For Mother McCain, 96 Is More Than an Age: It's an Average Speed.

The three newcomers, all elected in special elections this spring in districts long held by Republicans, have been invited to address the Senate Democratic Policy Committee. The weekly gathering usually hosts political strategists ( James Carville is a frequent attendee), authors (such as New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman) or businessmen ( Rupert Murdoch).

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), who chairs the lunch, acknowledged that "very seldom" do the senators invite House colleagues over to talk to the members of the upper chamber. But Dorgan said all three House freshmen "defied the odds" in winning races that could prove to be political road maps for the party. The victories came in districts once considered unattainable by Democrats.

Dorgan expects the lunch to be more than just a victory lap. "It'll give us a chance to learn how they did it," he said.

Keeping It Clean

Speaking of crisscrossing the chamber, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) made her way across the Capitol yesterday to visit the House Democratic Caucus at its weekly meeting, part of the welcome-home-to-Congress tour that began Tuesday. Clinton was warmly greeted by a group of House members that had been almost evenly divided between her and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in the Democratic primary.

But before lots of rah-rah talk, Clinton couldn't resist taking a shot at the caucus chairman, Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.). Emanuel is notoriously sharp-tongued and proficient with the seven dirty words that the late George Carlin put to use so well.

Emanuel and Clinton go back to Emanuel's days as a top adviser to President Bill Clinton, and he was sweet in welcoming her back. "The Senate is a club, the Democratic House caucus is your family," Emanuel told Clinton, according to the well-kept notes of our source in the room.

When it was her turn to speak, Clinton took note of Emanuel's tone. "That was my longest interaction with him without wincing," Clinton said, drawing lots of knowing laughter from colleagues who have been on the receiving end of Emanuel's foul-mouthed tirades.