But the former U.S. senator from North Carolina, who has weathered two presidential nominating contests with not a hair out of place, lost the look briefly on David Letterman’s show on Tuesday.

“Can I just — mess your hair up a little bit?” the late-night talk show host asked as the audience erupted.

“You want to?” Edwards laughed. “Go ahead.” 

“Do you mind?” Letterman inquired again.

“I don’t mind,” tossed back Edwards, once lambasted for spending $400 on a haircut.

“Has it ever been messed up?” Letterman asked. Edwards responded by ruffling his own hair — on the side that didn’t face the camera.

“No, no,” said Letterman, reaching out and tousling the smooth light-brown hairdo front and center. Letterman disturbed a small tuft but the candidate’s coif proved fairly resilient.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage

Photo credit: The Late Show with David Letterman

“A welcome like that, it’s almost enough to make me want to run for office again,” Cheney said, drawing laughter. “Almost, almost.”

Polls show most Americans disapprove of Cheney just as they do of his boss, President George W. Bush.

But Cheney was embraced at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, where he urged Congress to pass a White House-backed surveillance bill. But first he subjected himself to some self-deprecating humor.

“I hold an office that has only one constitutional duty — presiding over the Senate and casting tie-breaking votes,” Cheney said.

“Before the Constitution was written, some, including Benjamin Franklin, believed that the vice presidency was entirely unnecessary.  He said that if the office were to be created, anyone who served as vice president should be addressed as ‘Your Superfluous Excellency.’”

“That’s better than some of the things I’ve been called,” Cheney said, drawing more laughter.

Yes, because outside a group of demonstrators chanted, “Fire the liar, impeach Cheney.”           

The farm workers union said it “believes Hillary Clinton to be the strongest, most experienced candidate for President of the United States. She will be able to tackle our nation’s toughest problems - health care, improving the economy for working people and repairing our country’s standing in the world.”

Founded in 1962 by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, the UFW now represents some 27,000 workers.

“The farmworkers are problem solvers and we’re together going to solve the problems facing agriculture, fixing our broken immigration system and giving people just wages and fair working conditions,” Clinton said at a rally in Salinas, an agricultural area immortalized in the novel “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck, who was born in Salinas.

“As Cesar Chavez said, the fight is never about grapes or about lettuce, it is always about people and that is what this campaign is about,” Clinton said.

Many of those in the enthusiastic crowd greeting Clinton were Hispanic, shouting chants of “Viva Hillary.” Clinton and her Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama have been vying for the support of Hispanic voters who could play a key role in nominating contests in such states such as Calfiornia and Arizona, where Clinton campaigned later on Tuesday.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo: Reuters/Robert Galbraith (Sen. Clinton speaks to rally in Salinas, California, on Jan. 22)