Politicians naturally assume they're the center of the universe. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is divorced, said he'd really, really like to get together with movie star/celebrity/singer Jennifer Lopez. "I assume Jennifer Lopez would want to have dinner with me," the mayor said.

Well, nothing came of it. Lopez was and maybe still is engaged to Ben Affleck. So Bloomberg appointed her to a commission to get more Hispanic movies made in New York, and the billionaire finally met the bombshell, as the tabloids said, at City Hall's Blue Room. Bloomberg said, "I finally got my date with Jennifer Lopez. The Blue Room isn't exactly . . . some romantic restaurant, but, you know, heck, Ben's here, and you take what you can get."

Presidential candidate Howard Dean, a medical doctor and former governor of Vermont, was asked how he should be addressed. "I don't care what you label me as long as you call me 'president,' " he said.

With polls putting Dean currently in the lead among the nine Democrats running for president, the White House is said to be ecstatic, thinking Dean is liberal and would be the easiest to beat. President Bush's top political strategist, Karl Rove, was overheard leading a group of Republicans in a cheer, "Come on, everybody. Go, Howard Dean!"

In the where-are-they-now department: One-time GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole, who is also a former senator, said that being married to a senator has its drawbacks. Now that wife, Elizabeth, a 2000 presidential candidate, is in the Senate, he says he's lost 23 pounds. "She used to make me hamburgers. I've been eating salads for four months. I think I need Meals on Wheels."

Vice President Dick Cheney — possibly the biggest backer in the Cabinet of going to war in Iraq and happy now that Saddam Hussein has been captured — told an audience: "Except for the occasional heart attack, I never felt better."

But our salute for the best quote of the year goes to crusty David Obey, the Democratic congressman from Wisconsin and everybody's bugbear because he rides herd on congressional spending. After a fire-and-brimstone speech aimed at wimpy Democrats had people asking if he had any friends left, he said, "I don't care if people don't like me. I don't like me."

In case you are wondering about the lack of Bushisms, not to worry. We'll get to those next week.

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Ann McFeatters is Washington bureau chief of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Toledo Blade. E-mail amcfeatters@nationalpress.com

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Scripps Howard News Service