The Week

■ A member of a state militia told a congressional committee the government is conspiring to change the weather. Is this the same government that can barely conspire to deliver the mail?

■ Welfare reform is getting typical Contract-with-America treatment in the Senate, i.e., GOP disarray followed by distressingly weakened legislation. Majority Leader Bob Dole and Finance Committee Chairman Bob Packwood both hoped to rush through a reform bill, Dole to win another feather for his presidential cap, Packwood to avoid a conflict with his end-of-June ethics hearings. But little had been done to ensure GOP unity, and now Senate Republicans are paying the price. The bill Packwood reported out of his committee—weak on work requirements, silent on illegitimacy—is unacceptable to conservatives like Lauch Faircloth (N.C.). And Packwood and Dole staff have rebuffed attempts to make the bill any more palatable to the Right—even language merely declaring illegitimacy harmful to society was kept out of the bill. Faircloth and Phil Gramm were pointedly left off a task force formed to hammer out the welfare differences. This could herald a bloody intra-Republican battle—with Phil Gramm carrying the conservative banner against the inside-Washington maneuverings of, among others, prominent Dole staffers. Is the Dole campaign paying attention?

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■ A member of a state militia told a congressional committee the government is conspiring to change the weather. Is this the same government that can barely conspire to deliver the mail?

■ Welfare reform is getting typical Contract-with-America treatment in the Senate, i.e., GOP disarray followed by distressingly weakened legislation. Majority Leader Bob Dole and Finance Committee Chairman Bob Packwood both hoped to rush through a reform bill, Dole to win another feather for his presidential cap, Packwood to avoid a conflict with his end-of-June ethics hearings. But little had been done to ensure GOP unity, and now Senate Republicans are paying the price. The bill Packwood reported out of his committee—weak on work requirements, silent on illegitimacy—is unacceptable to conservatives like Lauch Faircloth (N.C.). And Packwood and Dole staff have rebuffed attempts to make the bill any more palatable to the Right—even language merely declaring illegitimacy harmful to society was kept out of the bill. Faircloth and Phil Gramm were pointedly left off a task force formed to hammer out the welfare differences. This could herald a bloody intra-Republican battle—with Phil Gramm carrying the conservative banner against the inside-Washington maneuverings of, among others, prominent Dole staffers. Is the Dole campaign paying attention?