Rep. Gohmert’s cane doubles as VIP gift

Just before the recess, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) had surgery to fix his ACL. He tore the knee ligament in the congressional baseball game last summer. Post-surgery, he had been walking with an exquisitely beautiful and ornate cane emblazoned with the Texas and the U.S. House of Representatives seals.

“I was supposed to be using a crutch, but I didn’t want to use a crutch,” Gohmert explained after a Capitol press conference on the auto bailout.

The congressman said he gives the canes out on occasion as presents, but not to just anyone. So far, recipients of the special cane include President Bush and former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).

“No, no,” Gohmert said, when asked if he commonly gives the canes as gifts.

This week the congressman is walking without his cane. “I don’t know if it’s good, but better to where he can walk without it,” Gohmert spokeswoman Laura Mszar said of the congressman’s condition.

Vermont congressman weds state legislator over recess

It wasn’t an unplanned wedding, but let’s just say it was a very quickly planned affair.

Over the recess, Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) married Vermont state Rep. Margaret Cheney at her home in Norwich, Vt.

The wedding took place in the living room, with a fire in the fireplace and a Christmas tree sparkling nearby. The event was small, with just family and friends. Justice of the Peace Curtis Koren and Welch’s sister, Maureen, an Ursuline nun, officiated.

“It was nice to do something that was intimate with close friends and family and, frankly, without a lot of fanfare,” Welch told ITK by phone Monday morning. “It’s nice and I’m quite lucky.”

Welch, 61, would not spill details of the couple’s budding romance but said they have been dating for a few years. “We made a decision over the holidays to get married and we got married on the 2nd of January,” Welch said. “We wanted to have a low-key event. We did it on short notice. People were happy to come and it was a beautiful Vermont night.”

The wedding went smoothly with one minor exception: her wedding attire. After the couple decided to marry, Cheney went to Boston in search of clothing and came upon a navy blue suit at Lord & Taylor.

Back home, she discovered the suit still had security tags. Fearing an ink-bomb explosion if they broke it themselves, they took the dress to several stores in the valley. In the end, a cobbler saved the day.

Post-wedding, family and friends toasted with champagne and continued the celebration at the Norwich Inn, the famed site of the ’70s sitcom “The Bob Newhart Show.”

For now, there will be no honeymoon. “I’m on my honeymoon here in Washington and she in Montpelier,” Welch said, adding that the couple will keep their own names and, for the time being, float between their respective homes in Vermont, to which they both are very attached.

Cheney, former managing editor of Washingtonian magazine, has three children by a previous marriage; Welch has four stepchildren and a son through his previous marriage. Welch’s wife died of cancer in 2004.

Rep. Berkley bestows ‘Oracle’ statuson Greek contributor

Whether prompted by her partial-Greek heritage or an affinity for good prognosticators, Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) recently sent a lighthearted note to Andrew Manatos, president of the Coordinated Effort of Hellenes in Washington, asking him to predict this year’s Super Bowl.

In a Dec. 29 letter, she gives him a nickname, saying, “As someone who shares your Greek heritage, and is familiar with the Delphic Oracle on Mt. Parnassus, I feel most qualified to bestow upon you the title, Washington’s Greek Oracle.”

She noted that his group met only with Democratic hopefuls Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Joe Biden (D-Del.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) some 18 months before the presidential election — Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) spoke to the gathering of Hellenes by telephone.

The strange ties continue. An in-law to Manatos was deputy chief of staff to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R) vice presidential campaign. And Manatos’s son, Tom, has worked as an aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

But wait, Berkley says in the letter, there’s more evidence of “your Oracular Omniscience.” In the 1960s, Manatos worked for the Capitol Police Force, where he met fellow post-undergraduate policeman Harry Reid, now Senate majority leader.

“So, Andy,” Berkley concludes, “I trust you will apply your mystical powers to divine the Super Bowl winner and provide that information to me as soon as possible.”

Richard Urey, the congresswoman’s chief of staff, explained that Berkley and Manatos are longtime friends. “They are buddies through their Greek heritage,” Urey said. “Shelley is very active in the Greek community with Greeks here and in Las Vegas.”

Andrew Manatos is a campaign contributor to many Democratic members of Congress, including: Clinton and Sen. Mark Pryor (Ark.), Reps. Nita Lowey (N.Y.), Robert Wexler (Fla.), Rush Holt (N.J.), Brad Sherman (Calif.) and, yes, Berkley, who in 2007 received $1,000. Manatos also contributes to Republicans, including Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.), Mario Diaz-Balart (Fla.) and Thaddeus McCotter (Mich.).