THE WEEK: DECEMBER 3-9

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NATION

BUDGET BEGONE!

Wielding the same pen Lyndon Johnson used to sign both Medicare and Medicaid into law, President Clinton formally scrawled his veto signature over the Republican balanced-budget plan. To replace what he called the G.O.P.'s "extreme" and "wrongheaded" blueprint, which would remake the Federal Government in a more conservative image, the President presented Congress with his own balanced budget--his third of the year. Clinton offered to trim Social Security raises; to cut a bit more out of some domestic programs, including welfare; and to hold the line against deep slashes in education, environmental protection, health care and taxes. The G.O.P. response: Forget it. Further negotiations are scheduled.

BOSNIA MANEUVERS

Faced with a rebellion among conservative Republicans opposed to sending troops to Bosnia, Senate majority leader Bob Dole postponed a vote on a resolution of qualified support for President Clinton's peacekeeping plan. In the House, nearly half the members--mostly Republicans--sent the President a blunt, one-sentence letter: "We urge you not to send ground troops to Bosnia." Clinton said he would not be deterred by congressional dissent.

CHIPPING AWAY AT ROE

By a vote of 54 to 44, the Senate joined the House in approving a bill that would outlaw a rare and particularly gruesome type of late-term abortion. The vote marked the first time since the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that both houses of Congress have voted to recriminalize an abortion procedure. Differences must still be worked out between the two chambers, but the President has threatened a veto.

A SPECIAL COUNSEL FOR NEWT

After a year's investigation--longer than Congress took to craft its overhaul of the entire Federal Government--the House ethics committee issued its first pronouncement regarding the array of charges filed against Speaker Newt Gingrich. The panel's biggest decision: to hire a special counsel to investigate the financing of a college course Gingrich taught in Georgia. The panel took no action on a number of other charges but sharply reprimanded the Speaker for his controversial book deal and "the impression" it created of "exploiting one's office for personal gain." Democratic whip David Bonior said he would soon file yet another complaint with the panel: that, as alleged by the Federal Election Commission, Gingrich's 1990 re-election was improperly subsidized by the political-action committee GOPAC.

A WHITEWATER IMPASSE

On a 10-to-8 party-line vote that could lead to a constitutional confrontation, the Senate Whitewater committee issued a subpoena for the notes of former White House aide William Kennedy concerning a Nov. 5, 1993, meeting in which Kennedy and others discussed the scandal. Because the President's personal lawyer was among the participants, Clinton has asserted his lawyer-client privilege in withholding the notes, as well as in ordering aides not to testify.

NEW HEAD FOR N.A.A.C.P.