THE CAPITOL'S NEWEST ODD COUPLE

By TAMALA M. EDWARDS/WASHINGTON

During the State of the Union speech this week, television viewers will see a familiar Capitol Hill tableau: a sober-faced Newt Gingrich sitting behind Bill Clinton. But the more intriguing and unfamiliar pairing will be up in the balcony, where Gingrich's wife Marianne will be sitting with country star Travis Tritt, Joan Shalikashvili, wife of the general, and...Jesse Jackson. Last week Newt extended an invitation to his ideological opposite to sit in the Gingrich family box in the Speaker's gallery, and it was accepted. The unlikely twosome have been communing since Gingrich's opening-day speech to the House, where the Speaker addressed the need for racial equality, ways to combat drug use and help for the District of Columbia--all issues dear to Jesse's heart. The Rev. Jackson then invited Gingrich onto his talk show, Both Sides, and the two have spoken a few times by telephone. Jackson shrugs off his unorthodox seating plan. "I don't read much into it," he says. "It's just another way of reaching out. We must build relationships."

--By Tamala M. Edwards/Washington