WASHINGTON INSIGHT

BUSH BLITZ READIED: President Bush is planning a last-minute campaign blitz to help GOP candidates just before the Nov. 6 election. The White House has reserved the last five days before the balloting for political travel by the President, but will not decide which states he will visit until almost the last minute. Poll-watchers will be sifting through the data to see where Bush can help most.

High on Bush’s likely list are two races for governor--the Pete Wilson-Dianne Feinstein campaign in California , which polls show is a dead heat, and the Lawton Chiles-Bob Martinez contest in Florida, where Republican Martinez, the incumbent, is believed to be catching up with Chiles, a former Democratic senator.

A WHITE HOUSE DIVIDED?: John H. Sununu’s unspoken prohibition against public backbiting by staffers in the executive mansion may be about to backfire--on the President’s chief of staff himself. There’s growing resentment among White House staffers that the former New Hampshire governor didn’t warn Bush in advance about the likely unpopularity of the budget summit agreement that he and Budget Director Richard G. Darman negotiated. Critics say the often-irascible chief of staff--himself sold on the merits of the agreement--kept opposing views away from the President. Sununu has publicly rejected such charges, blaming Congress for shying away from a meritorious package. And Bush has expressed confidence in his staff chief. But restoring the once-vaunted harmony in the staff will be a difficult task.

GOLDEN VIC: Rep. Vic Fazio (D-Sacramento) has had a change of heart and will accept a job as head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee after the November election, Capitol insiders say. Fazio, the respected vice chairman of the party’s House caucus, initially had forsworn any interest in the post, but sources said House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) has persuaded him to reconsider. The stakes are high as the party approaches the redrawing of new congressional districts after the 1990 census.

Fazio is the Democratic point man on reapportionment. As such, his political action committee, IMPAC 2000, has raised millions of dollars to assist party candidates nationwide and defeat redistricting initiatives in California that were anathema to Democrats. “You need a prolific fund-raiser, an expert on redistricting and somebody with some stature,” says a Hill staffer familiar with the behind-the-scenes machinations. “Vic is golden.”

JAPAN REPORTEDLY IRKED: Japan is said to be fuming because President Bush has appointed Vice President Dan Quayle to be the head of the U.S. delegation attending the coronation of Emperor Akihito in mid-November. Although Quayle technically has sufficient rank, Tokyo had been hoping for someone more “substantial”--such as Secretary of State James A. Baker III--Japanese sources say.

EVENHANDED: Newly installed Supreme Court Associate Justice David H. Souter sends senators shaking their heads in wonder by visiting each member of the Senate Judiciary Committee--even those who opposed his nomination--to thank them for considering him. Souter tells former adversaries that he hopes to earn their confidence in the months ahead.