TRANSITION WATCH

BILL & THE SUPREMES: Ever since President-elect Bill Clinton swung by the Supreme Court for a courtesy call last month, the justices, even conservative Republican appointees, have been singing his praises. They were surprised he knew so much about them, sources say--and were charmed by his talk of their similar backgrounds. . . . Unlike President Bush, a Texas oilman who mocks lawyers and their “tasseled loafers,” Clinton is a Yale Law School graduate who taught constitutional law at the University of Arkansas and served as the state’s attorney general. He’s even a member of the Supreme Court bar, he proudly told the justices. . . . The President-elect chatted enthusiastically with each justice, recalling with Clarence Thomas their days at Yale and impressing Anthony M. Kennedy with knowledge of Kennedy’s teaching career in Sacramento. Clinton stayed longer than anticipated, to the delight of everyone but Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, a stickler for the clock.

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A JUNGLE OUT THERE: As head of the Environmental Protection Agency, William K. Reilly spent his most unpleasant moments at last summer’s Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, defending Bush Administration policies that he opposed. Soon after leaving office he will return to Brazil, this time to explore the Amazon River and rain forests, whose protection he champions. . . . Then he will take a desk at the World Wildlife Fund, which he once ran, and look into hosting a TV show on the environment, friends say.

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FITZ ‘N’ TUT, INC.? White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater and former State Department spokeswoman Margaret D. Tutwiler say they are thinking about setting up a lobbying/public relations firm. First, however, Fitzwater will go on a speaking tour and Tutwiler will have to answer prosecutors’ questions about her possible role in the Clinton passport-search scandal.

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OVERLOOKED OVERTURE? United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has been trying to meet with the President-elect before Inauguration Day but is not sure the Bush Administration likes the idea. Chatting with reporters while flying into Somalia a few days ago, the secretary general said he had broached the matter to Vice President Dan Quayle while both attended peace ceremonies in El Salvador last month. Quayle told him that he would check on whether President Bush had any objection and let him know. No reply came.

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ZZZZZZZ: Sominex won’t work? Try the complete text of Clinton’s economic conference held last month. The Federal News Service is publishing the book this week through Penguin USA. “It will be an invaluable source of insight for Washington policy-makers and members of the media as to how Clinton Administration officials plan to govern America,” FNS says. . . . Critics did praise the conference, but even Clinton appeared to nod off once.

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LAST LICKS: A banner created by Bush aides, reading “We Will Be Back,” hung briefly outside the Old Executive Office Building next to the White House, until it was ordered down. . . . A video prepared by Clinton’s staff shows a string of TV pundits declaring before Election Day that the Arkansan was unelectable--to the tune of Frank Sinatra singing, “Who’s got the last laugh now?”