WASHINGTON INSIGHT

NOT CHUMMY: Arianna Huffington, an outspoken author and the wife of defeated California Senate candidate Mike Huffington, is temporarily joining the ranks of the media even as she vows to hold their collective feet to the fire. Huffington says she expects to launch and co-host a television show called “Beat the Press” later this year that will “break the closed circle of chumminess and underhanded sweetheart deals that constantly” distort the delivery of the news. At the same time, she is working on a cover story on House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and his wife, Marianne, for the Ladies Home Journal. The conservative Huffington herself has various ties to Gingrich, including serving as a senior fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation, which is closely linked to the Speaker. But she insists this is not another case of Washington media “chumminess” because the Journal article “is very much a human interest story. It’s not a story on policy.”

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KEEPING BUSY: Ira Magaziner, formerly the health care czar, may be about to find gainful employment at the White House again. President Clinton has asked National Economic Council Chairwoman Laura D’Andrea Tyson to find some work for Magaziner, who has kept a low public profile since the Administration’s health care plan disintegrated last year. The President would like Tyson to give Magaziner either a study or a task force to run in the area of either trade or international economics. Magaziner, a former business consultant and a longtime friend of the Clintons, became a controversial figure in the Administration during the health care debate. Officials in Congress and the Administration complained that he was abrasive and often secretive. Given his track record, sources say Magaziner’s new role will be carefully defined, and he will not gain power in the international economics or trade arenas similar to the influence he wielded in health care.

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JUST BILL: In the history of the republic, the President has almost always been addressed with respect. The commander in chief is usually introduced as the “President of the United States,” he is usually hailed with the term “Mr. President” and newspapers even make an exception to style rules and capitalize all references to the President. But consistent with the often-puerile spirit of politics in the 1990s, the Republican National Committee has turned sour on those traditions. The organization’s press releases, apparently in an attempt to diminish the stature of President Clinton, never recognize his title as top banana. He is identified simply as Bill Clinton. The same is not true for Republicans, who are referred to by title, such as Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, RNC Chairman Haley Barbour, and so on. Even lesser Democrats are given honorifics, such as White House Chief of Staff Leon E. Panetta, also known as the chap who works for Bill Clinton--you know, that guy with the roundish office.

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DIPLOMATIC TEST: Budget cuts on Capitol Hill have shrunk the foreign service so much that the State Department is canceling its annual foreign service exam for only the fourth time in nearly a century. The challenging written test--the first step in a rigorous process to gain acceptance to the career foreign service--is normally given to between 10,000 and 12,000 applicants each fall. Only one candidate in 10 passes, but even so, the number who have done so now far exceeds the available postings. The foreign service has cut 539 positions in recent years, to a total of 8,321. Officials report that there have been no protests of the cancellation. “Most people are probably relieved,” said an official with the board of examiners. “It gives them another year to study and prepare.”