Who's Who.

The Democrats' midterm pasting has put a crimp in the presidential plans of the party's "six pack": Al Gore, John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, John Edwards, Howard Dean, and Richard Gephardt. Gore and Dean can plausibly call themselves "outsiders" and avoid being tainted by the loss. But the rest are scrambling to explain why they'd fare any better in 2004 than a circa-1984 Walter Mondale (or '02, for that matter). Democratic insiders speculate that the more lightweight packers, like Bill Clinton protege Edwards, might benefit from a stalwart Dick Cheney-type, skilled in matters of national security and foreign policy. One name that surfaced: Monthly contributor, and former NATO Allied Supreme Commander, Gen. Wesley Clark.

Of all the things you'd expect retiring Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) to fight for in the final weeks of his 30-year tenure, Internet radio probably wouldn't be one of them. But Helms, whose Web site was voted one of the worst in Congress last year, blocked a House bill sponsored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) to reduce the royalty payments Webcasters must pay to the recording industry, arguing that the proposed rates are still too high. Skeptics say that Helms's concern doesn't lie with downloading J. Lo's latest single, but with religious programming. But Webcasters favoring songs by Christina Aguilera over ones about Jesus are nonetheless thrilled by Helms's opposition.

Dick Gephardt may be gone, but Democrats on the Hill say that rumors of Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe's demise are greatly exaggerated. Though most Democrats winced at McAuliffe's pronouncement to Larry King that election night had been "a good night" for the party, most believe he's staying put because Bill and Hillary Clinton still back him.

Steve Hildebrand is the rare Democratic operative whose stock actually rose after the midterm elections. With all the Democrats' Senate losses, the most unlikely result was the hairsbreadth victory of Sen. Tim Johnson, the freshman senator from South Dakota who managed to eek past Karl Rove's handpicked GOP challenger, ,John Thune in one of the most pro-Bush states in the country. Hildebrand made his name as a master of the ground operation when he ran Iowa for Al Gore in 2000. And when Johnson and his Senate colleague Tom Daschle started putting together a campaign team last year they knew they'd need the best talent they could get. The team they put together--including a number of other veterans of Gore 2000--was widely recognized as including some of the best talent in the Democratic Party today, including Deputy Campaign Manager Mark Nickolas and Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer. And it paid off on Nov. 5 when Johnson edged out Thune by little more than 500 votes.

Plenty of Republicans are due praise, but a few stand out: George W. Bush's stealth pollster Jan van Lohuizen had a perfect night (pending the runoff in the Louisiana Senate race). His firm, Voter Consumer Research, is five-for-six: winning clients included Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, North Carolina Sen.-elect Elizabeth Dole, Florida Rep. Ric Keller, Rhode Island Gov.-elect Don Carcieri, and Kentucky Rep. Anne Northup. If Anne Terrell somehow upsets incumbent Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu in the Louisiana runoff the first Saturday in December, van Lohuizen will have a perfect score. Another popular GOP pollster will be Bill McInturff, who helped engineer upsets for Norm Coleman in Minnesota and Saxby Chambliss in Georgia.