Wynn spotted with braces

Should his new nickname be Metal Mouth?

Rep. Al Wynn (D-Md.), 54, has braces on his teeth. Fortunately, with modern technology, they are the clear kind, at least in part.

His press office explains that on his top teeth he wears a retainer and on his bottom teeth are the invisible braces.

Rep. Tancredo has bout of strange luck

How many aides does it take to care for Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.)?

Last Thursday morning, it took two aides to come to the boss’s rescue when he got a flat tire on the 14th Street Bridge. After calling roadside assistance, two aides came to the scene, where one waited at Tancredo’s car and another took him to work.

“I need more aides than you would imagine,” Tancredo joked.

Later that day, Tancredo realized his watch had stopped working. “All kinds of strange things going on today,” he said, noting that he’s not superstitious.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

Latham aide grows hair long for worthy cause

Two years ago, Jennifer Crall, deputy chief of staff to Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa), made the conscious decision to grow her hair long and to chop it all off when the time was right.

That time was last weekend, when it had grown long enough to be cut 10 inches off

The cause? Locks of Love, an organization that provides wigs to children with cancer.

Last weekend, Crall, 26, flew to Iowa to have her hair cut at the salon she has been going to since the eighth grade. Though she was nervous about the cut, she is accustomed to short hair, having had it at Iowa State University.

Locks of Love has serious rules when it comes to the hair. Before you cut your hair, it must be put into a ponytail and must be 10 inches tip to tip. The hair is then placed in a plastic bag and mailed in a padded envelope.

Friends and co-workers had a lot to say about her impending cut last week.

“The initial reaction is, ‘You’re going how short?’” Crall said. “And then when I tell them what I’m doing it for, I could go bald. I had a talk with my boyfriend last night. He said, ‘How short is it going to be exactly?’”

Crall has long been a volunteer — soup kitchens in high school, organizing 5K runs in college for the Arthritis Research Foundation. Here in D.C., she has volunteered at a battered women’s shelter in Alexandria, Va., playing with children while their mothers attend classes.

Rep. Otter to get hitched

Five times is apparently the charm for Rep. Butch Otter (R-Idaho), who is running for governor. The 63-year-old lawmaker is finally getting married to longtime girlfriend Lori Easley, 39, a schoolteacher and former Miss Idaho. This is the fifth time he has proposed to Easley. The couple have been dating for several years.

In recent years, each time he has been asked about marriage, he has boldly remarked, “I like finishing my own sentences.”

But last weekend Otter put an end to all that at his ranch in Star, Idaho, where he proposed.

The congressman, whose first marriage was annulled in order to be married to Easley in a Catholic ceremony, said he was relieved to finally hear a yes response.

Some things he did differently this time around: He asked Easley’s father for permission. He also went traditional and bent down on one knee.

The next day, the couple went and picked out a ring.

Otter says he held out for so long because he wanted to make sure he was going home for good before they got married.

“She’s a farm gal, she’s a roper and she loves rodeo,” Otter said last week, adding, “She’s really a wonderful woman.”

It’s a baby boy for Simmons chief of staff

Todd Mitchell, chief of staff to Rep. Rob Simmons (R-Conn.), and Mitchell’s wife, Mara, had a baby boy, Edward Maxmilian, on Feb. 8. Max arrived a month early and weighed 5 pounds, 4 ounces.