Martin O'Malley's Mom, at 87, Keeps Senators in Line

While attention swirls around whether former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley will run for president, another member of his family — his 87-year-old mother — has been building an extraordinary political career of her own on Capitol Hill.

In 1987, Barbara O'Malley joined the staff of then-freshman Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland as a receptionist. Today she is answering Mikulski's telephones and "keeping the Senate's other inhabitants in line," The Wall Street Journal reports.

She doesn't take guff from anyone, according to Washington power players who've been on the receiving end of her get-back-to-work instructions.

"She's so funny — and she's tough," said retired Sen. Jay Rockefeller, who visited Mrs. O'Malley (known throughout Senate offices as "Mrs. O") every day when he was in Washington.

"When she thinks the conversation has gone on too long, she goes, 'Go to your office and do some work,'" said the West Virginia Democrat, who served 30 years in the Senate.

She has been described as the best-known 80-something on Capitol Hill to have never won an election.

"I will sometimes run into U.S. senators who I've never met before, but they already know who my mom is," said her son, who just ended his tenure as governor and has made numerous trips to Iowa as he mulls a possible presidential bid.

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