WASHINGTON INSIGHT

ON THE RUN: Most Washingtonians didn’t recognize the sweaty, shades-wearing man jogging along the bucolic Chesapeake and Ohio Canal towpath Sunday morning as Vice President Al Gore. But not everyone missed Gore, who was out for a run with his eldest daughter, Karenna--and the usual covey of appropriately attired Secret Service agents. Referring to the heat Gore’s been taking for his fund-raising phone calls, one well-wisher told him: “My mother’s so mad she’s ready to write letters and send money!” “Oh, that’s great,” Gore said with a big smile, resuming his trot.

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THE STAND THAT DIVIDES: The battle over campaign finance reform that polarized the Senate has also divided one of the nation’s most venerable liberal groups, the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU’s unequivocal opposition to limits on soft money, which the group believes would violate free speech, has angered many of its members. Last week, Los Angeles activist Stanley K. Sheinbaum, a board member and former chairman of the ACLU of Southern California, wrote a blistering letter to the group’s national executive director denouncing the organization’s stand. “You are supporting the one-vote, one-dollar method, and it is corrupt,” Sheinbaum wrote, adding, “ACLU is becoming a scandal.” Sheinbaum says he’s received a steady flow of encouragement from other disaffected ACLU members. Ira Glasser, the target of Sheinbaum’s letter, could not be reached for comment.

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PULLING HIS PUNCH: For some months, serious followers of U.N. politics have been awaiting the memoirs of Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the U.N. secretary general whose bid for a second term was vetoed last year by now-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright when she was the U.S. ambassador to the world body. Everyone was sure the juiciest chapter would be the 74-year-old Egyptian’s account of his confrontations with Albright and his anger at her veto. But they will have to bide their time. Amir Moussa, the Egyptian foreign minister, told reporters at a recent Washington luncheon that Boutros-Ghali has set aside the book and embarked on a worldwide tour to drum up support for his bid to become secretary general of Francophonie, a Paris-based international group made up of all the world’s countries that use French as an official or major language. “Boutros-Ghali cannot sit still,” Moussa said. “His memoirs will not be finished for a long time.”

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THINKING AHEAD: Former Vice President Walter F. Mondale was on Capitol Hill last week to promote campaign finance reform when he ran into some veteran congressional correspondents he knew from his days in the Senate. How’s your son doing? asked one reporter, referring to Ted Mondale, a former Minnesota state senator now seeking the Democratic nomination for governor. But father Mondale’s answer suggested he clearly has higher ambitions for his son. “Well, you know, he’s running for president,” Mondale replied, before catching his slip.

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LESS THAN A BREAD BOX: As poorly as he fared in last year’s presidential election, Republican Bob Dole might have done even worse had voters known that he may be so out of touch that he doesn’t know the price of a doughnut. Since his loss to President Clinton, the former Kansas senator has made several commercials, including one for Dunkin’ Donuts. As a part of his contract, Dole disclosed, he gets five dozen doughnuts every Monday morning for a full year--confronting him with a weekly dilemma since he adheres to a low-fat diet. “You want a doughnut?” he asked a recent visitor. “How much does a doughnut cost?”