WASHINGTON INSIGHT

TEED UP: President Clinton was going to present the much-awaited legislative details of his health care plan on Tuesday. But he’s not delaying it 24 hours because (as rumored) his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, didn’t want it to fall on her birthday, an aide said. It’s because House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) will be in St. Louis on Tuesday, promoting the return of pro football there--and the White House needs him for the health care bill’s kickoff hoopla.

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SERVING TWO MASTERS: Ever heard of Atul Gawande? Neither have many Washington insiders, even though the 27-year-old Harvard University medical student is a principal architect of two rival health care plans--Clinton’s and a bipartisan alternative sponsored by Reps. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) and Fred Grandy (R-Iowa). . . . Gawande was born in New York and raised in Athens, Ohio, after his parents emigrated from India for medical training. For a year, he helped Cooper develop a managed-competition plan under which groups of doctors, hospitals and insurers compete to sell health care to consumer cooperatives. It eventually became the Cooper-Grandy plan. . . . But after two years in medical school, Gawande joined Clinton’s presidential campaign as an adviser and, by several accounts, was pivotal in getting Clinton to adopt managed-competition too. After the election, the genial “boy wonder” (as some call him) helped draft major elements of the President’s final proposal. . . . While similar, the two plans differ on a critical point: Clinton requires insurance for everyone; the Cooper-Grandy plan makes it optional. So, which one does Gawande back? Clinton’s, he said after a long pause, because it has the “valuable goal of universal coverage. . . . We need to convince people like my old boss (Cooper) there is now political support out there for the employer mandates and administrative structure that Clinton would require.” Gawande has returned to Harvard--while working part time as a White House consultant.

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WRIGHTING A WRONG? The first time Jim Wright got himself published, the House threw the book at him. Now he’s returning the favor. . . . When the Texas Democrat was Speaker of the House, ethics enforcers accused him of using bulk sales of his book, “Reflections of a Public Man,” to evade House limits on speaking fees. That and other charges forced his resignation in 1989. . . . Now Wright is using a new tome, “Worth It All: My War for Peace,” to get even--and to reclaim his reputation. “Unconstitutional meddler in foreign policy--or historic peacemaker?” the book jacket asks rhetorically. “Maker of illegal deals--or victim of a calculated campaign of dirty tricks, plots and media frenzy that led him to resign?” The answers can be had for $22 by acquiring the book at a party set for Wednesday in a Washington nightclub. A gaggle of VIPs, including Wright’s successor, Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.), are invited.

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MONEY TALKS: Since posting a $1-million reward Oct. 6, the government has been deluged with calls offering information on a series of university faculty bombings. More than 300 people have provided leads being checked by investigators. Many say they know or are “Nathan R,” the name jotted on a phone call reminder slip by someone believed to be the bomber.