WASHINGTON INSIGHT

NO DESERTERS: Newt Gingrich, grand architect of the Republican revolution, likes those GOP posts and lintels right where they are, thank you. The House Speaker does not want any of his three House Republican colleagues from Georgia to seek the Senate seat being vacated by Georgia Democrat Sam Nunn, says a source close to Gingrich. Although Georgia politics undoubtedly plays a role, Gingrich contends that Reps. Mac Collins, Jack Kingston and John Linder are too valuable to the Republican effort in the House to leave, the source says. “Let’s just say he likes the delegation the way it is.” Linder, who plans to decide on his candidacy in the coming weeks, says Gingrich has discouraged him from running. “He needs people to stay around.”

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POWELL’S BANDWAGON: Not content with waiting for New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary in February, Colin L. Powell fans are talking about getting votes in the much-heralded Florida straw poll next month in Orlando. Convention Chairman Jeb Bush has ruled that Powell’s name won’t go on the ballot unless he formally declares his candidacy. Because Powell is expected to announce his plans around convention time, officials are thinking about printing a backup ballot with his name on it--just in case. And even if Powell has not formally announced, Mark Wallace, head of a Sunshine State effort to draft the former general, says he will urge uncommitted delegates to nominate him. Not to be overlooked: Powell will be in Orlando to give a speech Nov. 18--the day the 3,500 conventioneers cast ballots.

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FLOGGING FIDEL: As that Florida straw poll approaches, Republican presidential candidates are trying to curry support from the influential Cuban American community by pouncing on President Clinton’s likely decision to allow Cuban leader Fidel Castro into the United States to address the United Nations. Castro, despised by Florida’s large population of Cuban exiles, should be allowed to enter the country only to “go to jail,” said Texas Sen. Phil Gramm. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) is threatening to push legislation barring Castro’s entry.

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ABORTED MESSAGE: The National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League sent surprising word in a recent fund-raising letter: Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), an ardent abortion-rights supporter, had flip-flopped on the issue. Astonishing, if it was true. The organization concedes that it incorrectly reported Waxman’s voting record in the 976 letters sent to his district and, blaming a computer glitch, says it goofed on all 64,000 letters sent to congressional districts nationwide. The group followed up with mea culpa letters, and lawmakers received apologies from league President Kate Michelman.

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DOUBLE TAKE: Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes your government says you’re doing both at the same time. According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s just-released fuel economy estimates for 1996 cars, buyers of Chevrolet Caprice or Buick Roadmaster station wagons have made wise choices. Their autos have the highest mileage among vehicles in the “large station wagon” class--17 miles a gallon in the city and 26 on the highways. Great news, unless you read on to the list of lowest mileage cars. Guess which two are the gas guzzlers among large station wagons? Pestered for an explanation, EPA spokeswoman Martha Casey said the two are the only vehicles in their class, earning them “the honor of bearing both titles.”