WASHINGTON INSIGHT

CHOP SHOPS: The Republican drive to put federal functions in private hands is reaching to body and soul in the House, where freshman Rep. Marshall (Mark) Sanford (R-S.C.) is sponsoring a bill that would contract out such services as the House Barber Shop, Beauty Shop, Drapery Shop and Carpet Shop, not to mention the Office of Chaplain and the Office of Photography. The legislation would demonstrate that Republicans will practice under their roof what they preach for many areas of the federal government, Sanford says, paraphrasing a biblical passage: “Rather than taking the speck out of someone else’s eye, take the stick out of your own.” The combined budgets of the services designated for private contractors total about $60 million, and GOP lawmakers note that government agencies generally reduce costs 20% by turning work over to contractors. Two highly popular services, however, would remain under House control because the legislators say they are too difficult to contract out--the House Recording Studio, which gives members cut rates for recording radio and television programs, and the folding room, which readies papers for bulk mailing.

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ROAD KILL: Rep. Vic Fazio (D-West Sacramento) appreciates the cards and flowers being sent to his congressional office--and might even find them appropriate, if only he were dead. The outpouring began after state Assemblyman Tom Hannigan introduced a bill to name part of a highway near Woodland after the nine-term lawmaker. Hearing the news, some Californians assumed the worst and expressed their sympathies. Fazio, a healthy 52, since has written a letter asking Hannigan to reconsider. Thanks, the congressman said, but it’s not a good idea to name “bridges, roads or buildings for people who are still in office, or, frankly, still alive.”

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READY ON RIGHT: If former Pennsylvania Gov. Robert P. Casey--now considering a challenge to President Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination--decides to take the plunge, he’ll be getting advice from staunchly conservative GOP strategist Jeff Bell. In fact a slot has already been set aside on the Casey bandwagon for Bell to serve as a senior consultant on strategy, media and issues. Bell has plenty of experience with presidential campaigns, but all of it in the GOP--as a a speech writer for Ronald Reagan in 1976 and 1980 and as national coordinator for Jack Kemp in 1988. Bell met Casey, an ardent opponent of abortion rights, at a 1992 gathering of anti-abortion forces and calls him “one of the most outstanding people I’ve ever met in politics--very strong, very stubborn, very courageous.” Will Casey run against Clinton? “He’s leaning that way,” Bell says. Will having a Republican partisan in his inner circle hurt Casey’s chances of gaining Democrat support for his insurgency? Bell says no. “He’ll have plenty of Democrats involved, too.”

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JACKSON’S CHOICE: The Rev. Jesse Jackson has a favorite for the Republican presidential nomination: Alan Keyes, a deeply partisan conservative radio talk show host, columnist and lecturer. “I hope he wins,” Jackson said in Memphis, Tenn., last week, and explained why Keyes, the first African American in modern times to seek the GOP nomination, should prevail over Sens. Phil Gramm of Texas and Bob Dole of Kansas, and political commentator Patrick J. Buchanan. “Alan Keyes is less mean than Gramm, more clear than Dole and more intellectually honest than Buchanan,” Jackson said.