WASHINGTON INSIGHT

CHILD PORN UPROAR: A perceived softening of the Justice Department’s view of what constitutes prosecutable child pornography did more than produce a unanimous Senate resolution expressing outrage and a letter of rebuke from President Clinton to Atty. Gen. Janet Reno. It resulted in so many calls to the department that the phones lines were jammed as they’ve never been jammed before. Department officials even had trouble using their own office phones. . . . With as many as 150 calls an hour pouring in from across the country urging the government to take a tougher stance, technicians came to the rescue. They installed bypass devices on Reno’s phone, along with those used by Deputy Atty. Gen. Philip B. Heymann and Jo Ann Harris, the new head of the criminal division. Callers with comments for those officials were shunted to a special corps of message-takers. . . . The telephone flood appears to have been instigated by two major Christian right organizations--Focus on the Family, led by James Dobson, and the American Family Assn., whose protest was headed by former Justice Department chief obscenity prosecutor Patrick Trueman. . . . “We haven’t had this many calls since the flap over acid rain several years ago,” one official said.

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FIRING BACK: After taking a direct hit from the National Rifle Assn., the Federal Election Commission is returning fire with a clever flick of the trigger finger. . . . Two years ago, the FEC accused the gun lobby of illegally using $415,000 in corporate funds in the 1988 election. In a challenge to the ruling, the NRA called the FEC’s structure unconstitutional because the executive agency included two congressional officials (the secretary of the Senate and the clerk of the House) among its eight commissioners. A federal appeals court recently agreed. . . . In retaliation, the FEC simply dropped the officials from its board and reaffirmed the validity of advisory opinions and regulations under its old structure. FEC general counsel Lawrence Noble says the reconstituted commission could reaffirm its ruling against the NRA but will wait until it sees what action the Supreme Court takes in the NRA matter. He adds that other pending enforcement cases will move ahead.

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DON’T FORGET PLANK-WALKING: During Congress’ long recess, House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) will be on the lookout for leadership tips in “Master and Commander,” the new-rage Patrick O’Brian novel about an English ship captain in the Napoleonic wars. “There’s a lot about the 18th Century that I miss, including a certain respect for authority,” Foley quipped, referring to his troubles rounding up Democratic votes this year. “Flogging is good. Keel-hauling is good. Court-martialing,” Foley rolled on mirthfully, mindful of the wheel-spinning he is often reduced to on Capitol Hill. “Yeah, a lot of things are good.”

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PIN MONEY: Former President George Bush may be out of office, but he’s still using its trappings. In Hong Kong during a lecture tour of Asia sponsored by Citibank, Bush had a quick supper in the Regent Hotel coffee shop. When a Times reporter seated nearby asked the waiter what kind of tipper Bush was, the somewhat chagrined young man pulled out a lapel pin bearing the U.S. presidential seal.