Sen. Mitch McConnell was elected in the Reagan landslide re-election of 1984. The Kentucky Republican recalled this week how Reagan helpfully introduced him at a campaign event - as "my good friend Mitch O'Donnell."

"Reagan rarely botched his line, but he had botched that one," McConnell said.

McConnell is now the No. 2 Republican in the Senate and a frequent guest at the White House - if for no other reason than his wife, Elaine Chao, is Bush's secretary of labor.

But back in his first term, McConnell acknowledged, he had almost no personal dealings with President Reagan. He was in the crowd during a bill signing and met Reagan a few times.

"I had little dealings with him, as most backbenchers wouldn't," McConnell said.

The other member was Sen. Jim Bunning, who back in 1986 was elected to the House seat representing Northern Kentucky.

"President Ronald Reagan was my political idol," Bunning said.

Turning on a dime: Only one congressman who represents the Cincinnati metro area has signed onto a bill that would put Reagan's face on a dime.

Rep. Mike Pence, who represents northern Dearborn County and Franklin County in Indiana, is a co-sponsor of H.R. 3633, which would replace former President Roosevelt's image with Reagan's on the dime.

The bill, introduced in November, has 89 co-sponsors in the House. A separate bill, introduced by Democrats, reaffirms Roosevelt's presence on the dime. It also has backers.

Other Republicans, including McConnell, are considering putting Reagan's face on the $10 bill, where it would replace Alexander Hamilton, the first treasury secretary.

Revolving door: Another former aide to Rep. Rob Portman will find himself lobbying his old boss frequently, and it probably will be pretty easy to win him over.

Chris Marston has been named Ohio's new lobbyist in Washington. Marston, who worked for Portman in the mid-1990s, most recently had been chief of staff for the drug czar's office in the Bush White House.

Marston, 30, graduated from Portman's alma mater, Dartmouth College, though long after Portman.

Bush-bashers use Taft: Gov. Bob Taft chairs Bush's Ohio campaign. Yet NAACP Chairman Julian Bond invoked Taft's grandfather, Republican Sen. Robert A. Taft, at a June summit of anti-Bush groups.

Bond said: "We ought to remember the words of Ohio Senator Robert Taft - and I never thought I'd be quoting Robert Taft - who said two weeks after Pearl Harbor had been attacked, 'I believe there can be no doubt that criticism in time of war is essential to the maintenance of any kind of democratic government.' "

The week ahead: Rhonda Ramsey-Molina, president of the Coalition for a Drug-Free Greater Cincinnati, is scheduled to testify before Sen. Mike DeWine's mental health subcommittee Tuesday on adolescent drug treatment.

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E-mail cweiser@gannett.com or call (202) 906-8134.