They can wiretap my phone and snoop through my e-mail all they want, but I will never reveal the answer to this week's ScuttleButton puzzle. At least until next week.

ScuttleButton, of course, is that once-a-week waste of time exercise in which each Tuesday or Wednesday I put up a vertical display of buttons on this site. Your job is to simply take one word (or concept) per button, add 'em up, and, hopefully, you will arrive at a famous name or a familiar expression. (And seriously, by familiar, I mean it's something that more than one person on Earth would recognize.)

For years, a correct answer chosen at random would get his or her name posted in this column, an incredible honor in itself. Now the stakes are even higher. Thanks to the efforts of the folks at Talk of the Nation, that person also hears their name mentioned on the Wednesday show (by me) and receives a Political Junkie t-shirt in the bargain. Is this a great country or what?

You can't use the comments box at the bottom of the page for your answer. Send submission (plus your name and city/state — you won't win without that) to politicaljunkie@npr.org.

(Why do people keep forgetting to include their name and city/state?)

And, by adding your name to the Political Junkie mailing list, you will be among the first on your block to receive notice about the column and the puzzle. Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org. Or you can make sure to get an automatic RSS feed whenever a new Junkie post goes up by clicking here.

Good luck!

By the way, I always announce the winner on Wednesday's Junkie segment on TOTN — seven or eight days after the puzzle first goes up. So you should try and get your answer in as soon as possible. But logistically, you have about a week to submit your guess.

Here are the buttons used and the answer to last week's puzzle:

Appeal for Neal (caricature of Mr. Conan) Keep TOTN — Alas, it's not going to happen. But it's a great button!

Senator D Huddleston — Can't remember if I've ever used this in a ScuttleButton puzzle before, but Walter "Dee" Huddleston was a two-term Democrat from Kentucky who lost his 1984 re-election bid to Mitch McConnell.

Barb/Muskie Delegate — 1972 Democratic delegate button pledged to presidential hopeful Ed Muskie.

David Duke/U.S. Senate — The former white supremacist ran for the Senate as a Republican from Louisiana.

So, when you combine Conan + D + Barb + Aryan, you may just very well end up with ...

Conan the Barbarian. The 1982 movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The winner, chosen completely at random, is Steve Coughlan of Amherst, N.H. Steve gets not only the coveted Political Junkie t-shirt — but the Official No Prize Button as well!

And don't forget to check out this week's Political Junkie column, which focuses on some memorable races for mayor of Los Angeles. Click here to read the column.

Horace Greeley may have suggested at one point that going west might be a good idea, but he probably wouldn't be happy to see what's going on with Los Angeles as of late. The Dodgers are in last place in the National League West, the Angels are hovering near the bottom of the American League West, and the Lakers' appearance in the playoffs was brutally short. Even Jimmy Fallon and NBC are bringing The Tonight Show back to Manhattan, deserting some place called Burbank after 40 years.

But if there is anything involving Los Angeles that always seems to get short shrift, it's their election for mayor. Many political junkies can quote you chapter and verse about the classic battles for City Hall in, say, New York or Chicago, but rarely does L.A. come into the conversation. And that certainly is true of today's (May 21) election.

Certainly, it's an election with historic potential. Wendy Greuel, the city controller, is one of the two candidates in the runoff, and if she wins she'll become the city's first female mayor. (New York can't even boast that, though that outcome is a possibility later this year.) Her opponent, city Councilmember Eric Garcetti, is 42 years old; if elected, he'd be the youngest mayor in more than a century. He'd also be the city's first elected Jewish (or half-Jewish) mayor; his mom is Jewish.

(L.A. once did have a Jewish mayor, Bernard Cohn, but as the Los Angeles Times' Patt Morrison points out in a fun column, he was "an appointee who served only a couple of weeks in 1878 after the elected mayor died." Still, Morrison adds, he "managed to stay in the headlines for years, once the world learned that he had kept his Jewish wife and three children on one end of town and his Catholic Latina mistress and six more children on the other.")

But I digress. Los Angeles mayoral elections are officially non-partisan; Greuel and Garcetti happen to be Democrats. And, quite frankly, neither is exactly lighting up the joint. They are both earnest, sincere, non-ideological candidates, neither of which seems certain as to how to handle the growing deficit, let alone tell voters which way they intend to take the city. No one is confusing their imagination and vision with what catapulted Antonio Villaraigosa into office eight years ago. Some of Villaraigosa's goals were met, while many — such as planting a million new trees — were not. The term-limited mayor leaves with his outsized personality and charisma still intact, but with a sense that a lot still needs to get done.

Perhaps this is the perfect time for a Garcetti or a Greuel to take over. Neither has promised much, so maybe there will be less likelihood of a voter letdown. But it's just hard to get worked up about it all.

Looking back. Not every L.A. mayoral race has put voters to sleep, but it would be a fair wager that voters would prefer a dull contest to the vitriol and ugliness of what happened in 1969. Back then, two-term Mayor Sam Yorty had long been on the outs with his fellow Democrats, having challenged Gov. Pat Brown in the 1966 primary and ultimately endorsing Republican Ronald Reagan in the fall. He was an all-out hawk on Vietnam and felt that the civil rights movement was being hijacked by Communists; his rhetoric during the Watts riots of 1965 was filled with distrust and innuendo. In the '69 contest, Thomas Bradley, a black city councilman, clobbered Yorty in the initial election, 42-26 percent. But Yorty made overtly racial appeals in the runoff and won by more than 50,000 votes out of some 800,000-plus cast.

(Check out this great 1969 archival footage of the first primary from ABC News and the runoff campaign from CBS News, courtesy of YouTube.)

Four years later, with Yorty's act wearing thin, Bradley led Yorty in the initial election and beat him in the runoff by 100,000 votes, including a majority of white voters, becoming the city's first African-American mayor.

Bradley is the longest-serving mayor in L.A. history, winning a total of five terms (including a rout of Yorty in 1981). In 1989, Bradley got a majority in the first round and didn't need to go into a runoff, and that hadn't happened with any L.A. mayor in decades. Like Yorty, Bradley sought the governorship twice, but Yorty never managed to win his party's nomination. Bradley was the Democratic nominee in both 1982 and 1986, losing each time to George Deukmejian (R); in '82 he was within an eyelash of becoming governor.

But his fifth term, which was marred by charges of police brutality and a worsening of race relations, all but collapsed in the riots that followed the 1992 trial in which L.A. police officers were acquitted of the beating of Rodney King, riots that led to deaths and massive property damage ... and a great loss to Bradley's leadership and legacy. He retired a broken man in 1993.

Then came Richard Riordan, a Republican who stressed his business experience and his promise to crack down on crime, a clear reference to what had happened to the city in the latter years of Bradley's tenure. Riordan became the first GOP mayor since Norris Poulson was ousted by Yorty in '61, and was re-elected in a 1997 landslide.

2001 brought James Hahn to city hall. Hahn was a long time government insider, serving as city controller as well as city attorney. Perhaps equally important was that he was the son of the legendary Kenneth Hahn, a longtime county supervisor who was well known as a civil rights champion and beloved in the black community. Jimmy Hahn was elected by some 40,000 votes, defeating Villaraigosa, who had been the speaker of the state Assembly. But Hahn made the controversial decision to replace Police Chief Bernard Parks, an African-American, and that cost him dearly with black voters. Villaraigosa, with the kind of charisma Hahn never had, walloped him in the 2005 rematch. He became the city's first Latino mayor since Cristobal Aguilar, who served from 1871-72.

And that brings us to today's runoff. Polls show Garcetti ahead, as he has been since the March 5 initial primary, in which he finished with 33 percent to Greuel's 29 percent.

Pittsburgh primary. As has been the case since the early 1930s, the winner of today's Democratic primary will become Pittsburgh's next mayor. Luke Ravenstahl, who became mayor in 2006 following the death of the incumbent and who got national attention for becoming, at age 26, the youngest mayor in the city's history, is not seeking re-election. With four candidates on the ballot, Tuesday's primary is basically between city Councilman Bill Peduto, who has often sparred with Ravenstahl, and Jack Wagner, a former state Auditor General who ran for governor

Pudding On the Ritz. In two previous Political Junkie columns (July 2, 2012 and Nov. 1, 2005) a question appeared concerning the meaning of an obscure campaign button — "I Like Judge Sutton and Rice Pudding Too!" I of course had no idea what it was in reference to either. But now the mystery has been solved. Milo Pyne of Durham, N.C., put a picture of the button on Facebook, asking for answers, and got his answer: "One of the local papers [in Nashville, Tenn.], the Banner I think, used to ask local attorneys to rate the judges. One comment made was that Judge Sutton had 'rice pudding for brains.' I remember my dad nearly fell out of the chair laughing at that because he'd had dealings with him and agreed completely."

No news is too trivial for Political Junkie.

By the way, there were several objections to my trivia answer on the May 1 Junkie segment on Talk of the Nation. The question was, "Who was the most recent vice presidential candidate who, while out of office, later ran for the Senate?" My answer: Geraldine Ferraro, the 1984 VP candidate, ran for the Senate from New York in 1992 and again in '98. Several people — Zachary Doering, Cathy Reynolds of Toledo, Ohio; Tim Cross of Williamsburg, Va.; Barbara Gunderson of Albany, N.Y.; Bill Simenson of Minneapolis, Minn.; Robert Smith of Denver, Colo.; Brent Rogers of Sydney, Australia; and Zachary Doering all thought the answer should have been Walter Mondale, an ex-VP who ran for the Senate from Minnesota in 2002 after the death of Paul Wellstone. But I specifically said that I was looking for the most recent VP candidate, not the one who ran for the Senate most recently. And Mondale was a VP candidate in 1976 and '80.

OK, so you guys don't get a t-shirt, but you do get honorable mention.

Political Updates. I post periodic political updates during the week — some serious, some not — on Twitter. You can follow me at @kenrudin.

Political Junkie segment on Talk of the Nation. Each Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET, the Political Junkie segment appears on Talk of the Nation (NPR's call-in program), hosted by Neal Conan with me adding color commentary, where you can, sometimes, hear interesting conversation, useless trivia questions and sparkling jokes. Last week's show focused on the growing list of Obama controversies, everything from the Benghazi talking points to the IRS focusing on conservative groups to the Justice Department combing through the phone records of Associated Press reporters. Special guest: former DNC chair Howard Dean. You can listen to the segment here:

Podcast. There's also a new episode of our weekly podcast, "It's All Politics," up every Thursday. It's hosted by my partner in crime, Ron Elving, and me. I was out last week; the link below is the previous week's offering.

And Don't Forget ScuttleButton. ScuttleButton, America's favorite waste-of-time button puzzle, can usually be found in this spot every Monday or Tuesday. A randomly selected winner will be announced every Wednesday during the Political Junkie segment on NPR's Talk of the Nation. You still have time to submit your answer to last week's contest, which you can see here. Sure, there's incredible joy in deciphering the answer, but the winner gets not only a TOTN T-shirt, but also a 3-1/2 inch Official No-Prize Button! Is this a great country or what??

Last week's winner: Michael Ruffin of Fitzgerald, Ga.

ON THE CALENDAR:

May 21 — Los Angeles mayoral runoff. Also: Pittsburgh mayoral primary.

June 4 — Special election in Missouri's 8th CD to replace Jo Ann Emerson (R), who resigned. Also: New Jersey gov. primaries.

June 25 — Special Senate election in Massachusetts to replace John Kerry, who is now secretary of state.

June 26— Final "Political Junkie" segment on Talk of the Nation. TOTN ends on Thursday, June 27.

Aug. 6 — Seattle mayoral primary.

Sept. 10 — New York City mayoral primary.

Mailing list. To receive a weekly email alert about the new column and ScuttleButton puzzle, contact me at politicaljunkie@npr.org.

******* Don't Forget: If you are sending in a question to be used in this column, please include your city and state. *********

This day in political history: President Richard Nixon nominates Warren Burger as Chief Justice of the United States. Burger, a 61-year old native of Minnesota and a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, would replace Earl Warren, chief justice since 1953, who is retiring. Burger is seen as a "strict constructionist" and a a conservative, compared to Warren, described as an "activist" and liberal Supreme Court justice (May 21, 1969). The Senate will confirm Burger June 9 on a 74-3 vote. The three opponents, all Democrats: Gaylord Nelson (Wis.), Eugene McCarthy (Minn.) and Stephen Young (Ohio).

Got a question? Ask Ken Rudin: politicaljunkie@npr.org

We know how the president feels about it. "We don't have time to be playing these kinds of political games in Washington," Barack Obama said on Monday, in what many took to be a full attack on ScuttleButton, America's favorite political game.

I beg to differ. I say we DO have time to play these kind of political games, especially when a tee-shirt and Political Junkie button are at stake. With Talk of the Nation going off the air in ks a month-and a half and the future of ScuttleButton at risk, I say this is the BEST time to be playing. Because once they outlaw ScuttleButton, only outlaws will have ScuttleButton.

ScuttleButton, of course, is that once-a-week waste of time exercise in which each Monday or Tuesday — or, as they call today, "Wednesday" — I put up a vertical display of buttons on this site. Your job is to simply take one word (or concept) per button, add 'em up, and, hopefully, you will arrive at a famous name or a familiar expression. (And seriously, by familiar, I mean it's something that more than one person on Earth would recognize.)

For years, a correct answer chosen at random would get his or her name posted in this column, an incredible honor in itself. Now the stakes are even higher. Thanks to the efforts of the folks at Talk of the Nation, that person also hears their name mentioned on the Wednesday show (by me) and receives a Political Junkie t-shirt in the bargain. Is this a great country or what?

You can't use the comments box at the bottom of the page for your answer. Send submission (plus your name and city/state — you won't win without that) to politicaljunkie@npr.org.

(Why do people keep forgetting to include their name and city/state?)

And, by adding your name to the Political Junkie mailing list, you will be among the first on your block to receive notice about the column and the puzzle. Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org. Or you can make sure to get an automatic RSS feed whenever a new Junkie post goes up by clicking here.

Good luck!

By the way, I always announce the winner on Wednesday's Junkie segment on TOTN — seven or eight days after the puzzle first goes up. So you should try and get your answer in as soon as possible. But logistically, you have about a week to submit your guess.

Here are the buttons used and the answer to last week's puzzle:

APPA/Association for the Preservation of Political Americana — My ID badge at this 1974 button convention in New Jersey was signed by Bill Miller, the special guest and Barry Goldwater's running mate in 1964.

Before It's Too Late Vote Wallace In '68 — Former Alabama Gov. George Wallace ran for president as a third-party candidate in 1968.

Sheehan for Congress — James Sheehan was the Republican candidate against Rep. Andy Maguire in New Jersey's 7th CD in 1976.

Take the Chisholm Trail to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. — Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-N.Y.) sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972.

So, when you combine APPA + Late + Sheehan + Trail, you may just very well end up with ...

The Appalachian Trail. Where Mark Sanford said he was in 2009 while he was actually meeting his mistress in Argentina.

The winner, chosen completely at random, is Michael Ruffin of Fitzgerald, Ga. Michael gets not only the coveted Political Junkie t-shirt — but the Official No Prize Button as well!

Disgraced but asking for redemption.

I'm describing me, of course, after a spate of uneven ScuttleButton puzzles. Though, I must admit, I liked last week's offering.

ScuttleButton, of course, is that once-a-week waste of time exercise in which each Monday or Tuesday — or, as they call today, "Wednesday" — I put up a vertical display of buttons on this site. Your job is to simply take one word (or concept) per button, add 'em up, and, hopefully, you will arrive at a famous name or a familiar expression. (And seriously, by familiar, I mean it's something that more than one person on Earth would recognize.)

For years, a correct answer chosen at random would get his or her name posted in this column, an incredible honor in itself. Now the stakes are even higher. Thanks to the efforts of the folks at Talk of the Nation, that person also hears their name mentioned on the Wednesday show (by me) and receives a Political Junkie t-shirt in the bargain. Is this a great country or what?

You can't use the comments box at the bottom of the page for your answer. Send submission (plus your name and city/state — you won't win without that) to politicaljunkie@npr.org.

(Why do people keep forgetting to include their name and city/state?)

And, by adding your name to the Political Junkie mailing list, you will be among the first on your block to receive notice about the column and the puzzle. Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org. Or you can make sure to get an automatic RSS feed whenever a new Junkie post goes up by clicking here.

Good luck!

By the way, I always announce the winner on Wednesday's Junkie segment on TOTN — seven or eight days after the puzzle first goes up. So you should try and get your answer in as soon as possible. But logistically, you have about a week to submit your guess.

Here are the buttons used and the answer to last week's puzzle:

Feinstein for Vice President — Then-San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein was a Democratic VP hopeful in 1984.

Perot for President — Billionaire Ross Perot made an independent bid for the White House in 1992 and again, as a third-party candidate, four years later.

No Roberts Yes Roe ... Impeach Earl Warren ... Stop Souter — Three buttons in opposition to Supreme Court justices. And remember, whenever I arrange buttons horizontally, the answer I'm looking for is plural.

So, when you combine Dianne + Ross + 3 Supreme Court justices, you may just very well end up with ...

Diana Ross & the Supremes. Stop! in the name of ScuttleButton.

The winner, chosen completely at random, is ... Kelly Cherry-Leigh of Washington, D.C. Kelly gets not only the coveted Political Junkie t-shirt — but the Official No Prize Button as well!

And don't forget to check out this week's Political Junkie column, which talks about how history favors Joe Biden should he seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 ... but how history never accounted for a (potential) rival like Hillary Clinton. Click here to read the column.

It's pretty much a truism in American political history: If the president is not running again and the vice president wants his party's nomination, it's his for the asking.

That was the case in 1960, with President Eisenhower term-limited and Vice President Richard Nixon's path to the GOP nomination unimpeded.

It was also true in 1968, when President Johnson decided not to run again and his vice president, Hubert Humphrey, won the Democratic nomination despite not having entered a single primary. The quests of Robert Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy ended in assassination in Los Angeles and violence in Chicago, but considering the way things were back in '68, Humphrey may have had the nomination locked up from the beginning.

And while the situations were not exactly the same, George H.W. Bush in 1988, Al Gore in 2000 and Walter Mondale, a former vice president, in 1984 had built-in advantages within the party that helped them get their respective party's nominations.

Some vice presidents, for one reason or another, have decided they didn't want the career advancement. Dan Quayle, a former V.P., skipped the 1996 race entirely (though he did make an ultimately unsuccessful bid for 2000). Dick Cheney made it clear from the beginning that he had no desire to succeed George W. Bush in 2008. Spiro Agnew, of course, had legal distractions that kept him out of the 1976 campaign.

The only vice president in recent history who wanted to get his party's nomination and succeed his retiring boss — but failed — was Alben Barkley. The number two under Harry Truman and a former Senate majority leader, Barkley made himself available for the nomination after Truman surprised the nation by taking himself out of the running in 1952, after losing the New Hampshire primary. But Barkley, who was 74 years old and in office for four decades, was dismissed as "too old" by many in the party, and that was the judgment from organized labor as well. The Democrats ultimately chose Adlai Stevenson.

By most accounts, Joe Biden would love to succeed Barack Obama. He of course has some of the problems that crippled Barkley; he will also be 74 years old in the next campaign. No one that old has ever been elected president. Ronald Reagan was 73 when he ran for a second term in 1984, a campaign where his age became a key issue. Bob Dole was 73 when he challenged President Clinton in 1996 and John McCain was 72 when he ran against Obama in 2008.

Biden has also run for president twice before, in the 1988 and 2008 cycles, and didn't exactly bowl anyone over in either attempt. The first time he didn't even survive 1987, and the second he was gone before New Hampshire.

Plus, he will have been in public office for 44 consecutive years. There are a lot of young(er) and ambitious Democrats mulling 2016, and while some may stay out should Hillary Clinton get in, there's no indication that any of them — Andrew Cuomo, Martin O'Malley? — would back away from taking on Biden.

Did I just mention Hillary Clinton? That may be Biden's biggest roadblock of all.

Just as the conventional wisdom says Biden wants to run in 2016, the same C.W. says Clinton is running as well. While handicapping a presidential race three years in advance is foolhardy, and while nobody wins the nomination because of conventional wisdom, by nearly every measure it seems like the Democratic nomination is hers for the taking. Yes, we did say the same thing two cycles ago, when she was the odds-on favorite for 2008 only to be overtaken by Obama in a classic battle that went down to the wire. But now, the argument goes, it's "her turn." She made the gallant attempt in '08 and served loyally as Obama's secretary of state for the next four years, and now it's time for her to be rewarded for her efforts. Her approval numbers are sky high, far better than they were in 2007-08, and are consistently higher than Biden's. As Obama broke a glass ceiling with his 2008 election, so would Clinton in 2016.

I just paused and checked the calendar — yes, it's only May of 2013 — and reminded myself that there is a silliness to all of this. Biden may not run. Clinton may not run. A lot may happen before we get to 2016 (ya think?). Heck, they may even cancel the election.

My only point is that yes, it is a rarity for a sitting vice president to be denied the nomination if he wants it. As incumbent V.P.s, Nixon, Humphrey, Bush Sr. and Gore all led their party into November. Now we are approaching the likelihood that another sitting vice president hopes to do the same. But this time the odds don't look good.

Sanford Surge in Carolina? Public Policy Polling, the Democratic-leaning firm that showed Elizabeth Colbert Busch up nine points over Mark Sanford two weeks ago, now shows the special election in South Carolina's First Congressional District "too close to call." But PPP's findings clearly indicate Sanford with the momentum: the former Republican governor leads 47-46 percent.

"Sanford has gotten back into the race by nationalizing it and painting Colbert Busch as a liberal. A plurality of voters in the district- 47%- say they think Colbert Busch is a liberal compared to 43% who characterize her as ideologically 'about right.' Colbert Busch's favorability rating has dropped a net 19 points compared to 2 weeks ago, from +25 then at 56/31 to +6 now at 50/44. ...

If SC-1 voters went to the polls on Tuesday and voted for the candidate they personally liked better, Colbert Busch would be the definite winner. That's why Sanford's campaign has tried to shift the focus toward national Democrats who are unpopular in the district, and that's been a key in helping him to make this race competitive again. ...

The other key development in this race over the last two weeks is that Republicans are returning to the electorate. On our last poll, conducted right after the trespassing charges against Sanford became public, we found that the likely electorate had voted for Mitt Romney by only 5 points in a district that he actually won by 18. That suggested many Republican voters were depressed and planning to stay home. On our final poll we find an electorate that's Romney +13- that's still more Democratic than the turnout from last fall, but it's a lot better for Sanford than it was a couple weeks ago."

The election is today.

Political Updates. I post periodic political updates during the week — some serious, some not — on Twitter. You can follow me at @kenrudin.

Political Junkie segment on Talk of the Nation. Each Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET, the Political Junkie segment appears on Talk of the Nation (NPR's call-in program), hosted by Neal Conan with me adding color commentary, where you can, sometimes, hear interesting conversation, useless trivia questions and sparkling jokes. Last week's show, with guest host John Donvan, focused on the Sanford-Colbert Busch race in South Carolina. You can listen to the segment here:

Podcast. There's also a new episode of our weekly podcast, "It's All Politics," up every Thursday. It's hosted by my partner in crime, Ron Elving, and me.

And Don't Forget ScuttleButton. ScuttleButton, America's favorite waste-of-time button puzzle, can usually be found in this spot every Monday or Tuesday. A randomly selected winner will be announced every Wednesday during the Political Junkie segment on NPR's Talk of the Nation. You still have time to submit your answer to last week's contest, which you can see here. Sure, there's incredible joy in deciphering the answer, but the winner gets not only a TOTN T-shirt, but also a 3-1/2 inch Official No-Prize Button! Is this a great country or what??

Last week's winner: Dale Smith of Franklin, Tenn.

ON THE CALENDAR:

May 7 — Special election in S.C. 01.

May 21 — Los Angeles mayoral runoff. Also: Pittsburgh mayoral primary.

June 4 — Special election in Missouri's 8th CD to replace Jo Ann Emerson (R), who resigned. Also: New Jersey gov. primaries.

June 25 — Special Senate election in Massachusetts to replace John Kerry, who is now secretary of state.

June 26— Final "Political Junkie" segment on Talk of the Nation. TOTN ends on Thursday, June 27.

Aug. 6 — Seattle mayoral primary.

Sept. 10 — New York City mayoral primary.

Mailing list. To receive a weekly email alert about the new column and ScuttleButton puzzle, contact me at politicaljunkie@npr.org.

******* Don't Forget: If you are sending in a question to be used in this column, please include your city and state. *********

This day in campaign history: New York Gov. Herbert Lehman (D), in office nearly ten years, announces he will not seek a fifth term in November. As the state's lt. gov., he ran to succeed Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, when FDR left to run for president; Lehman won four terms, the last one a narrow victory over Manhattan District Attorney Thomas Dewey in 1938 (May 7, 1942). Dewey will win the election in November. New York had two-year gov. terms until '38, when it was increased to four years.

Got a question? Ask Ken Rudin: politicaljunkie@npr.org

The headlines have not been especially kind to Senate Democrats lately as they, for the second consecutive cycle, head into an election with a numerical disadvantage and more open seats to defend.

But looking at an election by simply counting the number of seats up that year or where incumbents are retiring misses the point. In 2012, the mantra was the Republican Party was going to win a Senate majority because the numbers so clearly favored them; they needed a net gain of just four, and of the 33 seats up that year, 23 were held by the Democrats. Plus, of the 10 senators retiring voluntarily, only three were Republicans. So the opportunities for GOP pickups were there.

The reality, of course, was different. Of the six Democratic and one Dem-leaning Independent incumbents who were retiring, Republicans were able to pick up only one of the seats — Ben Nelson's in Nebraska. Once, they were talking about winning the seats of the departing Dan Akaka (Haw.), Jeff Bingaman (N.M.), Kent Conrad (N.D.), Jim Webb (Va.) and Herb Kohl (Wis.), as well as knocking off incumbents Claire McCaskill (Mo.) and Jon Tester (Mont.). None of that happened. In fact, despite the favorable numbers, the GOP actually lost seats (a net of two) that year.

With Democrats (including two indies) currently holding 55 of the 100 Senate seats, the Republican task in 2014 is a bit greater; now the GOP needs a net pickup of six.

But, once again, the numbers favor them; of the 35 seats up next year, 21 are held by the Democrats, only 14 by the Republicans. And again, the key number is the retirements: of the eight quitting, six are Democrats.

Will that translate into sizable Republican gains? Who knows? Sometimes, in "wave" election years, competitive seats usually go in one direction; think of the big anti-Republican years of 2006 and 2008 and the big anti-Democratic year of 2010. The fact is, we still have a ways to go before we know what the political landscape will look like next year, and whether or not the "six year itch" — a midterm election six years into the president's term — will really play into voters' decisions. In the meantime, here's an early-bird look at the open Democratic seats:

IOWA (Tom Harkin retiring): The landscape looks much better for Democrats here than it does for Republicans. While the Dems (including Harkin) have lined up early and easily behind Rep. Bruce Braley, the GOP is still searching for a candidate. Initially the buzz was that Republicans would undertake an ideological battle between two sitting House members, establishment choice Tom Latham and Tea Party fave Steve King. Then Latham said he wouldn't run. Then King gave some indication that he was wavering as well, though sources say he is still considering running. Entreaties to Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds went nowhere; Branstad had been seen as a Latham backer. Now the focus seems to be on David Young, the chief of staff to Sen. Chuck Grassley, who has been sending out feelers to donors and party officials. Other possibilities include state Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey and Secretary of State Matt Schultz; some GOPers say they haven't given up on Latham. Until then ... Leans Democratic.

MICHIGAN (Carl Levin retiring): Democrats seem to be rallying around three-term Rep. Gary Peters, who had been mulling a run for governor when Levin announced his retirement. Peters is expected to formally declare his candidacy tomorrow (May 1), a decision that seemingly was made easier now that Debbie Dingell, wife of Rep. John Dingell and a DNC powerhouse, said she would not run. For the Republicans, Rep. Justin Amash, a Tea Party favorite, is looking at it, along with fellow Rep. Mike Rogers and former Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land. Republicans haven't won a Senate seat in Michigan since Spencer Abraham in 1994, but they note that they defeated Peters in 2002 when he ran for state attorney general. Democrat favored.

MONTANA (Max Baucus retiring): Republicans must be going into the 2014 elections a bit dispirited, having been convinced they would oust Sen. Jon Tester (D) last year, only to come up short. Now they are facing another opportunity, but Democrats insist that Baucus' retirement and the likelihood that former Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) will run actually strengthens their chances. It might. Republicans would love to entice another former governor, Marc Racicot, into the race. The two Republicans already in the race in what would have been an uphill challenge to Baucus are not well-known at all. Meanwhile, ex-Rep. Denny Rehberg, who lost to Tester in 2012, indicates he might be inclined to run again, saying he is "not ruling anything out." Tossup.

NEW JERSEY (Frank Lautenberg retiring): The action here will likely be determined in the Democratic primary. And there's no guarantee that there will be one. By all accounts, Newark Mayor Cory Booker is the odds-on favorite for the Democratic nomination. He is a prodigious fundraiser with a great story and a winning personality. What he doesn't necessarily have is a success at running Newark, N.J.'s largest city. Lautenberg has not hidden his contempt for Booker, who talked about running for the seat before the senator officially announced his retirement. Lautenberg has said that Booker would be better off doing more mayor-type stuff and less fundraising around the country. The question for Rep. Frank Pallone (D), who has long wanted to be in the Senate, is whether it's worth taking on an icon like Booker in a primary. Pallone has some $3.7 million in his House bank account, money he can legally transfer to a Senate campaign. And he would be expected to have the backing of county party organizations that remain loyal to Lautenberg. Republicans haven't won a Senate seat here since 1972. Safe Democratic.

SOUTH DAKOTA (Tim Johnson retiring): Republicans have long been confident they can win this seat, with or without Johnson in the race. Their apparent nominee was long thought to be former Gov. Mike Rounds, but there remains the possibility that two-term Rep. Kristi Noem, the state's at-large member of the House who is thought to be more conservative, could join the race as well. On the Democratic side, Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, who was ousted by Noem in 2010 after three terms and has kind of faded from view shortly thereafter, has reappeared as a potential candidate. Complicating her decision are the plans of Johnson's son, U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson, who is also thought to be interested in the seat but will, along with the rest of the Democrats, wait to see what Herseth Sandlin is planning. Republican favored.

WEST VIRGINIA (Jay Rockefeller retiring): This state is the longest Senate losing streak for the GOP in the country; Republicans haven't won a Senate seat here since a 1956 special election, and they promptly lost it two years later. But they have a real shot in Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R), a savvy 7-term House member who is the daughter of former Gov. Arch Moore. One thing that could jeopardize the party's chances is a primary challenge to Capito from conservatives that could weaken her in November. It's too soon to gauge the strength of Pat McGeehan, a former state delegate, who has joined the race. Democrats are still without a candidate; names currently bandied about include Secretary of State Natalie Tennant and state Supreme Court Justice Robin Davis. One Democrat who had earlier been making noises about running, Rep. Nick Rahall, is now expected to seek re-election to his House seat. Republican favored.

As for the two open Republican seats, the feeling is that Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman (R) will run for the seat being vacated by fellow Republican Mike Johanns, and if he does he probably wins. There is less certainty about Georgia, where Saxby Chambliss (R) is leaving after two terms. Already two Republican congressmen, Paul Broun and Phil Gingrey, have announced their candidacies. A third, Jack Kingston, is thought to be close to joining them and a fourth, Tom Price, is considering it, as are other Republicans. Broun is a no-nonsense conservative who has a strong following in the Tea Party and has been endorsed by Ron Paul. But he also has a history of wading into topics with controversial and inflammatory statements, and Democrats say they would win the seat if he were the GOP nominee. But first they need a candidate, and there's no certainty their top choice, Rep. John Barrow, a Blue Dog in good standing, will run. Another Democratic possibility is Michelle Nunn, the daughter of former Sen. Sam Nunn.

The early guess here is that Republicans keep their two open seats.

S.C. 01. The debate was intense and personal. A "slugfest," Politico called it, and that's pretty accurate. Elizabeth Colbert Busch and Mark Sanford went at it for 75 minutes on Monday night, in advance of their May 7 election.

And that leads into this week's Political Junkie Poll. The question is NOT whom you would vote for; it's which candidate do you think will win.

Political Updates. I post periodic political updates during the week — some serious, some not — on Twitter. You can follow me at @kenrudin.

Political Junkie segment on Talk of the Nation. Each Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET, the Political Junkie segment appears on Talk of the Nation (NPR's call-in program), hosted by Neal Conan with me adding color commentary, where you can, sometimes, hear interesting conversation, useless trivia questions and sparkling jokes. Last week's show focused on tough decisions that lawmakers must make, with two former House members as special guests, Marjorie Margolies (D-Pa.) and Chris Cannon (R-Utah). You can listen to the segment here:

Podcast. There's also a new episode of our weekly podcast, "It's All Politics," up every Thursday. It's hosted by my partner in crime, Ron Elving, and me.

And Don't Forget ScuttleButton. ScuttleButton, America's favorite waste-of-time button puzzle, can usually be found in this spot every Monday or Tuesday. A randomly selected winner will be announced every Wednesday during the Political Junkie segment on NPR's Talk of the Nation. You still have time to submit your answer to last week's contest, which you can see here. Sure, there's incredible joy in deciphering the answer, but the winner gets not only a TOTN T-shirt, but also a 3-1/2 inch Official No-Prize Button! Is this a great country or what??

Last week's winner: Jerica Mercado of Blackfoot, Idaho.

ON THE CALENDAR:

April 30 — Special Massachusetts Senate primary.

May 7 — Special election in S.C. 01.

May 21 — Los Angeles mayoral runoff. Also: Pittsburgh mayoral primary.

June 4 — Special election in Missouri's 8th CD to replace Jo Ann Emerson (R), who resigned.

June 25 — Special Senate election in Massachusetts to replace John Kerry, who is now secretary of state.

June 26— Final "Political Junkie" segment on Talk of the Nation. TOTN ends on Thursday, June 27.

Aug. 6 — Seattle mayoral primary.

Mailing list. To receive a weekly email alert about the new column and ScuttleButton puzzle, contact me at politicaljunkie@npr.org.

******* Don't Forget: If you are sending in a question to be used in this column, please include your city and state. *********

This day in campaign history: Former Sen. Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts becomes the first Democrat to formally declare he is a candidate for his party's 1992 presidential nomination. Tsongas, who served two terms in the House and one in the Senate before retiring after 1984, when he was diagnosed with cancer of the lymphatic system, says he will focus on the nation's economy, calling himself a "pro-business liberal" (April 30, 1991).

Got a question? Ask Ken Rudin: politicaljunkie@npr.org

An openly gay basketball player? Next thing you know, there will be openly clever ScuttleButton puzzles.

Only not this week.

ScuttleButton, of course, is that once-a-week waste of time exercise in which each Monday or Tuesday I put up a vertical display of buttons on this site. Your job is to simply take one word (or concept) per button, add 'em up, and, hopefully, you will arrive at a famous name or a familiar expression. (And seriously, by familiar, I mean it's something that more than one person on Earth would recognize.)

For years, a correct answer chosen at random would get his or her name posted in this column, an incredible honor in itself. Now the stakes are even higher. Thanks to the efforts of the folks at Talk of the Nation, that person also hears their name mentioned on the Wednesday show (by me) and receives a Political Junkie t-shirt in the bargain. Is this a great country or what?

You can't use the comments box at the bottom of the page for your answer. Send submission (plus your name and city/state — you won't win without that) to politicaljunkie@npr.org.

(Why do people keep forgetting to include their name and city/state?)

And, by adding your name to the Political Junkie mailing list, you will be among the first on your block to receive notice about the column and the puzzle. Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org. Or you can make sure to get an automatic RSS feed whenever a new Junkie post goes up by clicking here.

Good luck!

By the way, I always announce the winner on Wednesday's Junkie segment on TOTN — seven or eight days after the puzzle first goes up. So you should try and get your answer in as soon as possible. But logistically, you have about a week to submit your guess.

Here are the buttons used and the answer to last week's puzzle:

Hicks for Halloween (pic of a witch on a broomstick) — Louise Day Hicks, a vocal anti-busing leader, ran for mayor of Boston in 1967 and 1971, losing each time to Kevin White. In between she served in Congress.

Rocky Or Nobody — The wearer of this button wanted Nelson Rockefeller for President in 1968 and no one else.

Gandy Governor — Evelyn Gandy sought the Democratic nomination twice in Mississippi, losing the 1979 and 1983 primaries.

I (heart) NY — Campaign from the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau, circa 1970s.

So, when you combine Witch + Nobody + Gandy + NY, you may just very well end up with ...

Which Nobody Can Deny. Witch just happens to be the next line to last week's answer, For He's a Jolly Good Fellow.

The winner, chosen completely at random, is ... Dale Smith of Franklin, Tenn. Dale gets not only the coveted Political Junkie t-shirt — but the Official No Prize Button as well!

And don't forget to check out this week's Political Junkie column, which focuses on the open Senate seats at stake in 2014 and other assorted goodies. Click here to read the column.

Lots of people have been inquiring about the future of ScuttleButton. While I wish I had an answer — I don't, not yet — I'd like to suggest that you sign up for the Political Junkie/ScuttleButton mailing list. That way, I will be able to share the information once I have it (see info below).

And what exactly IS ScuttleButton, you may ask?

It is, of course, that once-a-week waste of time exercise in which each Monday or Tuesday I put up a vertical display of buttons on this site. Your job is to simply take one word (or concept) per button, add 'em up, and, hopefully, you will arrive at a famous name or a familiar expression. (And seriously, by familiar, I mean it's something that more than one person on Earth would recognize.)

For years, a correct answer chosen at random would get his or her name posted in this column, an incredible honor in itself. Now the stakes are even higher. Thanks to the efforts of the folks at Talk of the Nation, that person also hears their name mentioned on the Wednesday show (by me) and receives a Political Junkie t-shirt in the bargain. Is this a great country or what?

You can't use the comments box at the bottom of the page for your answer. Send submission (plus your name and city/state — you won't win without that) to politicaljunkie@npr.org.

(Why do people keep forgetting to include their name and city/state?)

And, by adding your name to the Political Junkie mailing list, you will be among the first on your block to receive notice about the column and the puzzle. Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org. Or you can make sure to get an automatic RSS feed whenever a new Junkie post goes up by clicking here.

Good luck!

By the way, I always announce the winner on Wednesday's Junkie segment on TOTN — seven or eight days after the puzzle first goes up. So you should try and get your answer in as soon as possible. But logistically, you have about a week to submit your guess.

Here are the buttons used and the answer to last week's puzzle:

Save Voorhees Campus/N.Y.C. Community College — The budget cuts in the 1970s threatened many New York City institutions, including its city colleges.

A — An oft-used ScuttleButton favorite, this button was obtained at an Anarchist Party bookstore in NYC in the 1970s.

Vernon Jolley U.S. Congress — Jolley was the Democratic nominee against Rep. Marge Roukema (R-N.J.) in 1986.

Goode/Democrat for Mayor — Wilson Goode was elected mayor of Philadelphia in 1983, becoming the first African-American mayor of that city.

Buck Fella — Button of unknown identity.

So, when you combine Voorhees + A + Jolley + Goode + Fella, you may just very well end up with ...

For He's a Jolly Good Fellow. The old popular song.

The winner, chosen completely at random, is ... Jerica Mercado of Blackfoot, Idaho. Jerica gets not only the coveted Political Junkie t-shirt — but the Official No Prize Button as well!

Hopefully, the disappointment/frustration of that April Fool's ScuttleButton has subsided and now you're ready for the real stuff.

ScuttleButton, of course, is that once-a-week waste of time exercise in which each Monday or Tuesday I put up a vertical display of buttons on this site. Your job is to simply take one word (or concept) per button, add 'em up, and, hopefully, you will arrive at a famous name or a familiar expression. (And seriously, by familiar, I mean it's something that more than one person on Earth would recognize.)

For years, a correct answer chosen at random would get his or her name posted in this column, an incredible honor in itself. Now the stakes are even higher. Thanks to the efforts of the folks at Talk of the Nation, that person also hears their name mentioned on the Wednesday show (by me) and receives a Political Junkie t-shirt in the bargain. Is this a great country or what?

You can't use the comments box at the bottom of the page for your answer. Send submission (plus your name and city/state — you won't win without that) to politicaljunkie@npr.org.

(Why do people keep forgetting to include their name and city/state?)

And, by adding your name to the Political Junkie mailing list, you will be among the first on your block to receive notice about the column and the puzzle. Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org. Or you can make sure to get an automatic RSS feed whenever a new Junkie post goes up by clicking here.

Good luck!

By the way, I always announce the winner on Wednesday's Junkie segment on TOTN — many days after the puzzle first goes up. So you should try and get your answer in as soon as possible. But logistically, you have about a week to submit your guess.

Here are the infamous buttons used in the April Fool's puzzle:

Re-elect Roy Dyson/The Best Man for Our Bay Country — Dyson was a Democratic member of the House from Maryland.

Wooo! Wooo! (picture of train) — Nothing more than that.

Let's Get It Straight/Vote For Davis in the 8th — Need more information about this button.

Kennedy Is Sex, But McCarthy Is Love — One difference between two Democratic presidential candidates from 1968.

So don't even bother adding these up. They don't amount to anything other than the fact that the puzzle was posted on April 1st.

And yet, some figured it out. And the randomly selected winner is Lori Rose of Greenbackville, Va., who wrote, "After struggling for hours with this week's puzzle I'm going to go out on a limb and say that there is no solution-April Fool's prank??"

It was indeed. Lori gets not only the coveted Political Junkie t-shirt — but the Official No Prize Button as well!

And don't forget to check out this week's Political Junkie column, which focuses on the Mark Sanford and Anthony Weiner attempts for political redemption. Click here to read the column.

In the past three decades or so, when writing about political sex scandals became an art form, the tendency has always been to lump everyone together. There are many differences between, say, what Anthony Weiner did and what Mark Sanford did. And, while we're at it, what John Edwards and Mark Foley and Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich and Marion Barry and Gary Hart and Wilbur Mills and Buz Lukens and Kwame Kilpatrick and Larry Craig and Eliot Spitzer and John Ensign and Barney Frank and all the others have done as well. Yet, when one writes about "sex scandals" and "politicians," you'll often see all these fine gentlemen included in the article, despite the differing circumstances.

But in some ways it's not that much of a stretch to link Sanford with Weiner, considering the fact that they are two high profile pols who in recent years humiliated their wives, abandoned by their supporters and who are now either seeking "redemption" (the current buzzword) with the voters or contemplating doing so.

While their actions are quite different in scope — Sanford fell in love with another woman and Weiner sent lewd pictures of himself on Twitter — both followed a similar pattern. Immediately their inclination was to lie. Sanford was "hiking on the Appalachian Trail;" Weiner's Twitter account was "hacked." And when their stories fell apart, they switched to tearful, icky, TMI Total Confessional. Sanford managed to serve out his term, even though he was censured by the state legislature for using government funds to hide his affair. For Weiner, it took just one month to go from adamantly denying he had sent the racy photos (or feigning ignorance as to whether the pictures were really of him) to resigning his House seat in June of 2011.

They also both totally humiliated their wives and shamed their families. Sanford's affair led to divorce; he is now engaged to his Argentinian firecracker. Weiner's wife, who was pregnant at the time the notorious Tweets were being sent out, is staying put. Sanford was in love with the "other woman," which was/is not the case with Weiner.

It's one thing to ask for forgiveness and seek redemption from the voters; Sanford and Weiner seem to be reading from the same script. But it's another to give them a reason to vote for you. The task may be a little easier for Sanford. First of all, the stars began to align in his favor when the representative from South Carolina's First Congressional District, Tim Scott, was appointed to the Senate to fill a vacancy. In a Republican district that went 58 percent for Mitt Romney last year, Sanford was easily the most well-known and best-financed Republican in the race to succeed Scott. Besides, he held the very same seat for three terms before he retired in 2000 (and then went on to serve eight years as governor). He still has a decent shot at winning the May 7 general election.

It's a tougher road for Weiner, whose scandal is unlikely to ever be forgotten (and even if that were possible, there will always be the front page of the New York Post to remind you of it). And even if Weiner can ignore the shameful and embarrassing treatment he is assured of getting from the city tabloids, he still has to get by a serious list of other Democrats who want to be mayor, one that includes the speaker of the city council, two citywide-elected officials (the public advocate and comptroller), and the unsuccessful 2009 Democratic nominee, among others. He has already reportedly spent a hundred thousand dollars in polling for a potential run and has more than $4 million in the bank that could be used for a campaign. And his recent comments, highlighted by Sunday's New York Times Magazine cover story, made it clear that his itching for City Hall has not diminished one bit, not since he first tried in 2005, when he made a strong bid in the Democratic primary.

What he may not realize is that there is no great need for him to return to politics, even among his fellow Dems. Bloomberg Businessweek's Joshua Green writes that Weiner may be blind to how others see him: "One reason Weiner has so few friends is that most members of Congress, including his fellow Democrats, regarded him as chiefly concerned with his own aggrandizement — he spent more time shouting at Republicans on cable television than legislating."

In some ways, Anthony Weiner is a very smart guy. In many ways, he reminds me of Gary Hart. Yes, I know, I warned against sex-scandal linking at the beginning of this post. But there are a lot of similarities between the two. Hart, of course, was the frontrunner for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination, the "new ideas" candidate, until he was caught spending a weekend in April of 1987 with one Donna Rice, a woman who happened to not be his wife. Humiliated and the subject of endless mockery from late night comedians, Hart dropped out of the race within a month. But then, shockingly, he re-entered the contest in mid-December, saying voters were not hearing about the key issues from the candidates, such as "strategic investment economics," "military reform" or "enlightened engagement." Maybe so, but the straight-faced pronouncement from Hart came seemingly with the belief that voters would be thinking of "strategic investment economics" when they saw him. It was as if he were blinded by his own self-importance.

Hart was gone from the race a few months later, having won not a single delegate.

Similarly, Weiner has started talking about the issues that face New York City. He wants a single-payer health care system. He would raise taxes on the wealthy. He wants to encourage people to commute to work by bike. He wants more "transparency" in the police department.

Will anyone be listening?

Good Looks Department. President Obama wandered into a bit of controversy the other day when he said of Kamala Harris, California's AG, that she "happens to be, by far, the best looking attorney general in the country." Within minutes came the usual head-scratching, with many wondering if Obama's comments were, in the words of GWU Associate Law Professor Naomi Schoenbaum, writing in Slate, "simply a statement of opinion, a gaffe, or a form of benign sexism."

Of course, this is not the first time Obama has gotten into hot water over his comments about women; one may recall his description of Hillary Clinton as "likeable enough" during a 2008 debate. And don't think for a minute that this is solely an Obama issue. How many times, for instance, have you seen references to Sarah Palin's or Scott Brown's looks?

The fact is, nobody can be the "best looking" anything without an official Political Junkie Fake Poll.

Political Updates. I post periodic political updates during the week — some serious, some not — on Twitter. You can follow me at @kenrudin. Here's one sampling from the mailbag:

Q: You wrote that Hillary Clinton will be 69 years old in 2016 and that if she won, she would be the oldest woman ever elected president of the U.S. But wouldn't she also be the youngest, since no woman has ever been president? — Roberta Chandler, Chicago, Ill.

A: Yes, of course. I was just being playful. Sometimes being playful doesn't translate well in print.

Political Junkie segment on Talk of the Nation. Each Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET, the Political Junkie segment appears on Talk of the Nation (NPR's call-in program), hosted by Neal Conan with me adding color commentary, where you can, sometimes, hear interesting conversation, useless trivia questions and sparkling jokes. Last week's show focused on the prospects for gun and immigration legislation. You can listen to the segment here:

And speaking of TOTN ... Lots of wonderful notes from so many friends expressing their thoughts about Talk of the Nation and, of course, the Wednesday Political Junkie segment ending at the end of June. Your expressions of support mean more to me than you know.

Podcast. There's also a new episode of our weekly podcast, "It's All Politics," up every Thursday. It's hosted by my partner in crime, Ron Elving, and me. With Ron on vacation last week, Mara Liasson stepped in to substitute.

And Don't Forget ScuttleButton. ScuttleButton, America's favorite waste-of-time button puzzle, can usually be found in this spot every Monday or Tuesday. A randomly selected winner will be announced every Wednesday during the Political Junkie segment on NPR's Talk of the Nation. People are still unhappy about the most recent puzzle, which you can see here, and which — given its April 1 posting, turned out to be an April Fool's Joke. A genuine puzzle returns this week. And remember, whether the puzzle is for real or not, the winner still gets not only a Political Junkie T-shirt but also a 3-1/2-inch Official No-Prize Button!

ON THE CALENDAR:

April 24 — Hillary Clinton first post-government paid speech, National Multi Housing Council in Dallas.

April 30 — Special Massachusetts Senate primary.

May 7 — Special election in S.C. 01.

May 21 — Los Angeles mayoral runoff. Also: Pittsburgh mayoral primary.

June 4 — Special election in Missouri's 8th CD to replace Jo Ann Emerson (R), who resigned.

June 25 — Special Senate election in Massachusetts to replace John Kerry, who is now secretary of state.

June 26 — Final "Political Junkie" segment on Talk of the Nation (TOTN).

Aug. 6 — Seattle mayoral primary.

Mailing list. To receive a weekly email alert about the new column and ScuttleButton puzzle, contact me at politicaljunkie@npr.org.

******* Don't Forget: If you are sending in a question to be used in this column, please include your city and state. *********

This day in political history: The House ethics committee says it found "reason to believe" that Speaker Jim Wright violated House rules 69 times over the past ten years, mostly over allegations that the Texas Democrat enriched himself regarding a book-publishing scheme and accepting improper gifts from a Fort Worth developer. Wright insists he is innocent of the charges (April 17, 1989). On May 31, Wright will make a dramatic announcement on the House floor, saying he will resign effective June 6, rather than contest the charges.

Got a question? Ask Ken Rudin: politicaljunkie@npr.org

I'm on vacation this week, and thus no Political Junkie column, Talk of the Nation appearance or podcast for me. But giving up ScuttleButton? No way.

ScuttleButton, of course, is that once-a-week waste of time exercise in which each Monday or Tuesday I put up a vertical display of buttons on this site. Your job is to simply take one word (or concept) per button, add 'em up, and, hopefully, you will arrive at a famous name or a familiar expression. (And seriously, by familiar, I mean it's something that more than one person on Earth would recognize.)

For years, a correct answer chosen at random would get his or her name posted in this column, an incredible honor in itself. Now the stakes are even higher. Thanks to the efforts of the folks at Talk of the Nation, that person also hears their name mentioned on the Wednesday show (by me) and receives a Political Junkie t-shirt in the bargain. Is this a great country or what?

You can't use the comments box at the bottom of the page for your answer. Send submission (plus your name and city/state — you won't win without that) to politicaljunkie@npr.org.

(Why do people keep forgetting to include their name and city/state?)

And, by adding your name to the Political Junkie mailing list, you will be among the first on your block to receive notice about the column and the puzzle. Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org. Or you can make sure to get an automatic RSS feed whenever a new Junkie post goes up by clicking here.

Good luck!

By the way, I always announce the winner on Wednesday's Junkie segment on TOTN — seven or eight days after the puzzle goes up. So you should try and get your answer in as soon as possible. But logistically, you have about a week to submit your guess.

Here are the buttons used and the answer to last week's puzzle:

L-F-G Nov. 7th — As everyone figured out the moment they laid eyes on this button, it's from the 1961 New York City Republican ticket: Louis Lefkowitz for mayor, Paul Fino for City Council President and Jack Gilhooley for Comptroller. All three lost to the Democratic ticket led by Mayor Robert Wagner Jr.

No More Bull****/M.-B. — A 1969 New York City mayoral button of Democratic candidates Norman Mailer for mayor and Jimmy Breslin for city council president.

N Need Nixon Now — Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968.

Terry Miller Governor — Miller lost the 1982 Republican primary in Alaska.

My President (photo of Bill Clinton in his hippie-but-didn't-inhale days) — Never could determine if this was a pro- or anti-Clinton button.

Bonner County Sportsmen's Assn/Idaho (picture of a trout and a deer) — Not exactly a political button but I didn't have much choice.

Watson — Albert Watson was the Republican candidate for governor of South Carolina in 1970.

So, when you combine L + M + N + Terry + My + Deer + Watson, you may just very well end up with ...

Elementary My Dear Watson. The line that Sherlock Holmes never actually said to his assistant Watson in any of the Arthur Conan Doyle books. (The movie is another story.)

The winner, chosen completely at random, is ... Jeff Troia of Madison, Wis. Jeff gets not only the coveted Political Junkie t-shirt — but the Official No Prize Button as well!

In the thousand-plus or so emails I get each time a ScuttleButton puzzle is posted, I invariably will get dozens and dozens of complaints that it was just too easy, that it insulted their intelligence, that I need to make them more challenging. That was clearly the case last week, as there were nearly 100 such emails.

Well, be careful what you wish for. This week's puzzle is one of the most difficult.

ScuttleButton, of course, is that once-a-week waste of time exercise in which each Monday or Tuesday I put up a vertical display of buttons on this site. Your job is to simply take one word (or concept) per button, add 'em up, and, hopefully, you will arrive at a famous name or a familiar expression. (And seriously, by familiar, I mean it's something that more than one person on Earth would recognize.)

For years, a correct answer chosen at random would get his or her name posted in this column, an incredible honor in itself. Now the stakes are even higher. Thanks to the efforts of the folks at Talk of the Nation, that person also hears their name mentioned on the Wednesday show (by me) and receives a Political Junkie t-shirt in the bargain. Is this a great country or what?

You can't use the comments box at the bottom of the page for your answer. Send submission (plus your name and city/state — you won't win without that) to politicaljunkie@npr.org.

(Why do people keep forgetting to include their name and city/state?)

And, by adding your name to the Political Junkie mailing list, you will be among the first on your block to receive notice about the column and the puzzle. Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org. Or you can make sure to get an automatic RSS feed whenever a new Junkie post goes up by clicking here.

Good luck!

By the way, I always announce the winner on Wednesday's Junkie segment on TOTN — seven or eight days after the puzzle goes up. So you should try and get your answer in as soon as possible. But logistically, you have about a week to submit your guess.

Here are the buttons used and the answer to last week's puzzle:

When Win Wins ... He Will Be Back — Winthrop Rockefeller, a Republican, was elected governor of Arkansas in 1966.

Irish for President Nixon — Part of a set of nationality buttons from the 1972 election.

All Ayes for Lori/National Committee Woman — Other than the fact that Lori is a Republican, I don't know anything more about this button.

R & R/Rockefeller & Reagan — Some Republicans who didn't like Richard Nixon thought this might be the ticket that could defeat him for the 1968 GOP nomination.

Give the Smilin' Man a Chance — 1976 button for Jimmy Carter, the Democratic nominee who went on to win the presidency.

So, when you combine When + Irish + Ayes + R + Smilin', you may just very well end up with ...

When Irish Eyes Are Smiling. The classic song from 1912.

The winner, chosen completely at random, is ... Janine Libbey of Nashville, Tenn. Janine gets not only the coveted Political Junkie t-shirt — but the Official No Prize Button as well!

And don't forget to check out this week's Political Junkie column, which focuses on recent pronouncements from Hillary Clinton and Rand Paul that make one think this might have something to do with 2016. Click here to read the column.

If you have any interest in politics at all, you pretty much know two things. One, that the next presidential election, on Nov. 8, 2016, is only 1,324 days away. And two, you won't be surprised if people are focusing on it in March of 2013.

Sometimes the speculation is silly, but sometimes it's not. Judging from what we've seen and heard from Hillary Clinton and Rand Paul, the speculation may be on target.

The two may be miles apart ideologically but they do have at least one thing in common: both have been talked about as White House contenders from the moment they began thinking about public office, probably because of their last name. "Hillary for President" boosters date back to at least 1992, when her husband, then the governor of Arkansas, was running for president himself. But once his two terms were over, serious focus on Hillary began. The only First Lady ever in history to seek office, she was elected to the Senate in 2000 and considered running for president in 2004. She declined, won re-election in '06, and of course went for all the marbles in 2008, losing to Barack Obama in a classic marathon battle for the Democratic nomination.

Rand Paul's rise has been even more dramatic. A relative unknown when he announced for the Senate from Kentucky in 2010 — about all we knew was that he was an ophthalmologist and son of libertarian favorite Ron Paul — he upset Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell's choice in the primary and then went on to win the seat in November. And with his father making one last presidential hurrah in 2012 before retiring from the House, many supporters of the dad seemed to quickly gravitate to the son.

Rand Paul's timing could not be better. The party couldn't get rid of Mitt Romney quickly enough; he seemed to be old news the moment Obama claimed victory for a second term (or at least after Karl Rove conceded Ohio). And his foreign policy views — the anti-foreign entanglements position that had long been described as "isolationist" and out-of-the-GOP mainstream, views that got his father attention, if not votes — are now being embraced by more and more Republicans, especially in the wake of the disastrous Iraq and Afghanistan experiences.

So when Rand Paul gets up in the Senate and gabs on for most of 13 hours questioning the constitutionality of the Obama administration's drone program (or more specifically, the legality of it being used on American targets in America), people stood up and took notice. When Paul spoke at the recent CPAC event and said it's time to ease penalties for illegal drug use — a true libertarian position — he not only broke with the GOP's longstanding lock-em-up philosophy but he also made a point of connecting with younger voters, a group that neither Romney nor 2008 nominee John McCain was successful at wooing.

And then came his speech last Tuesday before the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, in which he kind of (but didn't really, or did he?) talked about a new pathway for the millions of people who are in the country illegally. I'm still not convinced what he actually said, but the headlines everywhere said he "offered" a plan to solve the immigration problem. Regardless of its content, it led to countless stories about him in a position to run for president in 2016.

Too soon to be talking about him in those terms? How about this: Was it too soon to talk about Obama running for president after his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic convention — before he was even elected to the Senate?

Here's the first hour of Paul's filibuster, courtesy YouTube:

Meanwhile, if there were any doubts about Hillary Clinton's intentions for 2016, they seemed to disappear last week when she appeared in a video for the Human Rights Campaign and announced that yes, she supports same-sex marriage.

If Rand Paul is ahead of his party on foreign policy and drug laws, Hillary Clinton seems to be trailing hers on gay marriage. It's been a year since the president and vice president (in reverse order) announced their positions/evolving. Other possible Dem prez hopefuls, such as Maryland's Martin O'Malley and New York's Andrew Cuomo, also endorsed marriage equality last year. In fact, it seems like everyone in the party has come to that conclusion before she did.

Now, in fairness, she was not about to spell out her views while she was secretary of state these past four years. But the video, which you can see here courtesy of YouTube, did have a "don't forget me" feel to it.

And so, the question everyone has been asking, quite legitimately, is what her announcement has to do with her calculations about 2016 — and whether she is playing catchup. Here's the take of Politico's Maggie Haberman, who called it a "strong signal she's very much thinking about her political future, even if a decision on 2016 is not for quite some time":

"Coming less than three months after she departed the State Department, Clinton's move was about as surprising as a setting sun. Her party, not to mention her husband and daughter, was already on record as backing gay marriage. Three days earlier, Republican Sen. Rob Portman — last year a leading contender to be his party's VP pick — said he was backing gay marriage after his college-age son came out two years ago.

Clinton's video, released through the Human Rights Campaign — which is run by longtime Clinton ally Chad Griffin — was clearly intended to be something of a low-key event. A week ahead of the U.S. Supreme Court hearing, arguments in a gay marriage-related case, the announcement was well-timed.

But it also was almost an afterthought in the gay marriage debate that has gone on nationally. And it also opens the door for fresh questions to Clinton on issues of the day, such as immigration and gun control — not that she'll need to offer an opinion on any of then until she's ready."

Lest we forget: Hillary Clinton will be 69 years old in 2016. And that would make her — were she to win — the oldest woman ever elected president of the U.S.

All of which leads us to another in our series of Political Junkie Fake Polls.

Political Updates. I post periodic political updates during the week — some serious, some not — on Twitter. You can follow me at @kenrudin. Meanwhile, here are some samplings from the mailbag:

Q: Can Stephen Colbert's sister win in South Carolina? — Ellen Cohen, Philadelphia, Pa.

A: South Carolina's 1st Congressional District is solidly Republican; Mitt Romney carried it by 18 percentage points last year over President Obama. It hasn't elected a Democrat since 1978. Having said that, it is obvious what gives Elizabeth Colbert-Busch a shot in the May 7 general election: the fact that Mark Sanford, should he win the April 2 GOP runoff, will be her opponent. There is something to be said about the politics of redemption, but there's also something to be said about the politics of betrayal, and Colbert-Busch is hoping that she can make inroads with Republican women.

In last Tuesday's 16-candidate GOP field, Sanford as expected came out on top, with 37 percent. Finishing second was Curtis Bostic, a former member of the Charleston County Council who had the support of many evangelical voters. Sanford will no doubt drown Bostic financially in the next eight days. But if an anti-Sanford sentiment is real and can unite behind Bostic, we could be looking at a close runoff.

The odds still say Sanford wins both the runoff and the special election.

For 30 years, until his death in December 1970, the 1st CD was represented by L. Mendel Rivers, a Democrat and the powerful chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. For the decade after that, his successor was his godson, Mendel Davis. But when Davis retired in 1980, the district turned Republican. Tommy Hartnett, a former Democrat, won the seat in 1980 and held it until 1986, when he was narrowly defeated in a bid to become lt. gov. He was succeeded by Arthur Ravenel Jr., a popular local figure who had spent decades building up the Charleston GOP.

When Ravenel decided to run for governor in 1994, a sizable field of Republican candidates got into the race to replace him. The favorite was Van Hipp, the former S.C. GOP party chair, who finished well on top in the initial primary, but nowhere near enough to win the nomination outright. The candidate who came in second was a real estate investor by the name of Mark Sanford, who ran as an outsider and beat Hipp in the runoff. Sanford said he would only serve three terms and kept to his promise, retiring in 2000 (but not before becoming part of the group that attempted to oust Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1997).

He was followed in the 1st by longtime state Rep. Henry Brown Jr., a 65-year old businessman whose years in the state legislature were filled with instances of working across party lines. Running without major party opposition in both 2002 and 2004, the national anti-Republican tide reached even into his district in 2006. He fell under 60 percent of the vote that year, and in 2008, running against a wealthy Democratic philanthropist who poured $700,000 of her own money into the race and portrayed Brown as out of touch, he was held to 52 percent.

Brown retired in 2010 and was succeeded by Tim Scott, an African-American Republican who defeated the sons of Strom Thurmond and ex-Gov. Carroll Campbell for the GOP nod. Re-elected in 2012, Scott was appointed to fill Jim DeMint's vacated Senate seat in December, which is how we got to this year's special election.

Q: Where can I find Jack Pitney's piece on Republican outreach efforts that you mentioned in the podcast? — Joseph McInnis, Fukuoka, Japan

A: Click here to read this great article by Pitney, a professor at Claremont-McKenna College on the history of GOP outreach to minority voters.

Q: Neal Conan always mentions it on Talk of the Nation each week, but where can we see the infamous Wall of Shame? — Loren Kirkpatrick, Nashville, Tenn.

A: Each week on TOTN's Political Junkie segment, we give Junkie t-shirts and buttons to the winners of the trivia question and the randomly-selected ScuttleButton puzzles. The "Wall of Shame" is where the crack TOTN staff posts photos of the winners. Click here to see it.

Political Junkie segment on Talk of the Nation. Each Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET, the Political Junkie segment appears on Talk of the Nation (NPR's call-in program), hosted by Neal Conan with me adding color commentary, where you can, sometimes, hear interesting conversation, useless trivia questions and sparkling jokes. Last week's show focused on the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and the divisions on the Right with special guest Al Cardenas, the head of the American Conservative Union. You can listen to the segment here:

Podcast. There's also a new episode of our weekly podcast, "It's All Politics," up every Thursday. It's hosted by my partner in crime, Ron Elving, and me.

And Don't Forget ScuttleButton. ScuttleButton, America's favorite waste-of-time button puzzle, can usually be found in this spot every Monday or Tuesday. A randomly selected winner will be announced every Wednesday during the Political Junkie segment on NPR's Talk of the Nation. You still have time to submit your answer to last week's contest, which you can see here. Sure, there's incredible joy in deciphering the answer, but the winner gets not only a Political Junkie T-shirt but also a 3-1/2-inch Official No-Prize Button! Is this a great country or what??

ON THE CALENDAR:

March 26-27 — U.S. Supreme Court to hear cases about California's Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act

April 2 — Runoff in South Carolina's 1st Congressional District to replace Tim Scott (R). Candidates: Mark Sanford and Curtis Bostic. Also: St. Louis mayoral election.

April 9 — Special election in Illinois' 2nd CD to replace Jesse Jackson Jr. (D), who resigned.

April 24 — Hillary Clinton first-post government paid speech, National Multi Housing Council in Dallas.

April 30 — Special Massachusetts Senate primary.

May 7 — Special election in S.C. 01.

May 21 — Los Angeles mayoral runoff. Also: Pittsburgh mayoral primary.

June 4 — Special election in Missouri's 8th CD to replace Jo Ann Emerson (R), who resigned.

June 25 — Special Senate election in Massachusetts to replace John Kerry, who is now secretary of state.

Aug. 6 — Seattle mayoral primary.

Mailing list. To receive a weekly email alert about the new column and ScuttleButton puzzle, contact me at politicaljunkie@npr.org.

******* Don't Forget: If you are sending in a question to be used in this column, please include your city and state. *********

This day in campaign history: His campaign on the verge of total collapse, Sen. Ted Kennedy wins a dramatic upset over President Jimmy Carter in the New York Democratic presidential primary. His victory was aided by the United States' vote at the U.N. condemning Israel for building settlements in the West Bank, a vote that angered Jewish voters, especially in New York. Carter lost the state by a 59-41 percent margin, despite the support of Democratic powers such as Lt. Gov. Mario Cuomo and NYC Mayor Ed Koch. Kennedy also beat Carter in the Connecticut primary today as well. Today's sweep by Kennedy was the only time he won a contest this year outside of his home state of Massachusetts. On the Republican side, Ronald Reagan won a clear majority of the delegates in New York over George H.W. Bush, though Bush did beat him in Connecticut (March 25, 1980).

Got a question? Ask Ken Rudin: politicaljunkie@npr.org

An absolute pleasure running into so many old friends on Saturday at the meeting of the American Political Items Collectors in Tyson's Corner, Va.

Yes, such an organization exists. No, I was not the craziest person there. But the best part was learning that so many people there are diehard ScuttleButton fans!

ScuttleButton, of course, is that once-a-week waste of time exercise in which each Monday or Tuesday I put up a vertical display of buttons on this site. Your job is to simply take one word (or concept) per button, add 'em up, and, hopefully, you will arrive at a famous name or a familiar expression. (And seriously, by familiar, I mean it's something that more than one person on Earth would recognize.)

For years, a correct answer chosen at random would get his or her name posted in this column, an incredible honor in itself. Now the stakes are even higher. Thanks to the efforts of the folks at Talk of the Nation, that person also hears their name mentioned on the Wednesday show (by me) and receives a Political Junkie t-shirt in the bargain. Is this a great country or what?

You can't use the comments box at the bottom of the page for your answer. Send submission (plus your name and city/state — you won't win without that) to politicaljunkie@npr.org.

(Why do people keep forgetting to include their name and city/state?)

And, by adding your name to the Political Junkie mailing list, you will be among the first on your block to receive notice about the column and the puzzle. Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org. Or you can make sure to get an automatic RSS feed whenever a new Junkie post goes up by clicking here.

Good luck!

By the way, I always announce the winner on Wednesday's Junkie segment on TOTN — seven or eight days after the puzzle goes up. So you should try and get your answer in as soon as possible. But logistically, you have about a week to submit your guess.

Here are the buttons used and the answer to last week's puzzle:

1-2-3-4 W.D.W.Y.F.W. — I believe the letters in this anti-Vietnam button refer to "We don't want your foolish (!) war."

Two horizontal buttons that say "Strike" — More Vietnam-era buttons.

You're Happy/Honda/We're Happy — This button was part of the deal when I bought a Honda Accord many years ago.

Get Out of Vietnam — Still another anti-Vietnam War button.

So, when you combine 3 + Strikes + You're + Out, you may just very well end up with ...

Three Strikes [and] You're Out. The baseball expression and the line in the song, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."

I would have accepted "1,2,3 strikes and you're out." But about 50 people wrote in "TWO strikes and you're out" — not an expression I'm familiar with. (And yes, there were several responses that read "FOUR strikes and you're out"!)

One person who knows baseball — and who happened to be the randomly-chosen winner — is William Tucker of Portsmouth, N.H. William gets not only the coveted Political Junkie t-shirt — but the Official No Prize Button as well!

And don't forget to check out this week's Political Junkie column, which focuses on gay marriage, DOMA, and the rapid shift in public opinion on the issue. Click here to read the column.

It is remarkable how fast the issue of same-sex marriage has moved the American public. Of course, some long-time proponents will argue the opposite, that it has taken far too long for it to gain acceptance. And they say that there is no shortage of efforts around the country to block or overturn the practice.

But there is no question that since Vice President Biden first announced his support for the issue last May — jumping the gun on President Obama, whose position on the issue was said to still be "evolving" — things have changed rapidly. Almost immediately, and far more significant, was Obama's declaration he felt the same. After that came dramatic shifting in public opinion, where for the first time ever, polls show that more people support gay marriage than oppose it. It became a cause to be celebrated at the Democratic National Convention last summer. Voters in three states, after an unbroken string of defeats, chose to legalize gay marriage in November. And it got considerable attention at Obama's inauguration in January, where he said, "Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law, for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well."

Now, not even a year since Obama's switch, it has become a Democratic Party policy given, akin to abortion rights or increasing the minimum wage.

And there may be some shifting on the Republican side as well. Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, a leading GOP voice and thought to be on Mitt Romney's short list for VP last year, announced Friday that he was ending his opposition to same-sex marriage. His reasoning is personal; he has a 21-year old gay son and said he does not want him treated any differently because of his sexuality. But he is the highest ranking Republican (and the only sitting GOP senator) to take that position. If Obama's 2012 reversal put him in better stead with members of his own party, Portman's shift has probably resulted in the opposite. Still, in an op-ed in the Columbus Dispatch, Portman tried to frame it as a conservative staple:

"We conservatives believe in personal liberty and minimal government interference in people's lives. We also consider the family unit to be the fundamental building block of society. We should encourage people to make long-term commitments to each other and build families, so as to foster strong, stable communities and promote personal responsibility. ...

I've thought a great deal about this issue, and like millions of Americans in recent years, I've changed my mind on the question of marriage for same-sex couples. As we strive as a nation to form a more perfect union, I believe all of our sons and daughters ought to have the same opportunity to experience the joy and stability of marriage."

The New York Times' Jeremy Peters noted that religious conservatives "reacted strongly" to Portman's switch, "with some saying that he had turned his back on Christianity":

"'Senator Portman speaks like so many who call themselves Christians but actually don't spend much time dwelling on the Word of God,' wrote Erick Erickson, the conservative commentator, on Twitter.

Others were harsher. The Traditional Values Coalition, a religious group that is often vocal on gay issues, issued a statement that equated homosexuality with drunken driving and mocked Mr. Portman, writing, 'My child is a drunk driver and I love him.'"

But if we're talking about politicians who have had a change of heart, add former President Bill Clinton to the list. The issue here is the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (known by its acronym DOMA), which defines marriage as being between a man and a woman and which would deny federal rights to same-sex spouses. (Portman, then a House member, was a sponsor of the Act.) Recently Clinton penned an op-ed in the Washington Post saying it should be overturned. Clinton, of course, was president when he signed DOMA into law on Sept. 21, 1996. The issue of overturning it comes before the U.S. Supreme Court on March 27, when the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8 — a 2008 anti-gay marriage initiative passed by the voters — will be decided.

Though there are certainly notable exceptions — and we saw it last month, when dozens of prominent Republicans signed on to urge the Court to overturn Prop 8 — gay marriage is one of those issues that often separates Ds from Rs. But that leads to an e-mail that arrived a few weeks ago from Teri Donaldson of Wichita, Kansas, which asked:

"If the Democrats were in control in 1996, would Congress have passed the Defense of Marriage Act? Did many Democrats vote for it?"

A better question might be would the Democrats have allowed the bill to reach the floor at all, had they controlled Congress back in '96. We'll never know the answer to that. But we do know how they voted.

The Act was introduced in Congress on May 7, 1996 by Rep. Bob Barr, a Georgia Republican. (That Barr, who opposed same-sex marriage, anti-drug laws and the Patriot Act, could wind up as the Libertarian Party's presidential nominee in 2008 always fascinated me, but that's for another time.)

But Clinton, who in 1992 was clearly more aggressive in seeking votes from the gay community than any other major presidential candidate in history, nonetheless continued to state during his re-election campaign four years later that he believed marriage was between a man and a woman. So while White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry called the Defense of Marriage Act "gay baiting, pure and simple," and while Clinton himself said that DOMA was "unnecessary" and "divisive," the president reiterated that he would sign it.

(A very interesting read by Richard Socarides in the March 8 issue of The New Yorker: "Why Bill Clinton Signed the Defense of Marriage Act".)

The House passed the measure on June 12, 1996 by a vote of 342-67. Republicans supported it by a margin of 224 to one (Steve Gunderson of Wisconsin). Democrats, though, also overwhelmingly backed it, by 118 to 65. Among those Democrats who voted "yes" were many leaders, progressives and up-and-comers, such as Rosa DeLauro (CT), Dick Durbin (IL), Ben Cardin (MD), Steny Hoyer (MD), Dick Gephardt (MO), Bob Torricelli (NJ), Bob Menendez (NJ), Bill Richardson (NM), Chuck Schumer (NY), Nita Lowey (NY), Marcy Kaptur (OH), Jack Reed (RI), Jim Clyburn (SC) and Tim Johnson (SD).

It was a similar landslide in the Senate on Sept. 10, where the vote in favor was 85-14. All 53 Republicans voted yes; Democrats favored this "gay baiting" and "divisive" bill by a 32-14 margin. Among the Dem "yes" votes: Chris Dodd (CT), Joe Lieberman (CT), Joe Biden (DE), Tom Harkin (IA), Barbara Mikulski (MD), Carl Levin (MI), Paul Wellstone (MN), Bill Bradley (NJ), Frank Lautenberg (NJ), Harry Reid (NV), John Glenn (OH), Patrick Leahy (VT) and Patty Murray (WA).

So, it's difficult to answer your question. We assume many Democrats would welcome the dismantling of DOMA in the present day. But we do know that an overwhelming majority of them voted for it back then.

Political Updates. I post periodic political updates during the week — some serious, some not — on Twitter. You can follow me at @kenrudin.

TOTN Political Junkie no, Podcast yes. Each Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET, the Political Junkie segment appears on Talk of the Nation (NPR's call-in program), hosted by Neal Conan with me adding color commentary, where you can, sometimes, hear interesting conversation, useless trivia questions and sparkling jokes. Last week's show was about 10 minutes old when the news broke that a new pope was chosen. Habemus Papam, it was announced, which roughly translates to "Get Ken Rudin off the air and out of the studio." Fortunately, there is the new episode of the weekly podcast, "It's All Politics," that you can feast your ears on (assuming ears can be feasted). My partner-in-crime Ron Elving and I discussed the ongoing CPAC event, the going-nowhere budget talks (zzzzz), Sen. Carl Levin's (D-Mich.) decision to retire, and next week's congressional primary in South Carolina. You can listen to the latest episode here:

And Don't Forget ScuttleButton. ScuttleButton, America's favorite waste-of-time button puzzle, can usually be found in this spot every Monday or Tuesday. A randomly selected winner will be announced every Wednesday during the Political Junkie segment on NPR's Talk of the Nation. You still have time to submit your answer to last week's contest, which you can see here. Sure, there's incredible joy in deciphering the answer, but the winner gets not only a Political Junkie T-shirt but also a 3-1/2-inch Official No-Prize Button! Is this a great country or what??

ON THE CALENDAR:

March 19 — Special primary in South Carolina's 1st Congressional District to replace Tim Scott (R), who was appointed to the Senate.

April 2 — Runoff in S.C. 01. Also: St. Louis mayoral election.

April 9 — Special election in Illinois' 2nd CD to replace Jesse Jackson Jr. (D), who resigned.

April 30 — Special Massachusetts Senate primary.

May 7 — Special election in S.C. 01.

May 21 — Los Angeles mayoral runoff. Also: Pittsburgh mayoral primary.

June 4 — Special election in Missouri's 8th CD to replace Jo Ann Emerson (R), who resigned.

June 25 — Special Senate election in Massachusetts to replace John Kerry, who is now secretary of state.

Aug. 6 — Seattle mayoral primary.

Mailing list. To receive a weekly email alert about the new column and ScuttleButton puzzle, contact me at politicaljunkie@npr.org.

******* Don't Forget: If you are sending in a question to be used in this column, please include your city and state. *********

This day in campaign history: The Harris Survey has Sen. Ed Muskie of Maine five points ahead of President Richard Nixon in a hypothetical 1972 three-way trial heat, with Alabama Gov. George Wallace in the race as a third-party candidate, as he was in 1968. The poll shows Muskie 44, Nixon 39, Wallace 12. Without Wallace, Muskie — the Democratic VP nominee in '68 — led Nixon by six, 48-42 percent (March 18, 1971).

Got a question? Ask Ken Rudin: politicaljunkie@npr.org