John McCain's pastors have gone to ground.

It's been a rough year for the Republican presidential candidate's prominent evangelical supporters. The Rev. John Hagee got in hot water for suggesting that God was behind the Holocaust and that the Roman Catholic Church is a "great whore." The Rev. Rod Parsley had some uncharitable thoughts on Islam being an "anti-Christ religion."

So it follows that all eyes would be on Hagee's group (Parsley is a regional director) when it came to town this week for its third annual "summit" of Christian Zionists. The group, Christians United for Israel, booked the convention and publicized its agenda widely in the media.

But Hagee seems to have had a conversion on the road to Washington.

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The rehabilitation of John David Ashcroft has been a wonder to behold.

When he left the Justice Department three years ago, he was the left's favorite demon, the symbol of all the dark and sinister practices of the Bush administration. "Apparently he wants to spend more time spying on his family," David Letterman mused.

But when he walked into the House Judiciary Committee hearing room yesterday, the Father of the Patriot Act received a rather more favorable reception.

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It was another day of turmoil in the capital. The Federal Reserve chairman again tried to reassure jittery markets. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said he wanted more troops in Afghanistan to put down the growing insurgency. And just before 4 p.m., President Bush stepped onto the South Lawn for what he called a "historic" moment.

"Play ball!" cried the commander in chief.

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For months, if not years, congressional Democrats had craved the chance to pounce on Doug Feith, the former No. 3 at the Pentagon and the brains behind the Iraq WMD claims, torture policy and other great adventures.

Yesterday, House Democrats finally had their quarry, wearing a tie almost as orange as a detainee's jumpsuit, compelled by subpoena to appear before the Judiciary Committee. And then -- an ambush! Republicans on the committee created a diversion, and Feith escaped unscathed.

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Karl Rove had never been so agreeable.

The former chief strategist to President Bush was the only witness listed on the agenda for yesterday's meeting of the House Judiciary Committee, and he proved to be uncharacteristically contained.

Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), chairman of the subcommittee holding the hearing, declared herself "extremely disappointed and deeply concerned" about Rove's behavior.

Rove was silent.

Sanchez spoke of his "role in the alleged politicization of the Justice Department" and his hand in "the unprecedented firing of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006."

Rove offered no defense.

"If such allegations were true," said Rep. Chris Cannon (Utah), the ranking Republican on the panel, "they would be very serious."

Rove did not dispute this.

There was good reason for The Architect's quiet: He was out of the country. He had no intention of appearing before Congress, and he had sent the panel the equivalent of a doctor's note -- from no less a medical authority than White House counsel Fred Fielding -- saying he did not have to respond to the congressional subpoena.

So lawmakers decided to pull out one of the most feared weapons in their arsenal: the empty-chair stunt. They printed up a name card for "Mr. Karl Rove" and displayed it on the witness table. They put out a glass of cold water with ice, and pointed the microphone toward an empty wooden armchair.

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-- Dana Milbank

The ghost of Rummy is proving difficult to exorcise.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has tried to sweep out the symbols of his predecessor's capricious reign, firing acolytes of Donald Rumsfeld and bringing glasnost to the Pentagon.

But in one area, Rummy's Rules still pertain: the attempt to hide from public view the returning war dead.

When Gina Gray took over as the public affairs director at Arlington National Cemetery about three months ago, she discovered that cemetery officials were attempting to impose new limits on media coverage of funerals of the Iraq war dead -- even after the fallen warriors' families granted permission for the coverage. She said that the new restrictions were wrong and that Army regulations didn't call for such limitations.

Six weeks after The Washington Post reported her efforts to restore media coverage of funerals, Gray was demoted. Twelve days ago, the Army fired her.

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-- Dana Milbank

Como se dice "pander" en Español?

The closest translation seems to be saconería, or insincere flattery. In some Latin American countries, the panderer is a sobón, or kiss-up. Others say he's a chupamedias -- literally, one who sucks socks.

But whatever you want to call it, Barack Obama and John McCain were doing it yesterday -- en abundancia.

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-- Dana Milbank

The waiters were still clearing the breakfast dishes yesterday when John McCain's most prominent adviser raised the subject of erection enhancement.

Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard chief who is now the Republican National Committee's "Victory Chairman," was discussing consumer-driven health insurance at a breakfast with reporters when she proposed "a real, live example which I've been hearing a lot about from women: There are many health insurance plans that will cover Viagra but won't cover birth-control medication. Those women would like a choice." For effect, the woman frequently mentioned as a possible McCain running mate repeated: "Those women would like a choice."

Silence filled the meeting room at the St. Regis Hotel. "I don't know where I go after that," said the moderator, Dave Cook of the Christian Science Monitor.

Fiorina's brazen breakfast talk demonstrated why she'd be such a risky running mate for McCain -- and yet also, potentially, the most rewarding of his options. She's the most prominent and visible of the women believed to be under consideration for the vice presidency, and her attributes are many: a woman who could appeal to disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters; a corporate hotshot to balance the "economy-is-not-my-strong-suit" McCain; and an outsider untainted by President Bush, Washington and politics.

At the same time, she's unvetted and untested, as her breakfast conversation demonstrated anew (religious conservatives frown on Viagra-and-contraceptives talk) that she's new to the game. Her controversial tenure at HP, which fired her in 2005, could also be mined by foes. "Too risky," political handicapper Stu Rothenberg judged in Roll Call last week.

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-- Dana Milbank

Think you're worried about the economy? Phillip Swagel is a wreck.

The assistant Treasury secretary for economic policy, Swagel came out for his monthly economic briefing yesterday, 90 minutes after the Labor Department reported that the country had shed jobs in June for the sixth straight month.

Does this mean the economy is worse than the Bush administration expected?

"We shouldn't, in a sense, be surprised when the data are, are, soft," Swagel managed to say.

Does the economy need another stimulus package?

"I-it seems, you know, it seems like that's, that's enough, uh, enough."

What might trigger another round of economic stimulus?

"I don't, I guess I don't have an answer, I mean, you know, beyond saying we look at all the data and, um -- so, my usual line."

Okay, so it wasn't a strong performance. But let's cut Swagel some slack. He's a sharp economist (his PhD is from Harvard) and, in ordinary conversation, he suffers none of the speech difficulties that plagued him on the stage yesterday. His various roles in government, at the Council of Economic Advisers, the Federal Reserve and the International Monetary Fund, were too junior for him to deserve any blame for the current economic troubles.

But Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, who was in London yesterday, and Swagel's other superiors in the Bush administration left him with an impossible task: appearing on camera to put a favorable and reassuring gloss on an economy that has gone to the dogs.

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-- Dana Milbank

At this rate, the October Surprise won't be very surprising.

The threats, counterthreats, and counter-counterthreats between Israel, Iran and the United States have reached new levels of hysteria in recent days. Israel openly threatens to attack Iran's nuclear program, Iran threatens to shut down oil-shipping lanes, and the commander of the U.S. fleet in the Persian Gulf, Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, says this would be an "act of war" requiring an American military response.

That was the backdrop yesterday as Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, faced the cameras in the Pentagon briefing room. Mullen, just back from a trip to Israel that further raised speculation about an Israeli attack, was asked whether Cosgriff's saber rattling would raise tensions with Iran.

"Actually," the chairman replied, "I think Admiral Cosgriff, who made that statement, is making an accurate statement."

Or, as John McCain might sing, "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran."

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