Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) is usually sartorially correct, from his impeccably tailored suits to his colorful ties.  That’s why aides and reporters got such a kick out of the usually dapper senator’s wardrobe malfunction last Friday.

Coleman was standing outside the doors to the Senate chamber before the vote to install Lt. Gen. David Petraeus as commander in Iraq, looking uneasy. The problem? He was wearing a suit with an open-collared shirt but no tie, and Senate rules require men to wear coats and ties while casting votes. The senator fretted that he wouldn’t be permitted on the Senate floor with his rule-breaking ensemble.

An aide rushed over with a shiny yellow necktie, and Coleman gratefully accepted the accessory and headed into the cloakroom before joining the 81-0 vote.

Reporters teasingly complimented him on the tie after he left the chamber following the vote. “I had a casual breakfast this morning,” the now-buttoned-down lawmaker explained. “All of a sudden, time got to be a problem.”

 Coleman, Dems start war of words

The Minnesota DFL party has Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) in its crosshairs, hoping to take the first-termer down in 2008. And even though the election is still a while off, things are already getting ugly.

The latest tangle started when the DFL party sent out a statement on Thursday blasting Coleman for “blocking” a bill that would increase the minimum wage. “It is discouraging that Republicans like Senator Coleman keep ignoring the American people and blocking this crucial bill,” read the statement by DFL Chairman Brian Melendez. “Senator Coleman had better start putting partisanship aside and standing up for Minnesota’s working families.”

Oopsie. It turns out that Coleman actually voted with Democrats to bring the minimum-wage measure to a vote. A red-faced DFL quickly put out a correction. “We were relying on a source with incorrect information and apologize to Senator Coleman for the error,” the correction read. “We applaud his stand on this important issue.”

But Coleman was not appeased. He issued a release saying that the DFL release had “lied about Coleman’s vote.” It continued: “If DFL Chairman Brian Melendez truly wants to ‘put partisanship aside’ as he says, he may want to start checking the Congressional record before creating his own reality.”

DFL spokeswoman Jess McIntosh said that in addition to issuing the correction, Melendez left a voicemail with Coleman’s chief of staff apologizing for the mix-up. “It was a mistake, it was caught, it wasn’t a big deal,” she said.

With almost two years to go before the election, we can’t wait to see how bare-knuckled the fight is going to get.  Especially since the DFL is looking to a field of potential candidates to oppose Coleman, including firebrand talk show host and comic Al Franken.

 
“You know?” Clinton thinks you do

Last Thursday, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) got a warm reception from a group of the nation’s mayors. They seemed to like what she had to say about urban renewal and the “partnership” between mayors and the feds. 

Clinton, who is in candidate mode for her run for the Democratic presidential nomination, seemed to be trying out a new, folksier speaking style.  She used the phrase “you know” 37 times in the course of the eight-page speech.  “You know” was used as punctuation, as a transition, at the beginning, end and middle of sentences. 

Former NBC reporter and media consultant Brian Valeriani says the use of “you know” is simply a bad, but not uncommon, habit. “She’s had that habit for a while,” he says. “I know her, and I’ve suggested she get rid of it.”

Sounds like good advice, you know?

 Nice legs, Senator!

One member of Congress has been seen around, flashing some senatorial gams.  And we’re not talking about Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) or Susan Collins (R-Maine), both of whom favor skirt suits.

The Sunday New York Times wedding announcements featured a photo of Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) in traditional kilt at the Jan. 13 wedding of his son, John. Warner, fans might recall, also donned a kilt for his own 2003 nuptials and has flashed some leg-flesh below plaid pleats on the Senate floor and in other public appearances. The dress is a nod to the senator’s pride in his Scottish heritage, which he shares with his son, according to the announcement.

The wedding notice details how the younger Warner morphed from a playboy bachelor into a smitten husband after meeting now-wife Shannon Hamm, a first-grade teacher at a tony New York private school. “There’s an old adage that you wait for the right one,” the story quoted Sen. Warner as saying. “And if ever there was a case of a man waiting, it was John.”

Warner was once married to actress Elizabeth Taylor. John is his son from another previous marriage, to Catherine Conover.

 Sure, no one will recognize the guy with the oversize shades

When rocker/activist Bono visits the Hill, he doesn’t exactly blend in. His trademark oversize shades and edgy suits are sure to stand out in a bland sea of pinstripe.

But the U2 frontman recently  wanted to keep as low a profile as possible while strolling the Hill’s marble halls, aides said.

During his visit last Wednesday, in which he met with members of both chambers in both parties to discuss funding for fighting AIDS in Africa and other topics, his staff instructed Hill press folks that the visit was to be kept low-key. No photos, no TV cameras, and no hype, they insisted.

Members were permitted to have their pictures snapped with the rocker, but the resulting photos were supposed to be used strictly for personal scrapbooks, not for posting on websites or sending to reporters. 

“My sense is that not only is he very aware, but he’s very serious,” one Senate aide said. “He’s not up here to get publicity.”

Kathy McKiernan, communications director for DATA, Bono’s advocacy organization, said Bono’s  low-key approach won’t apply to every Hill visit.

“There’s a time to do public events, but this was a visit to listen and to work,” she said.

Klaus Marre and Albert Eisele contributed to this page.