MANCHESTER, N.H. - It's not every night Senator Judd Gregg is out partying at 3 a.m.
Especially in the company of ''The Setup,'' a teenage ska band from Manchester.
But there the gray-haired senator was, wide-eyed and giddy at the Manchester airport early yesterday, leading a dead-of-night rally for Governor George W. Bush as he flew in from Iowa. Dozens of Bush volunteers were there, too, oblivious to the time of night, clapping and swaying as music blared from a loudspeaker in the corner of the hangar.
They weren't unique among campaigns. They just happened to place first in the mid-air race to fly to New Hampshire after the caucuses in Iowa.
And what a finish line it was.
Down the hall from Bush, hundreds of students carrying signs for Bill Bradley were dancing in the lobby, some with slogans scribbled on their faces in blue paint.
On the runway, normally empty at that hour of night, Bush's plane arrived just minutes before that of his rival, millionaire publisher Steve Forbes, who had two buses waiting on the tarmac.
Air Force Two came minutes after that, carrying Vice President Al Gore.
Then Bradley, flanked by Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska and Harvard University professor Cornel West, stormed the lobby just before 3:30 a.m., contributing to one of the most unusual nights the sleepy airport had ever seen.
Even Representative Charles Bass, the New Hampshire Republican, had to admit the whole thing was a little nuts - especially on a Tuesday.
''I think people want to make a good first impression,'' Bass said, before joining in a chant for Bush. ''We have a lot of enthusiastic supporters who are willing to come out in the middle of the night, which is crazy.''
Not that it was too late in the evening for Bass to offer a little political spin.
''I think it's interesting to see who doesn't have a representation here,'' he said, referring to the absence of Senator John McCain of Arizona, who already was in the state campaigning.
Arriving shortly before 2:30 a.m., Bush spoke to the crowd, shook some hands and then sat down for some television interviews - oblivious to the tunes in the lobby and the nearby screams as Bradley took the stage.
Then, shortly before 4 a.m., the Bush team got revenge, cranking up the stereo as Bush, his wife, and several aides boarded his campaign bus and headed, at last, for their hotel in Merrimack.
But it was the farewell tune that frightened some weary fans: ''You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet.''
