WASHINGTON INSIGHT

DOWN MEMORY LANE: Military planners are looking to make the 50th anniversary of D-Day on June 6 even bigger than the 40th, when then-President Ronald Reagan played a starring role. Apart from an appearance by President Clinton, who will get a chance to parade as commander in chief, the early planning calls for a large-scale re-enactment of the Normandy landing that led to liberating Europe from the Nazis. . . . Planning for the 50th anniversary of V-J Day--which marked victory over Japan on Sept. 2, 1945--is more complicated because of Japanese sensibilities. Trying to avoid friction, U.S. military historians have already traveled to Tokyo to confer with their Japanese counterparts. One potential problem: the National Air and Space Museum’s plan to unveil in 1995 the extensively restored Enola Gay--the U.S. plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing tens of thousands and forcing Japan’s surrender.

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TERMINAL TREND? The drive to limit House members to three two-year terms is being undercut by lawmakers stampeding toward the exits on their own. The number of incumbents announcing departures from the House continues to outpace even the record-setting 1992 cycle, when 65 voluntarily gave up their seats. So far, 36 incumbents have announced they will leave at the end of this session. . . . If the trend continues, less than half the people elected to the House this November will have more than three terms under their belt. Only two decades ago, nearly two-thirds of House members had served more than three terms.

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HIP TV: You might think that insomniacs, retirees and shut-ins are most of the people who watch C-SPAN, those two cable channels that televise House and Senate proceedings and other steamy fare. Think again. . . . A C-SPAN survey of 1,400 viewers found that 77% are under 50 years old, and the largest group (40%) are in the 18-to-34 age group, the very people experts thought didn’t care about public affairs. . . . During the last presidential campaign, 58 million people tuned in at least once--and 98% of them say they voted. Which explains why politicians actually claw for time on C-SPAN.

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STICKING AROUND: Here’s one indication of who plans to be calling the shots as the Administration negotiates with Congress over health care reform. According to aides, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton will travel only on Mondays and Fridays for the rest of the year. That way, she can be in Washington when Congress does its heaviest lifting, Tuesday through Thursday.

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YOU BE THE JUDGE: Just what is Bill Clinton--Old Democrat, embracing liberal dogma, or New Democrat, practicing pragmatic moderation? Radically different answers can be found in new books from the far left and far right. . . . Author Norman Solomon spews disappointment over Clinton’s New Democrat tendencies in “False Hope.” “Amid all the talk of ‘change,’ routine economic brutality is undisturbed,” he says. . . . But a distinctly contrary view is taken in a booklet mailed to subscribers of the conservative Human Events magazine. Spotlighting 26 people tapped for top jobs by the President, the publication’s title is: “Clinton’s Crazies: The Loony Left Is Alive and Well in the Clinton Administration.”