CABLE SHOPPING NETWORK TO SELL CLINTON INAUGURATION SOUVENIRS.

Byline: James Bennet The New York Times

Eyes gleaming, the saleswoman leaned conspiratorially toward her television audience.

``You can't find these things anywhere else unless you have inside connections,'' she confided, ``or you live in Washington, where maybe one or two stores are selling what we have.''

The oh-so-exclusive merchandise? Medallions featuring Bill Clinton's face, pens featuring his name, envelopes featuring his hometown postmark, books featuring his ideas and license plates emblazoned with a promise to build a bridge to . . . you know.

All of it is official inaugural memorabilia, and all of it is for sale for the first time to a national audience - for a special price, plus shipping and handling, if you act soon - on the QVC cable shopping network.

Eager to move more merchandise than four years ago to cover the budget for Clinton's inauguration, the Presidential Inaugural Committee has turned to QVC, which is perhaps better known for hawking gold chains, ``Brite Stik Tooth Whitening Pens,'' and rear-end-tauteners than flogging items celebrating the inauguration of the president of the United States.

But there on Monday night, sandwiched between a program advertising National Football League merchandise and one pushing topaz jewelry, was Terry McAuliffe, the redoubtable Democratic fund-raiser and co-chairman of the inaugural committee.

One hopes he was either underselling the inauguration or overselling QVC when, standing on Pennsylvania Avenue in suit and tie, he invoked QVC's favorite adjective to declare: ``One of the more exciting aspects of this inauguration is the agreement that we have with QVC.''

Officials with the committee portrayed the use of QVC as democratizing sales, by making commemorative dishes available to a broader audience. But the move raised some eyebrows around the capital.

``Can't you just quote me by saying that Letitia Baldridge laughed long and hard?'' asked Letitia Baldridge, the columnist and doyenne of manners, who first attended an inauguration when Franklin Delano Roosevelt became president.

Appearing live on the hour-long program, the first of many before the inauguration, Debbie Willhite, the co-executive director of the committee, called viewers' attention to the commemorative license plates (usually $54, marked down to $48 for advance purchasers, plus $4.75 shipping and handling).

``I think they are the ultimate collector's items from the inaugural, because it is something, no matter where you are in the country, you can participate actively,'' Willhite said.

Sitting on the stool beside her, the hostess, Judy Crowell, emphatically agreed. ``Definitely active is a good way to describe it,'' she said, before noting how the luckless neighbors would eat their hearts out. ``People will think, `How in the world did they get that license plate?' ''

Willhite said Wednesday that she had had a delightful time. ``The calls were lovely,'' she said, ``not like being on `Washington Journal' or `Crossfire.' ''