WASHINGTON INSIGHT

NEW DONATE CHIEF: Back in July, the chief counsel of the House fund-raising probe, Joseph P. Rowley III, resigned in a dispute with investigator David Bossie, who is close to Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee. Several other top staffers also walked, leaving Burton’s inquiry rudderless midstream. After nearly two months, Burton has hired a replacement for Rowley. The new head sleuth will be Richard D. Bennett, former U.S. attorney for Maryland, who has broad legal experience and also knows a thing or two about the pitfalls of campaign fund-raising. Bennett, who ran unsuccessfully for Maryland attorney general in 1994, was forced to return $17,500 in campaign contributions after it was revealed that donor Brian H. Davis, a former trucking company executive, had apparently violated state campaign financing laws. Said Burton in a prepared statement: “The committee, the Congress and the country are fortunate that Dick Bennett has accepted my invitation to become our chief counsel.”

*

RADIO HAZE: This probably isn’t the welcome wagon President Clinton had in mind as he began his vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. But Steve Forbes, the peripatetic magazine publisher who’s busily building the foundation for what could be another GOP presidential run, is running radio ads on Massachusetts stations calling on Clinton to oppose a Washington state ballot initiative that would permit the medical use of marijuana. Forbes’ ads fail to note that last year the administration opposed similar initiatives in California and Arizona. Forbes’ organization, Americans for Hope, Growth and Opportunity, says it will also run the spots in Washington state.

*

NAME THAT BUILDING: A move to name the Justice Department building after former Atty. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy would place two of the greatest foes in federal law enforcement history--FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and RFK, who ranked as Hoover’s boss while RFK’s brother was in the White House--permanently watching over each other across Pennsylvania Ave. Despite some calls to strip the FBI headquarters of Hoover’s name, that’s not likely to happen soon. While stressing that the naming authority belongs to Congress, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno--whose office wall is adorned with the official portrait of Atty. Gen. Kennedy--says that if the building were to be named after an individual, Robert Kennedy would be a good choice. But the bill, introduced by Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), can claim only two GOP House members among its 71 co-sponsors, so speedy action is not considered likely.

*

FIELD TRIP: Time after time, congressional spending bills have been deadlocked, delayed, mired in controversy--not over great principles of fiscal policy affecting the nation but, with surprising frequency, because of matters Alaska-related. Bills have been hobbled by disputes over cutting timber in the Tongass National Forest, building roads in Alaska’s vast public lands and other matters dear to the nation’s largest and most remote state. And it’s little wonder such issues gravitate to appropriations bills; Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. To give themselves a fighting chance of matching Stevens’ expertise at the bargaining table, key members of the House’s money-dishing panel now are touring “the last frontier.” House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston (R-La.), ranking Democrat David R. Obey (D-Wis.) and member Ed Pastor (D-Ariz.) are spending 10 days traveling in Alaska. “It helps to have firsthand knowledge of these issues,” said a Pastor aide.