WASHINGTON INSIGHT

SIGNING ON: With an eye on 2000, some of the nation’s leading high-tech executives already are gravitating toward Vice President Al Gore. When Gore stopped in Los Angeles this month to speak to the AFL-CIO, he held a private dinner with executives from more than a dozen Silicon Valley companies, including Yahoo and Netscape. The evening went so well that the group--led by venture capitalist John Doerr--is planning to organize monthly meetings for Gore around the country with other leaders of the “new economy.” That network could be an invaluable source of both funds and endorsements if and when Gore seeks to move down the hall into the Oval Office.

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WWW.TERROR: The face of terrorism is a little slicker--and geekier--these days. Some of the world’s most notorious terrorism groups now have home pages on the Internet, including Tupac Amaru, the group holding the hostages at the Japanese Embassy in Peru, and the Tamil Tigers, a violent political organization that is wreaking havoc in Sri Lanka. Also available is Sinn Fein, the political umbrella group for the Irish Republican Army in Belfast. Each organization offers news updates and political tracts, with Tupac Amaru offering the latest from the hostage standoff--translated into six languages--and even some video clips and photos (although everyone shown in the stills is masked). Also on each home page: a running total of how many “hits” the organization has racked up so far, a reference to the number of times each home page has been called up. The home pages were uncovered by the Special Operations Council, a private organization in Centreville, Va., that serves as a booster for U.S. special forces troops.

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SCHINDLER’S RATING: The movie “Schindler’s List” was widely acclaimed as a profoundly disturbing and vivid reminder of the horror of the Holocaust. But what outraged Oklahoma Republican Rep. Tom A. Coburn, co-chairman of the Congressional Family Caucus, about the televising of the seven-Oscar-winning film Sunday night was not the slaughter Hitler wrought but the violence, nudity and profanity shown in American homes despite the new television rating system. The 3 1/2-hour movie was given a TV-M rating for mature audiences. But Coburn issued a statement saying that its airing “during a family time should outrage parents and decent-minded individuals everywhere.” He said that presentation of the movie, sponsored by Ford Motor Co. without commercials, showed that the new television rating system “only encourages the airing of more sex and violence.” NBC West Coast President Don Ohlmeyer said Coburn’s statement “should send a chill through every intelligent and fair-minded person in America.”

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PRINCELY IMPRIMATUR: Saudi Arabian ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan fortified his standing as one of Washington’s more colorfully irreverent speakers last week when asked how the male-dominated Arab world will respond to the first female U.S. secretary of State, Madeleine Albright. “I am offended with this sexist question,” Bandar said with mock indignation. Then the prince, who represents a country where women are not allowed to drive automobiles, picked up a word from one of Albright’s memorable United Nations speeches, in which she scornfully upbraided the Cuban military for shooting down unarmed light aircraft flown by opponents of the Castro regime. Said Bandar: “If half of the men in the State Department had the cojones that Albright has, the United States would be safe forever.”