In The Know: Right audience for Reid

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) holds the dubious honor of being the worst guest ever to appear on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” according to the host. Stewart told guest Larry David on Tuesday night that Reid appeared to be “in a coma” during his October 2008 appearance.

But according to Reid’s office, Stewart’s tongue-in-cheek style and rowdy audience simply weren’t the right fit for the notoriously serious senator from the Silver State.

“It’s all about the audience,” communications director Rodell Mollineau said. “That particular performance may not have been Emmy-worthy, but he killed them on the C-SPAN Comedy Hour.”

{mosads}However, a review of Reid’s appearance on “The Daily Show” proves that the senator did get a few laughs.

Stewart, noting that Reid is soft-spoken but known for his toughness, said, “I feel like I could filibuster you.”

Reid responded at the time, “Everyone else has. Why not you?”

All’s well at Chateau Chambliss

Sen. Saxby Chambliss’s (R-Ga.) wife of 33 years, Julianne, was spotted in the Senate ID office on Tuesday in a chic white short-sleeved belted jacket and brown pearls, having her photo taken for a new badge.

Sen. Chambliss later told ITK that she is in town visiting the couple’s newborn granddaughters, Kimbrough and Anderson Chambliss, who were recently released from Georgetown University Hospital after spending the first 10 weeks of their lives in the neonatal intensive care unit.

The twins, who were born two and a half months prematurely to Bo Chambliss and his wife, Bess, are now 17 weeks old. Mother and daughters are reportedly doing well.

Lautenberg, 85, bonds with teen star

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) met privately on Tuesday with teen pop superstar Nick Jonas, one-third of the platinum-selling, Grammy-nominated Jonas Brothers. Nick was on Capitol Hill for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s annual fly-in.

ITK has learned that during their meeting, the octogenarian lawmaker and the 16-year-old singer talked about their shared personal experience with juvenile diabetes: Lautenberg’s 11-year-old granddaughter, Maddie Birer, was recently diagnosed with the disease, and Jonas has been living it with it for three years.

This was the first meeting between the pair, who also discussed diabetes-related research, funding and legislation. Jonas was joined on Wednesday by actress Mary Tyler Moore and boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard at a meeting of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, where they testified about their experiences with the disease.

Tables turned on TMZ

In a related incident, ITK has confirmed that L.A.-based celebrity-stalking outfit TMZ knew of Jonas’s trip even before the sponsors had finalized details (and long before the mainstream press was alerted). That may explain why four grown men in jeans and T-shirts were lurking in the hall outside Lautenberg’s office on Tuesday.

But it doesn’t explain why one of them freaked out when a Lautenberg staffer started taking photos of the crowd seeking to catch a glance of Jonas.

 “Hey man, get away from me!” the man exclaimed, gesturing wildly at the staffer. “This is a free country — you can’t just take my picture without me signing nothing.”

Wait a minute … did we just hear a TMZ-type photographer complaining about his right to privacy — while he stalked a minor?

The TMZ privacy-rights activist, who (not surprisingly) refused to give his name, hid behind a pillar for the rest of the meeting.

 Stark’s Father’s Day fib

Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) performed a nifty feat of time travel last Friday during a taping of C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers.”

Moments before the cameras rolled, Stark and reporters from The Hill and CQ were reminded by host Steve Scully that the show would air on Sunday morning.

Less than a minute later, Stark was pressed on the Democrats’ healthcare bill.

The congressman, who has four sons and three daughters, didn’t miss a beat, replying, “A few days ago, we distributed a tome [on healthcare], but, it being Father’s Day, I haven’t had a chance to finish reading it yet.”

Sen. Martinez, dirt-bike fan, is on the mend

Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) was spotted leaving the GOP conference lunch on Monday sporting a bandaged right hand, which he recently injured while riding “motorized dirt bikes” with friends in Warrenton, Va.

The former Housing and Urban Development secretary told ITK that he tore a ligament in his knuckle and will be in a cast for six weeks, although he hopes “to get something smaller put on soon.”

{mosads}Dirt-bike riding, the competitive form of which is known as motocross, is notoriously dangerous and physically demanding, but that clearly doesn’t faze the he 62-year-old father of three.

 Martinez isn’t the only lawmaker to have taken a hard fall from a two-wheeler. In May of last year, Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) suffered a spiral fracture in his right leg that required surgery, the result of a cycling accident.

 Tips and complaints: christina.wilkie@digital-staging.thehill.com or 202-628-8516.

Kris Kitto, Miles Hilder, Aaron Blake and Jeffrey Young contributed to this page.