Who's Who.

• Author: THREADGILL, SUSAN

Tom Daschle won a recent poll of congressional staffers as the Best Leader in the Senate. According to the Washingtonian, the magazine that conducted the poll, "Daschle pulled more than twice the votes GOP runner-up [Don] Nickles did--and a quarter of Daschle's votes came from Republicans."

Other winners were Barney Frank as both the Brainiest and Funniest member of the House, Tom DeLay and Barbara Mikulski as the meanest, and Trent Lott for "Weakest Spine" and John McCain for "Strongest Backbone" in the Senate. One winner that outsiders never would have guessed was Jesse Helms for "Just Plain Nice" But the only senators who drew votes from both sides of the aisle in this category were Thad Cochran and Joe Lieberman.

As preparations were underway for the presidential debates, the press was full of rumors that the George W. Bush camp was not eager to have their candidate debate with Al Gore on prime time. There was little hard evidence to :support the rumors, but the Wall Street Journal did report "The Republicans favor Sunday morning talk shows." Then came the actual Bush proposal which included two shows, each of which is shown on just one network, and one of which is-- surprise, surprise-- Tim Russert's "Meet the Press" on Sunday morning.

To celebrate Bill Clinton's 54th birthday, the White House staff threw a party on the South Lawn. The entertainment was a lecture by Chief of Staff John Podesta, advising the president on how to prepare for life outside without White House chefs, limos, and Air Force One. Among the visual aids presented by Podesta were color charts showing how to order from a Chinese menu and a photograph of an airline boarding pass: "You actually need one of these to get on the airplane." He also explained about red lights. "Red means stop, yellow means slow down, actually green means go--except when driving in New York yellow means hit the gas."

By now everyone knows that Al Gore wrote his own acceptance speech. But who wrote George W. Bush's? The answer is a former U.S. News & World Report staffer, Mike Gerson.

Was there a connection between the Big Kiss and what many people think was the best speech of Al Gore's career? We can't be sure, but it does appear that Tipper played a role in an earlier high point in her husband's life, his NAFTA debate with Ross Perot. The story is told by David Gergen in his new book, Eyewitness to Power. Earlier in the evening, Gergen and Gore staffers Jack Quinn and Michael Shehan had...