WASHINGTON INSIGHT

BAD BOY, GOOD BOY: A White House morality play (aimed at congressional mavericks) spins on. After punishing Sen. Richard C. Shelby (D-Ala.) for strafing President Clinton’s economic plan, the White House is rewarding the state’s other Democratic senator, Howell Heflin, for backing it. Shelby saw 90 space station jobs rocket from Huntsville, Ala., to Houston after he blasted the plan’s spending and taxes. In contrast, Heflin got 500 Alabama jobs restored in Clinton’s budget after he announced “95% support” for the economic package. Clinton had called for closing the National Fertilizer and Environmental Research Center at Muscle Shoals, Ala., saving $34 million a year. But Heflin caught Vice President Al Gore in the Senate gym and convinced the Administration’s First Greenie that the center was doing vital wetlands studies. . . . Ironically, this drama has a reverse twist in Alabama: Shelby is winning points for standing up to Clinton, while Heflin is taking flak from constituents for supporting the President’s tax increases.