POLITICAL INSIGHT

CAUGHT BY SURPRISE? The White House is on the defensive on a spate of domestic issues since the slap in the face Pennsylvania voters delivered last week by electing Democrat Harris Wofford to the Senate instead of former Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh.

Although key lieutenants to President Bush insist the Administration will soon unveil its own proposals on issues such as the growing crisis in medical care, insiders concede they are virtually starting from scratch. A special task force named to come up with a health care plan has barely gotten organized, and strategists say it is likely to propose only incremental changes--hardly the dramatic stuff needed to counter Democratic proposals. Moreover, the Administration still has not hammered out “positive” responses to congressional initiatives on other sensitive issues, from transportation to family leave.

As a result, some Bush advisers fear the White House may be left paralyzed--and struggling politically--as the Democrats press ahead in the wake of their Pennsylvania victory.

WON’T TRAVEL? President Bush chafes at trying to counter Democratic charges that he is spending too much time on foreign travel in the face of mounting problems at home.

Under pressure from critics, the White House postponed Bush’s long-touted trip to Asia, with no word as to when--or if--it might be revived. And senior Bush strategists ponder convening the second U.S.-Latin American drug enforcement summit, now scheduled for February, in Houston rather than in a Latin American country as previously expected--with an emphasis on the impact of the drug problem here in the United States. The last summit, in 1989, took place in Cartagena, Colombia, largely to underscore the Administration’s contention that foreign drug lords caused the narcotics scourge. Latin governments have said the fault is America’s--for not taking more steps to combat drug use in U.S. cities.

BARR EXAM? Sen. John Kerry’s Foreign Relations subcommittee on terrorism, narcotics and international operations is seeking to subpoena Customs Service agents involved in the original undercover investigation of the Bank of Credit & Commerce International.

The decision comes as the Massachusetts Democrat and Rep. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) shift attention to the way the Justice and Treasury departments handled dozens of leads uncovered in the investigation, which led to money-laundering charges against bank officials. William P. Barr, the attorney general nominee, expects to be grilled about BCCI when his Senate confirmation hearings open Tuesday, and is likely to testify that he has been briefed daily since last July and was behind the Justice Department’s stepped-up inquiries.

UNKINDER, LESS GENTLE? The Democrats are faltering in their effort to adopt a visibly more aggressive stance and hold Bush’s feet to the fire on key political issues.

Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) has tried his hand at being the party’s heavy, launching uncharacteristically partisan attacks and asserting that Democrats will accept no less than a 20-week extension of unemployment benefits. His Democratic colleagues are failing to back him up, however, and party leadership also is splintered over how to fashion a tax cut.

As a result, Bush still holds the controlling hand, although the Pennsylvania election sent a clear signal that voters are worried about the economy.