WASHINGTON INSIGHT

LEGAL STATUS: Democratic insiders are snickering about the latest Washington status symbol--or at least White House Chief of Staff Thomas (Mack) McLarty’s failure to achieve it: a subpoena from Whitewater special counsel Robert B. Fiske Jr. While a subpoena might be seen as an onerous thing--what with its discomforting overtones of potential criminal liability--in Washington, at least, it’s proof of something crucial: that its recipient is “in the loop.” . . . That McLarty is so far without the dreaded piece of paper is a demonstration to some insiders of his detachment from day-to-day White House operations. “What’s this chief of staff doing?” asked one Democratic strategist. “They’ve subpoenaed practically everyone over there.” McLarty has hired a lawyer, and co-workers have said, perhaps hopefully, that they expect him to be subpoenaed--eventually.

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CALMING A CLASH: For decades, the FBI and CIA have been seethingly critical of each other largely because of a clash in cultures between the two agencies. The CIA is filled with tweedy, Ivy League types bearing four names and blueblood pedigrees, while FBI folk tend to be more street-level and middle-class. . . . Until recently, top officials of the two agencies believed that they had at least papered over the tensions. But the case of alleged CIA turncoat spy Aldrich H. Ames has regenerated conflicts, especially among the worker bees. Among other things, CIA regulars believe that that the FBI has leaked stories critical of their internal counterintelligence protections. . . . Now, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh and CIA Director R. James Woolsey are working once again to calm the waters. But with key members of Congress suggesting that the FBI take over counterintelligence operations, some fear that the tensions may only worsen.

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GOLDEN STATE PLAYERS: Ever more Californians are making an imprint on the Clinton Administration. Lon S. Hatamiya, who ran a Sacramento consulting firm and helped operate his family’s farm in Marysville before moving to Washington, heads the Agricultural Marketing Service at the Agriculture Department. Among other duties, he’s in charge of overseeing marketing agreements and orders, those arcane but all-important tools used to carve up commodity markets. Hatamiya knows plenty about commodities, having managed 1,200 acres of prunes, peaches, walnuts and almonds on a farm his family has tilled for nearly a century. . . . Demetri Boutris, a Los Angeles banking and securities lawyer who headed Greek Americans for the Clinton-Gore campaign in 1992, has been named executive director to U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor. Boutris and his family emigrated from Greece to California in 1972.

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CHANGE OF HEART: Last spring, when President Clinton considered making Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt his first appointment to the Supreme Court, pressure from pro-Babbitt environmentalists helped kill that idea and led to the selection of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. . . . But after watching Babbitt fail to keep his early commitments to raise grazing fees and tighten mining restrictions on public lands, many environmentalists have soured on their erstwhile hero. Even before the latest vacancy on the high court, a bumper sticker reading “Babbitt for Supreme Court” was distributed by an environmental group calling itself People of the West.