According to Santorum, the nature of their job requires senators to be mobile, and the use of Palm devices affords them the quick and easy access to information they need. He believes that the use of handheld computers will eventually become commonplace, mirroring the gradual adoption of desktop computers over the last few decades.

Until that time comes, however, he expects his Palm VII to continue to attract attention from his peers as he wows them with his ability to pull up-to-the-minute information literally out of thin air.

"Just yesterday I was presiding over the Republican Conference," Santorum said, "and Pete Domenici (R-NM) was pitching the budget and mentioned that when he left the floor, the market was down 400 points. So I just flipped up my little wand there and got on and checked the Dow Jones chart." The market had rebounded on Thursday, so Santorum continued, "As Pete was finishing his sentence… I said, 'No, Pete, the market's only down a hundred.' About three guys said, 'Jeez, how'd you do that?' So they all grabbed my [Palm VII] and started to play around with it."

This just goes to show, Santorum said, that more widespread acceptance of the Palm device will come as people gain exposure to its capabilities. He and his fellow Palm device users in the Republican Conference hope that the incredible benefits in cost savings and communication that mobile computing affords will give them an extra competitive advantage over the opposition.

Steve Niles is Senior Editor for ZATZ Publishing. He is also an independent filmmaker and freelance writer. For more information, visit http://www.sn-films.com.