The Week March 13-19

NATION

Rollin' on a River

After weeks of partisan bickering, the Senate reached consensus by voting unanimously to hold hearings on the Whitewater affair -- at some unspecified point in the future. In the meantime, the Whitewater grand jury reached ever higher into the White House, issuing a subpoena to George Stephanopoulos, one of the President's closest advisers, on the same day the jury heard testimony from departing White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum and deputy chief of staff Harold Ickes.

Hubbell Burst

Webster Hubbell resigned as Associate Attorney General to focus on resolving allegations of client overbilling and expense abuse -- charges that were leveled by his erstwhile partners at Little Rock's Rose Law Firm (former workplace of Hillary Rodham Clinton and other Administration figures). The exit was another painful development for the Clintons, particularly the First Lady, many of whose imports into the Administration have run into trouble.

Tonya Pleads Guilty

The Tonya Harding saga finally reached an end, of a sort: in an Oregon courtroom, Harding pleaded guilty to conspiring to hinder the prosecution of the assault on Nancy Kerrigan. Harding, who denies any role in the attack itself, was sentenced to three years' probation and a $100,000 fine. As part of the plea, she will also have to resign from the U.S. Figure Skating Association, ending her amateur career.

Rosty Slugs Out a Primary Win

Though battered by a federal probe into his financial dealings with the scandal-ridden House post office, House Ways and Means chairman Dan Rostenkowski, one of the President's chief allies in the health-care battle, won his toughest Democratic primary yet. The victory was due in no small part to all-out help from Chicago's famed political machine and heavy campaigning by top national Democrats, from Clinton on down.

A First

The Illinois Democratic primary also yielded a female sweep: four of the six top spots on the ticket were clinched by women, with gubernatorial candidate Dawn Clark Netsch at the head.

Work Begins on Health Reform

Launching what is bound to be months of congressional voting and revoting on a health-care reform package, the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health voted 6 to 5 to require employers to pay most of their workers' insurance, a key element in the President's plan.

Reagan: Ollie Lies

Former President Ronald Reagan thundered into Virginia's Republican Senate nomination contest with an uncharacteristic political attack against a fellow Republican. Complaining that he was "getting pretty steamed" over what he claimed were false Iran-contra statements made by candidate Oliver North, Reagan fumed, "I never instructed him or anyone in my Administration to mislead Congress on Iran-contra matters and the private meetings he said he had with me just didn't happen."

The CIA Mops Up After Ames

Declaring himself "absolutely determined to get to the bottom" of the Ames spy affair, CIA Director R. James Woolsey announced that a review of "systematic" security problems at the agency, including overreliance on lie detector tests, is under way.

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