Partisan

The unified front America presented against terrorism cracked wide with revelations about the unheeded Aug. 6 warning that Osama bin Laden's followers might use hijacked planes to blow up civilian targets. Democrats dusted off the old Watergate rallying cry and demanded to know what the president knew and when he knew it. Republicans immediately wrapped themselves in the American flag, clapped their hands over their mouths in shock and said anyone who would ask such a question was not a patriot.

PETE WILSON, California's new Republican governor, has one picture behind his desk: of Ronald Reagan. In his inaugural speech last month he hailed Reagan. But among former governors he also praised Democrat Pat Brown and Earl Warren, the great liberal Republican.Wilson is coming on as something unusual in American politics: non-partisan. In a rush of early actions there has been hardly a whiff of ideology. He put a Democrat in his cabinet, and he proposed new programs for prenatal and child care.

GOV. ROBERT L. Ehrlich Jr. has changed the culture of Annapolis. His arrival has made it a far more partisan place, a more divided and more contentious place. His determination to assert GOP values - and why not, after 36 years out of the governor's mansion? - makes him the change agent. In some ways, the adjustment will be therapeutic; in others, less so. When Democrats were in complete control of both houses and the governor's office, they could concentrate on problem-solving with no political concerns.

WASHINGTON -- When President Clinton used a Maryland jail last week as a backdrop to his new drug policy, he said, as he often does, "I don't want this to become a partisan issue."Then he implored the politicians in his audience to work on the issue of drug addiction together -- "Republicans and Democrats."The problem was that among the 30 federal office holders and officials invited by the White House to come over from Washington, none was a Republican.Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman, a New York Republican with an extensive background in drug policy, was listed on the White House fact sheet as one of the dignitaries -- but he wasn't there.

WASHINGTON -- There is a certain symmetry to the ethics accusations against the next House speaker, Newt Gingrich.In 1987, it was a brash young Republican crusader who had the audacity to file ethics charges against the tough-talking speaker of the House, Jim Wright -- charges that led two years later to the mighty Democrat's fall from grace.Today, as that brash and brazen House member, Mr. Gingrich, prepares to realize his life's dream and step up to the speaker's seat himself, he finds himself dogged by an ethics complaint -- what Democrats call a "cloud hanging over his head" -- raised by a political nemesis of his own.Is the allegation against Mr. Gingrich a case of turnabout being fair play?

Members of Congress show arrogance over strike on IraqAs a British subject who became an American citizen some years ago and has lived in this country for the past 30 years, I find the attitudes of congressional representatives who are criticizing the strike on Iraq incredibly arrogant.Do they feel that the UNSCOM, Britain, Canada, Germany and others had no input into this decision? Do they feel that nothing should happen in the rest of he world until they have completed the impeachment process?

The sharply partisan opening salvos of Maryland's election year legislative session may boil down to "Take that!" And it could be "Take that!" times three or four. The majority-Democratic General Assembly itches to revive several measures killed last spring by Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. Democrats want to push these initiatives into the statute books over his energetic opposition. Highly political, the governor declares. He's absolutely correct. If it's governmental, it's inevitably political.

MADISON, Wis. -- He's not exactly Mr. Scintillating or Mr. Charisma, but Tommy Thompson seems to have what it takes to make a good president.Yet the three-term Wisconsin governor isn't even on the radar screen of Republicans thinking about the 2000 presidential election.Instead, the spotlight is focusing on retreads like Dan Quayle, Steve Forbes, Pat Buchanan and Lamar Alexander and a governor, George W. Bush, whose reputation outside of Texas comes from being the son of an ex-president.That's a pity, because Tommy Thompson goes about the business of governing the way it should be done.

WASHINGTON - Are you tired of "info-tainers" totally blurring the line between news and entertainment? Fed up with feuding TV spin doctors passing as reasoned debaters? Is that your problem, Bunky? Well, take heart, dear friend. You're not alone. Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show on cable's Comedy Central, feels your pain. And when he recently had a rare opportunity to say so, right in the face of CNN's Crossfire hosts, Tucker ("From the right!") Carlson and Paul ("From the left!") Begala, he let 'em have it. Conservative commentator Carlson and Democratic campaign consultant Begala invited Mr. Stewart to their show to talk about Mr. Stewart's new book, America.

Is there more to unite Americans than to divide them? As we argue ourselves into a fever about Iraq, global warming, free versus fair trade, values, immigration, safety nets versus self-reliance, wealth and poverty, the place of religion in our affairs, the definitions of family, and all the rest, the question gathers like storm clouds over our politics. Are "we the people" still "a people"? Or is that just a Pollyannaish wheeze that lost whatever mythical significance it may have had in the rising arguments over whether George W. Bush stole the presidency or Bill Clinton defiled it, whether homosexuals should marry, or whether Christ would have driven an SUV and voted GOP?