The doctor's doctor

With Congress back in session today, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., will more than likely bump into a familiar face as he roams the halls of the U.S. Capitol.

You may recall that in January 2003, Frist provided crucial medical attention to car crash victims he encountered while driving on Interstate 75 in Florida. Frist, a heart surgeon, was one of the first passersby to happen on the scene, and he both provided care to the victims and assisted emergency workers when they arrived. Three people ultimately died as a result of injuries sustained from the crash, despite the best efforts of Frist and emergency workers.

Unreported from that day was an interesting encounter between Frist and Tennessee native Lara Spalding, then a nursing student at Nashville’s Belmont University. Spalding was driving on I-75 toward Naples when she came upon the crash and rushed to help the victims. When she saw Frist’s campaign T-shirt on, she pointed at it and said, “Hey, that’s my senator.”

Frist responded, “That’s me,” before both returned to care for the injured.

So what’s Spalding up to now? Turns out, she and Frist share the same workplace. Spalding recently became a nurse in the Office of the Attending Physician to the United States Congress. Upon learning this, Frist honored Spalding with a floor speech in her presence, and signed his prepared remarks, “Lara, you are my hero.”

“I am happy to have Lara here in the Capitol,” Frist said. “Our lives are intertwined now because of a tragic event and I am proud to know her. She performed that day when she was needed the most and I know that she will again if faced with a challenge.”

Barbaro looks better on grass than lettuce

Turns out that 27 years after she dropped jaws in the movie “10,” Bo Derek still holds sway over the men of this country. Even members of Congress.

The blonde bombshell was all over Washington last week trying to draw attention not only to her new TV show, “Fashion House,” but to her latest pet project: ending the slaughtering of horses.

And when the equine-loving Derek says jump, men ask, “How high?” So it is that the House of Representatives (more than 80 percent men, remember) will take up a bill on Thursday that would “prohibit the shipping, transporting, moving, delivering, receiving, possessing, purchasing, selling or donation of horses and other equines to be slaughtered for human consumption, and for other purposes.”

Derek will join Willie Nelson’s daughter, Amy, and the late Richard Pryor’s wife, Jennifer, in a rally at 10 a.m. today at the corner of Independence and New Jersey avenues SE.

What’s a birthday without tigers?

He may not be playing, but he’s sure celebrating.

Redskins running back Clinton Portis, still on the sidelines with a sore shoulder, was treated to an extravagant 25th birthday party Friday night by teammates Santana Moss and Carlos Rogers.

An Asian-inspired invite, featuring a pop-up Portis, drew hundreds of revelers to Gallery Restaurant and Lounge in Silver Spring for the soiree, humbly entitled, “A Quarter Past Perfection.”

In addition to the cadre of players, which also included linebacker Marcus Washington, the scene included a live band, models clad in thong-leotards and geisha makeup, and two live tigers prancing in a cage outside the entrance.

The event even drew two sponsors, with their logos emblazoned on ice sculptures around the club: Easterns Automotive Group, the local car dealerships that put Redskins all over their cable TV ads, and Ultimate Customs, a Dulles-based car customization firm.

Jenna: Still partying, but for how long?

First daughter Jenna Bush hasn’t flown the coop yet. Fresh off a jaunt to Maine for a family wedding, she was spotted at the swank Georgetown spot Neyla last week. She and her tablemates were trading notes on the various summer exploits of their friends.

But lamentably, that may be the last Washington gawkers get to see of her for a while. Jenna is set to depart for a teaching gig in Latin America. Her twin, Barbara, has already left for New York City, where she will work at the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt museum.

Speakeasy

"Let me explain the government to you. There’s God, then there’s the president and then there’s my father.”

— Jack Roberts, 6-year-old son of Chief Justice John Roberts, overheard speaking to one of his young peers on the last day of summer camp

By the numbers

53: Percentage of Rhode Island voters who plan to support incumbent Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R, in his Sept. 12 primary against Steve Laffey.

58: Percentage of support Chafee has among Rhode Islanders who can actually name the primary date.