Bidders Pony Up Big Bucks for Traficant Horses

Well, there's always next year.

Business at the Beach

Meanwhile, six more lawmakers are off on an intense working trip to Jamaica, returning Sunday. This all-Democratic codel includes Reps. Gregory Meeks (N.Y.), Albert R. Wynn (Md.), Stephanie Tubbs Jones (Ohio), Donald M. Payne (N.J.), G.K. Butterfield (N.C.) and Lynn C. Woolsey (Calif.).

The group has meetings scheduled with the prime minister, the U.S. Embassy staff, various other Jamaican ministers and Spain's ambassador to Jamaica, said Candace Sandy, Meeks's communications director. She says it's all business, touring development projects, meetings, concluding with dinner with the local business community Saturday night.

Well, it's still Jamaica in January.

Overnight Success

Timing truly is everything. The American Bar Association's Web store has started featuring an ABA-published book that has been around since July, but is now generating a lot of interest.

It's "The Lobbying Manual: A Complete Guide to Federal Law Governing Lawyers and Lobbyists, Third Edition." The Web site calls it an "ABA bestseller." One of the authors is Washington lawyer Thomas M. Susman , a partner at Ropes & Gray.

Given all the recent fuss about ethics, look for a fourth edition next year.

Name That Scandal

Don't forget to enter the Name the Abramoff Scandal Contest.

Send your entry -- and rationale -- via e-mail to intheloop@washpost.com or mail to In the Loop, The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071. Deadline is midnight Wednesday. Top 10 winners get one of those highly coveted In the Loop T-shirts. Entries on background are welcome, but entries must include telephone numbers.