Regarded as equally hard to get are White House surrogates Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell. “They just don’t want to be out there,” which “tells you where we are on Iraq.” Also high on this list is National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice (see Least Likely to Make News).

As Democratic Sen. John Kerry’s presidential bid gained steam, newsmaker shows found him to be more complicated to book (his campaign managers “absolutely believe they can lose it by making a mistake.”) The “less robotic” Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., is a holdover (“Always the hardest to get unless she has something she really wants to promote”).

New to the list: FBI chief Robert Mueller and CIA chief George Tenet (“Just can’t be done”).

2003 Plays Hardest To Get: Sec. Rumsfeld, Sen. Clinton, Vice President Cheney; Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del.