By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts
Friday, February 24, 2006

The 22-year-old son of British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been keeping a relatively low profile since starting an unpaid Capitol Hill internship -- much to the dismay, we're guessing, of the U.K. tabs stalking him around town.

Euan Blair , a recent Bristol University grad, took up a mail-sorting and phone-answering detail three weeks ago on the House Rules Committee. He'll work for its chairman, Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.), for three months before joining the staff of Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) for another three months.

"He's making copies, helping set up for hearings," said committee press secretary Jo Mainey . "Just general intern-type duties." Democratic Rules spokesman Eric Burns called him "a sharp, well-mannered young guy."

Meanwhile, he's living with other young politicos close to his age at the University of California's Washington center, a heavily secured residence hall and classroom space on Scott Circle where UC students say he's doing his best to blend in and downplay his famous name.

"He's completely laid-back, chill," said a UC student and fellow intern who befriended him in the dorm. "He doesn't want anyone to know who he is. . . . He likes his job, but he doesn't really talk about what he does and what his family does. The basic conversations are about soccer or about girls or school."

A British Embassy spokesman would not say how Blair came to live at the UC complex: "Euan Blair's internship is a private matter between Euan Blair and his employers."

Reporters for a conservative London paper, the Mail on Sunday, last week chronicled young Blair's trip to "Washington's Latin quarter" -- er, Adams Morgan? -- where he supposedly drank beers and flirted with a "beautiful" UC student.

"No, they're not dating," his friend told us. "She wishes, but they're not. They're friends."

Donna Brazile 's father, Lio nel, only left Louisiana twice in his life -- first to the Korean War, then to a San Antonio hurricane shelter. Both times, he likes to say, the government picked up the tab.

Now he's itching to get back to their home town, New Orleans, Brazile said, but his family doesn't think it's safe for the widowed 75-year-old to return to a wrecked neighborhood.

"You don't know the tricks we've played to keep him in Baton Rouge," the Democratic strategist said. "We found him 20-year-old girlfriends! I tell my sisters, 'Go find him another nurse.' "

Brazile spoke with rueful wit about how Hurricane Katrina scattered scores of close relatives across eight states at a Wednesday night gathering at the Capitol Hill offices of Democratic consultant John Jameson . Money collected at the small fundraiser benefited Katrina rebuilding efforts by the nonprofit ACORN.

Over king cake and hurricanes, Brazile said she's been hearing from Katrina exiles stranded as far as Montana, trying to figure out how to make "bison gumbo," or begging her to mail some red beans or pickled pork.

"They want their coffee with chicory," she mused. "People want their food back. They want their city back."

Sorry, Hill staffers: Like it or not, you can't stop Hustler from landing on your desks.

Yesterday, a memo from Sergeant at Arms William H. Pickle informed Senate offices that the Senate Post Office is obliged to keep delivering copies of the X-rated mag that publisher Larry Flynt has been sending gratis to all congressional offices for more than 20 years.

"We deliver what we receive as long as it is safe and the mailing envelope is non-threatening," he wrote. Last week, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that a staffer for Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah) became the latest to take umbrage. Said Cannon: "It's a disgusting abuse of the system . . . . It's a nasty, tricky little thing to do by a person with no conscience."

Senate postal policy, based on a constitutional case law, prevails. "Offices may soon receive copies of this periodical that have been inadvertently delayed, pending consideration of the relevant issues," Pickle added.

· ABC cameraman Doug Vogt , who was injured alongside anchorman Bob Woodruff in Iraq, checked out of Bethesda Medical Center yesterday and is headed home to France for further treatment. Woodruff remains hospitalized at National Naval Medical Center and is slowly improving, said ABC News President David Westin.