Newly elected House Majority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio has wasted no time hiring his senior staff, including new Chief of Staff Paula Nowakowski, Deputy Chief of Staff David Schnittger and General Counsel Jo-Marie St. Martin.

Nowakowski became staff director for the Education and the Workforce Committee when Boehner became its chairman five years ago. She previously served four years as communications director for the House Republican Conference and previously was research director at the Republican National Committee.

Schnittger has been Boehner's personal office chief of staff, while St. Martin was the general counsel at the Education and the Workforce Committee, having previously toiled in private practice in Kingsport, Tenn.

SOUTHERN STAPLE

People outside the South don't realize "how much a role a successful barbecue plays in Southern hospitality and politics."

So insists Rep. Charlie Norwood, Georgia Republican, who says "the first thing one needs to understand is that in the South, the word barbecue itself can be noun, a verb or an adjective. It is more than food, it is a cultural identification and one that crosses all party lines."

He brings all this up in wishing a happy 50th anniversary of culinary and political tradition to Sconyers Barbecue Restaurant in Augusta, Ga., which has even supplied barbecue to the White House.

The congressman says owner Larry Sconyers once got so close to politics it "almost cost us this wonderful asset."

"He was enticed to run for office himself, first serving as a (county commissioner) then as the first mayor of a consolidated Augusta-Richmond County - Georgia's second-largest city - until he retired from direct politics in 1998 to return to the barbecue business."

BEAUTY AND BRAINS

That's Linda Solomon, a one-time model turned protocol director of the House Committee on International Relations chaired by Rep. Henry J. Hyde, Illinois Republican, gracing the pages of More magazine's "Fearless After 40" cover feature in the February issue.

Solomon, daughter of the late congressman Gerald Solomon, of New York, one of the leading conservative voices in the House before his retirement in 1998 (he died in 2001), was selected by the magazine's New York editors to be among five featured younger-than-life fortysomethings who won't "give up their manes."

"My hair has always been long, except once when I was nine months pregnant," the blond Hill staffer, the mother of a college sophomore, tells the magazine.

"When I got a job on Capitol Hill 11 years ago, I didn't consider cutting it, even though the dress code is pretty conservative here. I have the longest hair in my office, but it's my signature. My hair helps my personality come through even when I'm dressed in tailored suits."

She adds: "My mother, who's in her 70s, still wears her hair long."

PROUD BEANS

We'd written last month of a push by coffee growers in Hawaii to have the White House serve U.S.-made coffee at presidential functions, rather than imported coffee blends from Central and South America.

We have it on good authority that numerous packages of 100 percent U.S.-estate-grown Kona coffee - medium roast to private reserve - have been delivered by promoters of U.S. coffee to White House usher Daniel Shanks (11 pounds, 12 varieties), senior White House aide Karl Rove (4.5 pounds, five varieties), first lady Laura Bush (4.5 pounds, five varieties) and Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick (6.5 pounds, seven varieties).

MEET THE PROFESSORS

Liberal-turned-conservative David Horowitz's new book, "The Professors," exposes what he calls the 100 most-dangerous academics in America.

Among them: a law professor who spent 10 years on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list; a professor who teaches that rap music is an effective tool for learning English literacy; a professor who praised the Sept. 11 attack on the Pentagon; and an English professor who regards the fall of communism as a "moral catastrophe."

(Ed. Note: Mr. Horowitz's new book is now on sale at the Townhall Book Service for only $19.95.)