THE WEEK: NOVEMBER 19-25

NATION

WHO BLINKED?

Why, the other side, of course. That's the spin that both President Clinton and Republican leaders put on the compromise that formally reopened the Federal Government after a bitter six-day budgetary impasse. Republicans gloated that the deal commits the President to a seven-year time frame for a balanced budget. The President and his aides happily pointed out that the agreement requires Congress to respect White House priorities on such matters as Medicare, education, environmental protection and taxes.

WHAT'S NEXT

No matter who got the best of whom--polls continued to show that the President won the public debate over the shutdown--the deal only provides stopgap funding for the Federal Government until Dec. 15. By that time, the two branches will have to come to terms over permanent appropriations bills for the current fiscal year or else face another crisis. Serious budget negotiations are set to begin as soon as President Clinton vetoes the massive G.O.P. plan that finally cleared Congress on Monday.

THE CALL TO QUIT

The Senate's vanishing political middle shrank further when influential Kansas moderate Nancy Landon Kassebaum announced she would retire next year to pursue "the challenge of being a grandmother." She becomes the 10th Senator, and the second Republican, to leave office in 1996. In the House, Indiana Democrat Andrew Jacobs announced he would step down, the 18th Representative and 15th Democrat to do so.

SPECTER OF DEFEAT?

Out of money, and with little visible support among prospective G.O.P. primary voters, Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter suspended his campaign for the presidency. Specter, who had hoped to present himself as the moderate alternative to the party's conservative field of candidates, becomes the second G.O.P. presidential dropout, after California Governor Pete Wilson.

QUESTIONABLE PROPOSITION

A Los Angeles federal judge struck down as unconstitutional key portions of California's Proposition 187, the state's tough voter-approved initiative that seeks to deny public services to illegal immigrants. Among the sections that were knocked down: one that would bar illegal-alien children from attending elementary and secondary public schools. The state said it would appeal the ruling, which many observers believe is headed for the Supreme Court.

GOTCHA!

Federal prosecutors obtained the racketeering conviction of a man they claim is Philadelphia's top Mob boss, John Stanfa. The guilty verdict, which could put Stanfa away for life, is the latest in a string of successful prosecutions that authorities say has severely weakened organized-crime families around the country.

LONELY DEATHS

Despite increasing public clamor, the right-to-die-with-dignity movement has yet to make a practical difference in the way Americans are dying. A major and disturbing study just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reveals that the desires of terminally ill patients who want to forgo heroic life-prolonging treatment are being routinely frustrated because their wishes are misunderstood by doctors (at best) or ignored (at worst).

WORLD

BOSNIAN PEACE PACT INITIALED...