The Week January 8-14

NATION

California Dreaming -- Not

This time it wasn't an earthquake or wildfires that ravaged California, but simple rain -- a merciless deluge. The downpour unleashed treacherous floods and mud slides up and down the state, killing 11 people, displacing thousands from their homes and wreaking property damage in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Political Reality Bites

No one ever said governing would be easy. Two weeks into the new Congress, fissures began to appear in the once seemingly rock-solid Republican majority in the House as members started squabbling over just how limiting term limits should be. Fault lines also became apparent regarding the proposed balanced- budget amendment, with moderate Republicans (joined by some Democrats) objecting to a provision that would mandate a three-fifths majority of both houses to approve tax increases. Of course, Republicans' differences weren't so great that they couldn't deflect Democratic demands that a balanced-budget amendment include a detailed plan laying out proposed spending cuts. And in the Senate, G.O.P. leaders marshaled through a measure adopted by the House that would subject Congress to employment laws already applicable to the private sector.

Newt's History Lesson

Speaker Gingrich's choice for House historian, Kennesaw State professor Christina Jeffrey, quickly became a footnote to history when her controversial evaluation of a 1980s Holocaust education program surfaced, triggering a gleeful fusillade of criticism from Democrats. In 1986, Jeffrey had written that the junior high school program in question contained "no evidence of balance or objectivity. The Nazi point of view, however unpopular, is still a point of view and is not presented, nor is that of the Ku Klux Klan." Moving quickly to avoid a prolonged, Clintonian embarrassment, Gingrich fired the professor the same day the evaluation came to light, though an assistant of Jeffrey's claimed the Speaker had known about her views on the program before he hired her.

It's Dodd for the Democrats

Ending a fractious search for the next chairman of the Democratic Party, President Clinton settled for a two-man team. Telegenic Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd, who will remain in his seat, will become general chairman of the party and its chief spokesman. Donald Fowler, a longtime Southern political operative, will become the party's national chairman and day-to-day manager.

Farrakhan Targeted?

Capping a seven-month FBI investigation, federal prosecutors in Minnesota indicted Qubilah Shabazz, one of Malcolm X's daughters, charging her with attempting to hire a hit man to kill Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Although prosecutors would not publicly speculate on a motive, Shabazz's family is known to suspect Farrakhan of having been involved in Malcolm X's assassination 30 years ago when the two men were rivals. Shabazz's lawyer said his client had been lured and set up by the would-be hit man, whom he described as a childhood friend of Shabazz's and an informant working for the government.

The Simpson Case