Just this week, on March 13, former President Bill Clinton headlined an Art Deco affair at Cipriani 23rd Street—a big-ticket gathering hosted by power-bundlers Hassan Nemazee, Robert Zimmerman and Steve Robert, among others, that was expected to raise $500,000 for his wife’s campaign. Three days before that, it was Senator Barack Obama’s turn to pass the hat, which he did at two packed, back-to-back fund-raisers at the Grand Hyatt. And a day before that, the night belonged to Senator John McCain, who popped by the Hudson Theater for a folksy-looking “town hall” meeting that just happened to require a $1,000 to $2,300 donation.

There is a dose of irony in this last event, which was pulled together with the help of Mr. McCain’s splashy finance committee (think Henry Kravis and Howard Gittis). Less than five years ago, the Senator was busy co-sponsoring the campaign-finance-reform law that now bears his name, the McCain-Feingold Act. The purpose of the act was to help shrink the role of money in politics.

But at this early point in the competition for each party’s nomination—10 months away from the Iowa caucuses—money is what it’s all about. Candidates like Rudolph Giuliani and Mrs. Clinton are reportedly trying to raise $100 million each for the primary leg of the race—nearly double the amount that the high-rollers raised for the 2004 primaries—while, for the first time, several of the leading candidates have signaled that they’re going to forgo public financing and the limits that come with it, in both the primary and the general elections. Campaign-watchers like Michael Toner, a commissioner at the Federal Election Commission, have predicted that this will be the most expensive race in U.S. history.

To help reel in all this cash, the candidates have engaged in a race-within-a-race for the most successful bundlers, jockeying for the loyalties of the most influential, the most connected or simply the most willing. A few of these traditional suspects are still undecided, holding out for an Al Gore or Newt Gingrich announcement, but an unusually high number have already declared their undying allegiance to one or another candidate—at least for the next year or so.

What follows is a partial, unscientific list of candidates and the fund-raisers who love them, according to conversations with the campaigns, professional fund-raisers and leading donors.

The Democrats

Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton’s bundling operation is a vast, well-greased money machine whose reach extends across the country. At the exclusive center of it all is a dense core of Clinton loyalists who go back as far as her husband’s 1992 Presidential campaign. These are the original Friends of Bill—now Friends of Hill—who have parlayed their commitment and fund-raising prowess into everything from ambassadorships to social status. They are power couples like Steve Rattner and Maureen White, local supermarket magnates like John Catsimatidis, and Democratic Party elders like Bernard Schwartz, who celebrated his 71st birthday in the Clinton White House in 1997. If his candidate gets lucky, he just might get to be back for his 82nd.

John Catsimatidis—chairman and C.E.O. of the Red Apple Group, which includes the Gristedes supermarket chain, and prospective self-funded Republican candidate for Mayor in 2009

Ambassador Robin Chandler Duke—grand dame of the Democratic fund-raising circuit

Betsy and Alan Cohn—old-time Clinton couple and hefty Democratic donors

Michael Del Giudice—Governor Mario Cuomo’s former chief of staff and onetime managing director of Lazard Frères

Blair Effron—former vice chair of UBS Americas, who broke into the fund-raising scene during Al Gore’s 2000 Presidential campaign and later served as one of John Kerry’s top New York financiers

Fred Hochberg—Dean of Milano the New School for Management and Urban Policy and early Clinton coffee-klatcher

Norman Hsu—apparel magnate with a fat Rolodex

Hassan Nemazee—wealthy financier and formidable fund-raiser who was tapped by President Clinton to be the U.S. ambassador to Argentina in 1999

Alan and Susan Patricof—Democratic super-bundlers and close friends of the Clintons

Lisa Perry—wife of hedge-fund heavy Richard Perry and ardent Hillary fan, who has given more than $1 million to the Democrats, according to The New York Times

Steve Rattner and Maureen White—he is a venture capitalist, she was until recently the finance chair of the Democratic National Committee; together, they are considered among the leaders of the Clinton pack

Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff—co-founders of the TriBeCa Film Festival, brought into politics by Craig’s sister, Susan Patricoff

Lady Lynn Forrester de Rothschild—new-technology entrepreneur and third of Sir Evelyn de Rothschild

Bernard Schwartz—aerospace mogul who ranked first on the Mother Jones list of the top 400 campaign contributors in 1997

Stanley Shuman—managing director of Allen & Company and early Clinton donor, who was later appointed to the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board

Ambassador Carl Spielvogel and Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel—he is a business and marketing executive; she is an “author, civic activist, journalist, broadcaster, producer, and preservationist,” according to one bio; together, they have raised tens of thousands of dollars for the Clintons and enjoyed a year-long ambassadorship to the Slovak Republic

Robert Zimmerman—a major Presidential fund-raiser since the first Clinton campaign, D.N.C. committeeman and public relations executive

John Edwards

The rap about John Edward’s fund-raising operation has always been that it runs off the muscle of the trial-lawyer community. This is not altogether false: Mr. Edwards does receive a hefty helping of support from lawyers like Tom Moore and Judith Livingston, prominent plaintiffs’ attorneys who became friendly with the former Senator through the Inner Circle of Advocates, an elite plaintiffs’ lawyers’ club. But there is also a core of misty-eyed believers who have been following Mr. Edwards since his first go-round and have eagerly awaited his second, raising money for his political-action committee in the meantime. These are the same people who successfully lobbied John Kerry to choose Mr. Edwards as his running mate. And while they may not have the collective heft of Mrs. Clinton’s donors, they are loyal, experienced and determined.

Ron Feldman—art dealer and veteran Democratic fund-raiser who was appointed by President Clinton to a position on the National Council for the Arts

Leo Hindery Jr.—former cable-company honcho and fund-raiser and friend of Tom Daschle who briefly flirted with running for D.N.C. chair in late 2004

Fern Hurst—philanthropist and fund-raiser-about-town who has been an Edwards devotee since his first run for President

Bob Katz—Goldman Sachs general counsel and a two-time Edwards backer

Eileen Kotecki—a top professional Democratic fund-raiser

Tom Moore and Judith Livingston—leading plaintiffs’ attorneys and staunch Edwards supporters since his 1998 Senate campaign

Laura Ross—longtime Democratic fund-raiser and former Women’s Leadership Forum chair

Richard Thaler—vice chairman of Deutsche Bank Securities and hefty Democratic fund-raiser

George Wellde—managing director of Goldman Sachs and two-time Edwards stalwart

Barack Obama

When Barack Obama snagged the support of billionaire bundler George Soros just hours after he announced his bid for President, the ladies and gents of the donor-sphere (particularly the Hillary partisans) had to work hard to stifle a collective gasp. Then came the news that Orin Kramer, a well-established supporter of the Clintons, had defected to Mr. Obama’s camp. Now the Senator has begun throwing full-on fund-raisers, and the list of names he’s lined up for his host committees is impressive. There are prominent African-American business leaders and entertainment execs. There are old-time Democrats and young machers-in-training—some of whom were actually graduates of the first Clinton White House. There is even a reformed Bush-campaign “Pioneer”: Chelsea Piers president Tom Bernstein.

Naturally, opponents are waiting for them to stumble on their own hype.

Tom Bernstein—president and co-founder of Chelsea Piers and one of the principal owners of the Texas Rangers with George W. Bush

Michael Froman—a Citigroup executive who befriended Mr. Obama at Harvard Law School and, later, spent seven years in the Clinton administration, including several as Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin’s chief of staff

Anne Fudge—chairman and C.E.O. of Young and Rubicam Brands and the first African-American woman to head a global advertising agency

Earl Graves—publisher of Black Enterprise magazine who spent a cozy night at Camp David during the late Clinton years

Andre Harrell—former Motown Records president and music impresario who helped to launch the careers of Mary J. Blige, Jodeci and boy-band crooners 98 Degrees

Orin Kramer—hedge-fund manager who Bill Clinton appointed to the Commission to Study Capital Budgeting

Jeh Johnson—partner at Paul Weiss who served as general counsel of the Air Force during the Clinton White House years and special counsel to John Kerry’s 2004 Presidential campaign

Tracy Maitland—young asset-management executive who happens to manage Russell Simmons’ fortune

Brian Mathis—managing director of Provident Group and Friend of Obama from the Harvard days who also worked in the Treasury Department during the Clinton administration

Ray McGuire—prominent Citigroup investment banker and fellow Harvard Law School alum

Eric Mindich—Wall Street whiz-kid who became a partner at Goldman Sachs at 27 and has since served as an advisor to John Kerry

Antonio (L.A.) Reid—chairman of Island Def Jam Music Group and one of the country’s most influential African-American record executives

James Rubin—private equity manager (and son of Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin) who served as a New York finance director during Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign

George Soros—billionaire financier who conservatives believe runs the world

Jonathan Soros—son of George

Josh Steiner—managing principal of Steve Rattner’s Quadrangle Group and onetime chief of staff to Clinton Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen

James Torrey—mega-fund manager who was one of Howard Dean’s prominent New York supporters in 2004

Jamie Whitehead—New York finance director for John Kerry’s 2004 campaign

Robert Wolf—chief operating officer of UBS Investment Bank

Chris Dodd

Senator Christopher Dodd is not part of his party’s Big Three Presidential contenders, but pol-watchers would be foolish to underestimate his fund-raising muscle. He’s a likeable guy and he’s well-known, at least in this part of the country. He’s also chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, putting him in a plum position to make big asks of big Wall Street players, many of whom have already proved all too happy to oblige. As of the last campaign-finance filing, he had $5 million in his war chest, placing him second only to Hillary in the money race. Said his old pal Richard Plepler: “He has a lot of friends here, and I am not having a hard time gathering money.”

Ken Brody—investment banker and former Goldman Sachs partner who was nominated by Bill Clinton to be president and chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States

John Eastman—entertainment lawyer and brother of Linda McCartney

Dick Ebersol—NBC Sports czar and member of the Democratic Martha’s Vineyard vacation crew

Tom Flexner (co-chair)—vice chairman of Bear Stearns

Jane Hartley (co-chair)—C.E.O. of the G7 Group, associate director in the Carter White House and Friend of Dodd since the 1970’s

Richard Plepler—executive vice president of HBO who got his start as an aide to Senator Dodd in the early 1980’s

Joe Biden and Bill Richardson

These two candidates have yet to make a big financial splash, but they have proven to be just as assiduous in their pursuit of the big-bucks bundlers as the rest of them. In some cases, they have even succeeded. Don Marron, former chairman of Paine Webber and a registered Republican, hosted a meet-the-candidate reception for his close friend Governor Richardson, while cigar-man Edgar Cullman is said to have opened up his home for Senator Biden.

Mr. Biden:

Richard Davis (finance committee co-chair)—partner at Weil, Gotshal and Manges and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during the Carter administration

Jim Kreindler (finance committee co-chair)—trial lawyer specializing in aviation accident and terrorist litigation, and co-chair of the 9/11 Plaintiffs’ Committee

Scott Lawlor—C.E.O. of Broadway Partners, a bullish real-estate investment fund

Seth (Yossi) Siegel—co-founder and co-chairman of the Beanstalk Group and member of the AIPAC executive committee

Richard Sirota—private consultant and advisor

Mr. Richardson:

Peter Davidson—president of Davidson Media Group, a large radio broadcasting company, and first-time Democratic fund-raiser

Matthew Gohd—managing director of Pali Capital and experienced Democratic donor

Steven T. Mnuchin—chairman and C.E.O. of Dune Capital Management and member of many boards

Dennis Kucinich

Of all the Presidential contenders ferreting around for campaign cash, there is at least one who has not hopped on board New York’s money circuit. Dennis Kucinich, the long-shot pacifist Congressman from Ohio, has made a point of not dealing with bundlers at all. (And as far as anyone can tell, the feeling is mutual.)

“Dennis is not going to be involved with bundlers,” said Sharon Jimenez, a campaign spokeswoman. “Dennis wants to raise $50 million, but he wants to do it through having a million people give him $50.”

So far, during the two months since the Congressman launched his “Be One in a Million” fund-raising campaign, he has collected 1,300 contributions averaging $80 a person, Ms. Jimenez said. That comes to $104,000 or thereabouts. It’s an honest start, but at this rate the White House will have been bought and sold and bought again by the time Mr. Kucinich reaches his goal.

The Republicans

John McCain

Arizona Senator John McCain may be trailing his opponent Rudy Giuliani in national polls, but here, among New York’s Republican money set, he is excelling. On Dec. 19, shortly before Mr. Giuliani held his first New York City fundraiser, the Senator—who was bidding for the mantle of undisputed front-runner before the war in Iraq wreaked havoc on his poll numbers—announced a list of 57 local finance chairs. It was a list that read like Forbes, the Social Register and a G.O.P. cheat sheet all rolled into one. At least a few, like buyout king Henry Kravis, had been actively sought by Mr. Giuliani.

Ed Cox—son in law of Richard Nixon and failed challenger for Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat

Patrick Durkin—managing director of Credit Suisse First Boston and major Bush fund-raiser

Lew Eisenberg (co-chair)—former Republican National Committee finance chair and Bush Ranger

Howard Gittis—longtime consigliore to corporate raider Ron Perelman

Woody Johnson—Johnson & Johnson heir, owner of the New York Jets and Bush Ranger

Henry Kissinger (honorary co-chair)—Nixon consigliore and G.O.P. grandee

Henry Kravis—one of the original masters of the universe

James B. Lee (co-chair)—vice chairman of J.P. Morgan Chase

John Lehman—Secretary of the Navy during the Reagan days

Georgette Mosbacher—cosmetics company queen and walking Republican pocketbook who served as national co-chair of Mr. McCain’s 2000 Presidential campaign

Pete Peterson (honorary co-chair)—Republican Party elder and longtime deficit hawk who served as Secretary of Commerce under Richard Nixon and now heads the Blackstone Group

Theodore Roosevelt IV—great-grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt and a managing director at Lehman Brothers

John Thain (co-chair)—C.E.O. of the New York Stock Exchange

John Whitehead (honorary co-chair)—white-shoe, old-school Republican who served as Deputy Secretary of State under Reagan and chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation

Rudy Giuliani

Call them Rudy Inc. The spine of the former Mayor’s fund-raising operation is made up of the same cadre that surrounded him when he ran New York, and that followed him into the private sector afterwards. But while names like Peter Powers, Michael Hess and Christyne Lategano-Nicholas will be very familiar to anyone who remembers Mr. Giuliani’s time in City Hall, his list of moneyed backers now includes names like Mel Immergut and T. Boone Pickens, the leader of Mr. Giuliani’s new Texas donor base. They are arguably less ideological as a group than the supporters of any of the other Republican candidates: They simply know Rudy, and like him.

But just as your friends remember your deeds, so do your foes—and Mr. Giuliani has his share of New York enemies, even among his G.O.P. brethren.

Kenneth Bialkin—partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, board member of the Republican Jewish Coalition and partial owner of The New York Sun

Bruce Gelb—the retired president of Clairol and former vice chairman of Bristol-Myers Squibb, whose Republican credentials earned him an ambassadorship to Belgium

Michael Hess—Mr. Giuliani’s corporation counsel during his years in office and followed him to Giuliani Partners

Mel Immergut—chairman of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy and a registered independent

Kenneth Langone (finance chair)—co-founder of Home Depot, former director of the New York Stock Exchange and a longtime Rudy-booster

Christyne Lategano-Nicholas—Mr. Giuliani’s former communications director

Peter Powers—Rudy Inc. stalwart who served as his first deputy mayor, campaign manager and transition chair

Paul Singer—reclusive hedge-fund mogul and G.O.P. sugar daddy, who helped bankroll Swift Boat Veterans for Truth

Dennison Young—managing director of Giuliani Partners and Rudy’s chief counsel during his eight years in office

Mitt Romney

For all the hype surrounding his better-known opponents, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is not yet ceding his stake in the country’s Presidential cash box to anyone. Last year, he paid homage to the some of the city’s top conservative Wall Streeters at merchant-banker Mallory Factor’s Monday Meeting. (The appearance reportedly earned him a standing ovation). And just two weeks ago, on Feb. 27, Mr. Romney hosted a finance-committee kickoff breakfast at the Rockefeller Center Hotel that, by one guest’s account, featured of “very blond, very fair” types—as well as a number of boldface-name conservative Jews. “Romney would seem to be very in tune with Greenwich,” the guest said. “I think he’ll attract a lot of Wall Street money, because he’s definitely a fiscal conservative, and he’s an ideas guy. A business guy.”

Rick Lazio—failed U.S. Senate candidate turned J.P. Morgan banker

William Harrison Jr.—chairman of J.P. Morgan Chase

Stephen Lessing—executive committee member at Lehman Brothers and 2004 Bush Ranger

Julian Robertson—philanthropist and founder of Tiger Management, one of the original hedge funds

Phil Rosen—partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges and all-around Republican-Jewish mover and shaker

Stanley Druckenmiller—hedge-fund wizard who made his name managing money for George Soros

Bill Weld—former governor of Massachusetts and co-chair of Mr. Romney’s New York State campaign

The Others

Last Monday, former Tennessee Senator turned TV actor Fred Thompson declared that he might—just might—make a play for the Big Director’s seat, and that he’ll make his decision in the coming months. Just a few weeks earlier, Texas Congressman Ron Paul posted a video on his Web site announcing his intention to shoot for the Oval Office. And not long before that, hard-line California Congressman Duncan Hunter made his own in-it-to-win-it declaration.

Populist Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has declared, as has Senator Sam Brownback. Anti–Iraq War renegade Chuck Hagel, meanwhile, has announced … that he’ll announce his intentions later.

The one thing that can be said of all of them is that they have no visible fund-raising apparatus in New York.

Maybe these candidates are just operating below the radar, on double-super-secret background. Or maybe they think New York—City of Lights, City of Mammon—is just too blue.

It’s an odd setting for him. The hotel’s lobby is decorated in the style of a Texan hunting lodge, with wooden beams, taxidermy and elk paintings. Guests have spotted armadillos, rabbits and raccoons on the woodsy grounds. A suite at the hotel long served as the first President Bush’s official residence (for tax and voting purposes).

But these days, Mr. Giuliani has been getting comfortable with Lone Star heavies like Thomas Hicks, the billionaire owner of the Texas Rangers; Philip Burguieres, an executive with the Houston Texans football team; and Roy Bailey, the former finance chairman of the Texas Republican Party. These and many others will all be there to cheer Mr. Giuliani on for his presumptive Presidential bid Thursday night.

And part of the bargain: The next day, Mr. Giuliani, Esq., will pad down the hall to join up to 175 lawyers for the annual partners’ meeting of Bracewell & Giuliani, the Houston-based law firm where he serves as senior partner.

“His name recognition is off the charts,” said Jim Lee, a private investor who is co-hosting the cocktail reception.

In the mad scramble among Republican Presidential candidates to secure the financial support of the Bush bundlers, at a minimum, Mr. Giuliani’s firm serves as a foothold for him in Texas.

“Is it good for him in Houston, Tex., for one of the most prominent law firms to have his name associated with it? Absolutely,” said Allen Blakemore, a Houston-based Republican political consultant who isn’t working for any of the Presidential candidates. “Does it give him contacts and entrees into business in Houston and in Texas that he did not have here before? Yes, absolutely.”

Rudy, Esquire

It’s been almost two years since Rudolph Giuliani forged a partnership with the law firm Bracewell & Patterson. In the spring of 2005, the firm, a Texas-centered regional player known for its oil, energy and banking clients, announced that Mr. Giuliani would not only be joining the firm, but renaming it.

Immediately, a flurry of speculation followed about the benefits that would accrue to Mr. Giuliani’s embryonic political campaign. The firm would give Mr. Giuliani access to the Republican heartland, and its managing partner, Patrick Oxford, has fund-raising chops and deep Bush connections that could serve Mr. Giuliani’s political ambitions.

“I think people saw that as Pat making a very smart strategic move,” said one Texas fund-raiser. “It was two things: good for the firm and Pat, and good for Giuliani.”

But as Mr. Giuliani faces criticism for waffling about a possible Presidential run, the Thursday evening fund-raiser in Houston may be a test of whether Texas money will be a significant factor in his campaign. That puts a lot of pressure on Mr. Oxford, an über-connected Bush pioneer, whom Mr. Giuliani has since appointed chairman of his exploratory committee.

“The firm worked on this a long time with Rudy, and of course we talked with him about his plans about running for President,” said Mr. Oxford in an interview. “The issue of our political clout or lack thereof … it had not a damn thing to do with it.

“I’m not trying to pull the old ‘aw, shucks,’ country-boy thing, but the reality is, Texas is a very big state—and the thought that our law firm could so clearly deliver the state that Rudy wanted? No. 1, that’s not the way Rudy’s mind works, and secondly, it doesn’t really add up, when you kind of think it through.

“If Rudy wanted this firm to deliver Texas, he made a big mistake,” Mr. Oxford said with a deep laugh.

How modest is Mr. Oxford being? One test will be Mr. Oxford’s sway with his close friends, platinum Republican donors Nancy and Rich Kinder. Mr. Kinder, a former Enron executive, now runs the major gas pipeline company Kinder Morgan, a longtime client of Bracewell. But while the couple has given the maximum amount to Mr. Giuliani’s exploratory effort, according to the documents leaked to the Daily News, the campaign had hoped that Ms. Kinder would take a leadership role, something Mr. Lee still hopes will happen. (Mr. Oxford says he hasn’t asked.)

Another major bundler targeted in those documents, Fred Zeidman, a lobbyist for Greenberg Traurig, is the former C.E.O. and chairman of the board of Seitel Inc., a seismic-data company that has also given the firm business. While Mr. Zeidman donated to Mr. Giuliani’s political-action committee, the McCain camp is due to announce his official role in the coming days.

So far, of the state’s most powerful players, Mr. Hicks and oil baron T. Boone Pickens are Mr. Giuliani’s biggest gets.

“He’s chipping away at core Bush supporters from Texas,” said Craig McDonald, the executive director of Texans for Public Justice, a group that tracks money in politics. “Tom Hicks is a big player. Boone Pickens is a money mover. Those are good apples to put in your basket.”

But for Mr. Pickens and Mr. Hicks, Senator John McCain has plenty of answers: Austin lobbyist and Bush ranger Tom Loeffler, Dallas banker James Huffines, and Houston energy mogul and Bush 41 cabinet member Bob Mosbacher Sr., among others. And former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has the support of Houston energy investment banker L.E. Simmons.

On a lower profile, the Giuliani campaign has added 24 bundlers who have agreed to raise at least $100,000 and possibly more than $1 million, including Mr. Burguieres, lawyer Kent Adams, Sugar Land mayor David Wallace and investment banker Titus Harris III.

Others who have shelled out for the $2,300 full cover price include billionaire energy tycoon Dan Duncan; John Blocker, whose family founded drilling company Pride International (a client of the firm); and a range of lawyers and corporate executives. Over 200 attendees are expected for the event, which Mr. Lee said would feature “light hors d’oeuvres and a minimal bar setup.”

“The Mayor and the campaign is very frugal with his contribution dollars,” he said proudly.

“Everybody’s paying to show up and take a harder look,” said one well-known Republican fund-raiser working for a Giuliani competitor. “Everything is wide open in Texas.”

Then there are the dozens of Bush Rangers and Pioneers whose loyalties have not yet been ascertained, but whose wallets and Rolodexes are being eyed, including Lee Bass of Fort Worth (his brother and sister-in-law are hosting a Giuliani event in March) and Dallas oil-and-gasman Louis Beecherl Jr.

Mr. Giuliani has been affiliated with several law firms in the past. In the late 1970’s, after serving as an associate deputy attorney general in the Justice Department, he followed mentor Harold Tyler to the old-line law firm of Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler. He spent about four years there, until he returned to Washington to serve in the Reagan Justice Department. As U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, he made few friends in the white-collar bar when he started staging flashy, Law & Order–style perp walks for their affluent clients.

When he left, several law firms vied for his services, but more were turned off by the idea of their firm as a political launching pad, and Mr. Giuliani’s insistence that an aide also join as a full partner. When it was reported that White & Case was paying the pair about $1 million together for a year, Steve Brill savaged the establishment firm in The American Lawyer for lavishing such salaries on “two strangers who basically intend to use the place as a meal ticket and a mail drop.” When he ran for Mayor, political opponents called on Mr. Giuliani to account for the firm’s client list—which included the government of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega—and commitment to diversity and public service. As David Margolick wrote in The New York Times: “As far as White & Case’s public image is concerned, Mr. Giuliani has produced far more hail than rain.”

After losing that first bid to David Dinkins, Mr. Giuliani and his aide moved on to the firm now known as Anderson, Kill & Olick. But as Mr. Margolick also reported in The New York Times, Mr. Giuliani’s lawyerly productivity hit a standstill when his second Mayoral bid heated up.

“Projected to bill 1,900 hours in 1992, he billed less than 178.”

While there’s probably no Manuel Noriega on the Bracewell & Giuliani client list, the affiliation could come to have its own political baggage: While there over the summer, Mr. Giuliani drew attention for his position that the United States should build more nuclear-power plants to meet its energy demands.

Bracewell has represented many of the biggest names in big oil, refinery, natural-gas and power production, including ChevronTexaco, Reliant Energy and Dynegy. In addition to its four Texas branches, the firm has offices in oil-rich Almaty, Kazakhstan and London.

And in Washington, D.C., an arm of the firm lobbies on behalf of energy clients. That has made it a favored refuge of Bush administration environmental officials, including Lisa Jaeger, former acting general counsel and deputy general counsel of the Environmental Protection Agency, and Jeffrey Holmstead, the air-quality official that environmentalists blame for scuttling the effort to limit mercury polluting by utility companies.

Of course, Mr. Giuliani will be lucky if he gets to a stage where any of this matters.

“The places where energy is a negative are not places where Republican primary voters are,” said Mr. Blakemore, the political consultant. “Giuliani has a Republican primary that he’s facing, not a general election.”

The Rainmaker Came to Texas

A report in Newsday last year said that Mr. Giuliani and his consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, received $10 million for joining Bracewell & Giuliani, netting between $1 and $1.5 million for Mr. Giuliani.

By some measures, it seemed like a puzzling move. Mr. Giuliani was a litigator, so it was a stretch to imagine him building the corporate practice that the firm wanted to create in New York, and he wasn’t particularly known for his ties to Wall Street. Bracewell, meanwhile, was only Houston’s fifth-largest firm, more of a regional player whose profits per partner ($595,000 that year) would appear to present hurdles in recruiting talent from New York’s top firms.

Mr. Oxford said that in adding Mr. Giuliani, the firm hoped to build on his connections and name to raise the firm’s profile, and that the success has exceeded his expectations. Peter Zeughauser, a Newport Beach, Calif.–based legal consultant, agreed that by at least one measure, the effort had paid off: What was largely a medium-profile regional firm is now “much higher-profile …. Everybody knows their name,” he said.

When asked how often Mr. Giuliani was in the office, several partners noted his busy travel schedule.

But the firm heavily touted his involvement in compliance review on behalf of Banco Santander, Spain’s largest bank.

Mr. Oxford conceded that while he only expected Mr. Giuliani to be helpful “on certain high-profile legal work,” his greatest contributions were expected to be, and have been, in recruiting and bringing in business.

But given the confidential nature of the firm’s work, Mr. Oxford and other Bracewell partners struggled to name specific representations that Mr. Giuliani has brought in.

The firm’s most heavily publicized New York representations—for Banco Santander, and an internal investigation for Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Services that featured in a page-one story in The Wall Street Journal—did not originate with Mr. Giuliani.

Partners at the firm insisted that Mr. Giuliani had made introductions that they wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. The head of the firm’s New York corporate practice, Mark Palmer, for one, said he could count two clients—whose names he couldn’t reveal—that the firm had nabbed thanks to Mr. Giuliani’s introductions.

“The way our deal with Rudy would work is that he provides the introductions, and the call may come to the lawyer because of that,” Mr. Oxford said. “People know that Rudy’s not going to necessarily do the work, so they might just be prepared to call the people in his firm knowing that because they’re friends of Rudy, they’ll get a good job done for them.”

Mr. Palmer said Mr. Giuliani was extremely helpful in the way of business development, sitting for meetings with his top six or eight clients. He spent the time “talking about the firm, talking about himself,” he said.

When the new firm was announced, Mr. Oxford said he expected the New York office to grow to 100 lawyers. A report in The New York Times said they were beginning with 20 lawyers. They now number 37, and the firm is expanding to a second floor at their Sixth Avenue offices.

Initially, the partners who came on with the firm had personal Giuliani connections, but in the past year, the firm has succeeded in luring several partners from the New York branches of other successful out-of-town firms, like McDermott, Will & Emery and Winston & Strawn.

“I attribute a huge degree of the success of our New York office generally to him, and there are a lot of clients involved with that. You get momentum going,” said Mr. Oxford. He said the office lost $3 million less than the firm expected it would last year, and this year will turn a profit.

“It’s exciting. People want to be associated with it just because it’s interesting, and it could be historic over the next couple of years, depending on what happens,” said Mr. Palmer, who left the top-flight British firm Linklaters for Bracewell last year. “It’s supporting, you know, a good cause. You want to work with people who are doing things that are exciting to you.”

I agree with Steve Kornacki 100 percent [“Note to Obama Skeptics: This Is Not a Fad,” Wise Guys, Jan. 22].

What concerns me about Barack Obama is that he won an election as Illinois Senator in what was basically an uncontested campaign. Does he have the toughness and chops to endure the breathtaking political ferocity of the Republicans?

I also believe the “Obama lacks experience” rhetoric thrown around by some Republicans and Democrats masks subtle bigotry. Look at where “experience” has currently gotten us.

I will vote for whoever is the Democratic nominee for President. I’m hoping that the nominee will not be Hillary Clinton. I adore both Clintons; this country is better for their public service, and I thank them for it. Now it’s time to get off the stage.

When I contemplate the last 14 years or so of Bush, Clinton, Bush and now another Clinton, I’m struck by how tiresome and 20th-century it all seems. In short, I’ve got Bush-Clinton fatigue.

Mercedes Swimmer

Keshena, Wis.

To the Editor:

I would have to disagree with the Obama-Reagan analogy. Governing a powerhouse like the state of California for eight years gave Reagan—like him or not—credibility. Two years as a Senator doesn’t even come close. Is Obama a fad? Too soon to tell. In any case, I won’t hold my breath waiting for the mainstream media to bring up the issue of whether Obama has sufficient gravitas.

Brad Lena

Asheville, N.C.

To the Editor:

Does Mr. Kornacki remember when George W. Bush was running in 2000, and how all the mainstream liberal media pounded him for being a lightweight? He had to bring in Mr. Cheney for some “gravitas.” At the time, Mr. Bush had a bachelor’s degree from Yale, a master’s degree from Harvard, had successfully invested in the Texas Rangers and persuaded the voters to back his idea for a new stadium, and then ran for and twice won the office of governor of Texas. None of these are small feats. But remember: He had no gravitas? That is, according to our so-much-smarter-than-the-average-citizen mainstream media. Barack Obama hasn’t got much experience, and he certainly hasn’t accomplished the feats that George Bush had before being elected President.

But Barack Obama is a minority Democrat, and that’s what matters to the lefty mainstream media. It’s just like the way the mainstream media hyped Cindy Sheehan and tried make a national hero-figure out of her. She was really bashing hard on the President, you see, which made her a hero to the mainstream media.

When will the arrogance of the mainstream media end? Such hypocrisy is disgusting, un-American and dangerous!

Mitzi Twaro

Fayetteville, Ark.

After all, everyone paying close attention to Presidential politics knows about his liberal stance on social issues, his two divorces, his marriage to a former mistress and his nettlesome relationship with Bernard Kerik, a scandal-laden former aide.

But list them is exactly what Mr. Giuliani’s nascent campaign did, complete with bullet points, in a 140-page binder of printed pages, handwritten notes and spreadsheets that outlined in detail his Presidential bid’s secret fund-raising and campaign plans.

That document, published this week after being given to the Daily News by “a source sympathetic to one of Mr. Giuliani’s rivals,” says that the myriad challenges facing Mr. Giuliani amount to potentially “insurmountable” vulnerabilities that could eventually force him to “drop out of (the) race.”

Not surprisingly, the Giuliani dossier has become Topic A of conversation among the G.O.P.’s major operatives and fund-raisers, complicating Mr. Giuliani’s now very public plan to raise at least $100 million in 2007 and $25 million in the next three months. The binder, which the Daily News speculated had been put together by Mr. Giuliani’s fund-raiser Anne Dickerson, targeted as its “prospective leadership” several major Republican donors who have already signed up with Arizona Senator John McCain.

“This is not a good day for His Honor,” said Mark Corallo, a Republican strategist and former spokesman for Karl Rove who is not currently affiliated with any of the prospective ’08 candidates. “You never want to lose control of your information—and unfortunately for them, they lost control of their information.”

The fallout from the Daily News story, which ran under the headline “Rudy Loses Prez Plans,” immediately rippled through Mr. Giuliani’s camp and the field of likely Republican candidates.

(Coincidentally, the reporter who broke the story for the News, Ben Smith, announced on Tuesday that he was leaving to join the staff of The Politico, a new, Washington-based publication that will be focusing with laser-like intensity on the 2008 Presidential campaign.)

On Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Giuliani’s spokeswoman, Sunny Mindel, released a statement asserting that the document was stolen from a staffer’s luggage as Mr. Giuliani campaigned around the country before the midterm elections.

“Because our staffer had custody of this document at all times except for this one occasion, it is clear that the document was removed from the luggage and photocopied,” said Ms. Mindel. “Voters are sick and tired of dirty tricks.”

Barron Thomas, a former Bush fund-raising “Pioneer” who is committed to Mr. Giuliani, took that theory a step further, implying that the dossier was stolen by the camps of Mr. McCain or another potential rival, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

“This is a horserace with three thoroughbreds coming down the finish line,” Mr. Thomas said. “I think it was pilfered and it was leaked intentionally, and whoever really was behind it—if it ever comes out, it will be really damaging for them.”

Some of Mr. McCain’s supporters openly doubted that explanation.

“My guess is that a staffer got tired and sloppy, and that happens,” said Jim Nicholson, a Bush “Ranger” in 2004 who was courted by Mr. Giuliani before signing up with Mr. McCain. “If I lost it, I sure as hell wouldn’t want to admit it. I can’t see any other campaign stalking and stealing a notebook. I think they should just say it got lost and move on.”

And despite the Giuliani camp’s indignation, Mr. McCain’s campaign couldn’t resist some mild gloating.

John Weaver, a chief political strategist to Mr. McCain, said that the emergence of the document proved the political wisdom of the adage “Don’t put pen to paper” and, referring to Giuliani Partners, the former Mayor’s consulting company, he added, “I thought it was a security company.”

(According to the Daily News, the Giuliani document also listed Mr. Giuliani’s private-sector business as a potential vulnerability.)

Mr. Weaver called the Giuliani camp’s accusations of theft “ridiculous” and said, “If I were them, I would search in the grassy knoll.”

And Mr. Weaver said that none of the in-house analysis offered in the document was startling to political observers, in and of itself.

“There is nothing in there that is particularly surprising to me other than the nature by which it became public,” said Mr. Weaver.

On that score, at least, some of Mr. Giuliani’s key supporters agreed.

“Everything I have heard is stuff I have been hearing for months and reading for months,” said Barry Wynn, the former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party who was finance chair of President George W. Bush’s re-election campaign. “These are incredibly rehashed stories. The fact that the Mayor’s divorced is not going to be a scoop to anybody.”

Still, added Mr. Wynn, who has been one of the most outspoken backers of Mr. Giuliani’s potential candidacy for President, “I am not sure why you would write that down.”

Mr. Romney’s campaign office didn’t return calls for comment.

It is the friendly-fire nature of the document that may prove most damaging to Mr. Giuliani. That the former Mayor’s own fund-raisers and aides compiled the list of Mr. Giuliani’s political and personal flaws gives the persistent conventional wisdom about his weaknesses a stamp of authenticity. The mere mention of Mr. Giuliani potentially dropping out of the race only reinforces what more than one major fund-raiser said is a real concern: that Mr. Giuliani isn’t completely committed to running and that he is in part exploring a bid to further his business interests.

Several Republicans strategists said that the loss of such a sensitive document could scare off prospective donors and staffers in the thick of the recruiting phase of the race, because it raises doubts about the sophistication of his political operation. In one section, the dossier urges Mr. Giuliani to pursue major G.O.P. fund-raisers who have since signed up with Mr. McCain, such as New York financier Henry Kravis and Larry Bathgate.

In a phone interview, Mr. Bathgate indicated that the relative stability of the McCain bid was a factor in his ultimate decision.

“I have positive feelings about my friendship with people like Rudy Giuliani, but if you are going to be involved in the game, you have to make a decision,” said Mr. Bathgate. “And I have made a decision to go with John McCain.”

While Mr. Giuliani does enjoy the support of such major donors as T. Boone Pickens, a Texas oil baron, and Thomas Hicks, an owner of the Texas Rangers, some fund-raising veterans think that names printed in the dossier could provoke dissent in the ranks.

“It makes people that have come on board ask if they are part of a second-tier team,” said one major fund-raiser to Mr. McCain.

“It doesn’t get much uglier than this memo,” added an unaffiliated Republican operative. “It is an unmitigated disaster.”

Mr. Giuliani’s supporters, for now, are putting the best face on the situation.

“Anybody involved at this point with the Mayor is not going to be affected by something like this,” said Mr. Wynn. “You are going to have a lot of bad days, and the real test of a campaign is to be able to suck it up and go through the gantlet.”

“I think McCain is the front-runner, and so any day that his opponents have glitches maybe widens that lead a bit,” said Mr. Wynn. “But I just don’t think that this is an issue that is going to be around a week from now or two weeks from now.”

Naturally, some of Mr. McCain’s financial supporters have a different take.

“It shows that, potentially, he does not have a first-class team,” said Georgette Mosbacher, a major Republican fund-raiser who has signed up with Mr. McCain. “You are running for President; you don’t leave things like that around. That doesn’t happen.”

Another prominent McCain supporter, Fred Malek, who ran the elder Bush’s Presidential campaign in 1992 and was a partner of the current President in owning the Texas Rangers, said, “It is clearly an embarrassment and somewhat of a setback, but there is probably very little in their evaluation that experienced observers haven’t already thought about.”

He added, “It does underline that the best and the brightest and the most experienced in the political field are making a choice and already enlisted with John McCain.”

They both have a direct personal style. They both advocate a muscular foreign policy. And now, they’re both in competition for George W. Bush’s vast network of political donors.

As the midterm elections have left the field without a clear champion of the party’s conservative wing, the two erstwhile allies are left in a class by themselves as they court the same small but powerful constituency of fund-raisers that fueled the last three successful Republican Presidential campaigns. The rivalry marks a new, openly hostile stage in the nascent Presidential race, with Mr. Bush’s top bundlers, the “Pioneers” and “Rangers” of 2000 and 2004, picking sides and launching essentially the first attacks of the campaigns.

“Bush in 2000 created an aura of inevitability early,” said Patrick Oxford, a major fund-raiser for President Bush and Mr. Giuliani’s colleague at the Texas-based law firm Bracewell & Giuliani. “After all this time and effort, after this army of givers they say they have, McCain has damn sure not created that aura of inevitability.”

Contrast that with the following from McCain supporter Fred Malek, who ran the elder Bush’s Presidential campaign in 1992 and was a partner of the current President in owning the Texas Rangers:

“Rudy Giuliani has been a very successful mayor of our largest city. John McCain has not only served heroically in the military, but he has been a pivotal force of national security for a dozen years.”

Mr. Malek, the chairman of Thayer Capital Partners in Washington, said that Mr. McCain was poised to round up the majority of the Bush fund-raising machine.

“He has a number of others who are waiting in the wings and want to come on board,” he said.

One thing is certain: The fight has been joined.

This week, Mr. Giuliani, 62, took another step towards a Presidential run by filing papers to establish a Presidential exploratory committee with the Federal Election Commission, ABC News reported. That development came just days after Mr. Giuliani made a show of rolling out the support of major Bush donors T. Boone Pickens, a Texas oil baron, and Thomas Hicks, an owner of the Texas Rangers, at a donor luncheon of sea bass and hamburgers at the “21” Club. According to Barry Wynn, the former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party and the finance chair of Mr. Bush’s re-election campaign, the Giuliani team had made it clear at the luncheon that more big donors were on the way.

“Let’s put it this way,” Mr. Wynn said: “A lot of them had played a role in the last Bush campaign—which, as you are aware, was very successful—and 2000. I mean Pioneers and Buccaneers and Rangers and all that stuff.”

For all the boasting about bringing on board the Texas oilmen, big-city financiers and Midwestern C.E.O.’s who comprised Mr. Bush’s fund-raising juggernaut, neither Mr. McCain nor Mr. Giuliani can expect to inherit the Bush network intact. Instead, it will require extensive lobbying by each of them on a person-to-person basis until a critical mass of bundlers, donors and sought-after operatives has been reached.

“It was very different with Bush, and they are making a real mistake if they think that this support is all going to come in a wave,” said Georgette Mosbacher, a longtime contributor to Republican candidates who knows many of the major Bush donors. “I don’t think either have them yet. They are going to need some stroking.”

While Mr. McCain and Mr. Giuliani are by no means the only candidates in the Republican field, they have certainly become reference points for the other aspiring nominees.

Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has made an effort to distinguish himself from Mr. McCain and Mr. Giuliani by presenting himself as the only true conservative in the race, stressing issues like gay rights, immigration and the interrogation of detainees arrested on suspicion of terrorism. “I’m a conservative Republican, there’s no question about that,” Mr. Romney told the Washington Examiner this week. “I’m at a different place than the other two.”

Mr. Romney, who has enlisted several major Bush donors of his own, added that only he and Mr. McCain “have spent some time building a fund-raising network and a ground team, if you will, to run a national campaign … over the last year or two.

“Mayor Giuliani has not done that yet,” he added. “But his celebrity status would presumably allow him to do that on a fast track.”

(Mr. Giuliani’s previously established political-action committee, Solutions America, brought in more than $2 million in the last year.)

Arkansas’ Mike Huckabee and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich are also looking to enter the race, and will surely make a bid for the same Bush donors.

But for now, Mr. McCain and Mr. Giuliani are the ones who have filed papers to create Presidential exploratory committees. And they are the ones who have done the most extensive auditioning around the country before Mr. Bush’s top fund-raisers.

In May, Jim Nicholson—a Bush Ranger in 2004—met with Mr. Giuliani before a paid speaking engagement in Des Moines, Iowa. Then, about three months ago, Mr. Nicholson arranged for Mr. McCain to meet with “the forum,” a group of roughly 20 other veteran fund-raisers, in Meadow Brook Hall, a historic house-museum near Detroit. He went with Mr. McCain.

“Politics is the art of the possible,” said Mr. Nicholson, the chief executive of PVS Chemicals Inc. and now Mr. McCain’s finance chair in Michigan. “He is the only Republican who can win in 2008.” (His fellow “forum” member, Dave Brandon, the chief executive of Domino’s Pizza, apparently disagreed and is supporting Mr. Romney.)

John Weaver, a senior political strategist for Mr. McCain, suggested that Mr. Giuliani’s recent rollout of supporters was still no match for the organization that his boss had assembled over a longer period of time. Mr. McCain, after all, has been unambiguously laying the groundwork for a possible run since well before the midterm elections—more like 18 months, by the estimate of his aides—and has raised more than $7 million for his political-action committee, Straight Talk America, since its inception in August 2005.

“We wouldn’t trade places with anybody; I think that everybody would trade places with us,” said Mr. Weaver, adding, for good measure, that “the Republican Party is going to be looking for somebody who can win and somebody who has consistently supported the core principles of the party. And that fits a McCain profile.”

Mr. McCain himself prodded Mr. Giuliani on Sunday, when he was asked to distinguish himself from Mr. Giuliani on the ABC news program This Week. He said that he was a “conservative Republican” with “knowledge on national-security and defense issues.”

But between the candidates, things are still mostly circumspect. Neither has formally declared his candidacy for President. And neither, understandably, wishes to be the first to be seen directly attacking a colleague who happens to be a national icon of patriotism.

For now, the frankest comparisons about the candidates’ feasibility are being made by the donors. Mr. Giuliani’s contributors, in particular, seem eager to dispense with the niceties.

Mel M. Immergut, chairman of the New York law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, who attended Wednesday’s luncheon, took a swipe at Mr. McCain’s age. (He is 70.)

“I’m sort of myself stopped by the concern I have over someone in today’s day and age taking this job on at age 72,” he said. “I’m not in favor of a one-term President.”

And Mr. Oxford, who was also at the meeting, painted Mr. McCain as a Washington insider desperate to disassociate himself from the Beltway corruption that Mr. Giuliani argues is the most important campaign issue. Responding to a McCain staffer’s suggestion that the Arizona Senator enjoys the support of 60 or 70 percent of Mr. Bush’s top fund-raisers, Mr. Oxford added: “If McCain had all the top fund-raisers in the United States, we would see lists of them right now.”

William Simon Jr., a California millionaire who unsuccessfully ran for governor and was also among the 30 Giuliani supporters at Wednesday’s meeting, also called Mr. McCain’s claims to have a broad network of Bush fund-raisers an exaggeration.

Mr. Simon said that he has already made calls on behalf of Mr. Giuliani in California, and that “very few people have said, ‘I’m supporting McCain.’”

Mark Corallo, a Republican political consultant and former spokesman for Karl Rove, said the bickering between the donors was a natural progression in a high-stakes race.

“This is about grasping the brass ring,” said Mr. Corallo, who added that the increasing hostility between the donors of Mr. McCain and Mr. Giuliani was “about the battle for the nomination, and anything goes. It’s business, it’s not personal: ‘We still love ya, but I’ve got to whack ya. So don’t take it personal.’ It’s Mafia-esque.”

On Nov. 15 at 11:30 a.m., Mr. Giuliani’s donors and staffers sat around a rectangle table at the “21” Club and faced a speakerphone that twanged with the voice of Mr. Pickens, who supplied $3 million to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign against John Kerry. The participation of Mr. Pickens and Mr. Hicks clearly excited many at the meeting.

“If they didn’t think Rudy could win, they wouldn’t be messing with him,” said Mr. Oxford. “They have a highly pragmatic approach to contributing their time and their money.”

He had intimated as much. And it was his right-hand man at Ground Zero, Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff, who stood up for the Freedom Center during a critical meeting of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation last month. Or rather, he defended the “process” that led to its selection as the museum component of the Ground Zero master plan.

Then the Mayor, in a press conference on Sept. 27, was asked whether he supported it. His answer was typically rotund.

“I think at this time it is clearly problematic,” he said. He added that there were “some things that you might want to put elsewhere” and not on the site. (Like the Freedom Center?) And finally: “It’s up to the LMDC in the end, but I would urge them, and I’m certainly urging my members on the LMDC, to read that report carefully and then discuss it and see if we can’t come to some resolution. If you can’t, then you just can’t do it.”

In withholding his support, Mr. Bloomberg seemed one step closer to joining Governor George Pataki in committing the project to the growing Ground Zero purgatory, if not coming out against it like Senator Hillary Clinton, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Republican Congressman Peter King.

“I am troubled by the serious concerns that family members and first-responders have expressed to me,” Mrs. Clinton said.

Mr. Giuliani was blunt: “They should change the whole concept and scrap those plans and start from the beginning and focus it on Sept. 11.”

This week, Messrs. Bernstein and Kunhardt will personally make their pitch to different community groups, while the LMDC, that esteemed deliberative body, is collecting comments on its Web Site concerning the project. As early as its Oct. 6 meeting, the LMDC could save or sink the Freedom Center.

Enterprise Lost?

Just what the relationship between Sept. 11 and the Freedom Center ought to be has become a sticky wicket. And it seems more and more likely that if Mr. Bernstein and his partner’s team cannot explain that relationship adequately, they will lose the site.

“We’re a piece of the puzzle. We always thought the 9/11 story had to be told, but we wanted it to be woven into a wider experience,” Mr. Bernstein said.

The LMDC, when it issued its call for applicants to compete for one of the Ground Zero spaces, specifically asked for a museum that would deal with “tolerance, diversity, and understanding among nations.” Mr. Bernstein’s center fit the bill, but as he and the LMDC revised the plan, he actually removed much of the Sept. 11 content so as not to repeat what would go in the separate museum devoted to the attack, now planned for below ground.

But Mr. Bernstein denied that he reintroduced the Sept. 11 elements to respond to critics who saw the Freedom Center as a distraction.

“Originally, the idea was 9/11, the city, the country, the world,” he explained. “What we always hoped was to draw on history to tell the bigger story of freedom, and this is one way to do it.”

The Freedom Center’s critics, he said, are being shortsighted about what the city will need at the site of the attack to make it personally relevant for future generations. “All programming decisions should not be ‘How do you hold up a year from now?’, but rather ‘How do you hold up 25 or 50 years from now?’” he said.

Mr. Bernstein is one of those serial entrepreneurs for whom setbacks are their daily bread. He and his business partner, Roland Betts, have bought the Texas Rangers, financed movies, and established the Chelsea Piers sports and entertainment complex. Asked by Crain’s New York Business once to sum up their business philosophy, they said, “Perseverance and a mastery of facts can still make impossible things happen.”

But along with perseverance and facts—published on Sept. 22 in a 47-page report available on the Web sites of the Freedom Center and the LMDC—Mr. Bernstein and his team have been investing time and energy into building a constituency to support the project, clearly conscious that when it comes to such a sensitive and emotional subject as Ground Zero, public relations is most of the battle.

Mr. Bernstein was on vacation in France, oblivious to the danger his project was in, when the LMDC took it up at a meeting last month. Richard J. Tofel, the center’s president, was in his office—just 14 floors above the LMDC. And Mr. Doctoroff’s heroics notwithstanding, at the end of an otherwise sleepy morning meeting, just a little before 9 a.m. or so, the chairman of the agency charged with planning the reconstruction of Ground Zero, John Whitehead, ordered Mr. Bernstein to “present its specific plans, program and governance structure” for the center and put them up on the Web. “If at the end of this process,” said Mr. Whitehead, “the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation is not satisfied with the I.F.C.’s proposal, we will find another use or tenant.”

An ultimatum had been issued—but what was expected of them by the LMDC (have we heard this before?) wasn’t crystal clear.

“The statement was made, and we went to work,” Mr. Bernstein told The Observer. “It was consistent with the way we’ve approached this from the beginning. We have a substantial number of people involved in this whom we’ve worked with very closely and intensively, and we got them involved again and put our best foot forward.

“Peter Kunhardt was the captain. He approached this in a very comprehensive and meticulous way.”

Probably the most important constituency the team had to reach was the families of Sept. 11 victims, a group of whom had spoken out publicly against the center as an injurious intrusion on the sanctity of the “memorial quadrant,” driving the story of the Freedom Center much further than Mr. Bernstein or Mr. Kunhardt had yet done themselves.

The memorial quadrant is the southwesternmost eight acres of the former World Trade Center site, which master planner Daniel Libeskind determined would be devoted to a memorial to the victims, a museum about the attacks and some sort of “culture.”

Throughout the months and years of preparing for the Freedom Center, the families never figured much into Mr. Bernstein and Mr. Kunhardt’s plans. The pair had forged an extensive network of advisors from universities and museums who could tell them about the history of freedom and how to put it on display.

The vice chair of the Freedom Center’s board, Paula Berry, had lost her husband in the attack. But the center hadn’t gotten around to forming a family advisory committee until early July, by which time the Freedom Center was on the defensive. To complicate matters further, the media was treating the “Take Back the Memorial” movement as if it represented most, if not all, of the families.

Ms. Berry, who was charged with forming the advisory group, had lots of lost time to make up.

“She asked me, ‘What do you think about this?’ And I said, ‘I am upset that a small, vocal minority of families is presenting themselves as speaking for all families,’” said Chris Burke, a former Cantor Fitzgerald trader who lost his brother that September day, and who established a mentoring and service organization, Tuesday’s Children, for victims’ families.

It’s been noted before that the families of the Sept. 11 victims are split strongly into different ideological camps. Mr. Burke, surveying the ones who objected to the I.F.C. plan, found that many of the same people who had been involved in other campaigns that Mr. Burke objected to were popping up again.

“If they have their way, what we will have at the end of the day is a memorial to carnage and a memorial to death and to the crowning glory of the Fire Department,” Mr. Burke said. “It’s not just about the Fire Department.

“They are the sole source of the public’s fatigue with 9/11 families,” he added, referring to those families.

About two weeks ago, Ms. Berry invited nine Sept. 11 relatives who were sympathetic to her project to Mr. Bernstein’s Chelsea Piers. They were there to reverse the perception that the families were unanimous in their opposition to the I.F.C. It took four hours, and the message resonated with Mr. Burke, who signed up for the family advisory group.

“What was it that was attacked Sept. 11? It wasn’t Cantor Fitzgerald. It wasn’t a building,” Mr. Burke said. “I’m a guy who doesn’t often agree with our President, but he said it just a few days after Sept. 11: They attacked our freedom.”

The 10-member family advisory group was announced shortly thereafter and has slowly gained more attention in the press. But it has failed as yet to capture the imagination of politicians in an election season, as their opponents have done so well.

The Critique, Left and Right

Meanwhile, other members of the Freedom Center team were talking with members of various newspaper editorial boards. They had already succeeded in turning around The New York Times—which, just a few months before, had been the mouthpiece for the liberal critique of the Freedom Center, namely that it was liable to become a front for a Republican White House. (Mr. Bernstein and his business partner, Mr. Betts, are personal acquaintances of the President.)

“Mr. Pataki, who is clearly terrified of offending a vocal cadre of families of 9/11 victims, has totally abdicated his role as a leader in this controversy,” The Times said on Aug. 16. The usually skittish Daily News came down firmly in favor, and Newsday has reiterated its support.

The New York Post, of course, remained true to the opposition. The newspaper paid little attention to the families during the site-planning process, some of whom had long complained that they wanted the memorial quadrant free from outside intrusions. But once the fight was put in ideological terms back in June, the Murdoch boys—and, at the time, Murdoch’s boy—just couldn’t say enough about it. And they still haven’t stopped talking.

The Post’s lead editorial on Tuesday was about how right Rudy Giuliani was to oppose the museum.

Its lead editorial Sept. 24 was about how right Senator Clinton was to oppose the museum.

Its lead editorial Sept. 23—no, its only editorial, for it took up the whole page—was about how the Governor and Mayor had to kick the Freedom Center out.

The Times’ conversion notwithstanding, there is still a liberal critique out there. Even among professional planners who agree with the Freedom Center’s advocates that a museum, not just a memorial, will be necessary to keep the site relevant to visitors 25 or 50 years into the future, there are questions whether the Freedom Center is the right approach.

That was evident when the Civic Alliance hosted a forum with museum executives on Sept. 13, to get a preview of the new, improved Freedom Center that would be presented to the LMDC.

Ethel Sheffer, the president of the New York chapter of the American Planning Association, who attended that meeting, said that she personally still doesn’t understand the name. (Her association hasn’t taken a position on the matter.)

“I think they are genuinely sincere people and want to do good,” she said of Mr. Bernstein and his team. “The sad thing is that ‘freedom’ has come to mean so many different things: Sometimes it’s battling for freedom in the world by invading Iraq, or we have the Freedom Tower. It’s a word with too many meanings; I don’t know what it means. What is a Freedom Tower anyway? It’s a commercial office building, right?”

A number of family members were present as well, including Charles Wolf, whose wife died on Sept. 11. He said that the Freedom Center’s plan had actually gotten worse in the revision, because it was now proposing to incorporate more elements of the Sept. 11 attacks into what was earlier conceived as a museum about the history of an idea. Those elements include some artifacts from the attacks, and a film that would tell the story of victims whose lives somehow embodied the American dream of freedom—like an immigrant kitchen worker who came to this country for economic freedom.

“It’s a hook to turn the 9/11 people who went to work that day into part of this bigger idea for freedom,” Mr. Wolf said. “My wife is not a goddamn freedom fighter. All she was fighting for was a chance that we might move to a bigger apartment.”

In that way, the liberal critique that Sept. 11 wasn’t an attack on freedom, and the conservative critique that the Freedom Center is a distraction from the business of memorializing the dead, finally meet—on the other end of the circle.

In reality, the debate over how much of Sept. 11 to put into the museum is a detail that could be worked out with the LMDC later. The LMDC has to decide to keep the Freedom Center in place first.

Although leaving behind a 7,000-square-foot spread is difficult, having a luxurious alternative nearby could ease the transition. Ms. Loria recently purchased a spacious bachelorette pad in the Chatham for $7.1 million, according to deed-transfer records.

“It’s a wonderful apartment in an exceptional building,” said Laurance Kaiser IV, president of Key-Ventures Realty.

The 2,940-square-foot apartment includes three bedrooms, five bathrooms, a library and a maid’s room. Located on a high floor, the apartment provides excellent Central Park and river-to-river views.

Architect Robert A.M. Stern designed the 34-story tower, which was completed about six years ago. The full-service condominium boasts its own Equinox fitness center, hair salon, laundry room and garage.

Elizabeth Lee Sample and Brenda Powers of Brown Harris Stevens represented the sellers of the apartment, which brought in slightly above the asking price. The brokers declined to comment on the deal.

A longtime New Yorker, Mr. Loria made his fortune as an art dealer and continues to work in the industry (as does his now-estranged wife).

However, a love of baseball would lead him to spread his wealth around the country. In the late 1980’s, he bought a Texas Rangers minor-league franchise, and then he tried unsuccessfully to purchase the Baltimore Orioles in 1993. In 1999, he snatched a controlling stake in the Montreal Expos, later selling the struggling team to Major League Baseball for $120 million in 2002, a precursor to the franchise’s move down to Washington D.C. Next, Mr. Loria purchased the Marlins for $158 million and happily watched them become World Series champions a year later.

Although the couple is getting divorced, some family members will stay in close contact. David Samson, Sivia’s son from a previous marriage, is the Marlins’ team president. In the early 1970’s, Ms. Loria divorced attorney Allen Samson and walked away with a six-figure settlement and several valuable works by Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol, according to a report earlier this month in the Palm Beach Post.

Why would a local newspaper be concerned with what Ms. Loria receives after the divorce?

Well, some Floridians fear that Mr. Loria—reportedly worth $400 million—might not have enough money left after the divorce to build the new stadium for the Marlins, who are currently battling for a wild-card playoff spot in the baseball season’s waning days.

Certainly, New Yorkers have been uneasy about allowing Wal-Mart onto the island, but that shouldn’t extend to the kin of the superstore chain. Josh and Whitney Kroenke—grandchildren of late Wal-Mart founder Bud Walton and children of Denver Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke—are going where the discount store has not: straight into Manhattan.

The siblings purchased a 1,700-square-foot apartment in Chelsea for $2.70 million, according to deed-transfer records.

The two-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom apartment comes equipped with brand-new amenities. It also features a terrace and a balcony.

The apartment was first listed at $2.95 million in May and then reduced to $2.85 million, before selling for $150,000 less. Michael Moore of Prudential Douglas Elliman had the listing. He is currently out of the country and didn’t return calls for comment.

Although leaving behind a 7,000-square-foot spread is difficult, having a luxurious alternative nearby could ease the transition. Ms. Loria recently purchased a spacious bachelorette pad in the Chatham for $7.1 million, according to deed-transfer records.

“It’s a wonderful apartment in an exceptional building,” said Laurance Kaiser IV, president of Key-Ventures Realty.

The 2,940-square-foot apartment includes three bedrooms, five bathrooms, a library and a maid’s room. Located on a high floor, the apartment provides excellent Central Park and river-to-river views.

Architect Robert A.M. Stern designed the 34-story tower, which was completed about six years ago. The full-service condominium boasts its own Equinox fitness center, hair salon, laundry room and garage.

Elizabeth Lee Sample and Brenda Powers of Brown Harris Stevens represented the sellers of the apartment, which brought in slightly above the asking price. The brokers declined to comment on the deal.

A longtime New Yorker, Mr. Loria made his fortune as an art dealer and continues to work in the industry (as does his now-estranged wife).

However, a love of baseball would lead him to spread his wealth around the country. In the late 1980’s, he bought a Texas Rangers minor-league franchise, and then he tried unsuccessfully to purchase the Baltimore Orioles in 1993. In 1999, he snatched a controlling stake in the Montreal Expos, later selling the struggling team to Major League Baseball for $120 million in 2002, a precursor to the franchise’s move down to Washington D.C. Next, Mr. Loria purchased the Marlins for $158 million and happily watched them become World Series champions a year later.

Although the couple is getting divorced, some family members will stay in close contact. David Samson, Sivia’s son from a previous marriage, is the Marlins’ team president. In the early 1970’s, Ms. Loria divorced attorney Allen Samson and walked away with a six-figure settlement and several valuable works by Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol, according to a report earlier this month in the Palm Beach Post.

Why would a local newspaper be concerned with what Ms. Loria receives after the divorce?

Well, some Floridians fear that Mr. Loria—reportedly worth $400 million—might not have enough money left after the divorce to build the new stadium for the Marlins, who are currently battling for a wild-card playoff spot in the baseball season’s waning days.

Certainly, New Yorkers have been uneasy about allowing Wal-Mart onto the island, but that shouldn’t extend to the kin of the superstore chain. Josh and Whitney Kroenke—grandchildren of late Wal-Mart founder Bud Walton and children of Denver Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke—are going where the discount store has not: straight into Manhattan.

The siblings purchased a 1,700-square-foot apartment in Chelsea for $2.70 million, according to deed-transfer records. The two-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom apartment comes equipped with brand-new amenities. It also features a terrace and a balcony.

The apartment was first listed at $2.95 million in May and then reduced to $2.85 million, before selling for $150,000 less. Michael Moore of Prudential Douglas Elliman had the listing. He is currently out of the country and didn’t return calls for comment.

With a mixture of concern and delight, Republicans are looking ahead to the struggle for succession in a party whose identity crisis has escalated even as its grip on the government has tightened. Republicans control the House, the Senate and the Presidency, but their program and values-Christian or libertarian, tax-cutters or big spenders, neocon or paleocon-remain contested.

Much of this uncertainty stems from a quirk of the Bush administration: George W. Bush has no clear successor. His Vice President, Dick Cheney, is 63 years old and has a history of heart problems.

"The rules for 2008 were established when we put the guy with a bad heart on as Vice President," said conservative strategist Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform. Mr. Cheney's health means that nobody is threatened by this ticket, as Hillary Clinton is threatened by Democratic Vice Presidential nominee John Edwards. But it also leaves wide open the field to succeed Mr. Bush, win or lose, as the Republican nominee.

The President hasn't clearly identified a protégé or favorite in the party, and installing brother Jeb would be considered a bit tacky. So the New York gala will mark the moment when contenders for the next Republican nomination begin in earnest-hosting the right parties, meeting the right money men and scouting out the right hired guns for a Presidential bid.

The likely contenders in a 2008 primary, surprisingly, skew left. The stars are party mavericks like Arizona Senator John McCain and former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. The governors of two big blue states, New York and Massachusetts, also seem to be testing the waters. And three of those unorthodox Republicans-Mr. McCain, Mr. Giuliani and New York Governor George Pataki-will have a chance to impress the party faithful with prime-time convention speaking slots.

But the conservatives who now control the White House have no comparable champion. When former Bush speechwriter David Frum cooked up a list of contenders last January, Colorado Governor Bill Owens was the only true conservative on the list, and he's untested on a national stage. More than a year ago, Bush advisor Karl Rove was rumored to be set on Tennessee Senator Bill Frist, a doctor, anti-AIDS crusader, good soldier and reliable member of the Republican establishment. But Dr. Frist has now been tested, and he's stumbled since Mr. Rove helped install him as Senate Majority Leader at the end of 2002. The chatter at his planned Wednesday night AIDS Charity after-party (odd combination, but never mind) will be more about recovery than coronation.

All this uncertainty, writes conservative commentator and onetime Presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan, can only mean one thing: A "civil war is going to break out inside the Republican Party along the old trench lines of the Goldwater-Rockefeller wars of the 1960s, a war for the heart and soul and future of the party for the new century."

But other observers say there are two ways this can go. If Mr. Bush wins re-election, the struggle for succession will play out in the form of a court drama. The markers for success and failure in the first two years of the second Bush administration could be subtle: Who does Mr. Rove whisper he's likely to work for? Who's standing next to the President in the Rose Garden? Or they could be obvious: Who is Mr. Cheney's surprise replacement?

But if Mr. Bush loses on Nov. 2, the blood starts flowing the next day.

"If Bush wins, you'll see a decent Republican field with a lot of the usual suspects," said Republican consultant Rick Davis, who has worked for Mr. Giuliani and Mr. McCain. "If Bush loses, you're going to see every damn Congressman and his brother out there. You're going to see the circular firing squad."

THE LOYALISTS

Generally, adherents to good old-fashioned conservative principles (lower taxes! military strength! family values-when they're popular!), the Loyalists are also true believers in the Bush dynasty. They'll be busy defending what they've built against insurgents within the party for a long time after the balloons drop on George W. Bush on Sept. 2.

Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee: One of the leading contenders for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2008, those who know what conventions are really all about say this one is all about him. Dr. Frist values Christ's example of humility so much that he once climbed the Mount of Olives to recite the Sermon on the Mount. That quality will stand him in good stead as he courts the rank and file of his party aggressively at the convention. As chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Dr. Frist oversaw a successful effort to gain control of the Senate in the midterm elections-the first time a sitting President's party had ever done so. The Loyalists aren't likely to let other Republicans forget that feat.

Governor Bill Owens of Colorado: Named "the best governor in America" by the National Review and "one of the top 10 rising political stars" by columnist Robert Novak, since 1998 he's pushed conservative policies and values such as tort reform, tax cuts and the sanctity of marriage and the family-although he separated from his wife last year.

Governor Jeb Bush of Florida: Once he was the first among Bush brothers, the one thought most likely to follow in his father's footsteps. Presiding over his ne'er-do-well brother's Florida triumph in 2000 may have been bittersweet, but his bid to extend his father's dynasty in 2008 is now stronger than ever.

Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao: The Labor Department may not seem like the place to get noticed in the Bush administration (reportedly, nobody remembered to tell Ms. Chao that the Sept. 11 attacks were underway), but the first Asian-American woman ever appointed to the cabinet wields substantial power through her marriage to Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority whip.

Senator Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina: Defeated by Hillary Rodham Clinton in the race for First Lady in 1996, Bob Dole's spouse joined Ms. Clinton in the Senate in 2002, elected largely due to her name recognition. As Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Transportation, she was credited with pushing for the installation of a third brake light in automobiles. She was also Secretary of Labor for the first President Bush (take heart, Ms. Chao!) and has been spotted on the Senate floor in dark glasses, apparently protecting her youthful looks for the 2008 Presidential campaign.

Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert: Best known as "That Guy Who's Not Newt Gingrich," the former high-school wrestling coach has a modest manner that belies his strategic smarts. This allows him to push his agenda as Speaker of the House where Mr. Gingrich could not. Conservative on social positions (anti-abortion, pro–death penalty), Mr. Hastert is known for his consensus-building skills and pragmatism.

Representative Katherine Harris of Florida: The former Secretary of State of Florida parlayed her fame as the lacquer-faced villainess of the disputed 2000 election (think Natasha to Jeb's Boris) into a Congressional seat in 2002.

Ed Gillespie: The powerful chair of the Republican National Committee, Mr. Gillespie once was a lobbyist for clients like Enron and Tyson Foods (who were accused of smuggling illegal immigrants to work at their poultry plants for paltry wages). The convention is his baby elephant-but will the message it sends now still be ringing in the ears of voters in 2008?

Karl Rove: Known as "Bush's brain," Mr. Rove is the true strategist of the Bush White House and Dubya's political career, transforming Mr. Bush from a failed oilman into a successful candidate. After all, Mr. Rove learned his stuff at the feet of Lee Atwater, the infamous trickster who turned Daddy Bush's fortunes around and managed Mr. Rove's campaign for president of the College Republicans. Rumored to be pulling strings for Bill Frist's Presidential ambitions after this election, Mr. Rove has worked his magic on the campaigns of over 75 Republican politicos in statewide and federal races, as well as for the Moderate Party of Sweden.

Karen Hughes: Bush's most trusted advisor-slash-enforcer, Ms. Hughes left the White House saying that she wanted to spend more time with her family. Ahem! We've heard that one before. But then she went on a nationwide book tour to tell the real story of why she left the White House-to spend more time with her family. Live to fight another day!

THE HIGH PRIESTS

Supporters of bans on abortion and gay marriage, the "God, gays and guns" Republicans will be a strange sight in New York City. But as the mobilizers of perhaps the most effective grass-roots campaign in recent political history, they won't soon be forgotten. In fact, remarking upon the fact that practicing Methodist and non-drinking W. had taken the White House, former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed declared: "You're no longer throwing rocks at the building, you're in the building."

Attorney General John Ashcroft: The biggest favor that Mr. Bush granted the Religious Right-and the anti-religious left-was to nominate the Crisco-anointed, patriotic-anthem-singing Mr. Ashcroft as Attorney General. Through his efforts to cover up the shiny metal breasts of the Lady Justice statue as well as his promulgation of the Patriot Act, Mr. Ashcroft has become a ready-made symbol of everything that's right or wrong with the Bush administration, depending on one's persuasion. And it places him-for better and for worse-at the center of the party's contest for redefinition.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay: Mr. DeLay picked up two things while running an exterminating company: a contempt for federal regulations and a knack for dealing death. Both came in handy when he reportedly roped in the F.A.A. to help track down wayward Texas Democrats so the state's Republican majority could implement a DDT-laced midterm redistricting plan.

Jerry Falwell: The founder of Liberty University and foe of Hustler publisher Larry Flynt is giving the opening prayer at the convention.

Senator Rick Santorum: The Pennsylvania Senator, who spanked his more liberal Republican flank when he equated homosexuality with bestiality, gets the Christian Coalition's highest ratings. His right-to-life convictions extend to keeping a picture of a miscarried Santorum fetus in his office as a family photo.

Senator Sam Brownback: The publicity-savvy Kansan has been known to pass the time in Senate hearings by autographing photos of himself.

THE METRO-CONSERVATIVES

To red-meat-chomping conservatives in the heartland, RINO's (Republicans In Name Only) are considered to the left of most Democrats. Either out of political expediency or through prolonged exposure to Chardonnay-sipping liberals at cocktail parties, they are fiscally conservative but socially tolerant with their pro-choice, pro-gay-rights positions. Sometimes they're even willing to expand government social services. In New York, they're on their home turf.

Governor George Pataki: His staff has been swatting away rumors that he's using the convention as a testing ground for an '08 Presidential bid of his own. But what better place to do it? It's his party: New reports show the city stands to lose-not gain-some $300 million throwing it. And the party must owe him something by now for his long-suffering loyalty.

Rudolph Giuliani: The face of official bravery on Sept. 11, Mr. Giuliani served W. his first draught of gravitas at Ground Zero, and the bunker-hunkered administration has been drunk on it ever since. Is that Rudy they're seeing in '08, or is it just beer goggles?

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg: This time around, he's getting the check. But it's a hell of an initiation into the national party, if he can take the hazing.

Arizona Senator John McCain: The phosphorescent-haired veteran is the Republican liberal Democrats love to love. Sweet-talking New York's media elite aboard his Straight Talk Express bus during the 2000 Presidential primary, the former Vietnam P.O.W. has defended John Kerry from attacks on his combat record. But his testy relationship with W. has survived more than that-including a virulent rumor he was contemplating the second spot on the Kerry ticket. That back-slapping you're hearing all week is a great big bear hug from the Republican mainline.

Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel: Call him McCain manqué : Like his senior Senator, Mr. Hagel's incisive criticisms of the intelligence system under Mr. Bush were hardly well-timed for this convention, as the administration gives its foreign policy the hard sell; nor is his long-standing contempt for the right-wing Swift-boat gang. But as with his mentor, that may make his gold star even shinier now that it seems the Bushies have come around on both fronts.

Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney: The Mormon governor helped dig the Salt Lake City Olympics out of the scandalous bog of bribes-and-hookers allegations.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: His recall-campaign victory in California thrilled Republicans jealous of the Hollywood elite's love affair with Democrats. Hard-line conservatives are less excited about having a movie star of their own-and suspicious of anyone who supports gay marriage and makes the party look good in a "posing pouch."

Christine Todd Whitman: The former governor of New Jersey was one of the few public defections from the Bush administration, bailing out as E.P.A. chief after discovering there weren't enough environmental protections to administer. Now she's making her comeback as a maverick Republican, spitting out harsh critiques during appearances on Real Time with Bill Maher and hyping her new book, It's My Party, Too .

Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter: His long tenure on the Hill balancing G.O.P. water-carrying with "independent" positioning (against the Clinton impeachment and the nomination of Robert Bork) has earned him the unlikely support of big liberals like George Soros and Harold Ickes Jr. But he's also had to fend off a fierce intra-party attack from his right flank in this past spring's primary. That should burnish his credentials if the party ends up running for the Big Tent in '08.

THE LIBERTARIANS

They straddle a thin line between fighting for less government and standing up for relatively liberal social policies.

Kansas Senator Pat Roberts: The chair of Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Mr. Roberts made news recently for coming up with a plan for the breakup of the C.I.A., an old Bush père stronghold; W. went for it.

Ohio Representative Deborah Pryce: The highest-ranking Republican woman in the House, since heading up the House Republican Conference in 2002, Ms. Pryce has been part of the G.O.P.'s new efforts at a more diverse profile; she's one of a slate of minority and women Republicans named as a chair to the convention.

THE NEOCONS

Conservatives who believe in exporting, by force if necessary, the values of American democracy around the world, the neocons got their real power when the Bush administration adopted their ideological arguments for the Iraq war. Whether they can keep from tearing themselves apart now that that project's real-world success is so widely questioned remains to be seen.

Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith: The intellectual trio behind the war in Iraq and the bogeymen of anti-war peaceniks. Mr. Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, was dubbed the "intellectual godfather of the war" in Iraq by Time magazine. A longtime advocate of using military force to advance the principles of the country, Mr. Wolfowitz also stirred up a hornets' nest in the den of neoconservatism, with older advocates attacking him as fiercely as they used to snipe at socialists. Mr. Perle, a longtime Cold Warrior, recently resigned as Pentagon policy advisor. Due to his close ties to the Likud Party, he's been accused of leveraging Israeli influence on White House foreign policy. Mr. Feith, the youngster of the group, worked his way quickly up to the third-ranking civilian spot in the Pentagon-and there's room to grow.

William F. Buckley Jr., William Kristol: The dissenting duo, these two neoconservative stalwarts have been using up airtime on cable news and spilling ink in the National Review and The Weekly Standard to rip apart the Bush administration's foreign policy, especially the war in Iraq. Mr. Buckley, the granddaddy of the counter-counterculture and founder of the National Review , recently quit his editorial post but still wields plenty of influence with his lopsided gaze and affected accent. Mr. Kristol, who seems too mild-mannered to be a true conservative warrior, is the editor of the influential Weekly Standard , which was required reading in the early days of the Bush White House, before he started getting cranky about the war.

THE PALEOCONS

They were conservative before it was, uh, cool-and haven't quite caught up yet. Wistful that the country wasn't buried in a time capsule in 1850 for them to dig up today, the paleocons have settled on anti-immigrant policies as their main sounding-off point; the rest is pure, wacky conservative fun.

Pat Buchanan: The old-line Nixon speechwriter turned Reform Party nutcase has been exiled to the outer reaches of MSNBC, where he preaches against the war from the right-wing isolationist booth.

Grover Norquist: Mr. Norquist contains multitudes as head and chief engine of both Americans for Tax Reform and the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project. As the former, he fights to limit the reach of government by opposing every tax increase; as the latter, he fights to extend the reach of government by forcing every state to name something after the now-deceased President. Dubbed a member of the "Gang of Five," leaders of the modern conservative movement, Mr. Norquist makes Wednesday meetings of the Leave Us Alone coalition required for his acolytes. Occasionally he dabbles in the outer reaches of Republican politics, as in his condemnations of the Patriot Act and his advocacy on behalf of Arab-American groups targeted by the F.B.I. And he's not exactly a hero to his fellow conservatives: Bow-tied columnist Tucker Carlson once called him a "mean-spirited, humorless, dishonest little creep … the leering, drunken uncle everyone else wishes would stay home."

Robert Novak: The cranky co-host of CNN's Crossfire found himself in the crosshairs of the media for once when he revealed earlier this year that former-ambassador-turned-White-House-critic Joseph Wilson's wife was a C.I.A. officer. He's further in than we thought!

Alan Keyes: The frighteningly giddy perennial candidate and sometimes TV host was shut out of the 2000 Republican convention after refusing to drop out of the primary race against George W. Bush. Now he's on the inside again, after agreeing to drop into the Illinois Senate race (from his Maryland home) against Democratic savior Barack Obama-a move that had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that Mr. Keyes, like Mr. Obama, is black.

THE RANGERS

Whether they earned or inherited their billions, these fat cats-"Rangers" in the R.N.C. fund-raising regimental parlance-embody the stereotype of the G.O.P.: cigar-smoking white guys who sip Old-Fashioneds at the country club.

William DeWitt Jr. and Mercer Reynolds III: Mr. Reynolds, the President's national fund-raising chairman, started an investment firm with Mr. DeWitt that later bailed out Mr. Bush's financially troubled oil company back in 1984. They were also there with the stumpy when Mr. Bush sought major co-investors in the Texas Rangers. Together, they've helped raise at least $500,000 for the Republicans. Mr. Reynolds was named ambassador to Switzerland, while Mr. DeWitt was named to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.

Richard Egan: Along with sons Christopher F. Egan (who recently produced an anti-Kerry documentary) and Michael Egan, he's part of the only family to include three Rangers (donors who give at least $200,000 to the G.O.P.). Together, the clan has offered over $900,000 to Republican federal candidates since 1999. The elder Egan was named ambassador to Ireland, but resigned to go back into the private sector and raise some punts for the Prez.

THE JUNIORS

Republicans by birth who inherited their parents' politics, the Juniors seem to be more open-minded about the company they keep. Five of these G.O.P. Juniors are hosting "The Next Generation of Leaders," a shindig at Gotham Hall, during the convention.

The Bush twins, Jenna and Barbara: The 22-year-old twin First Daughters made headlines for their college high jinks, but now they're partying for the right to fight for the Right, judging from their lineup during the convention and all their time on the campaign trail.

Emma Bloomberg: She's like an alcoholic, but for workahol! The Mayoral daughter will have to unbury her head from the pile of papers sitting in her in-box if she wants to be recognized. And she needs to appease some of her neighbors in Greenwich Village, who've apparently called 311 to complain about the noise made by Ms. Bloomberg's bodyguards.

Emily Pataki: The Governor's daughter, a Yale graduate, has certainly gotten noticed. She was recently named "Republican Babe of the Week" by www.jerseygop.com, and she worked on her father's 2002 campaign.

Michael Reagan: Help my dead dad! No, don't help my dead dad! After Presidential offspring Ron Reagan's Democratic National Convention speech helped establish stem-cell research as a promising wedge issue for the Democrats, the G.O.P. aims to close the gap with Presidential offspring Michael Reagan arguing against that research.