WASHINGTON INSIGHT

WHO NEEDS ENEMIES? Things must be getting bad for George Bush when his own affluent supporters bash him. Howard Allen, retired chairman of Southern California Edison and a member of Bush’s reelection finance committee, didn’t mince words in a Times interview: “The presence of Ross Perot is a strong indication that the Bush Administration has failed, that Congress has failed. When you have the wonderful acceptance of Bush after the war and see it deteriorate, and then have the rise of Perot, something is wrong.” . . . Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady and Bush campaign chairman Robert A. Mosbacher “are my buddies,” said Allen, “but the American public is saying that the Bush Administration has failed the people. And a lot of the people around Bush are kidding themselves about that.”