WASHINGTON INSIGHT

NON-ENDANGERED SECRETARY: Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr.’s recent criticism of the Endangered Species Act touched off an uproar among environmentalists, some of whom likened him to Ronald Reagan Administration Interior Secretary James G. Watt, the bete noire of the environmental movement.

But despite the furor, few demands for Lujan’s ouster have been heard. The main reason? Knowledgeable environmentalists regard the two Republicans considered to be Lujan’s most likely replacement--New Mexico Gov. Garrey E. Carruthers and Idaho Sen. James A. McClure--as conservative ideologues who would be harder for them to stomach than Lujan.

Carruthers, who is constitutionally barred from succeeding himself when his term is up at the end of this year, is considered a prospect for the Interior slot because he was Watt’s right-hand man in the department as assistant secretary. As for McClure, who is retiring after three Senate terms, environmentalists respect him as a formidable adversary, most recently because of his crusade on behalf of a proposed nuclear weapons facility in his state. His 1988 rating from the League of Conservation Voters was zero.

Next to these two, environmentalists say, Lujan seems environmentally sound. “Lujan doesn’t always say what we want to hear, but he is capable of doing good things,” says one veteran environmental lobbyist. “He is not an ideological hard-liner.”

WASHINGTON TREADMILL: Like many Washington officials, Senate Republican leader Bob Dole and his wife, Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole, have struggled to work physical fitness into their crowded daily schedules. For the Doles, the answer is a treadmill, which they say burns off calories and keeps them in shape with a minimum of fuss.

So enthusiastic is the senator that he’s ready to extol the machine’s virtues at the drop of a sweatband. Better yet, he’ll send you a pamphlet describing the device.

One came recently with a note demonstrating that, whatever shape the rest of him is in, Dole’s famous wit is still in tip-top form:

“Here’s the information I promised about the treadmill. It’s still my preferred mode for exercise, and it’s the perfect technique for Washington--spending a lot of time going nowhere fast.”

ONE-UPMANSHIP: On the eve of congressional debate on funding for the B-2 Stealth bomber, the aircraft’s foes are launching a publicity blitz to try to ground the Air Force’s $65-billion flying-wing project. The campaign includes television spots, newspaper ads and an intense barrage of anti-aircraft hyperbole.

At a Union of Concerned Scientists press conference last week where an anti-Stealth bomber TV and newspaper advertising campaign was unveiled, the foes of the $850-million-a-copy plane engaged in some metaphoric one-upmanship.

Howard Ris, executive director of the union, warmed up the crowd with a description of the plane as “nothing more than a flying monument to Donald Trump.”

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) called it “a flying Ft. Knox.”

Rep. John G. Rowland (R-Conn.) accused the Air Force of pursuing a “Noah’s Ark theory”--wanting to buy two of everything.

The wrap-up went to Rep. Tom Ridge (R-Pa.), who accused the Air Force brass of insisting on buying obsolete manned bombers capable of penetrating Soviet air space because they want “a macho delivery platform” for their nuclear weapons.