As someone who's been covering presidential campaigns since the 1950s, I have no delusions about political reporting. Candidates bargaining access to get the kind of news coverage they want is nothing new.

They say California's the big burrito; Texas is a big taco right now. We want to follow that through. Florida is a big tamale.

Never eat spinach just before going on the air.

Only votes talk, everything else walks.

Texas: 32 electoral votes, another of the so-called big enchiladas or if not an enchilada at least a huge taco.

I don't pretend to be a digital savant or even a digital apprentice.

On Capitol Hill, the Republican-controlled House voted mostly along party lines tonight to pass President Bush's federal budget blueprint. This includes his big tax cut plan, partly bankrolled, critics say, through cuts in many federal aid programs for children and education.