WASHINGTON INSIGHT

UNLEASHED: The Clintons and the Gores turned out last week for a giant Democratic National Committee fund-raiser to rally the troops for the fall campaign and raise $12 million for the DNC’s political advertising. Stevie Wonder and Robin Williams entertained the 3,000 contributors, but the buzz of the evening came from First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. Taking the podium to introduce the president, she noted that her husband and Tipper Gore were considered the more “spontaneous” members of the First and Second Families, while she and the vice president were more reserved. But, she announced, if the Clinton-Gore ticket were reelected, all that would change. Speaking of herself and Gore, Mrs. Clinton declared: “We’re breaking out!” Said one senior White House staffer later, “Uh-oh.”

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SAYING GOODBYE: Even by Washington standards, the crowd of more than 1,000 who paid their respects to former CIA Director William E. Colby this week was a rare mix. Assembled at the National Cathedral were figures from the intelligence communities of U.S. friends and foes alike--spanning the years before, during and after the Cold War. They included white-haired men who served with Colby in the Office of Strategic Services when he parachuted behind German lines in World War II, as well as former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, former ambassador Vernon Walters and retired Army Gen. William C. Westmoreland, who commanded U.S. troops in Vietnam. Also attending was former KGB Maj. Oleg Kalugin, who supervised Soviet spies in the United States for a dozen years, and Hmong Gen. Vang Pao, who worked with Colby in the CIA’s secret war in Laos. Yet perhaps most striking were members of the CIA’s Operations Directorate, whom Colby infuriated in 1975 by disclosing the agency’s past sins to Congress and who were cheered when those disclosures led to his dismissal by President Ford. That issue lived on in eulogy. Walters, who was Colby’s deputy at the time, told mourners: “He did what he did because he felt it was necessary to save the agency” when “it was threatened with annihilation and destruction” for its actions.

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HTTP://WWW.HUD.GOV: In a case of life imitating “Doonesbury,” the homeless now have an Internet site they can turn to for help--provided they have a computer, modem and Internet account. The newly improved Housing and Urban Development’s home page, which provides information about the agency for state and local governments and charitable organizations across the country, includes access to the following: “Where to start, if you’re homeless.” Click to find information about federal aid and assistance provided by private groups. But the idea isn’t as absurd as it sounds. HUD spokeswoman Gayela Bynum says the homeless can access the Internet from some libraries, shelters and care providers. The information is provided through a link to the National Coalition for the Homeless.

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CHANGING HORSES: The small-business tax relief measure approved by the House Ways and Means Committee will find little favor among the folks at Hollywood Park, Santa Anita and other racetracks. Horses, specifically racehorses, can no longer be deducted as an “equipment” purchase if the measure becomes law. “Except for a few Amish farmers who continue to have horses pull their plows, the only business purposes of horses are racing or breeding,” explained a House staff member. The provision has owners bucking in such horse breeding states as Kentucky and California. Since 1990, owners have been able to deduct the first $17,500 of the purchase price. But lawmakers say that deduction stemmed from a mistake in drafting the 1990 budget bill.