A WHITE HOUSE TRAVELING FOUL

The former director of the White House travel office is likely to be indicted this week for -- and plead not guilty to -- allegedly embezzling $69,000 that news organizations ponied up for trips with the president, his attorney said today. Billy Dale ran the office from 1982 until the 1993 "travelgate" scandal surfaced. He and several other staffers were fired for misuse of funds. The finger-pointing over the troubled operation has only begun, and it's already confusing: Dale, whose lawyer says he'll "defend himself vigorously," plans to argue he's a scapegoat for the 1993 scandal, which turned out to stem from complaints by Clinton cronies who allegedly wanted a share of the travel business. (The employees were soon reinstated for that reason.) But Dale's likely to be charged with a two-part theft that would have occurred during the Bush Administration.