Members of Congress work hard on creating a positive image, so we usually know little about them that they don't want us to know.
But their aides know a lot--who's smart and who's dumb, who's gutsy and who's a blowhard.
Every election year we survey top Capitol Hill staff--administrative assistants, press secretaries, legislative directors, and chiefs of committee staffs--to get the lowdown. In return, we donate a dollar to a charity--Share Our Strength or the Metropolitan Police Boys and Girls Clubs--for each respondent.
The results are often surprising--particularly when aides take shots at bigwigs in their own parties. Here are their picks for the best and worst among their bosses.
1. Tom Daschle (D-SD)
2. Bill Frist (R-TN)
3. Tie: Trent Lott (R-MS), Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Daschle won all but a handful of the votes from Democratic aides. The three Republicans split the GOP vote.
1. John McCain (R-AZ)
2. Zell Miller (D-GA)
Republicans won't forgive McCain his flirtation with joining Kerry's ticket. Dems zapped Miller, a speaker at the GOP convention.
1. Harry Reid (D-NV)
2. Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
Others getting votes: Massachusetts' Ted Kennedy, Oklahoma's Don Nickles, and Illinois' Dick Durbin.
1. John McCain (R-AZ)
2. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
3. John Edwards (D-NC)
More than half of McCain's votes came from the GOP ranks. Schumer also took more friendly fire than enemy hits.
1. Robert Byrd (D-WV)
2. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
3. Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Clean sweep by Democrats. McCain and Pennsylvania's Rick Santorum were top GOP vote-getters.
1. Bill Frist (R-TN)
2. Robert Byrd (D-WV)
3. Richard Lugar (R-IN)
A photo finish among the doctor, the orator, and the Rhodes scholar.
1. Tie: Rick Santorum (R-PA), Patty Murray (D-WA)
2. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
3. Tie: George Allen (R-VA), Jim Inhofe (R-OK)
A crowded field--more than a third of the Senate got votes.
1. Ted Kennedy (D-MA)
2. John Breaux (D-LA)
They lapped the field. Top GOP vote-getters were McCain and Santorum.
1. Norm Coleman (R-MN)
2. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
3. Tie: Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Hillary Clinton (D-NY)
Democrats spread their votes among Clinton, Arkansas' Mark Pryor, Michigan's Debbie Stabenow, and New Jersey's Jon Corzine.
1. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)
2. Norm Coleman (R-MN)
3. Hillary Clinton (D-NY)
Most votes were partisan shots. Staffers also dissed Pryor, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.
1. John McCain (R-AZ)
2. Ted Stevens (R-AK)
3. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
This is Stevens's seventh appearance on the hotheads list, McCain's and Mikulski's fourth.
1. Pat Roberts (R-KS)
2. Fritz Hollings (D-SC)
3. John McCain (D-AZ)
Hollings drew no Republican votes, and Roberts got scant Democratic support. Other contenders: Kennedy, Miller, and Montana's Conrad Burns.
1. Arlen Specter (R-PA)
2. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
3. Ted Stevens (R-AK)
Fourth appearance for all three.
1. Robert Byrd (D-WV)
2. Joe Biden (D-DE)
3. Rick Santorum (R-PA)
Byrd's third straight, um, win.
1. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
2. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
3. Tie: Pat Roberts (R-KS), Michael Enzi (R-WY)
The mother of twins wins.
1. John McCain (R-AZ)
2. Zell Miller (D-GA)
3. James Jeffords (I-VT)
McCain's a bipartisan pick; renegade Democrat Miller got only GOP votes.
1. Zell Miller (D-GA)
2. James Jeffords (I-VT)
Dems say Miller is a worm. Jeffords's defection still irks GOP.
1. Ted Kennedy (D-MA)
2. John Kerry (D-MA)
Kennedy picked up twice the votes of Kerry. Dick Durbin was a distant third.
1. Rick Santorum (R-PA)
2. Bill Frist (R-TN)
3. Zell Miller (D-GA)
Frist got solid Democratic support but few votes from within the party he leads. A big vote from Dem aides put Miller on.
1. Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
2. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
3. Evan Bayh (D-IN)
John Edwards, People magazine's sexiest politician, ran a close fourth. Murkowski and Nevada's John Ensign were the top Republican choices.
1. Ted Kennedy (D-MA)
2. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
Kennedy doubled Mikulski's total to win the category for the third straight time.
1. Gordon Smith (R-OR)
2. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
3. Tie: John Warner (R-VA), Elizabeth Dole (R-NC)
Either Hatch or Smith has topped this list in every poll starting in 1998.
1. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
2. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO)
3. Ted Stevens (R-AK)
Finishing close behind: Clinton, Boxer, and Stabenow.
1. Hillary Clinton (D-NY)
2. Bill Frist (R-TN)
3. John Edwards (D-NC)
Other vote-getters: Allen, McCain, Dole, and Lindsey Graham.
1. Tom DeLay (R-TX)
2. Tie: Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
3. Dennis Hastert (R-IL)
Support mirrored party lines, though Hastert got Dem support.
1. Ron Paul (R-TX)
Paul, a former Libertarian presidential candidate who marches to his own drum, was the runaway winner.
1. Bill Thomas (R-CA)
2. Tie: John Spratt (D-SC),
David Obey (D-WI)
Thomas takes home the first of his four blue ribbons.
1. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX)
2. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
3. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ)
Jackson-Lee drew twice as many votes--from both parties--as Pelosi.
1. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX)
2. Tom Tancredo (R-CO)
3. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ)
Jackson-Lee wins a second gold medal for showboating.
1. Bill Thomas (R-CA)
2. Barney Frank (D-MA)
3. Chris Cox (R-CA)
Thomas is overwhelming choice of GOP, Frank of Dems.
1. Tie: Duke Cunningham (R-CA), Katherine Harris (R-FL), Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), Karen McCarthy (D-MO), Loretta Sanchez (D-CA)
Aides scattered votes over more than three dozen choices.
1. Max Sandlin (D-TX)
2. Steve LaTourette (R-OH)
3. Jim Moran (D-VA)
Moran and LaTourette debut on the list.
1. Stephanie Herseth (D-SD)
2. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL)
3. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)
Herseth, a Georgetown law alum, won twice as many votes as Emanuel.
1. Katherine Harris (R-FL)
2. Frank Ballance (D-NC)
3. Linda Sánchez (D-CA)
Dems took revenge on a star of 2000's Florida recount.
1. Bill Thomas (R-CA)
2. Jim Moran (D-VA)
3. Pete Stark (D-CA)
Thomas had double the votes of Moran.
1. Barney Frank (D-MA)
2. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ)
3. Charles Rangel (D-NY)
Frank has been the funnyman nearly every year we've asked.
1. Bill Thomas (R-CA)
2. Tom DeLay (R-TX)
Almost all DeLay's votes were from Democrats.
1. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX)
2. David Obey (D-WI)
3. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ)
Hayworth and Obey combined can't match Jackson-Lee's winning total.
1. Walter Jones (R-NC)
2. Lois Capps (D-CA)
Capps, a former school nurse, topped Jones in 2002 voting.GUTSIEST
1. Chris Shays (R-CT)
2. Tom DeLay (R-TX)
Shays drew his support from across the aisle. DeLay did not.
1. David Wu (D-OR)
2. Chris Shays (R-CT)
Two who buck their parties.
1. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
2. Jim McDermott (D-WA)
3. Charles Rangel (D-NY)
Pelosi and McDermott finished neck and neck.
1. Tom DeLay (R-TX)
California's Duke Cunningham and Texas's Sam Johnson finished far behind.
1. Mary Bono (R-CA)
2. Stephanie Herseth (D-SD)
Hollywood glamour edged out farm-girl freshness. Pelosi, runner-up in our 2002 poll, finished well back in the pack.
THE BEACH
1. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY)
2. Henry Hyde (R-IL)
Republicans piled on Nadler; Hyde's critics came from both sides.
1. David Dreier (R-CA)
A landslide. Dreier's natty attire helped him win favor with Bo Derek.
1. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
DeLauro polled five times as many votes as anyone else.
1. Harold Ford Jr. (D-TN)
2. David Dreier (R-CA)
Nearly 50 members got votes. The most popular response: "No one."
Republicans think ZELL MILLER is a gutsy guy; fellow Democrats think he's a worm.