Ten years ago, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) voted "no" when Congress passed a security-oath provision requiring members of Congress and administration officials to sign a statement agreeing not to willfully disclose classified information on penalty of censure and expulsion.

Now, as leader of the minority party, Pelosi sees a political opportunity and is "changing her tune on the importance of classified information," says National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds of New York.

Pelosi is calling for an independent counsel - above and beyond Justice Department investigators - to determine who's responsible for revealing that the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson works for the CIA.

Actually, President Bush could save everybody's time - Justice lawyers and any independent counsel - by getting to the bottom of the disclosure himself.

DISEASEWORLD

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta is said to be banking on fears surrounding bioterrorism - anthrax to smallpox - and other emerging diseases like the SARS virus to attract tourists to Atlanta and its $63 million visitors center and interactive "laboratory" set to open in 2005.

MAX A MILLION

On Thursday (Oct. 2), Peter Max unveiled his design for a new poster to raise $1 million for the proposed Pentagon Memorial, honoring those who lost their lives in the September 11 attack on the U.S. military's headquarters. The poster, underwritten by a $25,000 donation from AT&T, goes on sale in mid-November. Apart from the regular limited-edition posters, personalized autographed posters will be sold for $150, and poster overpaints for $8,000 each.

FIESTA KILLJOYS

Tex-Mex restaurants are the latest to be raided by food police from the Ralph Nader-inspired Center for Science in the Public Interest.

So says the Center for Consumer Freedom, which reveals the CSPI is set to issue yet another "predictable diatribe" against foods it thinks Americans shouldn't enjoy.

"After deep-sixing deep-dish pizza and melting all the fun out of ice cream," says Richard Berman, executive director of the CCF, "CSPI is now targeting fast-casual Mexican food."

You mean the bean-and-cheese burritos we gringos grew up on?

"Once again, the killjoys at CSPI have made lemons out of lemonade," he says. "This ridiculous tirade against Mexican dining is a classic reminder that while most of us derive pleasure from food, CSPI exists only to whine about it."

Berman says the ultimate goal of CSPI is to win additional taxes, advertising restrictions and outright bans on foods that most Americans like to eat, from milk and meat to tamales and tacos.

YOU SNEEZE, YOU DIE

We had opportunity to chat Tuesday (Sept. 30) with William "Sid" Taylor, Washington's foremost authority on the economy, national debt, fiscal obligations, financial commitments and unfunded liabilities of the U.S. government.

Now that the Democratic presidential candidates have given thought again to a national health care system, we called on Taylor, who hangs his well-worn hat at the National Taxpayers Union Foundation.

So, Sid, can we trust Uncle Sam to empty our bedpans?

"My first experience with government health care happened back in 1941," recalls Taylor. "As an infantry private at Fort Benning, Ga., I had periodic attacks of hay fever. I often sneezed unexpectedly. This can be a deadly ailment for an infantry private in a recon platoon doing night patrol going through a field loaded with goldenrod and enemy snipers. One sneeze and you're dead.

"Anyhow, the regimental doctor for our 4th Division suggested that on my next trip north I stop at the famed Walter Reed Hospital in Washington and get some allergy shots. This I did. I reported to the Walter Reed Medical Center and after waiting about an hour or more an Army captain nurse came out and ordered me to follow her.

"She took me into a main operating room and told me to take my clothes off and get up on the operating table. All I had on was a sheet," he says. "I thought this was a peculiar process for a simple allergy shot, but I thought that she must know what she was doing. After all, she was a captain. That was a lot of rank in those days.

"As I lay on the operating table, she left the room temporarily and I happened to see on the table next to me a medical file with my name on it. So being curious, I opened the file and looked at it. Then I almost jumped out of my sheet. They had the wrong William Taylor. They had me accidentally scheduled for an appendectomy.

"Realizing the magnitude of this medical malfunction, I jumped completely off the operating table, put on my clothes and headed for the door. The nurse came running back in the room waving a finger at me and threatening court-martial for even looking at my medical file.

"I fled the scene," says Taylor. "The message: Don't have a common name like John Smith or Henry Jones if you go to a government medical center."