Chronicling After Hours Washington

Mary Ann Akers will write a new blog for washingtonpost.com on Washington's political movers and shakers. (Noel Pitts - washingtonpost.com)

Later this week, I'll launch a new blog on washingtonpost.com that will take you on a regular joy ride through the back halls of Congress and all the other political hotspots in Washington where trouble, intrigue, backslapping and, we can only hope, romance abound.

I'll give you better than a front-row seat to the show. My blog will take you backstage, shining a light on the zanier, more offbeat side of the capital's political theatre. We'll have some fun exposing the wide cast of characters -- starting with those 535 distinguished men and women who serve in the House and Senate -- that make up this powerful yet bizarre troupe.

The blog won't be the place to read about House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel's plan to fiddle with the tax code, or Sen. Joe Biden's latest solution to the war in Iraq. This will be the place to learn what politicians would rather you not know about them.

For those of you who don't know me, I've been writing the "Heard on the Hill" political gossip column in Roll Call newspaper for the past several years, unearthing juicy little nuggets such as the one about a Montana congressman going on a "fact-finding" mission to Kazakhstan, doing multiple shots of vodka, falling off a horse, getting trampled on by another, and calling the locals Coneheads.

Among others: An item about a California congresswoman going to a gay bar and judging the night's "best package contest," a senator from New Mexico wandering the halls of Capitol Hill in what appeared to be his pajamas, and -- in the Irony-On-Steroids category -- there was the item I had about a convicted Jack Abramoff crony giving his post-grad dissertation on ... congressional ethics.

There'll be lots more where that came from coming to washingtonpost.com soon. To those of you who have been my loyal readers and tipsters for years, please join me in my new venture. A hearty welcome to everyone else. Later this week I'll put out an official invite to all of you to please e-mail your best tips, your funniest sightings, and any other interesting tidbits you'd like to share with me.

I look forward to having some fun with you. Stay tuned!