Hot Potatoes

EVEN WHILE THE 102ND CONGRESS RACED TO ADjourn for the campaign finale, the Democrats somehow found time to stick controversial issues smack into President Bush's face. They didn't win many fights, but they did raise the discomfort level in the White House to record levels. To the Republicans' collective relief, the family-leave bill died on Wednesday when the House failed to override Bush's veto of the legislation, which the White House opposed as antibusiness. On Friday the House left Bush's abortion "gag rule" in place, again failing to muster the necessary two-thirds vote to overturn the legislation, which bars abortion counseling by nonphysician workers in federally funded family-planning clinics. The vote came the day after the Administration's curb on such funding took effect. Bush's Saturday veto of a bill reregulating cable TV just might be overridden; it was first passed by a more than 2-to-1 vote in both houses.