WASHINGTON INSIGHT

TIMELY GETAWAY: The American Bankers Assn. couldn’t have asked for better timing for the annual retreat it hosts for congressional staffers. Two days before the House Banking Committee took up major banking legislation earlier this month, 15 to 20 congressional staffers--primarily from the House and Senate banking panels--gathered at the association’s expense at The Homestead, a posh resort in Hot Springs, Va. The agenda for the weekend retreat included golf, tennis, horseback riding and discussion of legislation that would repeal major provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act, one of the most significant banking statutes to come out of the Great Depression. The bankers group and Republican lawmakers strongly favor the legislation, which would give commercial banks greater freedom to enter securities markets by lowering the barrier between Wall Street and commercial banking. Some consumer groups warn this could lead to risky investments being made with taxpayer-insured funds, recalling the savings and loan debacle. The committee approved the measure. Edward Yingling, the bankers’ chief lobbyist, said the event was scheduled two months in advance and the timing was coincidental. But the attention the event has generated is hardly welcome. The bankers association refused to release a list of attendees.

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LIFE FORMS: For those who fear American election campaigns boil down to a scramble for the center, there is this bit of proof from Federal Election Commission records that life exists, if only marginally, at the political extremes. On the far right: The political action committee Americans for Fascism filed a statement from its headquarters in Branchville, N.J., reporting income and expenses for the third quarter of 1994 (a grand total of $380). On the far left: Richard Grayson from Gainesville, Fla., filed a statement of candidacy for Congress last year identifying his campaign committee as God Hates Republicans, a title that led inevitably to this question: If that were true, why did Grayson receive just 152 votes as a write-in candidate for the seat won by Rep. Michael Bilirakis, a Republican?

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IF YOU LEGISLATE: As the Senate Finance Committee opened its debate on welfare Wednesday, Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (D-Ill.) declared that Chairman Bob Packwood’s (R-Ore.) proposal to give states authority over cash assistance for poor families was a “ ‘Field of Dreams’ approach.” It is based on the assumption, she said, that “if you kick them off the rolls, they will work.”

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ETHICS ADVOCATE: Former Los Angeles Rep. Mel Levine has jumped into one of the hottest ethics battles on Capitol Hill. Levine, a Democrat who has been practicing law in Los Angeles and Washington since he lost a 1992 Senate bid, has been retained as a co-counsel for Rep. Robert G. Torricelli (D-N.J.). House Republicans have called for an ethics investigation of Torricelli for allegedly violating a secrecy oath by revealing a link between the Central Intelligence Agency and the killing of an American in Guatemala. Torricelli, who welcomed the ethics inquiry, insists that maintaining secrecy on the murder would only have served to cover up criminal acts--thereby violating his congressional oath to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the United States. Levine, an ex-member of the Foreign Affairs and Judiciary committees, will be joined by former Rep. Jim Courter, a New Jersey Republican. Said Levine: “Bob has an important case that needs clarification.”