The American Spectator

p> DRUDGE MATCH br> Sen. Hillary Clinton came out publicly on Friday to support the short-lived candidacy of Tipper Gore for the open Senate seat in Tennessee, even though at first Hillary and her Capitol Hill staffers thought the whole Tipper-will-run idea was a lark. “We first saw the item on Drudge,” says a Clinton staffer. “And we thought it was a joke or something. We e-mailed the link around and just kind of laughed about it. I think even Mrs. Clinton thought it was a hoax or someone at the DNC just floating a goofy idea.” /p>

But Hillary, who has not spoken much to Tipper since hubby Al’s failed presidential run, is said by staffers to have made several phone calls to Democratic colleagues in the Senate, though not to Mrs. Gore herself, to confirm the notion that Tipper might be running. “Mrs. Clinton confirmed it, then put out the release that she was supportive of it,” the first staffer says. “What else could she do?”

Still, the Clinton staffer adds, Hillary thought it amusing that “the Gores are trying to imitate the Clintons in almost every way.”

p> WALL FLOWERS br> Sen. John Edwards spent last week showing off art in his office to North Carolina newspaper reporters in an attempt to send a message home that he was serious about running for president. At one time, Edwards had pictures of Ben Franklin and