Shadegg's No Sheer Sucker

I really hate that I'm crediting her, but sometimes she hits it (I said sometimes...).

Is Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) thumbing his nose at a longstanding Senate summer tradition?

The natty dresser was recently overheard ribbing a staffer for wearing his best Matlock suit. "You know why they are called seersucker, don't you?" Shadegg said with a grin. "Sears makes 'em and suckers buy 'em."

But in Washington, seersucker suits are not just a way to beat the city's oppressive summer heat. Since the mid-1990s, Senate lawmakers have observed "Seersucker Thursday" by wearing their best lightweight cotton, stripy suits.

The holiday was founded by then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) "to show the Senate could have fun, and it's a little favor from down South, in a way, to beat the heat from up here in D.C.," Lott spokesman Nick Simpson told us.

So suckers don't wear them?

"No," the monosyllabic Simpson said, quite definitively. No Sears, either? "No." Simpson bought his at Oxford, just FYI. ...

... One Hill staffer sniped about Shadegg: "So he doesn't likes stripes, I guess I could understand if it was his fellow Arizonan Rick Renzi, who may soon be wearing stripes of his own supplied by federal tailors," the staffer said, referring to Renzi's current land-deal troubles.

This year's Seersucker Thursday is just around the corner, on June 21.

I am not one for seersucker as an everyday menswear fashion, but I do happen to love tradition. It's fun seeing that photo op every year in which the Congressmen all look so Southern chic - and I think it's quite charming. It brings a lighter side to Congress. It's like hearing about the bets made about home-state sports teams and the wacky wagers. It brings life to stiff politicos. Just take a peek above at how comfortable and cool Sen. Rick Santorum looked (I know, he never looks cool...) on last year's Seersucker Thursday.