WASHINGTON WATCH: A QUICK TOUR OF WASHINGTON CONVERSATION

Here's a quick look at some of the topics being discussed in the nation's capital.

Hillary Rodham ClintonThe First Lady has been struggling to make a comeback since the American people's negative opinion of her skyrocketed during the health care debate. The latest step on her path to rehabilitation, which in a month has taken her from attacking those who disagree with her to near invisibility, is an exclusive interview with Newsweek magazine about her religious convictions."The secular press doesn't know how to talk about religion except in stereotypes," Clinton said. "I think they've done a great disservice to many people who are in what is loosely called the religious right. ...(although) I think some of their leaders are, as Pharisees have always been, willing to manipulate people for their own purposes."In the lead-in to the interview, Newsweek religion editor Kenneth Woodward writes: "Politicians may not care and the media may scoff, but the Clintons are perhaps the most openly religious First Couple this century has seen. The president is a hymn-humming, sermon-loving, liberal Southern Baptist who studied under the Jesuits of Georgetown and feels at home in any kind of pew. But Mrs. Clinton is cut from old, less expressive Methodist stock, and these days she feels like a battered woman."Asked if she was comfortable with schools' distributing condoms, Clinton, who is shown in a full-page photo with her hands as in prayer, replied: "No, I'm not comfortable with that. I would much prefer that every child be given appropriate guidance and discipline so that that was never an issue.""But I also think," the First Lady continued, "that it is a problem that has to be addressed in certain parts of the country where, for whatever reasons, family and religion have failed to do their jobs."Who's hypocritical.

With President Clinton out of the country, the job of attacking the House Republican's "Contract With America" has fallen to Vice-President Al Gore. Missing from Gore's diatribes, however, is any mention of the contract's contents. Apparently, White House pollster Stan Greenberg has warned Democrats that the contents of the Republican's plan are too popular. Better to ignore its specific points about term limits and a balanced budget amendment, Greenberg warns, and simply call it a stealth attack upon "Medicare, Social Security and agriculture programs." But none of these programs are actually mentioned in the contract.

Meanwhile, Democratic political strategists continue to curse under their breath White House budget director Alice Rivlin, who sent a memo to President Clinton last week outlining a broad range of options for next year's budget, including tax increases and cuts in Medicare and Social Security. The memo gave Republicans an opening to point out the hypocrisy of the Democrats attacks upon "Contract With America." At least one capital newspaper picked up the charge. "'Hypocrites!' was the initial and widespread reaction to the White House budget memo leaked over the weekend," wrote the Washington Times. "And a justified sentiment it was, what with Bill Clinton putting deadly Social Security cuts into the mouths of Republicans while indulging in the possibility of just such cuts himself."Rivlin, who has been doing damage control all week, admits it would have been politically smarter to wait until after the elections before writing such a memo.

Republican mandate.

It's beginning to dawn on beltway pundits that 1994 may not be the year of anti-incumbency, as it has been depicted for several weeks by the media here. Voters may be "surly, frustrated and angry" as described, but most of their disapproval is aimed at Bill Clinton and other Democrats, specifically those in the South. Polls indicate that few Republican incumbents are endangered, and many who were expected to be challenged earlier in the year are finding themselves with sizable leads less than two weeks before election day. Nowhere is this more apparent than in gubernatorial races.

Richard Berke reports in the New York Times:"In all of the 36 gubernatorial contests, the only Republican governor who is well behind in the polls is Fife Symington of Arizona, who faces serious legal troubles over his involvement in a savings and loan association that failed."In fact, Republicans have an outside chance of gaining control of the governor's office in eight of the nation's most populous states."By gaining control of the governorships in the biggest states," writes Berke, "Republicans would also get an advantage in setting a national agenda on issues. Already, conservatives are boasting that the fact that governors of Michigan, Ohio and Massachusetts are well ahead of their rivals demonstrates that their tax-cutting initiatives have been well-received by the voters."Another Republican governor, who was expected to be seriously challenged this year but isn't, is Jim Edgar of Illinois.

Foreign Policy PresidentPresident Clinton is justifiably pleased to make it through a few weeks without a foreign policy disaster. But beneath the headlined successes in Iraq, a clear victory for the United States that all Americans should cheer, and Haiti, where the most dangerous part of the mission still remains, trouble continues to brew. The White House' trumpeting of the treaty with North Korea has failed to convince most foreign policy experts. Even the editorial board of the Washington Post, which has been a big Clinton booster, points out that "the accord sets an international precedent that lets the North Koreans keep hiding for years the very facilities whose inspection would show their nuclear cheating to date." Bosnia, too, continues to be a sticky mess for the Clinton administration.

There is little to gain for Republicans to focus on international affairs before next month's election, but look soon afterwards for questions about the cost of Clinton's involvements abroad to start popping up. Most Americans don't realize how many millions of dollars a day it is costing them to be in places like Haiti.

Jon K. Rust is a Washington-based writer for the Southeast Missourian.