Person(s) for the week: Ernie Fletcher.

In 1897, when the author Mark Twain was in London, a rumor reached the Editor of the New York Journal that Mark Twain had died. Reacting to the news, the Editor immediately wired his London correspondent saying: "HEAR MARK TWAIN DIED, SEND 1000 WORDS."

The correspondent, in a bid to confirm or deny the information, met with and subsequently showed the telegram to Twain, who wired back this message to the Editor: "REPORT OF MY DEATH GREATLY EXAGGERATED."

So our Person for the week is someone whose political "death had been greatly exaggerated" -- at least in the Republican Primary.

His name? Gov. Ernie Fletcher.

Honorable mention goes to President Bush, who, yesterday, scored a political victory by co-opting the anti-war Democrats into passing the Iraq war funding bill he demanded, without the nauseating withdrawal time table.