LONESOME GUN:

Republican presidential hopeful Richard Lugar released an ad Thursday that portrays him as the only cool head in the field on gun control. "Being a conservative doesn't mean you have to lose your common sense," the 30-second, televised spot informs Iowa voters. The Indiana senator, who says he believes in Americans' rights to own a gun "for self-protection, to hunt and to collect," stresses that he was the only member of Congress running for the nomination to have opposed the 1994 assault weapons ban vetoed by President Clinton. The ad concludes: "There is no right to sweep a playground with an assault weapon."