North Dakota Votes Against Honoring Bono

He may have impressed the Nobel Prize folks sufficiently to squeeze a nomination out of 'em -- not to mention tickling the fancy of Pope John Paul the Second enough to get the pontiff to engage in a fashion summit -- but in the eyes of North Dakota's state legislature, Bono might as well be a footnote in the bio of the artist formerly known as Cherilyn Sarkasian.

Roughrider State lawmaker Scot Kelsh -- in an effort to be on the political cutting edge, not to mention the Fargo guest list -- proposed that his cohorts be the first state body to pass a resolution honoring the U2 singer, noting that even George W. Bush had taken the time to break bread with Bono. Such high-profile endorsements apparently didn't have much impact on the body as a whole, given the fact that the resolution was voted down by a margin of 58-to-35. Gil Herbel, one of the nay-sayers, said he thought it was a tip of the hat to fellow Republican (and former politico) Sonny Bono, adding "when I saw the resolution, I was looking for Cher 's name in there."

And here we believed the history books when they told us the Know-Nothing Party flamed out a century and a half ago.