WASHINGTON INSIGHT

SHEDDING STRIPES: Friends of Gen. Ronald R. Fogleman are predicting that one of his first changes as new Air Force chief of staff later this year will be to scuttle the controversial officers uniform launched by his predecessor, Gen. Merrill A. McPeak, in 1991. The design, which combines an airline-style jacket and trousers with naval officers’ stripes on the sleeves, was intended to bring American Air Force uniforms closer to those of Britons and other NATO allies. But it bombed here at home, where Air Force veterans derided it as “looking like a bunch of Delta Air Lines pilots who are working for the Navy.” . . . As a result, career officers have been slow to make the transition. Williamson Murray, an Ohio State University military history professor who has known Fogleman for years, says the new boss is likely to drop the uniform--which officers must buy themselves--early in his term. “He’s very conscious of tradition,” Murray says, “and the fact is that the Air Force emanated from the Army, not from the civilian airlines.”

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THE DI-FI FLY: No single piece of legislation has meant so much to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) as the crime bill, which includes a ban on 19 types of assault-style weapons that stands as her greatest legislative achievement. So it was no wonder her face went blank and she left an interview in mid-sentence to fly FloJo-like back into the Senate chamber last Thursday night when told she, of all people, had failed to vote. . . . In fact, Feinstein already had proudly cast her “aye” vote loudly enough for everyone to hear--everyone, apparently, except the recording clerk who was taking roll. Panting, she set the record straight, averting what would have been a final paradox in the bill’s tortuous path to approval.

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STANDING ALONE: Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., formerly the executive director of the NAACP, now must realize how fickle fame can be, especially if there’s a whiff of scandal in the air. A day after he was fired as the leader of the nation’s oldest civil rights group, Chavis hosted a 2 1/2-day summit of African American leaders in Baltimore. . . . Usually such an event would attract many of the nation’s best-known, traditional civil rights leaders. Not this time. The only big name attendee was Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, and he skipped out after just one day. Chavis was fired after revelations that, without NAACP board knowledge, he disbursed $64,000 of the organization’s money--and promised to spend up to $332,000--to settle a threatened sex discrimination and wrongful discharge lawsuit brought by a former aide. . . . Chavis is suing his former bosses to regain his job. Abbey Hairston, Chavis’ attorney, has argued that the firing damaged Chavis’ reputation among civil rights leaders. The absentee list at his summit might be Exhibit A.

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CANDIDATE ORSON: Remember Orson Swindle, the memorably named Vietnam war hero who managed Ross Perot’s second campaign for the presidency in 1992? He’s back in politics, running for Congress as a Republican from his home state of Hawaii. . . . His first order of business, it seems, is trying to overcome a moniker some might regard as a handicap. His solution: play down Swindle and trumpet Orson. His campaign stationery, bumper sticker and even his business card depict his first name in large bold letters, with “Swindle” in very small print underneath. In a letter accompanying a folder of campaign material and in his official biography, he is consistently referred to as “Orson.”