How Soon They Forget

Joe Biden is going courting. The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who ran last year's Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings, wants to add at least one of the four newly elected women senators to his all-male panel. He campaigned for the election of all four. Since Nov. 3, he's called on each one and "let his hopefulness be known," says a Judiciary staffer. Biden even sent California's Barbara Boxer a dozen roses after her victory.

So far, all four women are playing hard to get. California's Dianne Feinstein, who's pushing a crime bill as one of her legislative priorities, is considered most likely to join the panel. "To say that I'm not interested is not correct," she says. Washington's Patty Murray wants Appropriations, Commerce or Labor and Human Resources--"assignments that would most benefit the state," says a spokeswoman. Illinois's Carol Moseley Braun wasn't available for comment. Boxer isn't talking.