For the Record

■ With start of brief, intense primary season just a month away, Bob Dole still enjoys big lead, with challengers looking for new angles of attack. In latest, Dole takes shots over his handling of government shutdown after he says “enough is enough” and abruptly rejects House Republican strategy of using furlough as leverage against Clinton. . . . Dole move prompted harsh criticism from House GOP, including some members of the leadership. Says House Minority Whip Tom DeLay: “If Bob Dole wants to cave to the wishes of the White House he can do it, but we’re going to get a balanced budget.” . . . Phil Gramm runs ad quoting DeLay and others, calling Dole “Senator Straddle.” . . . Dole fires back: “[T]ake a look at what’s been going on around here and who’s doing the heavy lifting. That would be me. I don’t work for those people over there. I am not the leader of the House; I am the leader of the Senate.” . . . Meanwhile, Lamar Alexander, languishing in single digits, attempts to revive candidacy with Heritage Foundation speech unveiling his “citizenship agenda for a rising, shining America”; agenda includes devolution and steps to encourage civic activism. . . . Alexander argues “undertow” of Dole nomination would ensure Clinton’s re-election, Republican loss of the House. . . . Steve Forbes, running second in polls, promises to make Iowa “almost his state of residence” in run-up to February 12 caucuses and continues streams of negative ads portraying Dole as spendthrift Washington insider. . . . In intra-conservative squabble, Forbes defends flat-tax from criticisms by Pat Buchanan: “[He] is reflecting traditional cultural thinking in Washington, that any change in the tax code should be revenue neutral.” . . . Buchanan calls Forbes’s supply-side theories, “Big Rock Candy Mountain conservatism.” . . . Back with the rest of the pack in New Hampshire, Buchanan acknowledges his message is a tougher sell now than in 1992: “[Y]ou would get a much greater receptivity to it when times are tough, there’s no doubt about it.” . . . Meanwhile, according to columnist Al Hunt, Clinton advisor Dick Morris, buoyed by President’s standing in polls, is bragging that the presidential race is already over.

■ Former Nixon officials criticize version of their former boss in Oliver Stone film, Nixon. While movie depicts hard-drinking Nixon, John Ehrlich-man, top aide for domestic affairs, writes that “In the five years I was with President Nixon, I never saw him drink in any of his offices, and only rarely elsewhere.” . . . Ehrlichman also notes with interest the movie’s contention that Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman approved burglary of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office— “because I was the one convicted and jailed for allegedly approving all that.” . . . While Stone portrays Nixon as vengeful toward the Kennedy family—indeed, he connects Nixon to the assassination of the two brothers—former advisor Charles Colson writes about a quiet invitation Nixon extended to Jackie and her two children to spend a private evening in the White House. . . . Columnist Bob Novak notes that driving force of Nixon, ignored by Stone, was his treatment by establishment while he helped expose Alger Hiss as Soviet spy.

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Presidential Election

■ With start of brief, intense primary season just a month away, Bob Dole still enjoys big lead, with challengers looking for new angles of attack. In latest, Dole takes shots over his handling of government shutdown after he says “enough is enough” and abruptly rejects House Republican strategy of using furlough as leverage against Clinton. . . . Dole move prompted harsh criticism from House GOP, including some members of the leadership. Says House Minority Whip Tom DeLay: “If Bob Dole wants to cave to the wishes of the White House he can do it, but we’re going to get a balanced budget.” . . . Phil Gramm runs ad quoting DeLay and others, calling Dole “Senator Straddle.” . . . Dole fires back: “[T]ake a look at what’s been going on around here and who’s doing the heavy lifting. That would be me. I don’t work for those people over there. I am not the leader of the House; I am the leader of the Senate.” . . . Meanwhile, Lamar Alexander, languishing in single digits, attempts to revive candidacy with Heritage Foundation speech unveiling his “citizenship agenda for a rising, shining America”; agenda includes devolution and steps to encourage civic activism. . . . Alexander argues “undertow” of Dole nomination would ensure Clinton’s re-election, Republican loss of the House. . . . Steve Forbes, running second in polls, promises to make Iowa “almost his state of residence” in run-up to February 12 caucuses and continues streams of negative ads portraying Dole as spendthrift Washington insider. . . . In intra-conservative squabble, Forbes defends flat-tax from criticisms by Pat Buchanan: “[He] is reflecting traditional cultural thinking in Washington, that any change in the tax code should be revenue neutral.” . . . Buchanan calls Forbes’s supply-side theories, “Big Rock Candy Mountain conservatism.” . . . Back with the rest of the pack in New Hampshire, Buchanan acknowledges his message is a tougher sell now than in 1992: “[Y]ou would get a much greater receptivity to it when times are tough, there’s no doubt about it.” . . . Meanwhile, according to columnist Al Hunt, Clinton advisor Dick Morris, buoyed by President’s standing in polls, is bragging that the presidential race is already over.

■ Former Nixon officials criticize version of their former boss in Oliver Stone film, Nixon. While movie depicts hard-drinking Nixon, John Ehrlich-man, top aide for domestic affairs, writes that “In the five years I was with President Nixon, I never saw him drink in any of his offices, and only rarely elsewhere.” . . . Ehrlichman also notes with interest the movie’s contention that Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman approved burglary of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office— “because I was the one convicted and jailed for allegedly approving all that.” . . . While Stone portrays Nixon as vengeful toward the Kennedy family—indeed, he connects Nixon to the assassination of the two brothers—former advisor Charles Colson writes about a quiet invitation Nixon extended to Jackie and her two children to spend a private evening in the White House. . . . Columnist Bob Novak notes that driving force of Nixon, ignored by Stone, was his treatment by establishment while he helped expose Alger Hiss as Soviet spy.