But I didn't know he was also a stand-up comedian until I heard him last week at a New Hampshire Political Library dinner in Manchester.

He and Gov. Mitt Romney were asked for their thoughts about the New Hampshire primary process and why it was special. Both gave thoughtful answers, but Bradley showed a funny bone, too.

Asked the first question by CNN's Candy Crowley, Bradley heard his cell phone ring.

"Oh, hello," he answered. "It's Rudy Giuliani," he said, turning to Romney. "It's for you."

During the primary campaign, former Mayor Giuliani had famously, or infamously, interrupted more than one speaking engagement to take a cell phone call from his wife.

Later, again asked a question by Crowley, Bradley deadpanned that he would answer, but noted that he was always getting the first question. The crowd didn't have to be reminded that this had been Hillary Clinton's complaint in a TV forum with Barack Obama.

Bradley, Romney, and Crowley were all honored at the event, as was former Gov. Walter Peterson who had a role many years ago in helping to stave off an early challenge to New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary status. This one had come from a Nevada legislator whose bill would have tried to put that state ahead of us.

They didn't mention it at the dinner, but if memory serves, the state legislator was one Harry Reid, now U.S. Senate majority leader.

What they did honor at the dinner was Walter Peterson's quiet role in calling his fellow governor, Nevada's Paul Laxalt, and explaining the importance of New Hampshire's role. Sure enough, Gov. Laxalt vetoed the Reid bill.

I wonder if another friend of Laxalt, and a fellow Nevada resident, might have also played a role in that outcome. A guy named William Loeb, who had a ranch outside Reno, was a longtime friend of Laxalt and also the owner of a certain newspaper that was, and is, quite protective of the New Hampshire primary.

Who knew?