Capital briefs

* SUPREMES REJECT PRIVILEGE CLAIMS: To the delight of Independent Counsel Ken Starr, the Supreme Court on November 9 refused by 7-to-2 votes to consider appeals of two lower court rulings that went against President Clinton. This means that Secret Service agents and taxpaid White House lawyers--including presidential confidant Bruce Lindsey-will have to testify before Starr's grand jury.

The Supreme Court rejected the White House argument that Clinton's conversations with aide Lindsey were protected under attorney-client privilege and the contention that Secret Service agents have a "protective function" privilege to hide information they learn while guarding the President. Only Clinton appointees Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg voted to hear the White House's appeals.

* SCHOOL CHOICE VICTORY: In another victory for conservatives, the U.S. Supreme Court announced on November 9 that the justices had voted 8 to 1, with only Breyer dissenting, not to hear an appeal of a case involving Wisconsin's tuition voucher program. This lets stand a lower court ruling that found the program legal and constitutional even though poor parents may use the tuition money to send their kids to religious schools. Currently, Milwaukee and Cleveland are the only cities whose school-choice programs include religious schools. "This historic decision clears the way for impoverished families who want a better life for their children to choose schools that make the most sense to them;' said Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson (R.).

* LIVINGSTON'S TROIKA: That's what Capitol Hill watchers are dubbing the three Republican U.S. representatives who made the first commitments to support Rep. Bob Livingston (R.-La.) for speaker back in February and were the top lieutenants in his capture of the post last week. Hal Rogers (Ky.), Ron Packard (Calif.), and Michael P Forbes (N.Y)-all of whom were in Livingston's Rayburn House Building office over the weekend lining up support for him from members-are now considered the "inner circle" around the incoming speaker.

For moderate Forbes (lifetime American Conservative Union rating: 69%), the new power perch is almost like coming back from the political dead. Two years ago, many GOP lawmakers shunned the New Yorker after he became the first Republican House member to announce he would not vote for Newt Gingrich's re-election as speaker.

* BACK TO SENIORITY: Sources close to the speakerto-be told HUMAN EVENTS that they expect Livingston, in contrast to Gingrich, will adhere strictly to the seniority system in the selection of House committee chairmen next month. To get the people he wanted as chairmen of four committees, Gingrich jumped over more senior members and then had his recommendations rubberstamped by the House GOP Conference without debate. Interestingly, one was the Appropriations Committee, where Gingrich gave the chairman's gavel to then-ally Livingston over four more senior lawmakers. Now Livingston is expected to tap as his successor in the Appropriations chair second-ranking Rep. C.W. (Bill) Young (R.-Fla.), a 28-year veteran.

Conservatives had feared that Young, a defense hawk (lifetime American Conservative Union rating: 84%), might be unwilling to relinquish his job as head of the Appropriations Subcommittee on National Security and that moderate Ohio Republican Ralph Regula (ACU rating: 56%), who is third in line, would get the job. "[Young] has said he really likes the National Security Subcommittee,' said Young aide Harry Glenn, "but if he's offered the full committee chairmanship, he would accept it"

* HELLO KYOTO: In New York last week, defying stiff congressional opposition, the Clinton Administration formally signed the Kyoto global warming pact, which will, if implemented, mandate that the United States cut back its greenhouse gas emissions by 7% below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012, while exempting the Third World from having to make any restrictions. (India and China have said they would never comply with the protocol.) Peter Burleigh, acting U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, signed the treaty. Senators Chuck Hagel (R.-Neb.) and Robert Byrd (D.W.Va.), who co-sponsored the anti-treaty Byrd-Hagel resolution overwhelmingly approved by the Senate this year, both denounced the signing. Hagel said the U.S. imprimatur"blatanly contradicts the will of the United States Senate," and that the treaty as written will not be ratified. Byrd, in a letter to President Clinton, said the White House move "is an empty gesture in that the Senate is unlikely to look favorably upon approving the protocol until [various conditions] are met"

* SUBMIT IT NOW: GOP members of the House Kyoto delegation, including Representatives F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (Wis.), Joe Knollenberg (Mich.), Jo Ann Emerson (Mo.), Joe Barton (Tex.), and Ken Calvert (Calif.), who participated in the global warming talks in Buenos Aires (see "Capital Briefs" last week), called on President Clinton to submit the unpopular protocol to the Senate as soon as Congress reconvenes on Jan. 6, 1999. "Failure to do so," they wrote in a joint statement released last week, "would make a mockery of the signing, diminish U.S. credibility throughout the world, and muzzle public debate."