Who's Who.

• Author: THREADGILL, SUSAN
• Position: Politicians

Ari Fleischer, who was Elizabeth Dole's spokesperson until her campaign folded, has joined George W. Bush's team. He follows David Beckwith, who briefly served as Bush's spokesperson but was shown the exit after tangling with Communications Director Karen Hughes who, along with Karl Rove and Joe Allbaugh, makes up the Big Three of W.'s staff.

If Hillary Clinton decides to bail out of the New York Senate race, there could be a Kennedy family fight over who replaces her as the Democratic candidate. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and his sister Kerry's husband, Andrew Cuomo, are among the possible successors.

Former Congressman Tim Penny, much admired by Capitol Hill moderates during his tenure in the House, is said to be leaning toward running against Sen. Rod Grams in Minnesota.

A friend of ours has a brother who was in Skull and Bones at Yale. This is the secret society George W. Bush belonged to. The brother recently got this note from the Skull and Bones command center: "In view of the political happenings in the barbarian world, I feel compelled to remind all of the tradition of privacy and confidentiality essential to the well being of our Order and strongly urge stout resistance to the seductions and blandishments of the Fourth Estate." Translated we think this adds up to: "Don't tattle on W."

The word on Lincoln Chafee, who has succeeded his father, John Chafee as senator from Rhode Island, is that "he's a chip off the old block." This comes from Darrell West, a professor of political science at Brown, who tells The Hill's Robert Schlesinger: "He votes like his dad, socially moderate, fiscally conservative, and a strong environmentalist." Sen. Slade Gorton, chairman of the Republican Committee on Committees, has already indicated that Chafee will get a a subcommittee chairmanship on the Environmental and Public Works Committee.

For environmentalists, that's the good news from the Senate. The bad news is that the Environment and Public Works Committee will be chaired by either Sen. Robert C. Smith, the New Hampshire Republican who recently left the party because it wasn't conservative enough, and then returned when thoughts of committee chairmanships began to dance in his head, or by Sen. James M. Inhofe who is considered even less friendly by environmentalists. According to Adam Clymer of The New York Times, The League of Conservation Voters, which rated John Chafee as correct in 70 percent of his votes, gave Smith a score of 36 percent...