Wimp

When Barbara Bush plants a kiss on an old friend there's a loud smack. Subtlety? Forget it. Whether you've been kissed and caressed or dressed down by the wife of the vice president, you know it. And, you're not likely to forget it. "If you do something she doesn't like, she'll let you know right quick. She's got a quick fuse," says the oldest of her five children, 41-year-old George Jr. "How you have the nerve to ask me that!" she said recently when questioned about the much-publicized "wimp factor" Bush has sought to overcome in his Republican run for the presidency.

Never again will anyone be able to make the "wimp" label stick to President Bush, whose decisive action to restore freedom in Panama resembled nothing of the "tinny arf" of a lap dog that George Will once pinned on him, but instead resembled the deeper "woof" of a guard dog. Cartoonist Garry Trudeau will have to let the president's "manhood" out of blind trust and begin drawing him as a person and not a disembodied spirit. The real wimp turned out to be the braggart Manuel Noriega, who, after waving sabers and playing the macho role, ended his tyrannical career hiding behind the priestly skirts of the papal nuncio in Panama City, asking for sanctuary.

"We believe that the Lord God created races with distinctions, and that races are meant to be separate from one another . . . Caucasians can't date Orientals. Orientals can't date Caucasians, and neither of them can date Negroes. " The above-stated beliefs of Bob Jones III are grossly offensive to me. Sickening. So are the Neanderthal policies of banning interracial dating and interracial marriage at Bob Jones University in South Carolina. I am an "Oriental" married to a "Caucasian.

Now that the Republican National Convention is history, it is becoming clear that George Bush won half the battle of New Orleans in a breeze and gave away the other half without a fight. Unfortunately for him and the Republicans, they will find when the smoke has cleared that what was lost here was far more important politically than what was gained, so much so that the election itself is in needless jeopardy. In summary, you could say that Bush beat the stuffing out of Garry Trudeau but left Michael S. Dukakis with a wonderful chance to claim the championship almost by default.

Meet Dan Bartlett, prep school nice guy. Give him a pair of Bermuda shorts, let him spend a couple of frustrating days in the Caribbean and presto, Rambo. Bartlett, played by John Cusack, is the teen hero of "Hot Pursuit," a comedy adventure film directed by Steven Lisberger ("Tron. ") He is unlike any teen hero we've met in recent years. And that's too bad. Bartlett is not charming, like Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick). He's not daring, like Tom Cruise in "Risky Business.

"Hot Pursuit," a comedy action film starring John Cusack, Robert Loggia, Wendy Gazelle, Jerry Stiller. Directed by Steven Lisberger. Screenplay by Lisberger and Steven Carabatsos. Running time: 90 minutes Meet Dan Bartlett, prep school nice guy. Give him a pair of Bermuda shorts, let him spend a couple of frustrating days in the Caribbean and presto, Rambo. Bartlett, played by John Cusack, is the teen hero of "Hot Pursuit," a comedy adventure film directed by Steven Lisberger ("Tron.

Yo, you still driving one of those wimp-mobiles? You know, a car? Well, get rid of it. Now. And get yourself an SUV - you know, a sport-utility vehicle. The bigger the better. Do that, and you'll never want to drive a wimp-mobile again. Here's how we know all this: The Daily News recently took a Lincoln Navigator out for a test drive, thanks to the nice folks at Winner Lincoln Mercury down at the airport auto mall. The Navigator is one fine machine - it's like a truck that handles like a luxury car. You get behind the wheel of one of these babies, and suddenly you own the world.

The admitted City Avenue rapist was described as a "wimp" by his lawyer, but he didn't act the part when a judge told him yesterday that he needed to be warehoused. Clarence R. LaRue, 34, a Norristown construction worker, angered Common Pleas Judge Gregory E. Smith by interrupting his sentencing with a demand to withdraw his guilty pleas to stalking, beating and raping a lost 43-year-old Cherry Hill woman in the early morning of July 31, 1998. Smith threatened to gag LaRue if he didn't shut up. He then sentenced the protesting LaRue to 40 to 80 years in prison "for the protection of the community," on a series of charges, including rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and ethnic intimidation.

People who admit to being George Bush supporters are about as excited as people like that get. They believe the critical issue of whether their man is a wimp has been settled. Apparently, for at least one day, he was nobody's wimp. CBS-TV's Dan Rather walked right into an artfully designed sandbagging on live television. There was Rather, actually pushing one of the Reagan administration's most distinguished fatheads to answer a question instead of making a speech. Bush postured nobly.

"Bullies. " A thriller starring Jonathan Crombie and Olivia D'Abo. Directed by Paul Lynch from a screenplay by John Sheppard and Bryan McCann. Photographed by Rene Verzier. Edited by Nick Rotundo. Musica by Paul Zaza. Running time: 92 minutes. A Universal release. In area theaters. For anyone who has been longing for a remake of "Straw Dogs" - I don't know, there must be at least three of you out there - you can relax now. "Bullies" is here. There's a catch, of course - and it's the same catch-22 that's been afflicting just about every other movie being released these days: Yes, "Bullies" is another "Straw Dogs" but it's been remade for 14-year-old boys.

Question: I'm a confident, intelligent, direct woman in my 30s. I look for the same qualities in a mate. What I've found is that the men I date proclaim to want these things, too. I was duped because my ex did a good job of being direct and all that about other things. But when it came to relationship-related issues, he was passive-aggressive, timid, silent at times, wishy-washy, etc. I would ask direct questions, and he would be the exact opposite of these qualities. How do you know if someone is telling the truth about himself?

THERE IS NOTHING more magical than football in the snow. If you grew up anywhere in the wintry half of this country, you probably have fond memories of hiking up your snow pants and sloshing around with your buddies and your Pete Rozelle-signed football in the backyard drifts - and the only thing that comes a close second to playing football in the snow is watching a classic NFL matchup in a furious downpour of the white stuff. In 1948, the Eagles won an NFL championship at Shibe Park in a raging blizzard, a game that was never forgotten by the 36,309 die-hards who didn't think twice about braving those conditions to watch history in the making.

ERIC LINDROS earned your wrath. Scott Rolen did, too. They're on that list of petulant stars who sabotaged seasons and picked a fight with their public. But does Donovan McNabb really deserve what he's getting lately? Does he deserve our slings, our disdain, our recounting of everything that bugged us about him in his 11 seasons here? Does he really deserve to be hated right now? More to the point, will he ever be embraced by us later in life the way Randall Cunningham is now, the way Mitch Williams is now, the way Charles Barkley is now?

In seven months of debating property tax reform, New Jersey legislators never took their eyes off the prize: reelection next fall. All 120 seats are on the ballot in November, so legislators knew they had to deliver something. At the same time, they dared not anger powerful interest groups needed for campaign financing or voter turnout. So this week, instead of the "bold, bold, bold" reform that Gov. Corzine begged for, New Jersey residents got warmed-over rebates unlikely to last beyond a year or two. It's true that nearly 1.9 million households will receive a credit or rebate averaging $1,051 under the relief plan if Corzine signs the bill passed by the Senate on Tuesday.

IN TODAY'S top story, People magazine reports that Katie Holmes had an epidural. So while Tom Cruise has reportedly reached the exalted stage of Thetan in Scientology, Katie has merely reached the less-exalted status of Wimp. In other birth-of-the-century news, Katie reportedly left the still-unnamed hospital within 24 hours of the birth. All you women with HMOs who got the boot in similar time should now feel better. If one is to believe the story in the Star, one of the reasons Katie may have bolted from the maternity ward was to make sure Tom didn't kidnap the newborn.

My family doctor in Mount Holly, it turns out, still has several precious doses of flu vaccine. So you can see my dilemma. Stalking her, after all, is technically against the law. I fear the flu. Catching the flu is only one of my many fears, which include riding the New York City subway, eating raw squid, and discovering that life without Cher on tour is somehow not as good. But right now, the flu ranks first. I have obtained a flu shot every year since 1999, when I contracted the dreaded Asian "Twirl and Hurl" flu. The room would twirl, and then various internal organs would defy gravity.

WIMPS. Especially Justices Breyer and O'Connor. When all was said and done, the U.S Supreme Court punted on the question of affirmative action. They decided nothing. That's my conclusion after slogging through the two contradictory affirmative action opinions handed down this week. Not that you would know this from the headline writers and the so-called legal pundits. No way any of them took the time to read the two opinions. On one hand, by a 6-3 vote the Court held unconstitutional a University of Michigan undergraduate admissions' program that gave more weight to skin color than a perfect SAT. The undergraduate admissions process featured a 150-point scale that awarded an automatic 20 points to people of color while a perfect 1600 SAT score was worth only 12 points.

There it is, a thumbnail guide to the Democratic wish list. The next presidential race might seem like a distant thundercloud to most Americans, but for the Democratic activists and donors who yearn to yank George W. Bush from his pedestal, the race is already a raging obsession. They are tantalized by the upbeat possibilities - yet tormented by fears of another landslide defeat, like the time Ronald "It's morning in America" Reagan racked up 49 states in '84. They're the heirs of a party that once dominated this nation, the party of Roosevelt and Truman, Kennedy and Johnson, the party that fought Nazis and communists abroad, pioneered Social Security and Medicare at home - yet today they are virtually powerless in Washington.

With America fighting an open-ended war against terrorists and rogue nations, prominent Democrats are increasingly concerned that their party may be doomed in the next presidential election. The problem, they say, is that huge numbers of Americans dismiss the Democrats as national security wimps. And that's a bad image in wartime. Jeremy Rosner, a Democratic pollster and national security specialist, cites a remark he heard during a recent meeting with swing voters. A Florida woman, discussing war and terrorism, said she felt safer with the GOP, because it erred on the side of action.

SINCE WHEN did democracy and our form of elections adopt the designated hitter rule? It hasn't been that great for baseball, so why consider it for elections? Yet that's essentially what New Jersey Sen. Robert Torricelli is asking the courts to do as the embattled Democrat yesterday quit his bid to be re-elected. Finding the current race against GOP unknown Doug Forrester a little too tough, the normally combative senator is now asking the New Jersey Supreme Court for a do-over.