The Ana Log

By Ana Marie Cox

Reporting from her Washington base camp, ANA MARIE COX dishes the dirt on D.C.

WE'LL STOP INCLUDING HIM IN THIS COLUMN AS SOON AS HE STOPS GIVING US MATERIAL Apparently, George Allen is Jewish. But not that Jewish. Soon after his mother says it is O.K. to emerge from the goy closet, the Republican Senator from Virginia tells the Richmond Times-Dispatch: "I still had a ham sandwich for lunch."

COULD THERE BE AN ODDER COUPLE? Laura Bush speaks at Bill Clinton's Global Initiative conference on philanthropy, forgoes Desperate Housewives jokes and talks about water-filtration systems powered by kids using merry-go-rounds. Meanwhile, in a parallel universe, George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton go at it on a seesaw.

AND I THOUGHT I KNEW YOU, REVEREND MOON The Nation publishes an expose on the battle over the top job at the conservative Washington Times--owned by oddball Sun Myung Moon, head of the Unification Church--and shows its newsroom to be a hotbed of thinly veiled (and not so veiled) racism and sexism. The Times replies that the article is based on "fabrication." Wait--did Jayson Blair get a new job?

HIRE THIS MAN'S PRESS SECRETARY During a joint appearance with President Bush, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf dodges questions about his allegation that the U.S. threatened to bomb his country if it did not cooperate in the war on terrorism: "I am launching my book on the 25th, and I am honor-bound to Simon & Schuster not to comment on the book before that day." Can you judge a book by its diplomatic cover?