My Summer Vacation or WHO'S MINDING THE WAR?

By PAUL GRAY/

One of the minor debates of the Persian Gulf crisis is whether President Bush should be spending the dog days of August taking his ease in Kennebunkport, Me. How have other key players in his Administration responded to the vacation or not-to-vacation dilemma?

As planned for several months, Vice President DAN QUAYLE was relaxing in Arizona last week. This week, barring a megacrisis, he will be visiting his home state of Indiana.

Secretary of State JAMES BAKER is on his Wyoming homestead but is spending most of his time on the phone with foreign leaders.

Secretary of Defense DICK CHENEY had booked part of August off in Wyoming, but thanks to Saddam Hussein, he has instead seen a lot of the Middle East.

The President invited National Security Adviser BRENT SCOWCROFT to Maine before the crisis. The visit has become a marathon.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff COLIN POWELL had planned to take a week off at his Washington home. He had scheduled the same thing before the invasion of Panama.

The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, WILLIAM WEBSTER, was spotted last week on a golf course in northern Michigan. On one round, Webster shot a 105.

With reporting by David E. Thigpen