WASHINGTON INSIGHT

CULTURE 101: Perhaps the inside-the-Beltway problem has less to do with the real people who live here than the elected people who come here--and maintain their, uh, “unique” Beltway perspective long after leaving the nation’s capital. Take, for example, the widely respected Warren B. Rudman, the New Hampshire Republican who retired from the Senate more than five years ago. The co-chairman of the anti-deficit Concord Coalition remains rather out of touch with popular culture. Now that he’s actively promoting the candidacy of Sen. John McCain of Arizona for the GOP presidential nomination, Rudman may want to go see a movie or two. He hasn’t been to one in 14 years--a fact that emerged during a recent discussion of “Titanic” among McCain and several other people, including Rudman, who was clueless about current heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio. The last movie Rudman, a Korean War veteran, saw: “Patton.”

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THE REAL CONTEST: To insiders, the big winner in California’s Democratic gubernatorial primary last week was not Lt. Gov. Gray Davis, but his media guru, David Doak. The Davis-Al Checchi contest was also a face-off between Doak and Robert Shrum, ex-partners who split in an acrimonious divorce three years ago. The consultants started their major league careers in California when they shepherded former Sen. Alan Cranston to reelection in 1986. The consulting duo also teamed up on several other statewide and national Democratic campaigns. But now they and their bosses are running against each other, and Doak partisans may have delighted more in what they saw as Shrum’s comeuppance than in Checchi’s resounding defeat.

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BUDGET SINS? The House’s recent debate on the federal budget brought out an impressive display of biblical learning--and expression of concern for the poor--from a Republican whose top concern usually is protecting the benefits of the decidedly non-poor federal employees who live in his district. Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), who represents the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., urged the chief author of the House budget--which would cut domestic spending by $101 billion over five years--to “remember the poorest and the most vulnerable in our country” as GOP leaders negotiate the final terms of the budget with the Senate. To give his admonition more moral authority, Wolf said there were 244 references to the poor in the Bible--172 in the Old Testament, 72 in the New Testament. House Budget Committee Chairman John R. Kasich (R-Ohio) gave Wolf guarded assurances. “Where I come from,” Kasich said, “it is a sin not to help people who need help. But I also say it is always a sin to continue to help people who need to learn to help themselves.”