WASHINGTON INSIGHT

LOOSE CANNON: Insiders at the Health and Human Services Department say Secretary Donna Shalala and Assistant Secretary for Health Philip R. Lee are growing more frustrated with their inability to rein in Dr. Joycelyn Elders. The outspoken surgeon general most recently caused an uproar with a speech in which she attacked the “un-Christian religious right” for opposing education in such areas as sex and AIDS. “We’ve got to be strong to take on those people who are selling our children out in the name of religion,” she said. . . . In response, 87 House Republicans wrote to President Clinton seeking Elders’ resignation. Sources at HHS say Elders’ superiors fear that she is eroding her effectiveness through self-inflicted wounds, but they cannot persuade her to temper her remarks because she believes that she reports only to Clinton. “They say the surgeon general has a bully pulpit,” she said recently. “Well, I don’t mind using this bully pulpit.”

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ISLAND HOPPING: The Clintons have yet to choose a destination for their planned time off in August. But don’t tell that to the locals on Martha’s Vineyard, the teeny, tony island off Cape Cod where the Clintons went last August, staying at a friend’s vacation home because they have no getaway of their own. Saturday’s edition of the Vineyard Gazette newspaper featured a front-page advertisement that was either a divine scoop or wishful thinking: “The 2nd Coming?! Accommodations Sought for Presidential Entourage. Sandcastle Realty (508) 627-5665.”

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ABCs of A to Z: House backers of the so-called A to Z spending-cuts plan appear to have lost momentum during the Fourth of July recess, failing to gain even one of the 14 additional signatures they need for a petition that would force a marathon 56-hour budget-cutting session this year. The plan is dubbed A to Z because it promises to open the entire alphabet soup of the federal budget to cuts by a simple House majority, bypassing the committee system that A to Z advocates contend is used by House leaders to prevent cuts and preserve pet projects. . . . House Democratic leaders, who charge that A to Z would produce little but a legislative circus, seem to have succeeded in swaying the undecided by promising them a chance to cut mandatory benefit programs in August and September, as well as to consider budget process reforms starting this week. Even if A to Z advocates achieve their goal of acquiring 218 signatures, it may come to nothing. The Senate is not likely to take up such a bill so late in the session, which means it’s as simple as ABC that the A to Z plan would die with the adjournment of the 103rd Congress.

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UNDER THE HOOD: The first couple might be the most powerful people in the world, but would you want to fix their car? Auto mechanics say they would prefer such customers as TV funnyman and car buff David Letterman or model-actress Cindy Crawford, according to a nationwide poll of master mechanics conducted by Valvoline and the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence. Asked who they would most like to have as a frequent customer, Letterman was the choice of 39% and Crawford was picked by 29%. Clinton was chosen by 16% and Hillary Rodham Clinton by 6%.

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DREAM TEAM: Republican Rep. Jennifer Dunn of Washington state and Democratic Rep. Nathan Deal of Georgia collaborated on legislation, approved by the House on Wednesday, to require states to register and track sexually violent offenders after they are released from prison. Its authors refer to it as the Dunn-Deal.