LOOKING FOR MR. RIGHT

By Richard Stengel

MEDIEVAL THEOLOGIANS BELIEVED TEMporal love was a process in which human beings sought an earthly vessel for their spiritual love. Such is the melancholy quest of Washington's anybody-but-Bob salon conservatives, led by Arianna Huffington, who are hunting oh so desperately for a presidential candidate to adore.

In the case of Arianna, after plighting her troth to Newt (who then chose not to go to the altar) and flirting with Colin (who also got cold feet), she and other Newt loyalists have been batting their eyes at Lamar Alexander, and Lamar is panting for the attention. Before Christmas, Arianna played host at a breakfast and dinner with other neoconservatives to meet Alexander and offer him their ideas. "Lamar is most in sync with the idea of deepening the Republican realignment," says William Kristol, the neoconservative guru. Thus the candidate posing as an outsider sealed his dalliance with Washington's armchair insiders.

The group, which also includes Marvin Olasky, author of The Tragedy of American Compassion, is concerned about what happens after the budget is balanced. And so, indeed, is love-starved Lamar. The result was a meditative speech earlier this month by Alexander at the Heritage Foundation in which he discussed the obligations of citizenship. "Less from Washington," he said, "has to go hand in hand with more from ourselves." It was a love sonnet to Arianna's ears. But in politics, a romance is consummated with not a kiss but an endorsement, and so far none have been forthcoming.

--By Richard Stengel