So Comity’s not dead in Senate

Never let it be said that Susan Collins, a Republican, doesn’t have manners.

And, just in case anyone ever needed proof, life presented a steep test to the gentlelady from Maine last week — and she passed.

The scene: Collins strolled onto the Senate floor to vote and encountered a kindly Democrat, Ben Nelson of Nebraska. The two, who have both publicly wrestled with their positions on the Iraq war, stopped to chat about the defense authorization bill under consideration.

The subject matter was weighty, but Nelson, fresh from a hair appointment, was distracted. Is she going to say anything? Has she not noticed?

Not once did Collins’s eyes float up to Nelson’s newly dyed coif. He knew it didn’t look quite natural — he hadn’t fully understood what his new barber was up to when he told him to “wash this cream through your hair,” according to Nelson spokesman David DiMartino.

But Collins chatted on. Faced with a sociological test that most mortals would flunk, the ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee was stolid. Before she could walk away without acknowledging that Nelson’s hair, a helmet of gray just one day prior, was quite obviously brunette, Nelson jumped in, “Let me just thank you for not saying anything about my hair,” according to DiMartino.

Collins, who is not, in fact, made of stone, doubled over in laughter.

Hell hath no fury like Washington’s ambitious

D.C.’s alternative weekly newspaper, the Washington City Paper, on July 12 published a story about Late Night Shots, an exclusive group of hard-partying young preppy types, and brace yourself: It wasn’t a very flattering portrait.

Capitol Hill is perhaps the largest single employer of the group’s local members, which might explain why the article has seemed to rank about three notches higher in Capitol building hallway chatter than, say, legislation, since it went to press.

The drunken antics of the group, which is connected by an invite-only social networking message board, had them looking very elitist, a little racist and fairly misogynistic. What’s more, reporter Angela Valdez named names.

Members of Late Night Shots were not amused — or so it appeared.

The comments section of the City Paper’s website is on fire. Threats of lawsuits, attacks on Valdez and a rousing debate on social strata that is screaming to end up in somebody’s Ph.D. thesis pushed the number of responses to nearly 350 by press time yesterday. Valdez has been the recipient of random harassing phone calls (“one with farting noises”), and, judging from a new series of e-mails she has received over the last week, it appears that somebody has taken the liberty of signing her up for a series of pornographic websites.

City Paper Editor Eric Wemple said he knew the story would get a little notice, but he said the reaction took everyone involved by surprise.

“Our average story isn’t even in this ballpark,” Wemple said.

Valdez said she thinks the interest from readers not in the group comes from a natural fascination with how the other side lives. Inside the Late Nights Shots group, she said, the swift reaction comes down to self-protection.

“I met several people who work or worked in the past for House and Senate members, also lobbyists and lawyers connected to the Hill. I think their aspirations to work in government and politics might have something to do with why people are upset about the story,” Valdez said.

But Late Night Shots founder Reed Landry said he has no idea who is so upset about the story. From his perspective, his group’s membership has “dramatically increased” and nobody that he knows of has suffered any negative consequences from the story.

“I really don’t think the [group] came off too poorly,” Landry said. And even if it had, “I think that being portrayed negatively by the Washington City Paper can only show that you are firmly within the mainstream.”

From Dept. of Lessons Learned the Hard Way

If you had any designs on the Internet domain of www.perlmutterforcolorado.com , you will probably have to pry it from the cold, dead hands of Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.)

That’s because the last time he lost track of a campaign website and let his ownership of the domain lapse, it became the sort of thing that gets blocked by public libraries.

The Denver Post reported last week that www.perlmutter2006.com fell into the hands of porn peddlers who sought payment from the congressman to take down the suggestive images of young women that had replaced the photos of Perlmutter with his family.

Perlmutter refused to pay, and threatened legal action instead. It worked. The website went blank July 13, so porn is no longer the first thing you see when you Google “Ed Perlmutter.”

There is a doctor in the House, and the diagnosis is ‘narcissism’

So, why do married people cheat — and why with hookers? Having stumbled upon a question with no expert nearby to provide an answer, we were relieved to discover that the Independent Women’s Forum helpfully brought in a visiting speaker: Dr. Drew Pinsky, of “Loveline” fame.

Pinsky, who prefers to be known as Dr. Drew, is also the host of “Strictly Sex” on the Discovery Health Channel. He said the recent troubles of Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) — and other lawmakers who get themselves into snafus of a personal nature — may have more to do with occupation than anything else.

“People who are hell-bent on becoming celebrities come with a high degree of narcissism,” he said. “If you extrapolate to politicians, they could have the same traits. They have difficulty with intimacy, emotions and the problem of experiencing something that is real. They think of people as totally separate objects.

“It hasn’t been proven, but if history is any teacher, you find these people in politics,” he said.

Well, we suppose “proven” is in the eye of the beholder.

Emily Belz contributed to this page.