WHIP IT
Why shouldn't Tom DeLay count votes on impeachment? The Democrats are lobbying members for a party-line vote, while Republican leaders are scanning the papers to figure out if any of their members have declared. Democrats are bashing DeLay's "strong-arm tactics" to prevent him from trying to get information. But if he's going to take heat for doing it, why shouldn't he actually do it? The vote is going to be seen as partisan anyway. To accept a double standard on tactics is to say that voting for impeachment is somehow disreputable.

PROMISES, PROMISES
If President Clinton is serious about reforming Social Security, he will have the perfect opportunity to get the ball rolling at the White House conference scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. What he must do, at a minimum, is promise Republicans that he will offer his own actuarially sound proposal by early February at the latest. He doesn't need to commit to anything in particular next week, but he must signal to the GOP that he will develop a position he can defend.

Clinton, in short, must start answering some of the questions he's been asking others all year long: Should reform include private savings accounts? Should the cap on the payroll tax be lifted? Should the retirement age be increased? So far, the administration has said only that it won't support an increase in the payroll tax rate.

If Clinton refuses even to unveil a plan in the near future, don't count on any meaningful Social Security reform next year, despite all the happy talk coming out of Washington.

LEAK PROOF
Democrats and liberal pundits who accused Ken Starr of mistreating Monica Lewinsky by not allowing her to contact her lawyers last January owe the special prosecutor an apology. Starr's team in fact gave Lewinsky several opportunities to call anyone she wanted, court documents now reveal. Judge Norma Holloway Johnson exonerated the Office of Independent Counsel of this charge last April, but the ruling was kept under wraps until this week. Despite heavy partisan criticism, especially from House Judiciary Committee Democratic counsel Abbe Lowell, nobody on Starr's staff saw fit to leak this important point of information.

BACKRUB, ANYONE?
Former Virginia Gov. George Allen (R.) appears ready to challenge Sen. Chuck Robb, giving the GOP at least one opportunity to knock off a Democratic incumbent senator in 2000. In a move to shore up Robb, Senate Democrats on Wednesday voted their colleague onto the Finance Committee--a new job that will help him fundraise.