Ted Kennedy’s latest trial has cast a spotlight not just on him, but on his partner of 16 years, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, by all accounts a redemptive force in his life - and apparently his choice to take his Senate seat if he is unable to complete his term, which ends in 2012.

Overeager memento hunters even swiped the number off one door.

Washington’s Mayflower Hotel, where former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s had a $4,300 visit with a hooker imported from New York, is experiencing a run on souvenirs, according to the Washington Post.

Casting has begun for Oliver Stone’s upcoming film W., which will tell the story of George W. Bush’s early years.

Texas has Jerry Jones, Mark Cuban, Ross Perot, the Basses and the Hunts. And then there are the Butts.

In a heartfelt op-ed column in Sunday’s New York Times headlined “A President Like My Father,” Caroline Kennedy endorsed Barack Obama for president.

“I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them,” the daughter of president John F. Kennedy wrote. “But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.”

The script has changed.

Pointing to Al Gore, parents throughout the country may be telling their children that if they study hard, lead good lives and not become president they could be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Gore is the co-winner of this year’s Peace Prize for sounding the alarm on global warming. He shares the prize with the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

While Gore may have fashioned a grand comeback, a look at the post-defeat careers of other recent unsuccessful presidential wannabes shows that there can be life, a good life at that, after losing. All have found things to do, sometimes lucrative things, and many have held elective office, most often in the U.S. Senate.

All have continued in public life and some have remained in politics, most especially in the U.S. Senate.