Barry Cohen, a Rockville plastic surgeon, is more blunt. “He clearly has had Botox,” the doctor, a Republican, told us. “The lines are gone on his forehead. There is no way makeup or surgery could do that.” Georgetown spa owner Erwin Gomez, who knows his way around some of D.C.’s most scrupulously groomed faces, agrees: “On the right and the left temple, you can see the lines, but he has no wrinkles in the forehead.” He suspects the senator had a shot of Botox in his brow to disable his scowl muscle — which can also bring an unwanted heaviness to the eyelids.

Well? “Completely untrue, completely unsubstantiated,” said Biden spokesman David Wade. “A lot of Americans will have fewer worry lines on their faces” when George Bush is out office, he added. “But my goodness, until then can’t we actually talk about the economy, the millions of foreclosures and the fact that Americans lost 2 trillion bucks in their 401(k)s this month? Seriously.”