The Ana Log

By Ana Marie Cox

From her Washington base camp, ANA MARIE COX dishes the dirt on D.C. This week a special "Least Powerful Men in Washington" edition--a look at who lost the most in last week's tide-turning election.

KARL ROVE Suddenly, "Bush's Brain" doesn't seem like a compliment. The President told reporters after the election that Rove was winning their informal reading contest--"I obviously was working harder in the campaign than he was." The gibe was met with uncomfortable chuckles. (As Homer Simpson might say, "It's funny because it's true!") Campaign workers fault Rove for getting into the game late; his vaunted "72-hour project" turned out to need more time.

JOHN KERRY The Massachusetts Senator's lame, might-have-been-offensive joke at the troops' expense drew outrage from both the right, who had forgotten how much they hated Kerry, and the left, who had forgotten how much they hated Kerry. It wound up making little difference in the Democratic sweep: he can't even lose an election anymore.

EVERYONE WHO SMELLS LIKE ABRAMOFF Ew. Voters flushed a number of Congressmen tainted by (all together now!) disgraced superlobbyist Jack Abramoff, including Senator Conrad Burns and Representative Richard Pombo. We may soon find out whether it's possible to be viewed as too dirty to land a lobbyist job.

GEORGE W. BUSH He gave up his stay-the-course catchphrase, told people that terrorists wanted the Democrats to win and even admitted, you know, things in Iraq weren't going that well. Yet in the end, he was offering Nancy Pelosi the names of some good "Republican interior decorators," which means the G.O.P. is a bigger tent than we thought.