Nancy Reagan

THE REPUBLICAN Party is having, as former President Bush might put it, a gosh darned hard time getting used to winning. The race for Senate in Pennsylvania is close, with Republican Rick Santorum headed for an upset over Democrat Harris Wofford. But up pops Teresa Heinz, the widow of Republican Sen. John Heinz, to publicly ridicule Mr. Santorum as "Forrest Gump with an attitude." New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a Republican, endorses Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo, and Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, a Republican, endorses Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

First ladies have achieved so much more than cutting ribbons and a stylish figure, but it is their personal style that continues to fascinate America. Their clothes and hairdos are picked over in detail and we know them by their wardrobes -- Jaqueline Kennedy the elegant thoroughbred, Nancy Reagan the runaway clothes horse, Hillary Clinton the walking fashion disaster. Mrs. Clinton last month made the lead two pages in the "worst" half of People magazine's annual best and worst dressed issue.

Washington -- As first lady, Nancy Reagan studiously avoided taking public positions on controversial issues like abortion. Her husband was against it, and she certainly was not going to differ with him in public.But last night Mrs. Reagan felt free to speak her mind, telling a George Washington University class that while she personally opposes abortion, she supports a woman's right to choose."I'm against abortion," she said in response to a question from instructor Carl Sferrazza Anthony, who is teaching a class titled "The President's Spouse."

LOS ANGELES -- A federal judge has dismissed an unusua libel suit by a high-powered Beverly Hills entertainment lawyer who claimed that celebrity author Kitty Kelley defamed him when she thanked him for acting as a source for her unauthorized biography of Nancy Reagan.In Ms. Kelley's controversial 1991 book on the former first lady, she listed attorney Mickey Rudin as one of 612 sources -- the people she said had made "the most important contribution to this book."Mr. Rudin has steadfastly maintained that he never talked to Ms. Kelley or provided any assistance to the writer, with whom he had previously tangled when she wrote her stinging volume "My Way" on his long-time client Frank Sinatra.

Of all the things we know -- or think we know -- about Barbara Bush, a few items leap instantly to mind:* That she has devoted her life to being a wife and mother and has no regret about her choice to live what some have called a "derivative" life.* That she's friendly, modest, funny, down-to-earth.* That she's America's Grandma, a woman who is quite comfortable with looking her age and, unlike her predecessor, Nancy Reagan, is not heavily invested in clothes, makeup and artificially colored hair.

It has come to this: government as something we need a 12-step program to recover from. Citizens who love a politician, and the politician who deceives them. I'm not OK, and you're probably enabling or co-dependent."The way my parents parented this country is no different than the way they parented their family," says Patti Davis, who -- depending on your viewpoint -- is either the bad-seed daughter of Ronald and Nancy Reagan or the righteous whistle-blower on the former First Dysfunctional Family.

WASHINGTON -- It may sound peculiar, but the question being asked in Washington these days is whether George W. Bush, the president's oldest son, is becoming the Nancy Reagan of the Bush White House.Put another way: Is the younger George Bush the member of the first family with the most political clout?Events last week suggested as much.It was George W. Bush who first gave John H. Sununu the authoritative word that his time was up as guardian of the Oval Office. Twenty-four hours later, the normally combative Mr. Sununu quietly handed his resignation to the president.

Ron Reagan says he wants his new talk show to be a cross between "Donahue" and "Nightline." There is a little bit of "Donahue" with Reagan's fielding questions in a smarmy, touch-me-feel-me way in the audience. But it's "Nightline" only in your dreams, Ronnie.Let's be fair: Ron Reagan is every bit as good a talk-show host as Neil Bush was a savings & loan director . . . as David Eisenhower was a sportswriter . . . as Lucy Baines Johnson was a debutante.What is it about presidential offspring -- is it them or us?

Father Martin's Ashley, a nationally recognized alcohol and drug abuse treatment center which overlooks the Chesapeake Bay near Havre de Grace, holds a special place in Nancy Reagan's heart."

THREE WEEKS ago it was the Kennedys' alleged bacchanal in Palm Beach. Then it was Nancy Reagan trysting with Frank Sinatra, recycling Christmas presents and feuding with her children.And this week? We all wait for the next revelation in what seems to be an epidemic of gossip for a nation of voyeurs.Contempt for this sort of cattiness comes almost as easily as interest in it.But as John Kennedy once declared, "All history is gossip." What Kennedy meant, I think, is that events and personalities pass from "news" into the collective consciousness where they get transformed to serve our needs and desires.