CLINTON, CONGRESS MEET HALF WAY AT NATIONAL ART GALLERY

Bill Clinton is a career politician just as Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman were career politicians. To use the standard phrase, Clinton has never met a payroll, the way Herbert Hoover, Jimmy Carter and George Bush met payrolls in their pre-political, civilian days. Clinton has, however, spent an enormous amount of time studying the modern presidency. When the teenage Bill Clinton shook hands with John Kennedy in the Rose Garden, his mind was already thinking about traveling his own road to the White House.

Clinton's presidential campaign showed that he could learn the lessons of the misbegotten Dukakis effort of 1988. Clinton would not make the strategic mistakes of Dukakis groping for a convincing message and not responding to attacks. The Arkansas governor had a message jobs, jobs, jobs and he would respond within minutes to any attack and blunt it before it could take hold.

Clinton has also studied the Carter presidency to learn the mistakes to avoid once in office. Carter was basically a loner. He was innately suspicious of the federal government he was elected to run. He viewed Congress with enormous distrust. Carter, like Hoover, was an engineer who thought he could make every decision in the minutiae of policy and that Congress would march to his orders in every detail.

It was a curious thing about Jimmy Carter that although he distrusted those who worked "inside the Beltway," he nevertheless felt that the federal government should play an expanded role. In his first 100 days, he sent an avalanche of major legislation to Capitol Hill.

Listed are the proposals and date proposed to Congress. Emergency Natural Gas Plan, Jan. 26; Economic Stimulus, Jan. 31; Reorganization Authority Request, Feb. 4; Budget Revisions 1978, Feb. 22; Energy Reorganization, March 1; Youth Employment, March 9; Tanker Safety, March 17; Election Law Proposals, March 22 Voter Registration, Campaign Financing, Federal Election Campaign Act, Direct Popular Election of President, Political Rights of Federal Employers; International Broadcasts, March 22; Drought Aid, March 23; Consumer Agency, April 6; Energy Crisis Proposals, April 20; Hospital Cost Containment Act of 1977, April 25; Child Health Assessment Care Program, April 25; Ethics in Government Act, May 3; Social Security Financing Changes, May 9.

The House and Senate were overwhelmed. They couldn't digest such a huge agenda. Congress began to simmer in disquietude and later it burned when the president issued a "hit list" of 18 major pork projects near and dear to many legislators. The corridor whisper was: If Jimmy is going to dump the pork, we'll dump Jimmy's legislative extravaganza. The political war was on.

Sixteen years later in 1993, there will be a meeting of minds. Clinton wants no war. Congress will not want only unmake the Clinton presidency. Peace will be struck midway between the Capitol and the White House right about where the National Gallery of Art is located.