Speaking of mothers and daughters, everybody's talking about the cover of the March 3 New York magazine, showing a smiling Chelsea Clinton as "The Next Clinton" on the political horizon.

"Described as tall, slim and glamorously coifed, the 28-year-old Chelsea is poised to some day abandon her $200K a year hedge fund gig to move into the family business," notes Kevin McCauley, editor of O'Dwyer's Public Relations News, on odwyerpr.com.

"New York's cover warns readers that Chelsea has 'her mother's discipline' and 'her father's charm.' Chelsea, in fact, 'could be the dynasty's back-up plan.' To that, this blogger says 'God, help us.' Let's pump some air into Hillary's campaign."

Covering his tracks

We always enjoy reading the required explanations from congressmen on why they didn't show up to vote on the House floor, the most important task a lawmaker has on Capitol Hill.

An obviously frustrated Rep. Spencer Bachus, Alabama Republican, went the extra step this week, actually including in his written excuse to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a detailed timeline of what went wrong:

"Madam Speaker, on February 25, 2008, I missed votes because my flight was delayed. Southwest Flight 1357, scheduled to depart BHM [Birmingham] at 1:20 p.m. and arrive at BWI [Baltimore-Washington] at 4:10 p.m., did not depart BHM until 3:15 p.m. and arrived at BWI at 6 p.m."

Closet comic

"Please be seated — unless, of course, you don't have a seat."

— President Bush, addressing the 2008 Republican Governors Association Gala at the National Building Museum