One Congressional Record (Or Was It?) That Everybody Read

Hill staffers possessed of naughty imaginations -- and perhaps too much time on their hands -- were madly swapping theories yesterday about the identity of a young Senate aide who kept what appeared to be a detailed online diary boasting of her many sexual partners. The woman's explicit accounts of her alleged frolics -- including an affair "with a married man who pays me for sex" -- were given wide notice this week by Ana Marie Cox, the Washington cyber-gossip at www.wonkette.com, who posted the diary.

"I just took a long lunch with X and made a quick $400," the low-level staff assistant, who calls herself Washingtonienne, wrote Tuesday afternoon. "I heard that my boss was asking about my whereabouts. Loser."

That was her last entry before the Web log mysteriously vanished from its hosting site, Blog*Spot. She had earlier described "X" as a married "chief of staff at one of the gov agencies, appointed by Bush."

The scandal-provoking staffer works in the office of Ohio's senior senator, Republican Michael DeWine. "We're looking at it right now. We're looking into the situation," DeWine's communications director, Mike Dawson, told us yesterday, but declined to provide any details.

It's unclear whether any of the entries were written on Senate computers or, for that matter, whether the diary is a work of fact or fiction. But certain details ring true, such as her salary ("how can anybody live on $25K/year?") and descriptions of office romances ("The intern did not show at the party on Saturday. . . . I don't need anymore sex scandals at work. But I'm bummed that he is not as interested as I had imagined.")

Cox, who has not made public the aide's name, said: "It is no more fictional than anybody's diary. My gut feeling is that it's true. She's pretending to take pride in her own degradation and I don't think you can fake that. I do think she's a good writer. I hope that she gets a book deal and gets some therapy."

A Family Effort

• Those fun-loving Bush twins are joining the ranks of campaign kids. They've opted to spend the first few months after their college graduations working on their dad's reelection effort, Laura Bush says.

" Barbara and Jenna have not decided what role they will have on their father's campaign yet, but they will be volunteering their time," the first lady's spokesman, Gordon Johndroe, told us yesterday. They'll most likely end up at the Bush-Cheney '04 headquarters in Arlington, but may hit the campaign trail "if they have the confidence," Laura Bush told Reuters.

On "The Tonight Show" last night, host Jay Leno bantered with the first lady about her relationship with George, her workout routine and the persistent impression that the president doesn't read newspapers.

"He really does read the newspaper, just not the reporters that follow him," she said.

"Now why is that?" Leno asked.

"Because he says he doesn't want to be mad at them the next day. Also, because he was there at the event, so he doesn't need to really read their coverage of it." (Guffaws!)

She told Leno she works out with weights with a trainer two or three days a week. "I'm getting quite buff." (Wild applause!)

"Do you think in a fight you could you take Teresa Heinz?"