An Excused Absence (Note From Holy Father Not Required)

Crowds gathered outside the White House yesterday to welcome Pope Benedict XVI. Today, more than 100 members of Congress plan to attend a papal Mass at Nationals Park. (By Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)   |   Buy Photo

Palfrey wasn't as blessed. She was convicted Tuesday of running a prostitution ring, not a "high-end erotic fantasy service" as she had claimed.

Also spotted in the crowd yesterday was Rick Santorum, the former GOP senator from Pennsylvania who was defeated by Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) in 2006.

One source says that while Santorum, who is also Catholic, was "way in the back" where the staffers stood, "he sure was excited."

After losing his Senate seat, Santorum joined the Pittsburgh-based law firm Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott. He works out of the firm's Washington office. (Guess his family has decided to stay in that house in Leesburg where their cyber-schooling of their five children became an issue in the 2006 campaign.)

You Can Go Home Again

If you go to the House this morning or watch the floor's proceedings on C-SPAN, don't be confused by all those extra folks standing around. They're former members of Congress having their annual schmoozefest in their old stomping grounds.

Proving yet again that there's an association for everything, the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress is holding its annual spring meeting this week. And this morning, on the House floor, the group is not only presenting its 38th annual report to Congress but also honoring former senator George J. Mitchell with its Distinguished Service Award. (The man was brave enough to name professional baseball players who had taken performance-enhancing drugs, after all.)

The day-long event turns boozy this evening as old colleagues celebrate and perhaps commiserate at a reception and banquet in Statuary Hall.

Byrd Watching

Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) made his 2008 debut chairing a hearing yesterday, a two-hour-plus preview of the Bush administration's request for $108 billion for the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The 90-year-old Appropriations Committee chairman has been suffering from injuries sustained in a Feb. 26 fall and from a urinary tract infection. Some colleagues and Democratic aides have engaged in a whisper campaign suggesting Byrd should step down as head of such an important committee.

Yesterday's last-minute hearing was as much about demonstrating Byrd's hold on the gavel as it was about the five-year war in Iraq.

According to The Post's Jonathan Weisman, Byrd slurred his words a bit but mustered plenty of patented, Byrd-like rhetorical flourishes. And he won some praise from the administration's guest of honor, White House Budget Director Jim Nussle.

"If I could write the contract today to look as good as you do today, I'd sign up," offered Nussle.