WASHINGTON INSIGHT

OVER THERE--AGAIN? White House political strategists worry that President Bush’s trip to Madrid this week could heighten his vulnerability to Democratic charges that he is ignoring urgent domestic issues.

Besides the summit Tuesday with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev--and the kickoff for the Middle East peace conference Wednesday--Bush has scheduled 19 days of travel abroad by early December.

White House aides fear the Democrats, who so far have made only modest inroads with complaints about the “foreign affairs President,” will be able to capitalize on the growing anxiety about the economy, particularly amid fresh evidence that the recovery may be faltering. The Administration and congressional Democrats are likely to find themselves in a major confrontation over a tax cut, and the lawmakers are certain to use Bush’s veto of extended unemployment pay to bolster their assertions that he is insensitive to the impact of the slump.

THICKENING PLOT: The scandal over the Bank of Credit & Commerce International widens as government investigators and authorities here and overseas broaden their inquiries.

Manhattan Dist. Atty. Robert M. Morgenthau is pressing for further indictments, this time perhaps involving fraud in international lending. The Justice Department has dispatched FBI agents to interview potential witnesses in the United States and abroad and the General Accounting Office, Congress’ watchdog agency, opens its own investigation as to whether the bank made political payoffs in the United States. Although GAO officials will not comment, some authorities speculate that members of Congress may be involved.

Onlookers say the public hearings on BCCI in Congress have fallen wide of the mark. The House Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs Committee, the most aggressive panel investigating the scandal, is being impeded by internal problems, and the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee so far has been ineffectual. Even with increased FBI activity, insiders say that Morgenthau still is having trouble getting the Justice Department to cooperate fully.

BACK IN THE SADDLE: John H. Sununu has quietly regained his power as White House chief of staff since the President temporarily muzzled him over the apparent misuse of government aircraft for political and personal trips.

Although Sununu seems to be keeping a low profile, White House insiders say he has quietly marshaled his forces and is again calling the shots on a wide range of domestic and foreign issues, from the effort to fashion a tax-cut package to the handling of the Clarence Thomas nomination. Other White House aides say that part of the increase in Sununu’s influence stems from the emergence of the economy as a major issue and from the start of the campaign season. And he is moving slowly back into the public limelight--with more frequent appearances on TV talk shows and at Bush’s side in photo-opportunity sessions.

FOND MEMORIES? The Pentagon launches a $10-million “history” project to commemorate the Cold War. This brainchild of Congress will establish an archive of “biological, geophysical, cultural and historical” items “connected with the origins and development of the Cold War.” Among the possible first entries: a missile silo, souvenirs of a partitioned Berlin and a 1950s film showing schoolchildren how to crawl under their desks to protect themselves in a nuclear attack.