As for the second model, Mr. Matthews said history tells the new president it's important to act quickly: Mr. Johnson and Mr. Reagan, he noted, wasted little time carrying out mandates during their first months in office.

Concerning the Chicago model, "They are really tough," Mr. Matthews said of Windy City politicians. "The way they deal with Republicans is to ignore that they are there."

OUCH!

"Looking at all of you, I'm reminded of a greeting President Reagan once offered the guests at this gathering. 'On St. Patrick's Day,' he said, 'you should spend time with saints and scholars. So I have two more stops to make.' "

-President Obama, speaking at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's St. Patrick's Day Lunch at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday

UH OH

It was one week ago today that the State Department boasted in this column that the U.S. passport has become "one of the most secure travel documents produced anywhere in the world."

Three days later, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation warned that terrorists can easily obtain a genuine U.S. passport. GAO conducted four tests, and unfortunately was successful in obtaining a U.S. passport in each case.

"In the most egregious case, an undercover GAO investigator obtained a passport using counterfeit documents and the Social Security Number (SSN) of a man who died in 1965," it says. "In another case, the investigator obtained a passport using counterfeit documents and the genuine SSN of a fictitious 5-year-old child ... even though the investigator's counterfeit documents and application indicated he was 53 years old."

The GAO investigator later purchased an airline ticket, used the passport as proof of identity, got a boarding pass, and passed through an airport security checkpoint.