The American Spectator

The laughs didn’t end there. A few minutes later, Academy Award winning actor Kevin Spacey stood at the podium and performed a dead-on impression of Clinton uttering his usual pieties with his trademark squint. “It was hysterical, especially coming from Spacey, who’s supposed to be a big fan of Clinton,” says the EIF staffer self.”

p> PRO BONO br> As for Bono, he may be liberal but he’s also smart. Two weeks ago, after spending time with Bill Gates in New York at the World Economic conference, Bono flew down to Washington and spent an evening with Republicans senators and their staffs and families at the Greenbrier resort. He mingled, joked and signed autographs, and seemed to enjoy himself. /p>

“He was very moderate in his talk,” says one Senate staffer, whose 14-year-old daughter was practically in tears of excitement upon meeting the rocker. “He seems to understand that he’s going to have to deal with us, and with President Bush.”

When asked about Bush, Bono is said to have told Republican senators that his first impression of the man was that he was “serious” and “straight,” not a “phony like other men who have sat in his office.” Anyone in particular?

p> GO FOR BROKE br> No sooner had House minority leader Dick Gephardt last week completed a press conference singing the praises of the Meehan-Shays Campaign Finance Reform bill, than he rushed off to a conference call with several big-money Democratic Party donors, including the AFL-CIO. “This reform bill has moved so swiftly that no one is prepared for what may happen after next November,” says a House Democratic leadership aide. “Gephardt and Daschle and [DNC chair] Terry McAuliffe want to regain the House and hold on to the Senate, and they want some big-money donations in the bank before it all dries up.” /p>