The speakers were political professionals, not Government officials, and included Doug Bailey, a much-respected Republican consultant.

"I didn't ask you to come," Doug Bailey told him stiffly.

As they glared at each other, Anvra's wings half-spread, Doug Bailey found his tongue.

The tendency of this year's predictions, said Doug Bailey, the publisher of "Hotline," has been "remarkably wrong."

Doug Bailey, The Hotline's founder, was Jeffrey Pollack's partner in this venture.

The establishment wing has an advantage of, say, 60 percent to 40 percent," says the publisher Doug Bailey, "but those aren't the numbers that participate in primaries.

"It's ridiculously early," said Doug Bailey, publisher of "Hotline," the newsletter for political junkies.

It also meant, for many candidates, beginning one's position by noting, "I am personally opposed to abortion," said Doug Bailey, a Republican consultant.

"I have no knowledge whatever as to whether these are conscious or not," said Doug Bailey, a Republican consultant.

Doug Bailey, a former Republican consultant who is now the publisher of a daily political digest and tip sheet, said: "I don't think he's on anybody's list.