Longing for the Land of Beer and Chocolate

There's also former solicitor general Ted Olson, who's been advising the Rudy Giuliani campaign. That campaign may not be with us by March, but you can talk with Olson about legal stuff -- the Indiana voter ID case at the Supreme Court and such.

And John Podhoretz, a Standard founding father and now movie critic and author of: "Can She Be Stopped?: Hillary Clinton Will Be the Next President of the United States Unless . . ." His book offers a 10-point plan, No. 10 being: "Nominate Rudy." Giuliani "represents the best hope the Republicans have of defeating Hillary Clinton," he writes. Well, if Giuliani is out by cruise time, and Clinton is the Democratic nominee, could be a downer talking to him.

Hurry. Cruise folks said yesterday there's only a few cheapo suites left. Thanks perhaps to the excellent Bush tax cuts, the $20,000-per-couple big suites, which come with a butler so it feels just like home, are long sold out. All that's left are the smaller $8,000-per-couple suites. Sorry, no butler.

But wait. Did we mention the "complimentary beverages," including wine and booze "served throughout the ship"? The casino? The limbo contest?

It's Maine. Who's Going to Notice?

Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart W. Bowen Jr., whose own office is under investigation by the FBI and three other entities for waste and mismanagement, raised a few eyebrows last week when he showed up in Maine with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and told the state's leading paper she was the "most consistent and effective supporter of our oversight in Iraq."

Collins is in a tight reelection battle in a blue state where the war, and her prior support for it, could be a critical factor. Last year she helped save Bowen's office, which has exposed enormous waste and fraud in the Iraq rebuilding effort, after House Republicans tried to kill it.

Bowen, a former top aide to President Bush in Texas, last week went to Maine with Collins to speak at a college and then joined her at an editorial board meeting of the Portland Press Herald-Maine Sunday Telegram, where he praised her for supporting him.

His trip didn't go unnoticed in Washington. A senior State Department official said he was "puzzled" by Bowen's appearance alongside Collins. "I wondered what he was doing," the official said. "This is the kind of thing we're taught not to do."

Bowen, who often speaks to groups and editorial boards about his office's work, would have accepted an invitation to speak at the college whether Collins went or not, IG spokeswoman Kristine Belisle said yesterday. The newspaper apparently then invited both of them to meet with the editorial board, she said.

Wait till he shows up in Minnesota with Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), an equally embattled blue-state lawmaker, to praise his work on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.