re cleaning ladies and bus boys paying for the education of Senator Joe Lieberman's daughter? The Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees International Union recently gave $5,000 to the ritzy Jewish Primary Day School in Washington, D.C., where one of the students is the daughter of the Connecticut Democrat, who happens to be ranking member of a Senate committee with oversight responsibilities for the Department of Justice, which quit a consent decree a year-and-a-half ago supervising the union, which has a long history of mob ties.

Dan Gerstein, Lieberman's press secretary, says the senator didn't solicit the contribution, even though Lieberman and the union's president, John Wilhelm, are friends who attended Yale together in the 1960s. Lieberman, says Gerstein, "didn't even know how Wilhelm knew about the fundraiser."

The union's donation became public knowledge because a perceptive parent recognized Wilhelm's name when contributors were thanked at an event on Sunday. There is currently no requirement that unions disclose their charitable giving.

Will Lieberman now support this kind of reporting? It's well short of what many conservatives want: full disclosure of all union political activities, including the costs of newsletters, mailings, staff time, and other in-kind contributions. That seems a reasonable position for a man often named as a potential running mate for born-again campaign-finance crusader Al Gore. The dishwashers deserve to know where their union dues are going.

FLUSHED OUT
As Republicans complain about intrusive census forms asking Americans how many toilets they have, two GOPers yesterday signed on with the federal potty police. Representatives Michael Bilirakis of Florida and Heather Wilson of New Mexico voted in committee to dump a bill that would have repealed a 1992 regulation requiring toilet flushes to use only 1.6 gallons of water, down from the previous standard of 3.5 gallons. They joined 11 Democrats on the House Commerce subcommittee to douse the measure, offered by Joe Knollenberg of Michigan, 13-12. (Republicans not voting: Ed Bryant of Tennessee, Vito Fossella of New York, and Steve Largent of Oklahoma; Fossella and Largent were actually co-sponsors of the Knollenberg bill.) Liberals like to say government should get out of people's bedrooms; now several Republicans have helped the Democrats keep government in people's bathrooms.

FAIR PLAY
Former Senator Alan Simpson has quit the Federation for American Immigration Reform's advisory board following ads run by the group in Michigan that compare Senator Spencer Abraham to Middle-Eastern terrorist Osama Bin Laden. Abraham, an embattled Republican, is of Lebanese ancestry. He is widely viewed as one of the GOP's strongest proponents of legal immigration — a position that put him at odds with Simpson, a Wyoming Republican, when the two served together.

MAN OF THE LEFT
Pat Buchanan, on trade with China, according to the New York Times: "If I get there, it won't be [U.S. trade representative] Charlene Barshefsky sitting down in Beijing, it'll be Jim Hoffa," the president of the Teamsters' union.

THE OTHER JUAN GONZALEZ
Detroit Tigers star outfielder Juan Gonzalez is the subject of a cover story by Chris Colston in the current issue of Baseball Weekly. From the article, which describes Gonzalez's ambition one day to become mayor of his hometown in Puerto Rico: "Gonzalez says his four favorite U.S. presidents are John Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George Bush, and Ronald Reagan. 'I liked Reagan because he had [guts],' he says. He plans on voting for former Texas Rangers owner George W. Bush in November. 'He has charisma,' he says. 'More than Gore.'"