"I love a 50-50 tie," Senator John Breaux of Louisiana told me recently. "This is the kind of thing you dream about being involved in. It's a mandate for getting things done." And, boy, does he want to get things done. Breaux has a reputation in the Senate as a consummate deal maker, a people person, a backslapper. He's a Democrat who more often than not agrees with Republicans on signature issues like Social Security and Medicare, so his penchant for compromising and deal making has many Democrats worried. According to the prevailing wisdom, Breaux looks perfectly poised to serve as George W. Bush's go-to man in the Senate. But there's something funny about Breaux's deals: They never quite seem to get made.

If you've caught much of the TV commentary about the "war
against terrorism," you've probably seen a lot of Richard Perle, the portly,
Ronald Reagan-era assistant secretary of defense who kept the defense-hawk home
fires burning throughout the Bill Clinton years from a perch at the American
Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. On such shows as MSNBC's
Hardball with Chris Matthews and CNN's Wolf Blitzer Reports, Perle
advocates taking our fight against Osama bin Laden to the next level and using
American military power to overthrow Saddam Hussein. And if the president's
recent comments are any indication, his media blitz is having an effect. Politics