FIRST FOR A FIRST LADY.

• Position: Election of Hillary Clinton to US Senate - Brief Article

A First Lady as a U.S. Senator? No way, said Eleanor Roosevelt, when Democratic Party leaders in New York State pressed her to run in 1946. "No woman has, as yet, been able to build up and hold sufficient leadership to carry through a program," explained the widow of President Franklin Roosevelt. By winning a Senate seat from the same state this month, Hillary Rodham Clinton proved how much things have changed.

When Clinton takes her seat in January as New York's junior Senator, she'll become the first presidential spouse to hold elective office. She will also be one of 12 or 13 women --up from just 9 before Election Day--in a legislative body that in 1946 had an all-male swimming pool, gym, and barbershop, and had never had a woman elected to a full term.

Another new woman Senator will be there because of an election victory by a dead man. Missouri voters chose the late Democratic Governor Mel Carnahan, killed in a plane crash October 16, over Republican incumbent John Ashcroft for the Senate, and Jean Carnahan, the Governor's widow, says she will accept appointment in her husband's place.

As UPFRONT went to press, Congress appeared headed for an even split like the one that delayed for days the news of America's presidential choice. The Republicans' 54-46 pre-election margin in the Senate had been whittled to a 50-49 lead, while the country waited to learn if computer executive and ex-Democratic Congresswoman Maria Cantwell had ousted Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) to fill the 100th seat. And the G.O.P.'s...