WASHINGTON INSIGHT

ONE-TWO PUNCH: With California’s governorship up for grabs in two years, both Sen. Dianne Feinstein and White House Chief of Staff Leon E. Panetta, a former Monterey-area congressman, are considered prospective heavyweight Democratic contenders. So how to avoid a costly and divisive primary clash? Party insiders are speculating about one solution: Feinstein runs, Panetta sits out and, if elected, Feinstein appoints Panetta to succeed her in the Senate. Feinstein spokeswoman Susan Kennedy said that such a scenario “has not been discussed.” But, regarding the governorship in 1998, she said the senator “will not close off any options.” Feinstein lost a tough gubernatorial election to Pete Wilson in 1990.

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SWELL NUMBERS: When the Justice Department held a press conference last week to trumpet the achievements of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in deporting illegal immigrants, officials cited an increase of nearly 75% last year over 1990 totals. Deputy Atty. Gen. Jamie S. Gorelick said: “We have reversed years of neglect and lax enforcement of our immigration laws.” Most major news organizations dutifully reported the 75% jump: 51,600 illegal immigrants were removed from the country in 1995, compared with 29,496 in 1990. But there is a second story in the numbers--one revealing more about the Justice PR apparatus than about INS successes. The statistics actually show that most of the increase came during the last half of the George Bush administration, when total removals rose nearly 49% from 1990 to 1992. Under Clinton, the reversal of “years of neglect and lax enforcement” pushed the total up only another 18%.

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NOTHING SPECIAL: Last week, a staff member in the office of Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) asked the passport office to make an exception. A member of a U.S.-India trade council who lives in Inglis’ district wanted the office to issue travel papers to his wife so she could join him on a trade mission to India led by Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown. Although the passport office is among those closed by the federal budget standoff--forcing newlyweds to cancel overseas honeymoons, stranding foreigners abroad and so on--surely officials would make an exception for someone with lofty federal connections. Not so. The State Department is issuing passports only in cases involving national security, life or death of an immediate family member or humanitarian considerations. Thus no papers were issued for the India trip. In a sign of the animosity surrounding the budget battle, a Clinton administration staff member involved in the Inglis request said that he couldn’t believe Republicans imagined they could avoid being touched by the shutdown. And from the other side, a Republican staffer said Clinton administration passport officials are nearly gleeful in turning back such requests.

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SHE’S HISTORY: Thousands of pages of internal documents released by the Federal Election Commission last month show how House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) provided access to charter members who kicked in at least $10,000 annually to the political action committee GOPAC. But the preferential treatment didn’t end there. GOPAC staffers searched for Beluga caviar to serve at a Washington reception, arranged a “wonderful bird’s-eye view” of former President Bush’s inaugural parade from the balcony of the Federal Trade Commission and requested that a White House photographer crop a woman described as “38, tall, attractive with long, dark, frizzy hair” out of a picture taken of her next to a GOPAC charter member.