Capital briefs

* PLEDGE DECISION STAYED: On June 27, 79-year-- old Nixon appointee Judge Alfred Goodwin stayed the enforcement of his incredibly unpopular decision to ban the Pledge of Allegiance from public schools because of its phrase "under God." The U.S. Justice Department said it would appeal the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals 2-to-1 decision and Goodwin's stay would last at least until that appeal was heard. "I wonder if that judge would hold the Declaration of Independence unconstitutional," said Sen. Robert Byrd (D.-W.Va.). "I hope the Senate will waste no time in throwing this back in the face of this stupid judge. Stupid, that's what he is."

Said House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R.-Ill), "I strongly believe that parents, teachers and local schools should encourage children to recite the Pledge to start the day, the same way those of us in Congress begin our daily business, [and] not allow a liberal judge to take it away. It's time for the Senate to move forward and confirm some common-sense jurists." The House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning the decision as erroneous, 416 to 3. Three Democrats-Michael Honda (Calif.), Robert Scott (Va.), and Pete Stark (Calif.voted against it and 11 more Democrats voted present. The Senate's resolution in support of the Pledge passed unanimously, 99 to 0.

* COURT APPROVES VOUCHERS: Bringing relief to nervous conservatives around the country, the Supreme Court voted 5 to 4 last week to uphold Cleveland's school choice system, paving the way for greater educational opportunities for all children, especially minority and low-income students. Chief Justice William Rehnquist, writing for the majority, challenged the notion that school choice that allows attendance at a religiously affiliated school is somehow equivalent to the establishment of a state religion or endorsement of state-sponsored proselytism. In the system in Cleveland, Rehnquist said, "government aid reaches religious institutions only by way of the deliberate choices of numerous Individual recipients." Parents have multiple choices open to them in the Cleveland system, he noted: private (including religious) schools, special programs within public schools, or their regular neighborhood school.

Justice David Souter, writing in dissent, claimed that the "Establishment Clause" of the Constitution was being violated in the Cleveland school choice plan. Increasingly illtempered Justice John Paul Stevens, 82, went so far as to imply that educational vouchers for low-income children were somehow comparable to fanatical nationalism and Islamic terrorism. In his dissent he cited "the impact of religious strife on the decisions of our forbears to migrate to this continent, and on the decisions of neighbors in the Balkans, Northern Ireland, and the Middle East to mistrust one another."

* SIMON SHAKE-UP: Just two months after Bill Simon, Jr. won the Republican nomination for governor of California and flamboyant Rick Ahern-the "Errol Flynn of campaign managers"-left the helm of the Simon effort, the campaign has undergone yet more changes. Reportedly at the urging of campaign chairman John Herrington, a Reagan Administration secretary of Energy, campaign manager Ron Rogers has been replaced by veteran Golden State operative John Peschong, who served as operating head of the state party when Herrington was chairman. Also signing on as senior campaign advisers are two of Ronald Reagan's closest political strategists, Lyn Nofziger and Ed Rollins. Pollster Frank Luntz is reportedly also working on the campaign.

Although Peschong has been thought highly of on the right since working for Pat Buchanan in the Reagan White House and as press secretary in conservative Bruce Herschensohn's 1992 Senate bid, a number of Golden State conservatives were not overjoyed with his selection for the Simon effort. The reason: Peschong, who most recently was Western field representative for the Republican National Committee, has lately been a close ally of lead California Bushman Gerald Parsky, who has been at dagger's ends with State Party Chairman Shawn Steel and other conservatives. (For more on Steel, see page 4.)

* DID ENVIRONMENTALISTS ABET FIRES?: As fires rage across the West, Arizona Republican Gov. Jane Hull believes it is time to stop listening to the environmentalists who oppose thinning the forests. (For more on how greens have abetted the fires, see page 3.) Logging, the governor says, may be able both to boost the economy and to decrease fire danger. `The policies that are coming from the East Coast, that are coming from the environmentalists, that.say we don't need to log, we don't need to thin our forests are absolutely ridiculous," said Hull. "Nobody on the East Coast knows how to manage these fires and I for one have had it."

* MCCAIN AT WAR: The White House plays nice to Sen. John McCain, but the maverick Arizona Republican slaps down the administration whenever he feels like it. In his latest assault, McCain now has a hold on all Bush nominations-judicial and executive-despite the fact that Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D.-S.D.) and Minority Leader Trent Lott (R.-Miss.) had just worked out an agreement to move many of these nominees along in exchange for confirmation of a Daschle choice to sit on the Federal Communications Commission.