WASHINGTON INSIGHT

BAH, HUMBUG: The International Monetary Fund, which frequently plays Scrooge to developing countries by insisting that they tighten their belts in return for needed financial loans, has very little discipline itself--at least when it comes to Christmas parties. The Washington-based international organization threw a lavish year-end soiree at a downtown hotel Saturday, hiring three large ballrooms, two live bands and a deejay. Usually strait-laced IMF officials explained sheepishly that the party usually is held at IMF headquarters, but the organization had to go elsewhere this year because its building is being remodeled. IMF insiders say the $128,000 cost to entertain 2,330 revelers is being financed entirely from the “fees paid by borrowers”--i.e., the poorer countries of the world.

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QUIET RETREAT: To avert a foreign policy confrontation with the new GOP-controlled Congress. the Clinton Administration has quietly retracted its earlier appointment of a U.S. three-star general as head of the prospective United Nations military force in Haiti next year. The post was to go to Lt. Gen. Daniel R. Schroeder, an experienced Army officer and currently the deputy commander in chief of the U.S. Army in Europe. But policy-makers later discovered that under congressional procedures, appointments of three-star generals to such jobs require approval by the Senate--raising the prospect of a major dust-up with Republicans over Haiti and possibly other foreign policy issues. But if a two-star general were appointed instead, no Senate confirmation would be required. So the Defense Department is expected to announce soon that Maj. Gen. Joseph W. Kinzer, a two-star who has been serving as deputy commanding general of the 5th Army at Ft. Hood, Tex., will get the post.

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CLOSE CALL: The Pentagon is trying to quell rumors that its 1995 base-closing effort will be as Gargantuan as some critics have been predicting. Defense Secretary William J. Perry has been telling inquirers that the number of bases that the services will mark for shutdown next year will be “approximately comparable to” last year’s round--not three times as large, as some reports have hinted. He also dismissed suggestions that Congress may sidetrack the whole effort.

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NAUGHTY AND NICE: It’s easy to tell that State Department spokesman Michael D. McCurry knew where his next job was going to be. McCurry, expected to be named today as the new White House spokesman, appeared at a State Department press briefing Wednesday dressed in a Santa Claus suit to dispense a few “gifts” for those he will encounter on the road ahead, as well as a few in his rearview mirror. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, he said, is entitled to a vacation in Santa Barbara. Outgoing White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers? “Everything she deserves, which is not enough for what she’s been through.” Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, the Administration’s chief promoter of warm relations with Russia, has earned “a one-way ticket to Moscow.” Undersecretary Peter Tarnoff, who landed in hot water last year when he told reporters the Clinton Administration planned to reduce U.S. responsibilities around the world, should get “his good name back.” What about United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, with whom State Department officials have frequently expressed exasperation? Santa mused: “Boutros-Ghali, my friend Boutros-Ghali, doing such splendid work around the world. Very good man. Have to think about that one for a while.”