For the Record - Brief Article - Column

Heritage Foundation president Edwin J. Feulner on Bush administration, in New York Times: "More Reaganite than the Reagan administration." . . . Paul Weyrich of Free Congress Foundation: "I've been through five Republican administrations, and the effort to communicate with conservatives and to understand our concerns and address our concerns and involve us in the process is the best of any of the Republican administrations." . . . President Bush withdraws 62 executive and judicial nominations made in last days of Clinton administration, but doesn't rule out renominating some of them himself. . . . Bush stops using e-mail before inauguration: "My lawyers tell me that all correspondence by e-mail is subject to open record requests," he writes in Jan. 17 missive to confidants, reports New York Times. "Since I do not want my private conversations looked at by those out to embarrass, the only course of action is not to correspond in cyberspace. This saddens me." . . . "Are you with the Chinese press? Your English is perfect," says Bush to reporter. "You speak better English than I do." . . . "Those stories about my intellectual capacity do get under my skin. You know for a while I even thought my staff believed it," says Bush at Gridiron Club dinner. "There on my schedule first thing every morning it said, 'Intelligence briefing.'" . . . Bush selects Gore- campaign donor Thomas A. Scully to head Health Care Financing Administration.

Newsweek poll: 55 percent approve of Bush tax-cut plan, and 36 percent disapprove. . . . Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.): "After 60 days of the Bush administration, prosperity is in trouble, air quality is in trouble, lakes, rivers, and forests are in trouble, and our drinking water is in trouble, too." . . . Sen. Hillary Clinton (D., N.Y.): "The new administration is not just attempting to reverse the last eight years of progress and prosperity, they want to reverse the last 50 or 60 years. . . . It's not just trying to turn back the clock on the Clinton administration; they want to turn the clock back on the Roosevelt administration." . . . Sen. Clinton assumes most expensive home-state office rent of any senator, at $514,149 per year. Rent for Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), also in Manhattan, is $209,532. . . . In annual Pig Book, Citizens Against Government Waste identifies unnecessary spending, including $190,000 to determine why people are moving away from Great Plains states, $300,000 for "manure management," and $700,000 for the University of Idaho's Institute for the Historic Study of Jazz. . . . Pork-per-capita leader is Alaska ($766.11), followed by Hawaii ($391.71), Mississippi ($236.49), West Virginia ($128.47), and Vermont ($114.10). In last place is Connecticut ($7.69).

Virginia governor Jim Gilmore (R.) ends practice of designating April as "Confederate History Month," replaces it with general acknowledgment of Civil War. . . . Florida secretary of state Katherine Harris (R.) proposes to overhaul voting system by eliminating punch-card ballots and buying optical scanners, for $200 million. . . . Bill Bradley tells friends, "It's over"-he won't run for president in 2004, according to Chicago Sun-Times. . . . In Los Angeles city-council race, candidate Woody Fleming criticizes opponent Jan Perry for being "married to a white man." (Both candidates are black.) Fleming later says he "meant to say she was married to a wealthy lawyer." . . . California Association of Scholars criticizes UC president Richard Atkinson for not removing UC vice president Alex Saragoza from post, following proof Saragoza retroactively enrolled two athletes in class that they never attended.

Princeton poll: 73 percent say doctors should be allowed to prescribe marijuana for medical purposes, 74 percent say we're losing drug war. . . . Mark Millar of Marvel Comics, on his plans to alter superhero storylines, in The Guardian: "Superman is such a simple story-everyone knows what he represents-so I decided to turn it on its head: make Superman a Communist, turn Batman into a kind of IRA terrorist, and make Wonder Woman a right slapper." . . . Rep. Bob Barr (R., Ga.) threatens to block money for Washington's Metro system until it changes signs acknowledging that National Airport's new name, as of three years ago, is Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. . . . Nancy Reagan asks old friends to break off contact with former president because he becomes depressed when he can't remember names of people he should know.

"There is a very clear situation here. We absolutely oppose the sale of advanced weapons by the United States to Taiwan," Chinese president Jiang Zemin tells Washington Post. "If the United States were to sell advanced weapons to Taiwan such as the Aegis [missile-defense] system, that would be very detrimental to China-U.S. relations." . . . North Korea may have 3,000 nuclear experts trained in China and Russia, says South Korean think tank. . . . After German environment minister (and Green Party member) Juergen Trittin says opposition pol "has the mentality of a skinhead, and not just the appearance," for suggesting foreigners in Germany assimilate, Greens suffer setbacks in state elections.