CRA's producing a heap of cash for depressed areas has not gone unnoticed by Britain's New Labour "social exclusion" policy mavens.

Mr. Bush's advisers, as well as Mr. Bradley's, have urged their candidates not to be prodded into appearing like policy mavens.

Frequently, they portray Mr. Bush as someone who is intricately involved in the operation of his campaign and even an unheralded policy maven.

The man behind duct tape and plastic sheeting is not Tom Ridge, the homeland security secretary, nor some anonymous policy maven at a Washington research group.

Every policy maven who looks at Medicare's escalating costs jumps on the home health program as a major culprit.

If not quite the policy maven that Mr. Clinton was, Mr. Bush has come across as a credible defender of his goals and programs.

Mr. Gore, who is well known as a policy maven, tried to demonstrate that he was a likable politician and not an unappealing brawler.

Next goal among the conservative policy mavens who pioneered abstinence for teen-agers: abstinence for unmarrieds in their 20s.

Life was easy for Republican foreign policy mavens and Presidential candidates.

Instead, policy mavens working on issues like housing and health care, AIDS and international problems said they had experienced a kind of collective shudder.