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Good Monday morning and welcome to the inaugural edition of First Draft, your morning briefing for politics. Today, the White House is reviewing the locks on its doors, 91-year-old Bob Dole hits the campaign trail, and the Clintons mix with scientists and starlets at their annual conference.

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Let’s start by solving a Washington mystery.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, caused a commotion this month when she revealed in a memoir how her male colleagues felt free to comment rather vividly on her weight. The senator came under pressure to reveal the names of the perpetrators, but declined, setting off a guessing game in Washington.

Probably the most egregious incident was when a senior senator squeezed her waist and told her: “Don’t lose too much weight now. I like my girls chubby!”

It turns out the senator was the late Daniel K. Inouye, Democrat of Hawaii, the decorated veteran and civil rights hero, according to people with knowledge of the incident.

With his deep baritone and courtly manner, Mr. Inouye was revered by his colleagues and was a powerhouse in both Hawaii and the Senate, where he was a reliable supporter of women’s rights.

But in an all but forgotten chapter of his career, the senator had been accused of sexual misconduct: In 1992, his hairdresser said that Mr. Inouye had forced her to have sex with him.

Her accusations exploded into a campaign issue that year, and one Hawaii state senator announced that she had heard from nine other women who said they had been sexually harassed by Mr. Inouye. But the women did not want to go forward with their claims.

A spokesman for Ms. Gillibrand would neither confirm nor deny that Mr. Inouye was the unnamed senator in the incident. Ms. Gillibrand in her book described the senator only as “one of my favorite older members of the Senate.”

Another First Draft Exclusive: A Presidential Nomination Is Dead

The quest by President Obama to put Michael P. Boggs – who supported the Confederate flag and opposed abortion – on the federal bench in Georgia is over.

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, who leads the Judiciary Committee, told us it had become clear after talking to his colleagues that Mr. Boggs, under fire from Democrats for his conservative positions, could not win committee support.

Mr. Leahy signaled that Mr. Boggs should withdraw: “He doesn’t have the votes.”

Mr. Boggs earns the unusual distinction as the first Obama judicial nominee this term to fail because of Democratic opposition.

Nominated as part of a deal between the White House and Georgia’s Republican senators to fill a half-dozen court vacancies, Mr. Boggs was opposed by civil rights and progressive groups. He was grilled by Democrats at a May confirmation hearing and pressed to answer additional questions in writing.

The situation was uncomfortable for Democrats, who did not want to defy the president but worried about alienating black voters they need this fall.

– Carl Hulse

Christie: Gaining Friends and Losing Weight

Behind closed doors at David Koch’s Upper East Side apartment Friday night, Gov. Chris Christie told conservative donors that he has shed 85 pounds since undergoing weight loss surgery last year. The governor’s appearance – inside Mr. Koch’s sprawling 18-room duplex – was strictly off limits to the press, but a guest told us that Mr. Christie was pressed by donors about his health. He did not reveal his current weight, although he said he understood he had to slim down if he wanted to move beyond Trenton. And he brought the house down with a joke: “A doctor once told me you have to have the right relationship with the food you eat. And believe me, for many years, I had a great relationship with the foods I ate.”

As he eyes a 2016 presidential bid, Mr. Christie has been assiduously courting Mr. Koch, founder of the advocacy group Americans for Prosperity, the beneficiary of the event. And while Mr. Koch has become one of the best known supporters of conservative causes, the apartment building at 740 Park Avenue, once called the world’s richest address, has a different political lineage: It was the childhood home of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

– Nicholas Confessore

On Our Radar

It’s a big week for President Obama in New York, but little is expected to be accomplished on the climate front when he arrives at the United Nations Climate Summit on Tuesday. Opposition in Congress to carbon taxes remains high and with global environmental disputes simmering, expectations for progress are low around the world.

The Clinton Global Initiative conference kicks off Monday and Hillary Rodham Clinton will participate in many of the festivities. While the focus remains on tackling the world’s problems, the buzz will surely be about Mrs. Clinton’s presidential aspirations and the future of the foundation if the Clintons return to the White House.

Can Bob Dole save Senator Pat Roberts? He will give it his best on Monday when he travels to Dodge City, Kan., to help the Republican fend off a surprising challenge from an independent candidate, Greg Orman.

Hide Your BlackBerrys and Try to Look Cool

Washington’s social set got a Silicon Valley infusion on Saturday night at a reception for Megan Smith, the just-arrived White House chief technology officer and former Google executive, at the home of the communications consultant Hillary Rosen. Al Hunt of Bloomberg News and his wife, Judy Woodruff of PBS, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell and Victoria Reggie Kennedy all mingled with techies, including the journalist Kara Swisher and Fred Humphries, Microsoft’s D.C. lobbyist. Ms. Smith, 49, an M.I.T.-trained engineer who led some of Google’s most spectacular innovations, like its drone delivery project in the Australian outback, is still adjusting to life in less-than-cutting-edge Washington. She took her fourth grader to see her new government office and he was stunned by her “new” desktop computer. “He’d never seen a computer that big,” she cracked.

– Carl Hulse

Our Favorite Reads From Elsewhere

The editorial board at The Wichita Eagle, watching national reporters descend on Kansas to cover the unusual turns in the Senate race there, has decided it’s had enough. “The novelty of seeing Kansas at the center of the fight over U.S. Senate control is wearing off,” the paper said Sunday in an editorial.

“Gabby Giffords gets mean,” Politico says, pointing to a series of commercials her “super PAC” has aired against candidates who oppose certain gun restrictions.

Michael Barone, in The New York Post, says Republicans are crippled by the “hostility or incomprehension of old-line media.”

Newt Gingrich used to love labeling President Obama as a “Saul Alinsky radical.” But new letters unearthed by The Washington Free Beacon reveal that Hillary Rodham Clinton had strong ties to the Chicago activist during her college and law school years.

And “Madam Secretary” made its long-awaited debut on CBS Sunday night. The Hollywood Reporter’s reviewer felt that some kinks still need working out but that the star, Téa Leoni, could hold the D.C. drama together while it finds its way.