A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament, a worldwide pheno

blic speaker devoted to freeing our stre ets of drugs and crimes . If Congress f

ollows its plan there will be precious few H.B. 's . The people who come in crim

inals will go out the same , only a little tougher and meaner . Their only teach

ers will be fellow inmates with tips on criminal techniques . We 'll have cleare

d out the college professors who would have brought a different message . When t

hese inmates are released and commit more crimes , we 'll shout `` three strikes

 , you 're out . '' But did we give them a fair shot to get a hit that is , to m

ake it in the legit world ? Statistics show that the uneducated prisoner has a f

ar greater chance upon release of repeating criminal activities and returning to

 prison . The price we pay for educating them is small ; less than one percent o

f Pell Grant funds go to inmates . But what of the price of not educating them ?

 Consider the cost in blood and tears when they hit the streets , then the $ 30,

000 per year for jailing repeat offenders . Happily , nothing is yet written in 

stone . Senate and House conferees can reconsider specifics of this Pell Grant e

limination , or at least extend grants through a phase-down period . Funding for

 prison education could also be provided through a supplemental grant or other m

eans . Ironically , as it stands , part of the new crime bill will serve only to

 increase violence and criminality . You don't need a college degree to figure t

hat one out .

 WASHINGTON The indictment of Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , raises again the 

murky issue of the proper use of campaign funds . Though it is illegal under fed

eral law and congressional rules to convert campaign funds to personal use , enf

orcement has been so lax that some members of Congress have turned their campaig

n accounts into personal slush funds . They use the money to pay for country-clu

b dues , meals , vacations and expensive automobiles , or donations to their fav

orite charities . More than half the $ 466 million that candidates spent in the 

1990 elections was `` virtually unrelated to contacting voters , '' a Los Angele

s Times study found . Rostenkowski wasn't charged specifically with personal use

 of campaign funds , apparently because he and other members serving at the time

 the ban was enacted in 1979 were exempted until last year . Instead , in two co

unts of his indictment prosecutors charge that the longtime chairman of the Hous

e Ways and Means Committee made false statements to the Federal Election Commiss

ion about his use of campaign funds . Rostenkowski allegedly disguised the parti

al purchase of family cars with $ 28,267 in campaign funds as campaign `` car re

ntals '' and a van for campaign use . The indictment also alleges Rostenkowski c

aused his campaign fund and personal political action committee to list as `` po

stage '' on FEC reports $ 28,000 in checks he exchanged for cash at the House Po

st Office . Former Rep. Larry Smith , D-Fla. , pleaded guilty last year to lying

 to the FEC about $ 10,000 he converted to his personal use to pay off gambling 

and other personal debts . The FEC has been working for the past year on new reg

ulations to define prohibited uses of campaign funds . The Senate-passed version

 of a campaign-finance-reform bill also tried to address the issue . It is diffi

cult to systematically track campaign spending practices because the FEC doesn't

 computerize the information , as it does donations . The Los Angeles Times stud

y , which included keypunching and categorizing 437,753 separate expenditures fr

om the 1990 races , was the first to do so . It is even more difficult to determ

ine whether expenditures are for campaign or personal use or both . The Times ' 

study , for example , found many instances in which members of Congress , mostly

 entrenched incumbents , leased or bought cars with campaign funds . In one exam

ple , Sen. Ted Stevens , R-Alaska , spent $ 72,000 for auto expenses in six year

s , including $ 23,000 for a van . After being re-elected , the campaign bought 

a $ 32,000 Lincoln Town Car , the study found . A Stevens aide denied the cars w

ere for Stevens 's personal use and added that the Lincoln was sold . The FEC fi

rst proposed a general rule that would have banned using campaign funds for expe

nses like mortgage payments or vacation trips that a candidate would have even i

f not running for office . After a hearing in which all sides requested specific

 guidance , the FEC tried but failed to draw up a specific list of prohibited ac

tivities , including the use of campaign funds to buy cars . Trevor Potter , a R

epublican who is chairman of the commission , said in an interview this week tha

t the FEC 's challenge is to draw `` a clear line that is easy to follow and min

imally intrusive on the day-to-day work of campaigning . '' The trick , he said 

, is to provide guidance without being accused of micromanagement that leaves a 

candidate `` carrying a rule book the size of a telephone book . '' Sen. John Mc

Cain , R-Ariz. , offered an amendment to the Senate campaign-finance-reform legi

slation that would ban several `` inherently personal '' uses of campaign funds 

, including mortgage payments , clothing purchases , non-campaign auto expenses 

, country-club membership and vacations or trips of a non-campaign nature . The 

measure was approved , but it must be reconciled in conference committee with a 

House bill that is silent on the issue . Fred Wertheimer , president of Common C

ause , which is pushing for campaign reform , said , `` There has been widesprea

d abuse of the `` personal use ' ban for years. .. . There is absolutely no just

ification for House leaders to resist tough prohibitions in this area in the new

 campaign-finance law . '' The renewed debate over the `` personal use '' of cam

paign funds comes at a time Congress also is considering a new lobbyist disclosu

re act that could restrict considerably the meals , entertainment tickets , trip

s and other gifts that a lobbyist can give a member . Cutting off campaign funds

 as an alternate source for paying for these items would be considered a major b

low to the lifestyle of some members .

 Lifetime Television presents its first original mini-series , `` Lie Down With 

Lions , '' and will premiere all four hours in one night on Sunday . Based on Ke

n Follett 's best-seller , the show stars Timothy Dalton , Marg Helgenberger , O

mar Shariff and Nigel Havers and tells the story of why three people choose to l

eave the peaceful streets of Luxembourg for the war-torn lands of Armenia and Az

erbaijan . It also deals with the web of passion and deceit that binds them and 

sets the course for their lives . Repeats : Wednesday ( Part 1 ) and Thursday ( 

Part 2 ) nights , and the entire four hours June 25 . Sunday night on TBS : `` N

ational Geographic Explorer '' debuts `` Women in Vietnam , '' the story about t

he young women who enlisted as nurses and recreation specialists in a combat zon

e , and didn't know quite what to expect . Repeats : Monday night , Saturday mor

ning . Sunday night on Showtime : The premiere of `` Past Tense , '' starring Sc

ott Glenn as an ex-policeman who emerges from a coma faced with sorting out the 

murder of a former lover . Co-stars Anthony LaPaglia and Lara Flynn Boyle . Repe

ats : Thursday night , June 21 , 27 . Wednesday night on The Nashville Network :

 Reba McEntire reflects on her life and talks of her current status as a wife an

d mother and a performer juggling recent releases of a movie , autobiography and

 album . Ralph Emery hosts the one-hour interview that repeats the same night . 

Thursday night on Arts & Entertainment : `` Stage : Judy Garland and Friends , '

' with Barbra Streisand , Ethel Merman and Liza Minnelli , sharing the stage and

 favorite songs in one of Garland 's 1960s television specials . Repeats the sam

e night . Thursday night on USA Network : World Premiere Movie `` Deconstructing

 Sarah , '' with Shelia Kelley as a high-powered executive whose sexy nightlife 

leads to blackmail and murder . Rachel Ticotin and A . Martinez co-star . Repeat

s June 19 and 25 . Thursday night on HBO : Chris Rock performs on `` HBO Comedy 

Half-Hour , '' Others in this adult series of rising comics are D.L. Hughley , J

une 23 ; Simply Marvalous , June 30 ; and Carlos Mencia , Bob Smith and Suzanne 

Westenhoefer in July . Rock 's show encores June 18 , 20 and 21 . Saturday night

 on The Family Channel : The first espisode of `` Centennial , '' James A . Mich

ener 's 26-hour mini-series about the settling of the American West , featuring 

an all-star cast . The first show runs three hours and will be followed by two-h

our segments Monday through Saturday , June 20-25 , and Monday through Thursday 

, June 27-30 . The final episode runs Saturday night , July 2 .

 Vince Gill , `` When Love Finds You '' ( MCA ) ( 3 stars ) . Vince Gill 's work

 on up-tempo tunes is like a baseball pitcher 's batting average it can be nice 

, but it 's totally beside the point . Gill is all about ballads , and he knows 

it with eight of its 11 songs on the slow side , his fourth album is even more w

eighted toward that genre than last year 's `` I Still Believe in You , '' which

 had a ballad average of .600 ( 6 for 10 ) . None of these , however , matches t

he exquisiteness of that album 's title song or 1992 's `` Look at Us , '' two o

f the most transcendent expressions of devotion ever recorded . Gill 's high , a

ngelic voice and artistic intelligence can elevate mediocre material , but such 

middlebrow pop fare as `` When Love Finds You '' and `` If There 's Anything I C

an Do '' doesn't really tax his interpretive powers . The closer Gill moves to h

ard-core country tradition as on `` Which Bridge to Cross ( Which Bridge to Burn

 ) '' and the remorseful lament `` Real Lady 's Man '' the stronger he becomes .

 The climactic `` Go Rest High on That Mountain , '' a valediction for his decea

sed brother , combines '90s pop sumptuousness with the purity of mountain church

 music , tapping a personal urgency rare in country music these days . RICHARD C

ROMELIN -0- `` KISS My Ass , '' Various Artists ( Mercury ) ( 2 stars ) . Andy W

arhol almost got it right . In the future , everyone gets his or her own tribute

 album , evidenced by this 11-artist nod to the not-entirely-timeless Simmons & 

Stanley songbook , though it 'd take a perverse palate to claim the KISS boys we

re ever anything more than perfunctory writers ( Gene Simmons likes to claim all

 `` rock '' music is throwaway trash spin control if ever we heard it ) . Among 

those hewing yawningly close to the period-piece originals are the Gin Blossoms 

, Anthrax , Extreme and the Lemonheads ( whose stoopidly faithful `` Plaster Cas

ter '' is fitting , given Evan Dando 's anachronistic eagerness to speak up on t

he subject of groupies ) . Lenny Kravitz is at least well-suited to shift `` Deu

ce '' from one '70s sub-genre to another , though he runs out of ideas and of so

ng a minute in . There are curiosities . An unrecognizable Garth Brooks does `` 

Hard Luck Woman '' under the very funny delusion that he 's Rod Stewart . Dinosa

ur Jr. achieves the heppest transfer , transforming `` Goin ' Blind '' one of KI

SS ' typical underage-girl anthems into pure Angst with the updated line `` I 'm

 93 , you 're 16 . '' Toad the Wet Sprocket , too , attempts major cheek by inte

rpreting `` Rock and Roll All Nite '' as a wistful mid-tempo ballad , which soun

ds way more amusing than it turns out . Maybe they 'll fare better playing `` We

 're an American Band '' for pathos on the inevitable Grand Funk tribute . CHRIS

 WILLMAN -0- Seal , `` Seal '' ( Sire/Warner Bros . ) ( 3 stars ) . The black St

ing ? A male Joni Mitchell ? The new Terence Trent D' Arby ? After his impressiv

e 1991 debut album , also titled `` Seal , '' this prodigiously talented English

 singer-songwriter seemed quite capable of going in many different directions . 

The way he skillfully squeezed unsettling , poetic lyrics into a commercial pop 

framework on his big hit single `` Crazy '' clearly marked him for big things . 

On his second album produced , as was the debut , by Trevor Horn that male Joni 

Mitchell tag seems to fit best ( she even guests on the tranquil `` If I Could '

' ) . Seal 's softer side clearly dominates . Mostly in a mellow , reflective mo

od , he ponders philosophical and romantic themes , his gently gloomy voice addi

ng urgency to such moody , melodic pieces as `` Dreaming in Metaphors , '' `` Pe

ople Asking Why '' and `` Don't Cry . '' The explosiveness that simmered under e

ven the most serene tracks on the first album isn't there this time . That rooki

e 's aggressiveness and experimentation that marked the first album seems to hav

e been replaced by a desire to firmly entrench himself in the pop-folk genre . W

hile there 's nothing as arresting as `` Crazy '' on this album , it 's a quite 

satisfying sophomore effort . DENNIS HUNT

 WASHINGTON Documents revealing the Supreme Court 's most private discussions in

dicate that President Clinton and his lawyers are likely to start with a conside

rable advantage this summer when they try to stop the Paula Corbin Jones sexual 

harassment lawsuit with a claim of legal immunity . When the court last faced a 

claim similar to the one Clinton 's lawyers are preparing to make , demands by s

ome justices for only limited immunity for the president against personal lawsui

ts were swept away by a majority in favor of much broader protection . After an 

internal struggle stretching over more than two years and badly fracturing the c

ourt , that majority prevailed by the narrowest margin 5 to 4 in June 1982 . Now

 , three of that majority 's five members remain on the court , and the last of 

the four dissenters still there Justice Harry A . Blackmun is retiring and would

 not be on hand if the Jones case gets to the court . The struggle focused on tw

o lawsuits against Richard M. Nixon after he had left the presidency . The first

 , by a former aide whose telephone had been tapped when the president 's other 

aides thought he was leaking secrets to the news media , ended with a frustrated

 and angry court splitting 4-4 . That was , in effect , a non-decision , so the 

court did not let on in public just how hotly that battle had been waged . The s

econd lawsuit , by a Pentagon aide who was fired after blowing the whistle on ov

erspending on a military airplane , finished with the 5-4 decision blocking that

 lawsuit or any other civil claims in court against Nixon and insulating all fut

ure presidents from a good many legal claims by disgruntled citizens . That , to

o , was a bitterly contested case . The full extent of the conflict , and the ac

tual sweep of the immunity concept the court pondered , can now be traced in the

 files of the two cases in the Library of Congress ' public collection of the la

te Justice Thurgood Marshall 's papers . In coming weeks , Clinton 's legal mane

uvering through his private lawyers is to be a sequel , testing just how big the

 cloak of presidential immunity is going to be . Back in 1982 , however , it was

 clear that the court majority had a bold , ambitious notion of immunity in mind

 . Nothing in the case files suggests that a majority was thinking that by grant

ing a president legal immunity for actions taken in office they were necessarily

 ruling out immunity to damage lawsuits for unofficial acts or those that occurr

ed before a president took office . With no specific word or clause in the Const

itution suggesting that a president ought to be immune to civil lawsuits , and n

o prior Supreme Court precedent that was even close on that issue , a core group

 of justices pressed for immunity so grand in scope that then-Justice Byron R . 

White complained repeatedly through sharply barbed criticisms at his colleagues 

. It started early , with White accusing the majority of embarking on `` a most 

mistaken course that will disserve the law and the country . '' The immunity tho

se justices were fashioning , he said , amounted to `` gross overkill , '' far m

ore than was needed to protect presidents from nuisance lawsuits . Even a law cl

erk for one of the justices then supporting `` absolute immunity '' said the ide

a would give presidents `` the power to toss a lawsuit or any other legal proces

s into the waste can , '' like the power a king would have . The echo of that co

ntroversy will be heard in a federal court in Little Rock , Ark. and perhaps , u

ltimately , back in the Supreme Court in Jones ' lawsuit seeking $ 700,000 in da

mages from Clinton . The reams of Supreme Court documents that spell out the bac

kstage story of a dozen years ago thus are not likely to remain neglected paper 

relics of history , but instead will fuel the reopened constitutional feud over 

presidential immunity . Jones , a former Arkansas state employee , in May sued t

he president personally , charging him with `` sexually harassing and assaulting

 her '' in a Little Rock hotel room in May 1991 while he was governor of Arkansa

s . That was , of course , nearly two years before Clinton became president . A 

governor would not be likely to get much immunity , if any , for an incident of 

that kind , so Clinton 's lawyers will have to make do with presidential immunit

y if , as they hope , they can fit that within the reach of the June 1982 ruling

 in the Nixon case . The decision of the Supreme Court then clearly gave preside

nts immunity from legal claims based on what they did while in office . Jones ' 

attorneys , therefore , are expected to argue that Clinton cannot use that rulin

g to shield any actions that allegedly occurred in 1991 , before his presidency 

started . But as Clinton 's attorneys dig more deeply into the history of presid

ential immunity , and the basic reasons the court gave for it in 1982 , they are

 becoming persuaded that the 12-year-old ruling was so comprehensive in scope an

d meaning that only something close to `` absolute immunity '' satisfies the Con

stitution and the needs of the presidency . Their basic intent , therefore , is 

to end the Jones case , once and for all , at its very beginning perhaps a polit

ically damaging gesture , but less so than a full-scale trial would be . At this

 point , his attorneys do not appear to favor the idea embraced by some of the p

resident 's White House aides , notably White House counsel Lloyd N . Cutler : t

hat the president should seek only a long postponement of the Jones case . That 

idea , too , has some support among legal policy aides at the Justice Department

 , who are looking over a range of potential immunity options they might claim i

f the department gets involved in the Jones lawsuit on behalf of `` the institut

ional presidency . '' ( The Justice Department would not be speaking for Clinton

 personally . ) Clinton 's personal lawyers are expected to file their views on 

the immunity issue in the Little Rock federal courthouse late this month or earl

y next . ( Optional add end ) The plea they are now inclined to press encompasse

d in the simple phrase `` absolute immunity '' is a theme that reverberates thro

ughout the 1981 and 1982 memos that led to the Supreme Court 's only decision so

 far on the legal shield around presidents when they are sued personally for civ

il damages . In the majority at the end then were Justice ( now Chief Justice ) 

William H. Rehnquist , Justice Sandra Day O' Connor and Justice John Paul Steven

s . Joining them in the majority were two who have since retired : Chief Justice

 Warren E. Burger and Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. Powell , in fact , was the pri

ncipal architect of the immunity concept . O' Connor had just joined the court w

hen the majority began to solidify in late 1981 , after the first Nixon case had

 washed out the prior summer on the 4-4 vote : the case filed by former national

 security aide Morton Halperin , claiming unconstitutional tapping of his home t

elephone . O' Connor quickly became active in the second case : the $ 3.5 millio

n lawsuit by former Pentagon whistle-blower A . Ernest Fitzgerald . Powell , try

ing to draft an opinion for the apparent majority , told Burger in mid-December 

1991 : `` I am now prepared to defer to the wishes of you , Bill Rehnquist and S

andra , and prepare a draft opinion holding that a president has absolute immuni

ty from damage suit liability '' for the reasons he had spelled out in the broad

est of all of his earlier drafts . He also noted that Stevens `` is willing to d

ecide the Nixon case on absolute immunity . '' That made five votes .

 Indigo Girls , `` Swamp Ophelia '' ( Epic ) ( 2 stars ) . If only Emily Saliers

 and Amy Ray weren't so acutely aware that we 're listening . The folk-rocking d

uo labors to imbue every lyric with heart- or mind-expanding meaning , sometimes

 sapping the music 's bracing , insouciant spirit . They come through with a few

 songs that adroitly balance earnestness and gracefully emphatic playing , notab

ly `` Touch Me Fall '' and `` Dead Man 's Hill . '' JEAN ROSENBLUTH South Centra

l Cartel , ` ` 'N Gatz We Truss '' ( GWK/RAL ) ( 2 stars ) . Chaos. Cruising the

 ' hood , dodging bullets , attacking enemies , chasing women , partying with ho

mies .. . you 've heard it all before . While the Cartel 's second album doesn't

 advance the art of gangsta rap , the group does a fair job of re-creating the t

ensions of ' hood life . Touches of humor make this a little better than most . 

DENNIS HUNT Frank Black , `` Teenager of the Year '' ( Elektra ) ( 3 stars ) . R

emember Pong ? William Mulholland ? The Three Stooges ? CB radios ? Frank Black 

does , and he sets these and other preoccupations into the vigorously inventive 

swirl of punk-garage-psychedelic-progressive rock that launched his post-Pixies 

career so auspiciously last year . A pop-rock enthusiast and iconoclast of the f

irst order , Black deserves the same salute that he offers L.A. water baron Mulh