WASHINGTON INSIGHT

DEAR DIARY: Can’t get enough of fallen Oregon Sen. Bob Packwood’s diary? Look in your bookstore soon. Time Books has agreed to publish 100,000 copies of the Senate Ethics Committee’s entire 10,145-page report, including the soon-to-be-ex’s diary, where you can find such riveting passages as: Jan. 14, 1993. 5:30 p.m. “Had an apple and a hamburger and milk, and then went out shopping at the Safeway. God, it’s such a much better store than the Giant.” And this: Feb. 2, 1992. 3 p.m. “Went home. Thought, I’ll buy those two wall-mounted telephones this afternoon and put them in. . . . I bought a couple. And I said, will these mount on the wall? They said, yes. So I bought some connecting cord.” And this: March 20, 1992. “Came to the office and got most of the work done. . . . Went down and used the hot tub for 20 minutes. . . . I came out and I tried something. I just blew my hair. I didn’t use any gel on it at all. I just blew it until it was about dry, combed it. . . . It had just the right amount of bounce to it and wave to it. I came back rather confident.”

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OIL SURPRISE: Rather than waiting for the Republican Congress to strike first, President Clinton is expected to plunge into the budding debate over oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. As early as next week, Clinton could sign an executive order giving the refuge greater protection by changing its status to national monument. The Administration has opposed oil and gas operations on the vast northwestern Alaska coastal plain, whose estimated 3 billion barrels of oil make it potentially one of the three largest oil reserves in U.S. history. Republicans in Congress, led by Alaskans who chair the House and Senate natural resources committees, favor opening the refuge to drilling and were preparing legislation Clinton would be forced to veto. Clinton’s order, which is said by a source close to the issue to be under debate at top levels, would require no congressional approval. But Congress could remove the funding or seek to reverse the President through some other legislative method.

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COUNTING CHICKENS: The Republican National Committee, as part of its inducement for party members to pay $1,000 to join the President’s Club, is offering to make them honored guests in January, 1997, at the inauguration of “our next Republican President of the United States.” Club members are offered “priority reservations for the official swearing-in ceremonies, the inaugural parade and balls and other special inaugural events.” Former Vice President Dan Quayle recently sent letters to thousands of people offering congratulations on being nominated to the club, organized in 1981. The major fund-raising arm of the party requires a $1,000 annual contribution and lists such benefits as attending meetings in Washington Oct. 9-10 to hear talks by GOP presidential candidates and other party figures.

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FIRST ROCKER: For many baby boomers, President Richard Nixon and rock music go together like ice cream and ketchup. But wait. First Brother Roger Clinton and his band--The Politics--will play at the Nixon library Sept. 23 in a program called “Rockin’ the White House: Four Decades of the President and Popular Music.” The hep cats at the Nixon library are calling the performance “Nixonpalooza,” a play on the popular Lollapalooza tour by alternative rock groups. So maybe Nixon’s cool-meter is about to rise. After all, he did pose for that famous White House picture with Elvis.