White House

President Clinton's 25 percent cut in the White House staff sends a powerful message in advance of his State of the Union address on Wednesday. Economic realities will force him to call for an era of "shared sacrifice" by all Americans to combat staggering national indebtedness and to fulfill unmet needs in society. Government agencies and private citizens will be affected directly. To set the public mood, to make sacrifice acceptable, it is necessary for the White House to lead by example.

CRAWFORD, Texas -- Perhaps not since Herbert Hoover took issue with the blame heaped on him for the Great Depression by Franklin D. Roosevelt have two presidents or their spokesmen feuded quite so publicly - and angrily - as former President Jimmy Carter and President Bush. Yesterday, the White House fired a new salvo. Carter kicked off the war of words by declaring that Bush's tenure in the White House was "the worst in history" in terms of international relations. Bush spokesman Tony Fratto, who had shrugged off the comment Saturday, decided to return fire.

John Zweifel calls it his magnificent obsession: a 60-foot-long, 20-foot-wide replica of the White House that took more than 30 years to create.This is no ordinary "dollhouse."Every detail of the White House is duplicated right down to the flickering fire in the fireplace and the working light bulbs the size of grains of rice.The replica, which goes on display tomorrow at the Security Square Mall, contains more than 1,000 hand-carved pieces of furniture constructed from the same kinds of wood used in the original works.

Washington -- Congressional Democrats authorized five subpoenas yesterday in their drive to step up oversight of the Bush administration, a move likely to heighten tensions between the majority party on Capitol Hill and the White House. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee approved a subpoena to compel Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to testify about the administration's disputed prewar claim that Iraq had tried to buy uranium. And the committee authorized subpoenas directing the Republican National Committee to turn over information in an investigation of whether administration officials used the political committee's e-mail to conduct government business.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- To Teresa Cahill, Gerry Adams remains the shy, gangly teen-ager her late husband, Frank, recruited as a community volunteer 30 years ago in a Roman Catholic neighborhood called Ballymurphy."

PANAMA CITY -- U.S. military and security agencies warned the White House more than a week early that President Bush faced serious danger if he carried out plans to speak at a public rally during his brief stop in Panama and urged that his appearance be canceled, U.S. and diplomatic sources say.fTC "Within 72 hours after Bush's staff told us he would be coming here, SouthCom [the U.S. military's Panama-based Southern Command] sent the Pentagon a 'trip book' saying the president should not speak [in public]

Barack Obama, you have your work cut out for you. The economy is in tatters. The war in Iraq is in limbo. Health care needs reforming. The environment is sick - every day another polar bear drifts out to sea on an ice floe because of global warming. Or so they say. But once you're sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, here's one of the first things you should do: put up a basketball hoop at the White House. Put it right out there in the driveway for all to see, too. I say this because finally we have a president who plays a real sport.

Washington -- THE WHITE House has been quietly trying to find a compromise on the touchy issue of whether federally funded clinics should be allowed to offer advice on abortion to their clients.The operative question is whether the Democrats will once again allow President Bush to extricate himself from a political box.Or, alternatively, will the Democrats in Congress recognize that the 1992 presidential campaign already has begun and hold Bush's feet to the fire?Appropriation bills overturning the so-called "gag rule" imposed by the Supreme Court last summer remain to be finalized by a conference committee.

WASHINGTON -- There are obviously complex legal questions raised by the White House decision to stiff Senate investigators of Whitewater on the notes taken at a meeting in November of 1993 that involved both President Clinton's private lawyers and members of his staff. In the long run, however, the most important questions may be political.At some point, the courts probably will have to decide whether the notes are protected by attorney-client privilege. And there may have to be another ruling as well on executive privilege -- that is, whether the executive branch has a right to conduct its affairs without every scrap of paper being available to inquiring senators or the public.

WASHINGTON -- The White House and congressional supporters of Judge Clarence Thomas reacted last night with unshaken confidence -- and even scorn -- to the disclosure that a second woman will testify against the Supreme Court nominee.White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said that the nomination would survive despite allegations by Angela D. Wright, a North Carolina newspaper editor and a former aide to Judge Thomas, that Judge Thomas made "unwelcome and inappropriate" sexual remarks to her.Ms.