FROM BAD TO WORSE:

The President reportedly wants to punch columnist William Safire for impugning his wife's integrity over Whitewater and the travel office firings. Press secretary Mike McCurry told reporters today that, after reading Safire's Monday column, which called the first lady "a congenital liar," Clinton was so steamed, that "if he were not the president, would have delivered a more forceful response to that on the bridge of Mr. Safire's nose."