Missing in Action?

Asked why such controversial figures as Attorney Gen. John Ashcroft, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and House Republican leader Tom Delay, R-Texas, are not going to be speaking at the Republican convention, Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot lumped Ashcroft and Rumsfeld with Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice – national security officials who usually don’t ``do politics.’’ But Racicot didn’t really have a shirt cuff explanation for the radio silence planned for Delay, known affectionately by some moderate Republicans on Capitol Hill as ``The Hammer’’ because of his hard-nosed success getting Republican lawmakers to vote the way the GOP leadership wants.