HISTORIC VOTE

The Senate yesterday unanimously confirmed Michele M. Leonhart, a veteran
Drug Enforcement Administration agent and former Baltimore police officer,
as the DEA's deputy administrator -- a vote that put two women in charge of
the drug agency for the first time in its 31-year history. Mrs. Leonhart
joins with Karen P. Tandy, a former deputy associate attorney general named
by President Bush in March 2003 as the first woman to head the DEA. They
will oversee a $1.89 billion budget and nearly 10,000 employees, including
5,000 agents assigned throughout the United States and in more than 50
other countries.

As deputy administrator, Mrs. Leonhart, who also served as the former head
of both the busy DEA's Los Angeles and San Francisco field divisions, will
be responsible for the drug agency's daily operations and for administering
DEA policy and direction through its operational and executive staffs.

"Drug enforcement in this country takes a huge leap forward today with the
confirmation of Special Agent Michele Leonhart," said Mrs. Tandy. "For 26
years, Special Agent Leonhart's courageous work in the counterdrug mission
has made the lives of countless children, families, neighborhoods and
communities safer and better." Log Cabin ad

The Log Cabin Republicans, a homosexual group, launched an advertising
campaign yesterday against President Bush's plan to ban same-sex
"marriages" with a constitutional amendment.

The spot features then-vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney saying -- in
a 2000 election debate -- he would leave the matter up to the states.
"People should be free to enter any kind of relationship," Mr. Cheney said,
against a background of black-and-white images of homosexual couples and
civil rights protests. "I don't think there should be a federal policy in
this area." The spot concludes: "We agree.

Don't amend the Constitution." The 25-year-old group said the
million-dollar campaign was meant "to prevent discrimination from becoming
part of our nation's Constitution." The spots will be broadcast in
Washington and in seven states that could tip the balance in November,
Agence France-Presse reports. Nader's pull

Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader could take away a number of
Arab-American votes that otherwise would go to Democrat John Kerry, the
Arab American Institute said yesterday.

The institute, based in Washington, said early results of a poll it has
commissioned indicate Mr. Nader's candidacy could hurt the Democrats. Mr.
Nader is of Arab ancestry. The institute will release the results of the
poll tomorrow, United Press International reports.

Playing hardball

A Boston police union, in tough contract negotiations, has asked Democrats,
including likely presidential nominee John Kerry, to boycott their national
convention. Several unions are using the July 26-29 Democratic National
Convention in Boston as leverage in negotiations with the city. The Boston
Police Patrolmen's Association has said that police union members from at
least nine states would walk picket lines at Boston's Fleet Center during
the convention. Union President Thomas Nee, at a news conference Tuesday,
said: "There will be an expectation that the line will not be crossed.

I know Democrats do not do that. That's the protocol." According to the
Boston Globe, about 16,000 city employees are working without contracts.

The newspaper said representatives from several other unions said they
expected any negotiations to be completed before the convention. Dubious
vote count

Florida, home of the 2000 presidential recount, had few voting problems
during its presidential primary Tuesday, with only one county reporting
serious complications. Bay County, in the Florida Panhandle, suspended its
count when Missouri Democratic Rep. Richard A. Gephardt -- who dropped out
of the race two months ago and polled about 1 percent elsewhere in the
state -- took a 2-1 lead over statewide winner Sen. John Kerry, with almost
two-thirds of the county's precincts tabulated. County elections officials
believe the problem was caused by a computer-software glitch in the
optical-scan machines that counted almost all of the 19,000 votes cast. On
optical-scan machines, voters use pencils to mark their ballots, which are
then tabulated by a scanner.

Bay County officials were going to recount the ballots by hand, the
Associated Press reports.

Ramsey candidacy?

The father of slain beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey is thinking about seeking
election to the Michigan House of Representatives. John Ramsey may run as a
Republican for a seat in the northern part of the state, his wife, Patsy,
said Tuesday. "A lot of our friends have been encouraging him to do it,"
she said. Mr. Ramsey is registered to vote in the town of Charlevoix, where
his family has owned a vacation home. The family moved to Michigan
full-time last fall, Patsy Ramsey said. Mr. Ramsey has not yet filed to run
for the open seat, but the deadline is not until May 11, the Associated
Press reports.

Name added

A South Carolina state Senate committee approved adding the name of Strom
Thurmond's biracial daughter to the list of his children engraved on a
monument to the late U.S. senator, the Associated Press reports. Essie Mae
Washington-Williams came forward last year and announced she is the
daughter of Mr. Thurmond and a black 16-year-old housekeeper who worked in
the Thurmond family home. Mr. Thurmond was 22 years old when Mrs.
Washington-Williams was born. He died last year at age 100. The Statehouse
monument in Columbia was built in the late 1990s with $850,000 in private
donations.

The statue depicts Mr. Thurmond as he was in the 1960s -- in the midst of a
political career that spanned most of the past century.

Mr. Thurmond also had four children with his second wife, Nancy. The oldest
is 31-year-old Strom Thurmond Jr. Musical voters

A pro-life group says it will attempt to register 500,000 young adults this
year at rock concerts and music festivals.

The organization, Rock For Life, says it will use its 100 chapters to
conduct voter-registration efforts at major music festivals, concert venues
and colleges, United Press International reports.