Grapevine

NO CARDINAL IN THE WHITE HOUSE. Author Tom Clancy fancies himself as something more than a superselling novelist. He jumped at Vice President Dan Quayle's offer in April to become an unpaid consultant to the National Space Council, which Quayle heads. But the deal seems doomed. One problem: Clancy wants a full-time role in shaping policy, while Quayle is looking for a celebrity space booster. A bigger obstacle may be the law requiring officials with access to classified information to let Government censors peek at their manuscripts before publication. How could they be persuaded that those details of weapons and spycraft Clancy knits into his yarns are not national secrets?