Sympathetic Vibrations

Still unclear is the fate of $45,400 ostensibly raised by Noe for the 2004 Bush-Cheney reelection campaign. A Toledo grand jury last month charged Noe with faking the donations by asking 24 people to contribute, then reimbursing them for most of the amount.

"That money is the basis of the investigation," McLear said. Referring to the criminal case, he said, "We're going to allow that process to reach a conclusion before doing anything else."

The Toledo rare-coin dealer's reach touched the campaign of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), the only person known to have chosen the traditional route of returning Noe's cash to Noe himself.

"If I recall, there were two checks for about $5,000 each," said Marty Wilson, executive director of Schwarzenegger's political organization, the California Recovery Team. "The fact is, we're not in Ohio. We figured the most expeditious route to take was to refund it directly to Mr. Noe."

Can 14,000 Players Be Wrong?

Is President Bush an easy mark? It seems many poker players would gladly welcome him to join a game at their table.

BetCRIS.com, an online sports wagering firm, has received 14,000 answers to its unscientific survey asking visitors to its poker Web site to answer the question, "Which world leader would you play poker against?" Bush was first, the choice of 27 percent of those voting. Bush supporters may note that this is another case of the president being misunderestimated.

In a news release, Mickey Richardson, chief executive of BetCRIS.com, speculated, "My guess is people want to play against Bush because he looks like someone that's easy to bluff."

For his part, Richardson said he'd be afraid to play against Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, who was running second: "If he catches you putting a move on him, you're done for."

Staff writer Kari Lydersen contributed to this report. Cillizza is a staff writer for washingtonpost.com. His online politics column, "The Fix," is updated daily at www.washingtonpost.com/thefix.