WASHINGTON INSIGHT

FRIENDS [OF BILL] INDEED: When President Clinton decided two weeks ago to travel to LaCrosse, Wis., today to promote the education initiatives unveiled in his State of the Union message, Democratic members of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation wanted to tag along. But they were told there might not be room for them on the president’s plane. “He may not be able to take Air Force One,” a White House staffer reportedly told one lawmaker’s aide. Since the Monica S. Lewinsky fracas broke, however, the president’s aides appear to have changed their tune. “They’ve been calling every day to make sure we’d be on the plane,” said one bemused congressional strategist whose boss has agreed to go along. What’s more, the lawmakers are being asked to provide names of local hometown “heroes” the president can praise when he visits the area. “What a turnaround!” the aide said.

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ON THE RUN: While much of official Washington and the capital’s huge media contingent have been consumed by the ever-churning White House imbroglio--throwing families, sleep, exercise and other normal-life routines out the window--some, it seems, have managed to maintain perspective. On Monday, an aide from Al Gore’s office called the author of a recent “Runner’s World” magazine article about the vice president running in his first marathon. Gore, who successfully completed Washington’s Marine Corps Marathon in October, wanted some extra copies “to give to relatives,” said press aide Roger Salazar.

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NOT GOIN’ TO THE CHAPEL: In the latest tax-reform salvo, a Straughn, Ind., couple will testify before the House Ways and Means Committee today on the so-called marriage penalty. In a letter to Rep. David M. McIntosh (R-Ind.), Sharon Mallory and Darryl Pierce said they would “very much like to be married” but “it broke our hearts when we found out we can’t afford it.” The couple, who both earn less than $10 an hour at Ford Electronics in Coversvil, Ind., said H&R; Block told them that if they got married, Mallory would lose her expected $900 tax refund and, as a wedded couple, they’d owe Uncle Sam $2,800.

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IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED: House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) plans to offer a resolution today calling for an immediate halt of the investigation into the 1996 election of Orange County Democrat Loretta Sanchez. Gephardt introduced two similar resolutions last fall--both were rejected soundly after an hour of debate. Some two dozen other Democrats--Sanchez’s buddies from California, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the freshman class and the women’s caucus--also introduced such motions, which died without ever being heard. But Sanchez’s chief of staff Steve Jost says things have changed: An Orange County grand jury failed to indict anyone after a criminal investigation into whether immigrants, among others, illegally voted in the election that pitted Sanchez against longtime Republican Rep. Robert K. Dornan. “They tried to cook the books and they failed,” Jost said. “Now they’re saying we don’t know what’s in the soup because we don’t know all the ingredients that we put in there.” Try, try again.

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HUMOR UNDER FIRE: After Gore addressed members of Congress’ New Democratic Coalition, Rep. Tim Roemer (D-Ind.), talking to reporters about the meeting, slipped and referred to Gore as “the president.” Gore, upon hearing of the verbal gaffe, replied with mock solemnity and a comedian’s sense of timing. “Well, I am the president,” he said. “Of the Senate.”