The Clintons' legal-defense fund mailed a pitch to Dr. Bernard Lewinsky. His daughter gave at the office - school vouchers; updates on presidential and congressional candidates; Religious Liberty Protection Act; other issues

Federal judge Solomon Oliver Jr. briefly suspended Cleveland's school- voucher program on church-state grounds. This was a mistake: A government that merely permits parents to use vouchers at religious schools cannot plausibly be said to be establishing a religion. For the school-choice opponents who asked the judge to intervene, he made a political mistake, too: The injunction, coming a day before the start of the school year, looked almost vindictive. Parents of the 4,000 children affected were outraged. The anti-school-choice side was put on the defensive, its willingness to hold children hostage to its anti-religious prejudices and political interests exposed. Never was it clearer that the liberal state regards poor black families as its captives, not its clients. The pro- voucher camp looked a lot better: The schools involved in the program agreed to take the students despite the financial uncertainty, and supporters started to raise money in case the program was dissolved entirely. Within three days, public pressure forced Judge Oliver to retreat. He still plans to find the program unconstitutional, but the injunction is off for most of the children. For the education establishment, this episode has to register as a demoralizing defeat. Its position looks more and more like that of the Soviet Union in the early '80s: seemingly invulnerable because it commands vast resources, but actually decaying because it no longer commands belief.

George W. Bush's speech on education is therefore all the more disappointing. His endorsement of vouchers was tepid--he did not even use the word. Vouchers under him would be limited to failing schools that show no progress after three years. The rest of Bush's speech was no more inspiring. He announced that a Bush administration would review the results of 760 federal education programs and defund the failures. But conservatives have already identified many of the failures. Bush could have specified them if he were serious about making cuts. (He did, however, specify that any cuts would be matched by increases for successful programs.) Bush would also promote early-childhood education, notwithstanding the lack of evidence that it is effective or necessary. He promised to move Head Start from the Department of Health and Human Services to the Department of Education--the sort of fiddling with organizational charts that administrations typically turn to when they have no real agenda. Bush is doing the bare minimum, coasting along like a high-school senior who has gotten his college acceptance letter. The conservatives who praised his speech are giving in to grade inflation.

According to the latest Boston Globe poll, Bill Bradley and Al Gore are in a statistical dead heat among likely Democratic voters in New Hampshire. Pollsters credit much of Bradley's success to the electorate's desire for political change. He has certainly been providing a lot of that lately. When he was in the Senate, Bradley assailed ethanol subsidies as a rip off designed to aid Iowa farmers: "The ethanol industry has been living off the dole long enough. This billion-dollar tax break is nothing more than a gift to a single politically connected industry." Today, Bradley is not only in favor of agri-welfare, he is outbidding Gore. He explained himself to Meet the Press: "When I was in the Senate, I represented my state," and the ethanol subsidy "was not good for New Jersey." His vision, you see, has simply become less parochial--and not only about ethanol. As a senator, Bradley voted for pilot programs for school vouchers; he now says that vouchers are a "nonstarter." He once backed a plan for the partial privatization of Social Security; he now says that he is "skeptical." Who knew that protecting New Jersey's narrow interests could be so enlightened?

Senatorial candidate Hillary Clinton announced that her husband's offer to commute the jail sentences of 16 Puerto Rican terrorists, serving time for a wave of bombings and bank robberies in the late '70s and early '80s, should be withdrawn, since the terrorists' failure to renounce violence "spoke volumes." Additional volumes were spoken by the press reports that every relevant federal agency had opposed the clemency offer, and by New Yorkers with functioning memories (three cops were maimed defusing bombs, and six New Yorkers died from bombs the cops did not get to). Obviously, this bit of ethnic pandering backfired. Some of the terrorists have indeed renounced their old ways--but for safety's sake, better give those Hillary para el Senado rallies a wide berth.

New Jersey governor Christine Whitman pulled out of the state's Senate race, citing lack of funds. This is a new problem for her, lack of votes being more typical. She squeaked into the governorship in 1993 against an unpopular incumbent on the strength of a last-minute conversion to tax cutting. Four years later, she won reelection with less than 50 percent of the vote. Her economic record was spotty, and she had stifled attempts to experiment with school choice. Her fanatical support of abortion (including the partial-birth variety) was supposed to make her the leader of a wave of social liberalism in the GOP; mostly it led to a wave of press clips. If a Republican wins the White House, she may get a cabinet post--a fit graveyard for her career. May we suggest (with Mrs. Dole in mind) Transportation?