Suffice it to say that presidential hopeful John Kerry (D-Mass.) has made "Iraqgate" the theme of his campaign.

On virtually every stump he's stood on this week, Kerry has complained that President Bush sidestepped the congressionally approved path to war by bypassing the United Nations, by not building an international coalition, and simply by not doing what it was that he had promised to do (actually, one could argue that the senator is wrong on all three counts).

Forget that Kerry voted in favor of the Iraq war resolution. He did so, he now says, with the understanding that Bush would exhaust every remedy first. What was the big hurry, in other words.

But let's revisit Nov. 17, 1997, when nobody else in Washington except this column led with an item headlined, "Finish the mission."

"Debate on whether to take out Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi strongman, is over as far as one Democratic senator is concerned," or so we had written.

"Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts is calling for a 'strong' military attack in response to the Iraqi leader's 'horrific objective of amassing a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.'"

Weapons of mass destruction? That's what Kerry called them.

"As the senator points out, military might is the only language Saddam knows - and fears. 'Saddam Hussein should pay a grave price, in a currency that he understands and values, for his unacceptable behavior,' says Kerry. 'This should not be a strike consisting only of a handful of cruise missiles hitting isolated targets primarily of presumed symbolic value. But how long this military action might continue and how it may escalate ... and how extensive it would reach are for the (White House National) Security Council and our allies to know and for Saddam Hussein to find out!'"

Just as you wished, Senator.

NO MA BARKER

The giant online auction house EBay has banned a satirical T-shirt that links Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to Osama bin Laden.

The 100 percent cotton, preshrunk, fade-resistant "Osama bin Rodham" shirt combines the names and likenesses of Sen. Clinton and al Qaeda leader bin Laden. The shirt designer suggests that the former first lady's "paranoid ramblings" about a vast right-wing conspiracy were "eerily reminiscent of Osama's anti-American ravings."

"The item you have listed does not appear to be consistent with EBay guidelines," reads the July 14, 2003, notice to the St. Louis, Mo., shirt maker. "In accordance with our Offensive Items Policy," the notice continues, EBay may "remove listings of items closely associated with individuals notorious for committing murderous acts."

GOING HOLLYWOOD

A book by a Washington, D.C. think tank scholar is being made into a major Hollywood film.

The lucky analyst is James L. Swanson, senior fellow at the Cato Institute and editor in chief of the annual Cato Supreme Court Review. And no, it's not the conservative makeup of the court that Hollywood is interested in this time.

Instead, Disney, partnering with Walden Media, will turn Swanson's forthcoming nonfiction thriller, "Manhunt: The 12 Day Chase for Lincoln's Killers," into a high-profile motion picture. The book attracted Hollywood's attention after William Morrow, an imprint of Harper Collins, beat out Miramax Books for publishing rights in an intense bidding war.

The story, says Swanson, focuses on "John Wilkes Booth's terrorist conspiracy to topple the government at the close of the Civil War by assassinating Abraham Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, the secretary of state, and General (Ulysses S.) Grant, and on the nationwide pursuit for the hypnotic actor and his strange band of mesmerized followers."

At the Washington-based Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, where Swanson serves on the advisory committee, executive director Michael Bishop said: "This is great news. I hope that much of the film will be made here on location, where many of the Lincoln sites still stand."

COLLEGE INVENTIONS

Uncle Sam won't be fooled much longer by "bogus college degrees" and other "resume padding" under strict new guidelines being implemented by Office of Personnel Management Director Kay Cole James.

OPM, we've learned, will sponsor two seminars next month for federal human resources and personnel security managers to establish the veracity of education achievements cited by prospective employees on their resumes.

Several years ago, OPM alerted federal agencies to the FBI's investigation of "diploma mills" that sell bogus college degrees and other professional credentials.

"It is my goal to ensure that those hired to work for the federal government are of the highest integrity," the director says. "As the federal personnel security community continues to strive to protect homeland security, it becomes increasingly important that serious suitability issues are dealt with promptly and effectively."

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

Our recent item about White House spokesman Taylor Gross popping the question to the Senate Press Gallery's Amy Harkins in the White House Rose Garden caught the eye of Doug Shaddix of King & Spalding in Atlanta.

Shaddix, after all, is the first to document such a happy event with the White House Historical Society.

"In October of 1984, while working at the Republican National Committee, I got engaged in the main foyer, just beneath the chandelier, to my sweetheart - with four beady-eyed Secret Service agents looking on," he recalls.

"The White House Historical Society had no record of anyone getting engaged inside, though I'm certain that some have possibly proposed while going through on the tour," he adds. "I waited until a time when President Reagan would be away in order to be allowed to come in and pop the question."

His future wife, Carol, was personal assistant to Office of Management and Budget Director David Stockman, and he'd arranged with the OMB staff to have her take a document to the director in the Red Room, "where I was to accost my swain en route," says Shaddix. Continued...