WASHINGTON INSIGHT

PIQUANT POINT: House Delegate Robert A. Underwood (D-Guam) sent a letter to colleagues last week expressing alarm that salsa had overtaken ketchup as the nation’s leading condiment. He proposed a “ketchup-only” bill that would make use of ketchup mandatory in all government food services. “Salsa, and to a great extent soy sauce, threatens the [dietary] fiber of our nation. . . . If people want to come to this country, they should be prepared to use our condiments,” he wrote. As it happens, Underwood, who does not vote on the House floor, was not serious about the sauces. His letter was satire, intended to make a point about pending “English-only” legislation. “Our nation was founded on commonality,” he says. “English is already the common language of this country and I consider English-only laws as silly as this.”

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TAPPED OUT: The advocacy group Physicians for Social Responsibility calls it “Bottled Watergate.” The organization, whose parent group, Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, won the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize, say that many members of Congress are hypocrites about drinking water. The group has identified lawmakers who refused to support five separate attempts to toughen standards on federal drinking water, yet spend tax dollars to buy bottled water for their offices in Washington or in their home districts. A list of those members includes 19 Republicans and one Democrat from California.

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CROSSED SIGNALS: During a spirited discussion last week in the House International Relations Committee, Democrat Harry A. Johnston of Florida described a peculiar paradox in the debate surrounding the Clinton Administration’s plan to send U.S. ground troops to Bosnia. Democrats don’t want to increase the national defense budget, Johnston said, yet they favor sending the troops overseas. Republicans want to build up the Defense Department budget, yet don’t want to deploy the American forces.

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LIBRARY SALE: Want your very own official Library of Congress version of the papers of Margaret Mead or Thurgood Marshall or 23 U.S. presidents, or a Buddhist sutra from A.D. 770, or reproductions from many of the library’s extensive collections of movies, musical recordings, books and photographs? Soon, very soon now. The Library of Congress, like the Smithsonian Institution, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and countless other repositories of valuable artifacts, is about to get marketed--through a company whose clients include Ripley’s Believe It or Not. The library has signed a contract to license its name and possessions to Whiteman World-Wide Marketing Corp. The intent is to raise money by producing “high quality, education-oriented gift, collectible and home decor products.”

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TERM LIMIT: It’s hard to imagine that Rep. Bill Barrett (R-Neb.) could have uttered the same words in the Senate without getting his ears Barbara Boxered. Barrett, while serving briefly as presiding officer on the House floor Wednesday, repeatedly addressed Enid Greene Waldholtz (R-Utah) as “young lady”--a term that some find patronizing--instead of the commonly accepted “gentle lady” or simply “representative.” Barrett is 66. Waldholtz just turned 37. Barrett said later that he was guilty of a “slip of the tongue,” adding: “In my generation, referring to someone as a lady was a term of upmost respect.” Waldholtz said that she was not troubled, “as long as I’m getting fair recognition from the chair and I’m able to do my job.”