Congresswoman's Financial Report: This Won't Be Pretty.

Without a horse in the presidential campaign, Nicholson set out to help other candidates failed candidates. He wrote $500 checks in February to the debt retirement efforts of Sens. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) and Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), both of whom left the race after dismal showings in the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses.

Finally, on Feb. 29, Nicholson picked a new presidential contender -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). Just days before her big primary wins in Ohio and Texas, Nicholson sent a check for $2,300, the maximum, to her campaign.

Through the end of April, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was the only Democratic presidential contender from the House or Senate not to receive any financial support from the famed actor.

This is hardly a new phenomenon for Nicholson. During the 2000 campaign, Nicholson backed former senator Bill Bradley (D-N.J.), giving him $1,000 for his unsuccessful bid for the nomination eventually won by former Vice President Al Gore. (It's worth noting that Bradley is close friends with Lakers head coach Phil Jackson, a pal of Nicholson's.)

And in the 2004 primary season, Nicholson sat on the financial sidelines until Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) secured the nomination. Nicholson cut his first Kerry check in April 2004.

Representatives for Nicholson's production company did not return a telephone call seeking comment, and his accounting firm, which issued the checks to the candidates, declined requests for comment.

So, maybe the next step in Democratic unity could take place by getting Obama -- a Chicago Bulls fan who grew up a Philadelphia 76ers fan -- to sit in the front row with Jack at tomorrow's Lakers game.

Careful What You Wish For

The Hill was buzzing this week about The Post's story Monday's about the pending takeover of the Senate's network of eateries by Restaurant Associates, the private company that has in recent years turned House-side cafeterias and coffee shops into nicer places to eat.

Like clockwork, the lines for the taco salad special, offered every Wednesday in the House's basement cafeteria, were out the door yesterday. The place was so packed that House Sergeant-at-Arms William Livingood loudly boasted to friends that it was all those "Senate-side" people jamming the lines, jokingly threatening to impose a toll on Senate staffers in search of better food in the House.

Better, maybe. Cheaper, definitely not.

The beloved taco salad, which earlier this decade went for $3.95 with a complimentary 12-ounce soda, now costs $5.25. You want guacamole with that salad? That'll be 75 cents extra, a new fee recently imposed by Restaurant Associates.

Unlike the taxpayer-subsidized Senate eateries, Restaurant Associates has to turn a profit, so the taco salad with guacamole now goes for $6. And no soda.

Meet the New Boss

The Senate has a new top ethics cop. John Sassaman, who has served as a deputy counsel on both the Senate and House ethics committees, took over this week as acting chief counsel for the Senate ethics panel.

Sassaman's elevation follows the departure of veteran chief counsel Robert Walker, who had been the top ethics staffer since 2003. Walker also previously served as chief counsel on the House ethics panel, making him the only staffer to ever lead the ethical police forces for both chambers.

Walker's congressional run included overseeing investigations into now-imprisoned former congressman James Traficant (D-Ohio) and Sen. Larry Craig's airport restroom arrest. He is now a private-sector ethics compliance attorney at Wiley Rein LLP.