Payback Time

By Andrea Sachs/New York

St. Martin's Press is determined to show the veracity of the old chestnut about why people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. The publisher is rushing out 500,000 copies of an "instant" paperback book, Glass Houses: Shocking Profiles of Congressional Sex Scandals and Other Unofficial Misconduct by attorney Stanley Hilton and psychologist Anne-Renee Testa, due in stores by Election Day. The book's mission: to expose the hidden lives of some of those who will be judging President CLINTON. The book will review the ethical problems of more than 50 Senators and Congressional Representatives.

Glass Houses grew out of a three-year investigation by Hilton, who used to work on Bob Dole's Senate staff. (Kenneth Starr was two years ahead of him at Duke Law School.) Hilton interviewed 150 Congressional staffers and 35 lobbyists. Why does he think Congressmen point fingers when they have secrets of their own? "It's a form of grandiosity," says Hilton. "They tend to think they'll never get caught." Is he worried that an angry Congressman might sue him after the book comes out? Nah: "Truth is a defense." Besides, he adds, "I'm a litigator."

--By Andrea Sachs/New York