WASHINGTON INSIGHT

FORKS IN THE ROAD: What Sen. George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) may really be in line for down the road is secretary of state--if Warren Christopher, as some expect, steps down before President Clinton’s term is over. That’s the speculation around town, and Mitchell is doing nothing to discourage it. In fact, he would give such an offer “serious consideration,” said his spokeswoman, Mary Ann Hill. . . . When Mitchell withdrew his name from consideration for a Supreme Court seat, many figured that he could still slip into chief justice robes if William H. Rehnquist retires in the next few years, as anticipated. But analysts say they believe that Mitchell, now 60, might be adjudged too old for the job at that point. . . . Meanwhile, the Senate majority leader is expected to devote high energy to pushing through health care reform--a passion spawned several years ago when his mother had trouble paying for long-term care. And then, after he leaves Congress in January, Mitchell appears ready to become the well-paid commissioner of baseball--unless Clinton beckons him to the State Department.

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BUTTERING THE AXIS: Well aware that California could be crucial to Clinton’s reelection hopes in 1996, the White House is doing back flips to make nice to Los Angeles’ Republican mayor, Richard Riordan. Four mayors were invited to a South Lawn rally to boost the crime bill pending in Congress. Guess who got to introduce Clinton--and to sleep in the coveted Lincoln Bedroom the night before? Not Richard M. Daley of Chicago or two other Democratic mayors, but Riordan. In another sign of a growing Clinton-Riordan axis, the L.A. mayor recently hired as a top deputy Mary Leslie, who was Clinton’s chief California fund-raiser in the 1992 campaign. . . . Asked why he’s being buttered up, Riordan said: “Maybe the President will become a Republican,” and then he laughed.

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POWER PAIR: Roderick and Carla Anderson Hills, California natives who became big wheels in Republican administrations, are new partners at former President Richard Nixon’s old law firm, Mudge Rose Guthrie Alexander & Ferdon, in Washington. “It’s just a coincidence, though Nixon and I had the same football coach at Whittier High School,” said Roderick Hills, who goes by Rod. . . . Carla Hills, the U.S. trade representative under President George Bush, is working under a fixed-salary contract “so that she doesn’t participate in profits from any client that is foreign-based,” Rod Hills said. “She doesn’t want anybody to accuse her of using her past government connections to assist a foreign-based client who has problems with the United States.” Along with three former trade representative aides, Carla Hills also runs a consulting firm for U.S. companies doing business abroad. . . . Her husband, who headed the Securities and Exchange Commission while she was secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Gerald R. Ford, will focus on trade issues involving emerging markets and financing of projects. . . . The Hillses were forced to move to Mudge Rose after a New York-based firm in which they were partners abruptly closed in January.

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TALKS LIKE THE CROW FLIES: Irrepressible odd duck, copiously candid rare bird--that’s Rep. John R. Kasich (R-Ohio), ranking GOP member on the House Budget Committee. Explaining how a legislative provision would be worded, he told reporters: “We’ll put it into political-speak. In other words, we won’t say anything.”