WASHINGTON INSIGHT

VOTE SITS WELL: Reports continue trickling in about the deals, threats and sweet-talking used by Clinton forces to corral a bare majority for his deficit-reduction plan in the House. Vice President Al Gore went after Rep. Calvin Dooley (D-Visalia), who was on the fence until he decided to vote yes at the eleventh hour. Was he promised a new dam or courthouse? “No,” a Dooley aide confided, “the Gore daughters sometimes baby-sit for the congressman,” who lives near Gore’s residence in suburban Arlington, Va.