Who's Who.

Just after CNN's cameras had caught Nancy Reagan's obviously deeply touched response to a film tribute to her husband at the GOP convention, Larry King turned to one of the people in his booth and asked for a comment. There were two problems: first, the person he turned to was Donald Regan, Ronald Reagan's former chief of staff who had devoted a large part of his White House memoir to attacking Nancy. Second, King called him "Michael."

Lynne Cheney is the co-author of a Washington novel called The Body Politic. In it the vice president dies of a heart attack that occurs while he is making love. Guess who succeeds him as his party's candidate for the vice presidency? His wife.

Should Dick be worried?

This reminds an old-timer we know of the time Charles Percy, after his daughter's murder, won a surprise victory in his first senate race. Dick Nixon was beginning his campaign for the 1968 Republican nomination and the sick joke around town was "Tricia and Julie are locking their doors every night."

This contribution to our How Things Have Changed Department comes from an article quoting Richard Berke, the national political correspondent of The New York Times, in the May issue of Lambda Report:

"This is a newspaper where not so long ago--when I started there 15 years ago--they were keeping lists--the department heads were asking for lists of the gay reporters in different sections so they could be punished in different ways ... Now it's like, there are times when you look at the front-page meeting and ... literally three-quarters of the people deciding what's on the front page are not-so-closeted homosexuals."

Good for the Times!

Speaking of Nixon, his former White House aide Leonard Garment says in a new book that another Nixon aide, John Sears, was Deep Throat. And Sears does talk more like Deep Throat than any of the other suspects, but he didn't know nearly as much about Watergate as our candidate Fred Fielding, who was John Dean's deputy and one of the great leakers of the modern era, as was our second choice, David Gergen, who also happens to have gone to Yale with Bob Woodward. Our third choice is Garment himself, who was known to detest the Haldemans and the Colsons and was also a skilled leaker. Our fourth and fifth choices are Alexander Haig and Fred Buzhardt, who were clearly the main sources for The Final Days, Woodward and Bernstein's second book about Watergate. Even if none of our five candidates turns out to be Deep Throat, we would wager that each of them told Woodward and Bernstein more than did John Sears or whoever else Deep Throat turns out to be. When you read All The President's Men closely, the actual hard information that Deep Throat supplied was not all that much.

What Senate seats do the Democrats have a chance of picking up from the Republicans this fall? We've asked our resident prognosticator, Aaron Tracy, and he tells us that Georgia's Zell Miller is practically a cinch to keep Paul Coverdell's seat. Otherwise the Democrats have a shot at winning three in Delaware, Missouri, and Michigan where Democrats Tom Carper, Mel Carnahan, and Debbie Ann Stabenow could unseat Republicans William Roth, John Ashcroft, and Spencer Abraham. In Florida, Democrat Bill Nelson should mice the seat vacated by Republican Connie Mack And the Democrats should also hold on to contested seats in Nebraska where the popular governor Ben Nelson should keep Bob Kerrey's place, New Jersey where John Corzine should defeat Bob Franks, and New York where Hillary Clinton will nose out Rick Lazio. But the bad news for Democrats is that they could lose the Virginia seat held by Chuck Robb to popular former governor, George Allen, and in Nevada, where Republican John Ensign may beat Ed Bernstein.

How Times Have Changed Part II: Dana Milbank of The Washington Post recently complained about the quality of the cuisine on Al Gore's plane, noting among other deficiencies, that "Air Force II desperately needs a sommelier." It seems that when Milbank asked which wines were available, the steward "pronounce[d] Merlot with a hard `t'." Flog that man!

When we asked our resident old-timer to comment on Milbank's article, he said "Thirty years ago any reporter who knew the difference between red and white was considered a sophisticate."

By the way, if you haven't been able to figure out why the press has tilted so flagrantly in favor of George W. Bush, Milbank's article tells you all you need to know. The menu for one Bush press corps dinner: "Striped lobster ravioli with red salmon caviar. Beef Wellington and cheesecake."

In our June issue we gave you George W, Bush's foreign policy advisors. Here is his domestic team: Allan Hubbard, Michael Boskin, Martin and Annelise Anderson, John Cogan, Christopher DeMuth, Martin Feldstein, R. Glenn Hubbard, Edward Lazear, Lawrence Lindsey, Diane Ravitch, Deborah Steelman, and John Taylor. Among the competing conservative think tanks, the Hoover Institution supplied five of the above and AEI two. With the foreign affairs side it was a 2-2 tie.

Hillary Clinton was not known for her humor in Washington, but on the campaign trail in New York she seems to have loosened up. When asked about her failure to tip that upstate waitress earlier in the campaign, she says she's learned that "15 to 20 percent doesn't mean 15 to 20 percent of the time."

Those who contend that W.'s bulb is a trifle low on wattage must have derived some pleasure from the three priorities listed on his new Website, www.georgewbush.com in July. Number 1 was "Reforming social security." Number 2 was "Lowering personal income tax." Third, and last, was "Putting education first."

How Things Have Changed Part III: Congratulations to Al Gore for choosing Joseph Lieberman as his running mate--the first Jewish vice presidential candidate in history--and to David Brooks who so persuasively made the case for Lieberman in our June issue ("ISO VP ASAP.") Does this mean that Gore/Lieberman can count on Brooks' support in the pages of The Weekly Standard?