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"FacebookPinterest\n\n1. CONDOLEEZZA RICE\n\n 52\n\n Secretary of State\n\nThis wasn't an easy choice for #1, since there's no telling if Cheney will once again commandeer our foreign policy (as he did with Iraq) before leaving office. But Rice, the ultimate yes-woman as national-security adviser, has become a much needed check on the Office of the Vice President. Like Colin Powell, her predecessor at State, she now recognizes the pomposity of \"with us or against us\" and the value in talking to one's enemies. But the difference between her and Powell is: The president trusts her. \"Her power derives from her relationship with the president,\" says Mark Halperin, political analyst at Time and ABC News. \"They have a personal and professional bond that has allowed her to win plenty of internal battles,\" Overtures to Iran, Syria, North Korea\u2026 If it weren't for Condi, they would most likely never have happened. Whatever hope we have of not going to war with Iran before the end of Bush's term rests largely with her.\n\n2. HARRY REID\n\n 67\n\n Senate Majority Leader\n\nHe could choose his words more carefully\u2014and put away the cots\u2014but his knowledge of Senate rules and his ability to keep Democrats (Democrats!) aligned make him a far more imposing majority leader than Bill Frist ever was.\n\n3. ROBERT GATES\n\n 63\n\n Secretary of Defense\n\n\"He is the most important personnel change this administration has made in terms of foreign policy and national security,\" says Leslie Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations. He's won a wide fan base at the Pentagon and across the aisle, he serves as a counterbalance to Cheney, and he consistently warns against military adventurism. \"He's conservative and quite pragmatic,\" Gelb continues. \"The way Rumsfeld used to be.\"\n\n4. JUSTICE ANTHONY KENNEDY\n\n 71\n\n Supreme Court Justice\n\nIn the past twenty-four cases that have resulted in a 5-4 voting split, Kennedy was in the majority every single time. That means in cases that forced the EPA to take global warming more seriously, undid key parts of Brown v. Board of Education, put the screws to campaign-finance reform, and made \"Bong Hits 4 Jesus\" unprotected speech in schools, he cast the deciding vote.\n\n5. NANCY PELOSI\n\n 67\n\n Speaker of the House\n\nShe can claim the minimum-wage hike, a decent ethics package, new transparency rules for earmarks, and the Democrats' remarkable cohesiveness\u2014the average Dem votes with the party 93 percent of the time\u2014as true victories. But the real test will be getting Bush to swallow a timetable for withdrawal.\n\n6. HOWARD KOHR\n\n 51\n\n Ecutive Director, AIPAC\n\nBILL NOVELLI\n\n 66\n\n CEO, AARP\n\nWAYNE LAPIERRE\n\n 56\n\n Ecutive Vice President, NRA\n\nBILLY TAUZIN\n\n 64\n\n President and CEO, PhRMA\n\nIn 2006, the four interest groups they command spoke for 40 million members and thirty-two drug companies, racked up $43 million in lobbying expenses, and threw their considerable weight around to keep a slew of unpopular laws on the books and uphold the status quo. (Most Americans believe in some form of gun control, for instance, but no one in Congress is willing to stick his neck out on the issue\u2014for fear of getting shot with some totally legal semiautomatic hunting weapons.) Thanks to the influence their groups wield that's both detectable (money given to campaigns) and subtle (the personal relationships built with committee members of both parties), don't expect any big changes to our Israel or prescription-drug policies in coming years.\n\n7. DAVID ADDINGTON\n\n 50\n\n Chief of Staff to the Vice President\n\nHe has done more than anyone else in government to provide the administration with its (sometimes dubious) legal justifications for expanding ecutive authority. He has outmaneuvered internal opponents\u2014Colin Powell foremost among them\u2014to ensure that torturing people and eliminating habeas corpus are things Americans do. And he has scoured every clause of every piece of proposed legislation over the past six and a half years to see if ecutive power has in any way been impinged upon\u2014and if he feels it has, he'll counsel his bosses to simply sidestep it. \"His actions have posed a threat to our system of checks and balances as we've known it,\" says Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists.\n\n8. HILLARY CLINTON\n\n 59\n\n Democratic Senator, New York\n\nMess with her at your own peril.\n\n9. KARL ROVE\n\n 56\n\n Deputy White House Chief of Staff\n\nPlame hurt. The midterms hurt. But Rove's still among the few people who get on-demand one-on-one time in the Oval. His legendary\u2014and, after '06, revenge-oriented\u2014electoral mind will be a valuable resource to the GOP's eventual nominee.\n\n10. GENERAL MICHAEL HAYDEN\n\n 62\n\n Director, CIA\n\n\"The more any CIA director is in the public limelight, the less powerful they are,\" says Norm Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. By that marker and several others, Hayden has proven himself an adept leader. In his short time at the agency's helm (with an estimated $30 billion budget at his disposal), he has already begun restoring morale and putting a stop to tribalism. And for the first time since before George Tenet took over, the CIA is beginning to feel like a competent operation again.\n\n11. MITCH MCCONNELL\n\n 65\n\n Senate Minority Leader\n\n\"Look at all the Democratic items that came out of Pelosi's first one hundred hours,\" says Larry Sabato, of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. \"McConnell's the one who screwed most of them up.\" How Because the man's an expert strategist (counting votes, whipping members, trading favors). Look no further than his greatest coup: Working in conjunction with the White House, he bested Reid and forced Democrats to remove a timetable for withdrawal from the Iraq-funding bill in May.\n\n12. THOMAS HALE BOGGS JR. \n\n 66\n\n Chairman, Patton Boggs, LLP\n\nOver forty years in the lobbying business, he's accumulated hundreds of clients that brought in $36 million last year. He may not be as powerful as he was early in the Clinton years, but as long as he's working his gold-plated connections, he'll be a hoss.\n\n13. RONALD REAGAN\n\n Deceased\n\n 40th President of the United States\n\nWhen pollster Frank Luntz asked thirty New Hampshirites whom they'd prefer the next GOP candidate to resemble, the score was 30 to 0 in the Gipper's favor. Reagan is an instant cred booster on the right, an emblem of better times\u2014and he provides an easy way for Republican candidates to distance themselves from Bush. Just look at the transcript of the first GOP presidential debate in May. He was name-checked a preposterous twenty-four times. God only got six mentions.\n\n14. TIM RUSSERT\n\n 57\n\n Washington Bureau Chief, NBC News\n\nDon't let Russert's charm fool you; the seat across from his on Meet the Press is one of the most dangerous in town. Here, Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean explains how to survive an appearance on MTP, which, with almost a million more viewers than its closest competitor, is Washington's most influential Sunday-morning talk show.\n\nPrepare like crazy. The week before a show, Dean's team of researchers spend hours ripping through the papers, trying to guess which issue areas Russert will quiz him on and which articles he'll quote from at length. They'll also dig through the DNC's own opposition file to see where Dean contradicted himself over the years. Dean's closest advisers will then take that information and bombard him with questions in two separate one-hour sessions. \"They try to get me mad,\" Dean says, \"which is always a good thing, because I can't do that on television.\"\n\nLast-second training. Dean and his team will wake up especially early Sunday morning to scan the major dailies and the wires. Then Dean goes over the three note cards (winnowed down from fifteen) he takes onto the set that contain the talking points he and his advisers feel he must hit.\n\nLiars suffer. \"Part of what Russert is about,\" Dean says, \"is seeing if you're going to step into the trap of believing one thing and saying something else. If you say what you think and you know why you think it, you're in a good spot with him.\"\n\n15. MARK PENN\n\n 53\n\n CEO, Burson-Marsteller\n\nWith a client roster that includes Microsoft, BP, AOL, Ford, and Hillary Clinton (for whom he serves as chief strategist), it's a wonder the man ever sleeps. According to Mike McCurry, who worked with Penn in the Clinton White House, he might not. \"Everyone reports getting e-mails from him at two thirty in the morning,\" he says.\n\n16. JOSHUA BOLTEN\n\n 53\n\n White House Chief of Staff\n\nHis personnel decisions (Henry Paulson at Treasury, Gates at Defense) have been strong, his work ethic is legendary, he's the person you're most likely to see by Bush's side, and yet\u2026being chief of staff for an unpopular president is the most thankless job in Washington. \"You could bring in Jesus Christ and it wouldn't matter,\" says Larry Sabato, of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. \"The Bush administration is over. It's been over. We're just marking time.\"\n\n17. RAHM EMANUEL\n\n 47\n\n Democratic Congressman, Illinois\n\nDemocratic freshmen have to listen to him because he got them an office on Capitol Hill. Veteran Democrats have to listen to him because he delivered their majority. And when this Chi-town tough runs for Speaker one day, they'll all have to vote for him. Because he'll eat their children if they don't.\n\n18. HENRY WAXMAN \n\n 68\n\n Chair, House Oversight and Reform Committee\n\nPATRICK LEAHY\n\n 67\n\n Chair, Senate Judiciary Committee\n\nSince taking charge of two of Congress's most oversight-minded committees in January, these two have demanded accountability from people who had grown accustomed to skirting it. They've launched hearings into every scandal, including the Valerie Plame leak, the CIA's overseas prisons, the Jack Abramoff affair, FEMA's response to Katrina, and the U.S. Attorney firings. By March, his third month as chairman, Waxman and his Democratic colleagues had conducted a staggering one hundred investigative hearings. And according to Senator John Kerry, \"Pat Leahy is one of the toughest, most effective guys in the Senate. You don't get Dick Cheney to lose his cool for nothing.\" Go fuck yourself, indeed.\n\n19. NICK BURNS\n\n 51\n\n Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs\n\nIf it seems the U.S. has embraced diplomatic gestures\u2014like reaching out to China and Russia to sanction Iran\u2014that were unthinkable just a few years ago, Condi's right-hand man is largely to thank.\n\n20. BARACK OBAMA\n\n 46\n\n Democratic Senator, Illinois\n\nNearly three years in Congress. Two New York Times best-sellers. Fifty-nine million dollars raised in the first half of 2007. Consistent comparisons to the Son of God. Looks pretty good in a bathing suit. The kid's got a future.\n\n21. ED GILLESPIE\n\n 46\n\n Counselor to the President\n\nHe shepherded John Roberts's Supreme Court nomination and coached Alberto Gonzales's testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee\u2014all while chairing the Virginia GOP and heading up a lobbying firm. Now He's a full-fledged member of the Bush Bubble.\n\n22. JOHN PODESTA\n\n 58\n\n CEO, Center for American Progress\n\nThis former Clinton chief of staff founded CAP, a progressive policy shop, in 2003 to fight back against right-leaning think tanks like the Heritage Foundation. Here are his communications tips on winning the ideology war:\n\nAddress the issues\u2014in real time. \"When we got into this, conservatives had natural outlets on talk radio, Fox, etc. Progressives were weak at this. So we designed a suite of products\u2014a daily e-mail, a blog, etc.\u2014to engage with policy decisions every day.\"\n\nGet the long-term message out. \"Traditional progressive research institutions devote about 5 percent of resources to outreach. We're around 40 percent, and it's paying off. In 2005 we put out a plan for affordable health care for everyone. Now all the Democratic presidential candidates are in favor of universal health coverage.\"\n\n23. BEN BERNANKE\n\n 53\n\n Chairman, Federal Reserve\n\nIt didn't take this former Princeton econ professor long to emerge from Alan Greenspan's shadow. And while he hasn't yet faced a huge crisis, he's kept market confidence high, largely by displaying a trait that Greenspan never developed: openness. \"I'm most impressed with his transparency,\" says CNBC's Maria Bartiromo. \"Investors understand the markets more than they ever have, so it's important for people to know what the Fed is thinking. It's been a huge positive for the economy.\"\n\n24. DAVID RUBENSTEIN\n\n 58\n\n Managing Director, Carlyle Group\n\nRubenstein's buddy-buddy with the Bushes, Jim Baker, and Jimmy Carter; and last year, the 192 companies Carlyle owned posted more than $87 billion in revenue. Still, according to Carlyle watchers, his savviest move of the past few years was to lower Carlyle's profile. After 9/11 (and Fahrenheit 9/11), Carlyle\u2014with its political connections and big-dollar defense holdings\u2014was seen as a terror profiteer. Since then, Rubenstein has overseen the sale of some of Carlyle's higher-profile companies, like United Defense Industries, and taken on more benign brands, like Baskin-Robbins. So now he's raking in the money without being the focus of international-conspiracy theories. Not a bad place to be.\n\n25. MICHAEL CHERTOFF\n\n 53\n\n Secretary of Homeland Security\n\nChertoff manages the second-largest department in the government, consisting of 205,000 employees cobbled together from twenty-two different agencies. \"It's not a department, it's a Rube Goldberg machine,\" says Leslie Gelb, of the Council on Foreign Relations. \"You can't do a lot, but whatever you can do, he will do.\" And while he's been involved in some high-profile failures\u2014Katrina, the immigration bill, and that \"gut feeling\" business\u2014no one can accuse him of not putting in the effort. Honestly, have you seen him lately He looks\u2026tired. It's nice to know at least someone in Washington is shaving years off his life in the name of public service.\n\n26. SEYMOUR HERSH\n\n 70\n\n Reporter, The New Yorker\n\nDANA PRIEST\n\n 50\n\n Reporter, Washington Post\n\nWhen you see one of these names on top of an article, you know what comes below will wallop. (But if you hear Hersh or Priest on the other end of a phone line\u2014reporting a story on you\u2014you know you're fucked.) Decades into their respective careers, these two remain among the best investigative journalists in Washington, the reporters whose blockbuster stories\u2014from My Lai in the '60s to the exposure of secret CIA prisons two years ago\u2014impact policy with awesome regularity.\n\n27. GROVER NORQUIST\n\n 50\n\n President, Americans for Tax Reform\n\nHis \"Wednesday Meeting,\" which has famously bridged different factions of the conservative movement since the early '90s, still hasn't spawned an effective counterpart on the left. It's curious, until you realize just how talented an organizer Norquist continues to be (even after it became apparent he'd channeled money for his close, convicted friend, Jack Abramoff). \"Wherever the argument about the future of conservatism goes, Grover will be in the middle of it,\" says Ronald Utt of the Heritage Foundation. \"His main interest is to maintain the influence of the right side of the political spectrum under whatever conditions happen to prevail.\"\n\n28. KEVIN MARTIN\n\n 40\n\n Chairman, FCC\n\nThe next few months are big for Martin: There's a proposed $13 billion merger of Sirius and XM satellite radio and an estimated $15 billion auction of some highly coveted wireless bandwidth. When it comes to advancing the administration's pro-business line on such deals, Martin's savvier than his predecessor, Michael Powell. And as a former Bush campaign aide who's married to a Cheney staffer, he also has more stroke with the White House.\n\n29. ALEX CASTELLANOS\n\n 53\n\n Media Consultant\n\nHe was adman for Bush-Cheney '00 and '04, during which he sealed his reputation as one of the keenest, most cutthroat strategists in the business. \"His shop is unmatched in the political arena,\" says Evan Tracey, COO of Campaign Media Analysis Group. That's because he does what other consultants should do but often don't: predict the political future and prepare, not just look at the morning paper and react. Mitt Romney can flip-flop his way through New Hampshire, but as long as he keeps Castellanos in his employ, he'll have a chance.\n\n30. BOB WOODWARD\n\n 64\n\n Assistant Managing Editor, Washington Post\n\nWe're not winning any points for originality here. But: He still sells the books. And: He still has the access. So: Deal with it.\n\n31. DANIEL SNYDER\n\n 42\n\n Owner of the Washington Redskins\n\nSo what if he's turned the beloved Redskins into one of the NFL's most reliable underachievers Since 1999, when he took over the only team that people in D.C. care about, Snyder has boosted the Redskins' value to a reported $1.3 billion, making it the richest franchise in football.\n\n32. JOE LIEBERMAN\n\n 65\n\n Independent Democrat Senator, Connecticut\n\nLieberman seems to relish his \"ideological independence\" in a narrowly divided Senate. But lap it up now, Joe: Your stock will plummet if the Democrats, as expected, widen their majority in the '08 elections.\n\n33. STEVE ELMENDORF\n\n 47\n\n President, Elmendorf Strategies LLC\n\nHe was Dick Gephardt's closest adviser for over a decade, but after his boss's failed 2004 run, Elmo, as he's called, decided to make some money as a lobbyist at Bryan Cave Strategies LLC. When the Democrats won back Congress in November, Elmo struck out on his own. Now, as one K Street watcher says, he's \"probably the lobbyist who has made the biggest moves since the election.\" Since December, Elmo has increased his client base (which includes Microsoft and Ford) from eight to nineteen.\n\n34. ROBERT GIBBS\n\n 36\n\n Senator Obama's Communications Director\n\nPETE ROUSE\n\n 51\n\n Senator Obama's Chief of Staff\n\n\"Whether he wins [in '08] or not, Obama's going to be a powerful force in Washington,\" says Democratic strategist Joe Trippi. So while Obama's campaign workers may find themselves jobless by the end of the primaries, Gibbs and Rouse\u2014whose job it is to make sure Obama retains his golden-boy image and supports the right measures in the Senate while he's out on the trail\u2014will be players on the Hill for years to come.\n\n35. DAVID BRADLEY\n\n 54\n\n Owner of the Atlantic Media Company\n\nD.C.'s not teeming with media titans\u2014no Turners, no Murdochs\u2014because, well, political publications are notorious sinkholes. But Bradley, who owns The Atlantic and National Journal, seems the rare mogul who fixates, sometimes obsessively, on quality. \"When you look at the media landscape,\" says Eric Boehlert of Media Matters, \"he's willing to spend money to create excellent editorial products, and in that way he's seen as a bit of an oasis.\"\n\n36. ED CORRIGAN\n\n 39\n\n Ecutive Director, Senate Republican Committee\n\nThe Capitol Hill types you never hear of but you suspect run the place Corrigan's one of them. There's a coterie of senators (Jim DeMint, Jeff Sessions, and Tom Coburn among them) who scarcely make a move without first tapping into his Rain Man-ish knowledge of Senate rules. Even more, Corrigan's Conservative Working Group is where the resistance strategies to the recent immigration and energy bills were largely hatched.\n\n37. SIMON ROSENBERG\n\n 43\n\n President, New Democrat Network\n\nWhen the GOP took a less-than-cuddly stance on immigration last year, it alienated its Spanish-speaking constituency, a population that Rosenberg\u2014a seasoned Democratic strategist\u2014has spent the past five years working to capture. So how do you secure this new voting bloc By targeting swing states with large Spanish-speaking populations and translating inflammatory Republican ads into espa\u00F1ol. Says Rosenberg, \"We then send the ads as digital files to every single Spanish-language media outlet.\"\n\n38. TOMMY JACOMO\n\n 63\n\n Ecutive Director, The Palm\n\nCongress may have the power of the purse, but only Jacomo can get you a table at the most powerful lunch spot in Washington. In a town ruled by appearances, that kind of authority won't just make you a major player; it'll get you a day named in your honor. (Former mayor Anthony Williams declared November 19, 2002, \"Tommy Jacomo Day.\") That puts him in the company of George Washington and Martin Luther King Jr., but Jacomo isn't so holy that he won't trade some gossip about his famous clientele.\n\nOn James Carville: \"He's like a family member in the restaurant. He'll go from table to table and talk to anyone about anything. I've been to the racetrack with him down in Gulfstream Park, too. He's not a big gambler, though\u2014$10, $20 bets compared to my fifties and hundreds. He always says, 'Whatever horse Tommy bets, I'll take all the other ones.' \"\n\nOn Grover Norquist (#27): \"He always rushes to his booth\u2014table 56\u2014off in the back, on the right-hand side. He takes his watch off and puts it on the table while he's eating. It's a little habit he has. I've never asked him about it.\"\n\nOn Tim Russert (#14): \"There are more guys who eat fish for lunch here than you'd expect. But Tim Russert\u2014he's a steak man.\"\n\n39. SUSAN GLASSER\n\n 38\n\n Assistant Managing Editor for National News, Washington Post\n\n\"She's a particularly innovative editor, adept at presenting journalism in new ways at a time when that's increasingly important,\" says Post ecutive editor Len Downie. And, oh, did the Post ever need her. With the paper slipping in relevancy, she whipped up original series like \"Gurus\" (portraits of presidential campaign staffers) and \"Washington at War\" (about the handling of Iraq), increased breaking-news coverage, and helped make the Web site more competitive. It now has far better online features than the Times.\n\n40. MICHAEL HAUSFELD\n\n 61\n\n Partner, Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld &amp;amp; Toll\n\nNobody in America consistently wins bigger awards for his clients\u2014$176 million for Texaco's black employees, $1.25 billion for Holocaust survivors\u2014or so frequently addresses social injustice in the process.\n\n41. GAMAL HELAL\n\n 53\n\n Senior Arabic Diplomatic Interpreter\n\nHe has been the top Arabic translator for every president, vice president, secretary of state, and national-security adviser since 1991. The signing of the Oslo agreement on the White House lawn Helal was there. The Camp David talks with Barak and Arafat Ditto. And when diplomacy breaks down and tempers flare Helal takes charge: \"It happens about 40 percent of the time,\" he says. \"People get upset, and I have to step in and calm things down.\" In a way that no one else in the White House can be, Helal is the conduit between two very different (and often clashing) worlds.\n\n42. MASON LECKY\n\n 31\n\n Director of Admissions, St. Albans\n\n\"Old Washington thinks St. Albans is their kind of place,\" says Jay Matthews, education columnist for The Washington Post. And until D.C.'s most prestigious all-boys school stops being their kind of place\u2014when people like Tim Russert and Bill Frist stop sending their sons there in the hope they'll follow other alums like Al Gore, Harold Ford Jr., and Gore Vidal on to greatness\u2014Lecky will carry around one ridiculously well-kissed behind.\n\n43. JAMES A. JOHNSON\n\n 63\n\n Vice Chairman, Perseus, LLC\n\nJohnson ran Fannie Mae, led the Brookings Institution, and has been involved in nearly every Democratic presidential campaign since 1972. All this experience means one thing: respect. \"If a Democrat wins '08, he will certainly be on the list as potential secretary of the treasury or White House chief of staff,\" says Democratic political consultant Bob Shrum.\n\n44. ED FEULNER\n\n 66\n\n President, Heritage Foundation\n\nSince taking control in 1977, Feulner has overseen Heritage's growth from a piddly nine-person policy shop into what South Carolina senator Jim DeMint now calls \"the most important organization, to me, in the country.\" Heritage is the powerhouse of right-wing think tanks\u2014and thanks to its Reaganite roots, the one most likely to outlast the Bush era. \"They're into more of a commonsense limited-government conservatism than the big-government conservatism we've experimented with the last few years,\" DeMint says.\n\n45. ISABELLE GOETZ\n\n 36\n\n Hairstylist at Cristophe Salon\n\nQuestion: What is the most hot-button issue in presidential politics Answer: hair. (Also acceptable: terrorism.) When Bubba got a trim at LAX, it was front-page news. When John Edwards was filmed primping in front of a compact mirror, YouTube practically crashed. And every time Hillary and John Kerry pony up for a twirl in Goetz's chair\u2014which has hosted more high-profile politicos than any other\u2014reporters crank out another story. So why risk going Says Washington Times editorial-page chief and Goetz regular Tony Blankley, \"She's remarkably discreet. Which is why she can keep prominent politicians as clients.\"\n\n46. ANDREW SULLIVAN\n\n 44\n\n Blogger, The Atlantic\n\nNo other blogger combines Sullivan's depth of political erudition, passion, and undying love for the Pet Shop Boys. If Pulitzers were given out for blogging, his series of posts on the administration's torture policies would be a shoo-in: Don't miss the entry on the Nazis' use of enhanced \"interrogation techniques.\"\n\n47. SUSAN MCCUE\n\n 41\n\n President and CEO, ONE Campaign\n\nAs Harry Reid's chief of staff, McCue could've been the Hill's most powerful staffer. But then Bono called. The ONE Campaign was going to increase its budget from between $3 million and $5 million in 2006 to over $40 million in '07-'08. The Third World needed saving. Was she available to help Damn right. \"In the nonprofit NGO world,\" says Mike McCurry, Bill Clinton's former press secretary and a ONE Campaign adviser, \"they don't understand the real world of politics.\" Not so with McCue. Since taking over in January, she has used her political acumen and connections to elevate ONE's status in D.C. So if Congress passes AIDS- or poverty-related legislation or if a presidential candidate so much as mentions those issues, you can be sure that McCue was nearby, convincing Washington's most powerful that the world's least need help.\n\n48. TOM TOLES\n\n 55\n\n Political Cartoonist\n\nWhether he's depicting the U.S. Army as a quadruple-amputee soldier or simply drawing Bush with big Bugs Bunny ears, Toles is able to distill complex themes into a single frame like few others can. (Hence, the Pulitzer on his shelf.) \"Whenever people from the newsroom get together, Tom is there\u2014no matter if it's a local subject, a national subject, an international subject,\" says Washington Post ecutive editor Len Downie. \"That's not something you normally expect from an editorial cartoonist.\"\n\n49. NANCY JACOBSON\n\n 44\n\n Democratic Fund-Raiser, Socialite\n\nIn Washington, access is everything, and no one can grease the wheels quite like Nancy Jacobson. She is known for the high-octane cerebral salons at her spectacular home in Georgetown and her ability to wheedle hard cash out of Wall Street Dems (\"Nancy can squeeze money out of a stone,\" says one donor). And then there is the Husband Factor: She's married to Clinton pollster Mark Penn (see #15).\n\n 50. ANDREW KOHUT\n\n 55\n\n President, Pew Research Center\n\nPew polls have the most widely cited stats out there: In the past twelve months, Kohut has shown up in the press 700 times. \"Most polls tend to be superficial,\" says former Clinton adviser Paul Begala, \"but Kohut has a reputation as a guy who asks why.\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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