Campaign ’96 / WASHINGTON INSIGHT

RECORDS RIDDLE: Steven Spielberg, one of Hollywood’s most creative movie-makers, is being asked to help with the Senate Whitewater inquiry headed up by Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.), who critics say has an equally vivid imagination. D’Amato sent interrogatories to Spielberg and dozens of others who were listed as being overnight guests of President Clinton in July and August of last year--a period in which an aide to Hillary Rodham Clinton said she discovered long-subpoenaed billing records from the first lady’s former law firm perched on a table in the White House residence. D’Amato wants to know if the White House guests can shed any light on the mystery. Some Democrats on the committee think it’s a hoot that D’Amato is asking Spielberg such questions as: “Have you ever seen, handled or had any communications, contacts or meetings about a collection of records, approx one-inch thick and measuring approx 11 inches by 17 inches.” Where’s Oliver Stone when you need him?

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LOUISIANA COUP: Louisiana’s attempt to hop ahead of Iowa to hold the nation’s first presidential caucuses was largely derided as poorly organized or unrepresentative because most candidates clung to the traditional Iowa proving grounds. Many observers said the conduct of the Louisiana balloting and the Republican results demonstrated that Iowa is secure in its reputation as the first indicator of presidential preference. Yet the events of the last two weeks suggest that that judgment was hasty. Commentator Patrick J. Buchanan outpolled Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) in Louisiana, did the same in Iowa and, with Gramm out of the way in New Hampshire, upset front-runner Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.). Today, the Louisiana results seem prescient, and Iowa political leaders are already expressing concern that their state will have a diminished role in the 2000 primary season.

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SOMEWHAT OBSCURE: Sen. Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, told a Washington breakfast crowd last week that he is confident the Democrats can win the South Carolina seat held by seven-term Republican Sen. Strom Thurmond. “We’ve got a strong candidate,” Dodd said. “I’m trying to think of his name.” It’s Elliott Close, and if Dodd’s memory is any indication, the 42-year-old political novice had better make good on his pledge to spend $1.5 million of his textile fortune to promote his candidacy.

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POWELL’S PULL: None of the GOP presidential hopefuls could muster much more than a quarter of the votes in the New Hampshire primary. But one man apparently had the strength to break out of the pack--if only he had run. Exit polling found that 38% of the voters would have chosen retired Gen. Colin L. Powell, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who announced in November that he would not seek the Oval Office. His support is to some extent illusory because he did not have to undergo the scrutiny of a campaign. It does, however, underline the difficult road ahead for the conservative Buchanan. Most voters who said they favored Powell, a moderate, voted instead for Dole or former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander--a strong signal that once one of those two drops out, the other is likely to take an insurmountable lead.

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DISCOUNT NEWT: Maybe it’s just a marketing ploy by the publisher, but some Washingtonians could scarcely contain their mirth this week when bookstores began offering stacks of the onetime bestseller “To Renew America,” House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s conservative prescription for the nation, at half price.