WASHINGTON DIARY: FRIENDS, 12-STEPPERS, FRESHMEN

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That wacky, gun-and-gunk-loving freshman class of Republican Congressmen has yet another star falling from the sky, following the trajectory of Texas' pro-assault weapon Steve Stockman and Utah's Enid (Where's Joe?) Greene Waldholtz. Oregon Congressman Wes Cooley won't say whether he married his second wife in the mid-1980s, as his voter-registration card and friends say he did. Or in 1994, when his wife notified the Veterans Affairs Department that they could stop sending her $900 a month in benefits as the widow of a Marine captain. His press spokesman says Cooley, a member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, will let us know when he got married as soon as he has "all the facts at his disposal." The Cooleys could owe the VA as much as $100,000. He's already under investigation for a claim that he served in the Army Special Forces in Korea, and has admitted that his campaign materials falsely awarded him a Phi Beta Kappa key.