A Junket in the Jungle? How Can You Ask?

We always wondered how he ran so well in the Irish wards. . . .

Missing the Mumps

Looks as though Iowa's two senators survived their recent handshakes with Waterloo constituent Terry Poe Buschkamp, one of two airline passengers who may have been traveling with mumps infections they apparently picked up in that state's epidemic.

Buschkamp, who runs a downtown development organization, shook hands with Sens. Charles E. Grassley (R) and Tom Harkin (D) on a trip here in late March. She thinks she may have caught the bug on an earlier trip to the Dominican Republic.

Mumps generally gives you fever, headache and swollen salivary glands. But we're told it can also lead to hearing loss and swollen testicles.

So we called the senators' offices, where several staffers got mumps vaccine shots, just to be safe. Spokesmen said the senators were just fine, thanks.

The Brownie Watch

Sad news. Former FEMA chief Michael "Heckuva Job" Brown is not getting a consulting contract to advise St. Bernard Parish, La., on rebuilding efforts. Brown, who was hammered for the botched response to Hurricane Katrina, recently met with parish officials and was to offer a proposal yesterday, according to a St. Bernard spokesman.

Brown told CNN he was not looking to get paid -- just to give advice "free of charge."

But Reuters quoted a "source close to the council" who said Brown was "not going to be working for the parish, whatever his working relationship was going to be, whether it was paid or not paid."

Not even if they wanted advice on Arabian horses?