WASHINGTON INSIGHT

MISSING LINK: Though Kansas Sen. Bob Dole has collected far more endorsements from party bigwigs than his competitors for the GOP presidential nomination, there is still one holdout Dole would dearly love to add to his collection. That is Steve Merrill, governor of New Hampshire, which happens to be site of the nation’s first presidential primary. Merrill so far has remained steadfastly neutral. This week, Dole breathed a sigh of relief when his New Hampshire agents reported to him that Merrill had turned aside an appeal from Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, Dole’s chief rival thus far. Gramm had been hoping his success in the Iowa straw poll, in which he deadlocked with Dole, would gain him Merrill’s blessing. Dole has good reason to put a high value on the endorsement, saying he “found out in 1988 what a governor can do.” That was the year when New Hampshire Gov. John H. Sununu helped George Bush score a come-from-behind victory in the state primary, a triumph that doomed Dole’s own hopes of winning the nomination.

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STALKING CALIFORNIA: President Clinton will extend his stay away from Washington for a couple of days next week to attend political events in California as part of his continuing quest for the Golden State’s electoral vote bonanza. After commemorating the World War II victory over Japan in Hawaii, Clinton will fly to Monterey on Sept. 3, spending the night at the home of Democratic fund-raiser Truman Arnold. He will discuss defense conversion with students at Cal State Monterey Bay the next day, then fly to Alameda for the traditional Democratic Labor Day picnic. He returns to Monterey that evening and hopes to play the fabled Pebble Beach golf course Tuesday. The White House is tentatively planning a stop in the Central Valley later that day before Clinton returns to Washington Tuesday night, ending the longest absence from the capital of his presidency--three weeks.

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BAILING OUT: The latest defection from the Clinton Administration is among its most heralded foreign policy appointments. Harvard University announced Monday that Joseph S. Nye Jr., assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs and former chairman of the National Intelligence Council, the think tank for all U.S. intelligence outlets, has been appointed dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Nye, a Rhodes scholar and a popular Harvard professor before he came to Washington, was said by colleagues to be among the growing number of officials frustrated by the ineffectiveness of U.S. foreign policy. He’ll leave in December--in time to avoid the campaign season.

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NEWTERED: After two years with President (Elvis) Clinton as a favorite target, the Capitol Steps, a merry band of “current and recovering” congressional staffers who perform bipartisan political satire in song, is taking aim at House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and his loyalists. The group, a fixture on the Washington political scene, has released an album with the title song: “A Whole Newt World.” The disc also features a number sung to the tune of “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” (or, in this case, “Supercallousmeanandnastyrightwing legislation”). An excerpt:

“Noisy Newts, white men in suits, give you the jeepus creepus

Of all the recent Congresses, this one could be the cheapus

Push people off the public trough

Let’s treat ‘em like grim reapus

We’ll make a bet that you’ll forget

You do . . . not . . . have . . . to . . . keep . . . us.”