Are the House’s senior aides too leaky?

For two weeks the top spokespeople to Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio), Rep. Roy Blunt and Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) have been ousted from weekly conference meetings concerning the budget. Some 25 aides, including policy staffers and other high level aides, were asked to leave.

This is commonplace, apparently. When it comes to sensitive issues, a GOP source said, the staff is usually asked to leave so that members can speak freely among themselves.

The meetings, which are set up by Pryce’s office, are held every Wednesday morning in HC-5 of the Capitol.

“There are times when our members feel more at ease in, as some like to call it, an in-the-family discussion, where they can feel more comfortable airing their concerns,” said Greg Crist, spokesman for Pryce. “That’s something that we as staff certainly respect. It’s something that occurs on an as-needed basis.

“We serve the members. We honor their requests and certainly abide by them. It’s not an issue of whether I am offended or not.”

Opposites attract, or at least cooperate

Rep. Butch Otter (R-Idaho), a conservative, and former presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio ), a liberal, are joining forces to write a book on the USA Patriot Act.

Both voted against it in 2001. Although then-House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) encouraged Otter to vote with party colleagues in favor of the act, the lawmaker said he believes that some aspects of the law infringe on privacy.

He has asked Kucinich to come up with a draft and then the pair will convene and pull their different versions together. Said Otter: “It should be an effort to heal the past and dream the future.”

Rep. Jackson Jr. has the stomach for surgery

The recent 40 to 50 pounds shed by Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) are apparently not solely from exercise and diet. A well-placed source on Capitol Hill said Jackson has joined the ranks of weighty lawmakers to go under the knife with gastrointestinal bypass surgery. Others include Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.).

Jackson’s office won’t say. “This is news to me,” commented Frank Watkins, Jackson’s press secretary, who was still checking on the matter at press time.

More surgery — Rep. Simpson makes speedy recovery

If Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) seemed a little out of it last week, it was because the fourth-term lawmaker was recovering from back surgery the previous Friday to treat a herniated disc.

He returned to Congress the following week, joking: “They filet you like a fish.”

Simpson pulled out a handful of pills, some of which are muscle relaxants, that he is taking to relieve the pain and cut down on the swelling following his laminectomy.

“It should be illegal for me to vote,” he said, laughing at the thought of being so out of it.

Simpson has had the back problem since college, and remembers the physical he had when he signed up for the draft.

“They said, ‘Touch your toes,’ and I touched my knees,” he said.

“At the time, doctors said, ‘See if you can live with it.’”

So live with it, he has, until last week.

Now, he’ll live without it.

Overheard…

In the office of Rep. Butch Otter (R-Idaho) last week, the gravelly New York voice of Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) was emanating from one of the TV sets. Rangel was speaking on the House floor.

After some 10 minutes one of the men on Otter’s staff remarked, “I can’t listen to this anymore.”

A female staffer replied, “Good, I can’t either. I’ll turn it down.”

Edited by Betsy Rothstein

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