Who's Who.

• Author: THREADGILL, SUSAN

Ben Barnes, the former speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, is the man who recommended George W. Bush for a hard-to-get slot in the Vietnam-era Texas Air National Guard. Barnes has said, and the Bush camp has duly emphasized, that neither Bush's father "nor any other member of the Bush family" asked for the favor. But Barnes added, according to The Washington Post's George Lardner, that "he was contacted by Sid Adger, a wealthy Houston businessman and a good friend of the senior Bush."

For publishers who want to acquire Bill Clinton's first post-presidency book, the man to see is Robert Barnett. Although Barnett's wife is better known to the public--she's CBS correspondent Rita Braver--he's a bigfoot Washington lawyer who doubles as a literary agent for prominent political figures.

Democrats are happy to hear that Christine Todd Whitman won't be running against their nominee for the New Jersey Senate seat that Frank Lautenberg is vacating next year. But Republicans are consoled, according to The Washington Post's David Broder, by the news that their chance of capturing the seat Senator Richard Bryan is leaving are increased by the news that the popular Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa has decided not to run. (The Democrats` first choice, former Governor Bob Miller, had already declined the honor.) Republican prospects in Nevada are further enhanced by the fact that he leading candidate for this nomination is former Congressman John Ensign, who came within a whisker of beating Senator Harry Reid a year ago.

The Navy doesn't want a miniature aircraft carrier called the LHD-8. But Trent Lott does. He's the Senate majority leader, so the Senate voted $500 million to get the project started. House aides asked the Navy how much was needed. $295 million, it replied. When a Lott senior staffer found out, according to Tim Weiner of The New York Times, he faxed a handwritten memo to the Pentagon. It said that $295 million was the "wrong answer." The answer he said that "the Navy needs to support" was "$375 million to $500 million." At last report, the Navy was sticking to its guns. But local cynics predict that the majority leader will get his way.

Is Janet Reno corrupt, as a good many columnists and editorial writers suggest? Not according to sources who tell us that although she can be a trifle obtuse at times, she's clean. She was also innocent in the ways of Washington and could be conned, as she was by the FBI when it...