House Still Plans to Hold Hearings on ATF `Abuses'

Despite opposition from Democrats and apprehension by someRepublicans in the wake of the Oklahoma City disaster, GOP Rep. BillMcCollum still plans to hold hearings on alleged abuses by the Bureauof Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

The attack on the Oklahoma City federal building housing bureauoffices came on the second anniversary of the federal assault againstthe Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. McCollum's Housesubcommittee on crime and criminal justice had planned two hearings -one on the Waco affair and the other on the bloody 1992 ATF siege ofwhite separatist Randy Weaver's cabin in Ruby Ridge, Idaho.

Rep. Charles Schumer, ranking Democrat on McCollum'ssubcommittee, said on CNN last weekend that the proposed hearingswere "simply red meat to some of these extreme right forces" andadded that "I would just bet . . . that these hearings will now bepostponed." Although the hearings may not take place in May asexpected, McCollum intends to hold them. Gingrich's book

House Speaker Newt Gingrich scrubbed his vacation plans for theEaster recess of Congress and instead spent most of the three weekswriting a first draft of his book.

Gingrich had intended to relax in Arizona, but his editors atHarperCollins told him he had better get cracking. So, except for aspeech for the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix and a quick visit toOklahoma City, Gingrich stayed in Atlanta to write.

"I don't write very well, but I write fast," Gingrich tellsfriends. He plans to give his collaborator, William Tucker, acomplete manuscript when the House reconvenes Monday. No gambling lobbyist

Veteran Republican operative Craig Fuller turned down a$1-million-a-year lobbyist's job for gambling interests to manageCalifornia Gov. Pete Wilson's presidential campaign.

In taking over the Wilson campaign, Fuller resigned as seniorvice president of Philip Morris. He has been a senior aide toPresident Ronald Reagan, chief of staff to Vice President George Bushand manager of the 1992 Republican national convention in Houston. Another aisle crosser?

The presence of a conservative Democrat, Rep. Mike Parker ofMississippi, at the table with his Republican colleagues on the HouseBudget Committee carving up the federal budget has raised speculationthat he may become another aisle-crossing congressman.

Parker was the only Democrat invited to the budget-draftingsessions presided over by the committee's Republican chairman, Rep.John Kasich. Parker accepted and has become a full participant.

"I don't think Mike Parker ever will become a Republican,"Kasich said. But Parker could be in the vanguard of as many as 10House Democrats switching to the GOP before the next election, amovement that would kill Democratic chances of regaining control ofthe House in 1996. Gramm's Kempites

Sen. Phil Gramm's efforts to win over Jack Kemp supporters,while falling short in many places, is hitting pay dirt in the keystate of Michigan.

State Board of Education President Clark Durant, a prominentRepublican conservative and a leader in Kemp's 1988 presidentialcampaign, has signed on to the Gramm presidential campaign. He isjoined by several other Michigan Republicans who backed Kemp in '88and were ready to support him in '96 if he had tried again.

Republican National Committeeman Chuck Yob, a Grand Rapidsindustrialist, also has backed Gramm. But the big prize, Gov. JohnEngler, remains uncommitted.

Robert Novak is a nationally syndicated columnist of the ChicagoSun-Times.