The New Republic

Representative Sam Graves surely considers himself important to the Bush administration. A Republican freshman from the Kansas City, Missouri, area, Graves has been a good conservative soldier during his first year in the House. And, given that he was elected with just 51 percent of the vote and is considered highly vulnerable this fall, the White House should want to help him. So Graves was presumably nonplussed when the administration singled out one of his few legislative accomplishments for ridicule earlier this month. READ MORE >>

Representative Sam Graves surely considers himself important to the Bush administration. A Republican freshman from the Kansas City, Missouri, area, Graves has been a good conservative soldier during his first year in the House. And, given that he was elected with just 51 percent of the vote and is considered highly vulnerable this fall, the White House should want to help him. So Graves was presumably nonplussed when the administration singled out one of his few legislative accomplishments for ridicule earlier this month. READ MORE >>

For Dick Gephardt, 2001 was a year to forget. It began with bitter recriminations over his party's failure to win back the House of Representatives in the 2000 elections. Next, Gephardt watched helplessly as Tom DeLay rammed the Bush agenda through the House. In May, Gephardt saw his Senate counterpart Tom Daschle elevated from minority to majority leader by Jim Jeffords's party switch. Suddenly, Daschle was the undisputed face of the Democratic Party. As Republicans waged their "demonize Daschle" campaign late last READ MORE >>

Think Democrats are excited about their upcoming hearings on the Enron debacle? With fully ten congressional committees planning hearings over the coming weeks, Democratic staffers are practically tripping over one another to promote their own productions. "We were the first committee to announce we were having a hearing, back on November 29," boasts the spokesman for New Mexico Democrat Jeff Bingaman, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Not so, argues a spokesman for North Dakota's Byron READ MORE >>

He pronounced Bill Clinton a "scumbag." He presided over endless hearings on every Clinton scandal, real or imagined. He fired a bullet into a "head-like object"--reportedly a melon--in his backyard to test the theory that former White House counsel Vincent Foster was murdered. And so, not surprisingly, Indiana Congressman Dan Burton was widely viewed by Democrats during the Clinton years as a partisan wacko. In May 1998 Massachusetts's Barney Frank spoke for many of his colleagues when he labeled the silver-haired scold READ MORE >>

Seven months after Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party and altered the balance of power in Washington, he remains something of an icon. Consider the recent book-signing Jeffords held at a Borders in downtown Washington to celebrate the publication of his triumphant My Declaration of Independence. One after another, Jeffords's beaming fans called him a hero and an inspiration, and asked to snap his picture. A starry-eyed blonde showed up with ten copies of his book. After signing the whole READ MORE >>

When GOP leaders chose California Congressman Bill Thomas to chair the immensely powerful House Ways and Means Committee in January, they knew the risks. Thomas is one of the smartest members of Congress; he is also one of the nastiest. Last year he finished second in the "Meanest" and "Hottest Temper" categories in Washingtonian magazine's "Best and Worst of Congress" poll. (Tom DeLay was voted "Meanest," thanks to Democratic hostility, but Washingtonian said Thomas polled equally from both parties.) The READ MORE >>

Patrick Leahy doesn't look like an especially groovy guy. He is bald and pale, speaks in a gravelly monotone, and wears drab gray suits. If you didn't know he was a U.S. senator, you might peg him for a NASA engineer. But upon closer inspection, the Vermont Democrat turns out to have some unexpectedly funky tastes. He is, for instance, an avowed Grateful Dead fan who can explain the bootleg concert-tape trade, and who once brought Jerry Garcia to the Senate dining room. READ MORE >>

If you're scared witless by the anthrax horror spreading across the country, take heart: The government has an anthrax vaccine that will immunize you and let you chuck that recent Cipro prescription. There are, however, a few small drawbacks. There's only enough vaccine on hand for at most 4,000 people. The vaccine requires months of painful shots before taking effect. The one factory that produces it has been dormant for three years—and it's so tangled in red tape that no one knows when it will be running again. READ MORE >>

It's a bright early October morning on Capitol Hill. Joe Biden is bounding up the steps of the Russell Senate Office Building, wearing his trademark grin. As he makes for the door, he is met by a group of airline pilots and flight attendants looking vaguely heroic in their navy-blue uniforms and wing-shaped pins. A blandly handsome man in a pilot's cap steps forward and asks Biden to help pass emergency benefits for laid-off airline workers. READ MORE >>