himself “press secretary” by choice, even though he could call himself communications director or whatever variation of that he wanted.

“I am the No. 1 top person in the communications structure,” he said recently. “I have never felt that ‘communications director’ properly describes what I do. Titles are not an important function in our office.”

Fisher has worked on the Hill since 1983. Other jobs he has held include owning a newspaper, the News and Farmer, and working briefly for the National Forest Service. He has worked for Lugar for the past 10 years.

McHugh aide dies of cancer
Joann Humphries, 51, a staff member for Rep. John McHugh (R-N.Y.), died of pancreatic cancer last weekend. She lived in Hughesville, Md.

Humphries was born in Washington and raised in the Maryland suburbs. For more than 33 years, she worked in a bipartisan manner for a succession of members: Reps. Robert McEwen (R-Ohio), David Martin (D-N.Y.) and McHugh. She handled constituent casework and served as McHugh’s casework director and systems administrator.

“It would be hard to imagine that someone has personally helped more people in more ways and touched their lives more directly than Joann,” McHugh said. “For more than 30 years, she reached out, took on each person’s problem and made their cause her own.”

For the past 10 years, Humphries enjoyed genealogy research as her primary hobby. She co-wrote two historical books on 18th-century wills.

Humphries is survived by her husband of nearly 30 years, Tommy, and one son, Joshua.

Calling hours will be today from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. at the Lee Funeral Home, 6633 Old Alexandria Ferry Road, Clinton, Md. Funeral services will take place the following morning at 11 a.m. at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, 8909 Old Branch Ave. in Clinton, with interment at Trinity Memorial Gardens and Mausoleum.

Rep. Porter to split from wife
According to a report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Rep. Jon Porter (R-Nev.) and his wife, Laurie, are separating.

His office confirmed Friday that the couple are breaking up. Porter has been divorced before, and Laurie has two children from a previous marriage.

He and Laurie first met on a blind date in 1987. She is a former librarian who works on literacy issues.