National Journal articles from April 1999

National Journal archives from April 1999

LAMAR! CONSERVATIVE! NOT!
April 3, 1999... The presidential race has begun in earnest, now that the formerly plaid candidate formerly known as Lamar! (in Mexico, ?Lamar!) has entered. The erstwhile (1979-87) Republican Governor of Tennessee and Bush Administration Education Secretary is...

Milosevic and Martyrdom.
April 3, 1999... HOW A COLORLESS COMMUNIST POL EXPLOITED NATIONALISM AND SERBIAN FOLKLORE TO BECOME A POWERFUL FIGURE, PLUNGING THE BALKANS INTO ENDLESS ETHNIC WARS "YOU SHOULD STAY HERE. THIS IS YOUR LAND. THESE are your houses. Your meadows and gardens....

From Bosnia to Kosovo.(includes related article on policies of Congress and the War Powers Resolution of 1973)
April 3, 1999... TO UNDERSTAND WHY PRESIDENT CLINTON APPROVED MILITARY ACTION IN KOSOVO, IT'S NECESSARY TO UNDERSTAND WHAT LESSONS HE DREW FROM BOSNIA. DURING THE SUMMER THAT BILL Clinton first ran for President, Americans were hearing a troubling phrase...

High-Tech Hegemony.
April 3, 1999... AMERICAN WEAPONS MAY MAKE MILITARY INTERVENTIONS EASIER, BUT THERE'S MORE TO WAR THAN TECHNOLOGY. IN A SPECTACLE THAT HAS almost become armchair routine, U.S. military forces continue this week to hurl destruction on Serbian forces from a...

ANOTHER SHOWDOWN, BUD SHUSTER STYLE.
April 3, 1999... Quick, name the veteran House Republican committee chairman who is the most willing to make his party's leaders sweat. Here's a hint: He's the guy who was not afraid to threaten to torpedo the painstakingly crafted budget resolution last week,...

REVENGE OF THE MODERATES.
April 3, 1999... Moderate House Republicans like Michael N. Castle of Delaware must be tempted to say: "I told you so." Last fall, Castle was among a small band of GOP pragmatists who tried to persuade then-Chief Deputy Majority Whip J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.,...

People.(Washington D.C. political and media appointments)
April 3, 1999... At the White House Sen. Paul Wellstone's loss is National Economic Council Director Gene B. Sperling's gain. Now that the Minnesota Democrat has called off his pursuit of the presidency, William G. Dauster, counselor to Wellstone's...

Views on Kosovo.(public opinion on NATO military action)
April 3, 1999... Generally Speaking As you may know, NATO, the military alliance of Western countries, recently launched air and missile attacks against Serbian military targets in Yugoslavia. Do you favor or oppose the United States' being a part of...

Learning to kick the habit.(tobacco lobbyists lose contracts)
April 3, 1999... Tobacco money lit up Washington's lobbying industry over the past two years, and nobody benefited more than Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand, the city's top-billing firm. But the firm--home to former Senate Majority Leaders...

From the K Street Corridor.(March 1999 political news about petroleum, banking, and health industries)
April 3, 1999... Big Oil's Big Problems Despite plans by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to boost profitability, by agreeing to reduce production, Washington's beleaguered energy, lobbyists face troubled times, given the frenzy of...

The grapes of wrath.(alcohol industry lobbysists and alcohol Internet sales)
April 3, 1999... If lobbying groups were judged like figure skaters, the alcohol wholesalers' recent performance on Capitol Hill would rate a perfect 10. The National Beer Wholesalers Association and the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America Inc. have...

An R&D lab for New York's courts.(research and development)
April 3, 1999... NEW YORK CITY--John Feinblatt thinks that a lot of what New York's courts do is completely wrong. From the moment of arrest through the end of a sentence served, state courts mishandle criminals and victims, alienate police, hinder social...

A new day for the rising sun.(interview with US Ambassador to Japan Thomas S. Foley)
April 3, 1999... TOKYO--Thomas S. Foley, the former House Speaker, has been the U.S. Ambassador to Japan for the past 17 months. Foley, who cultivated a deep interest in Japan during his 30 years in Congress, has been the Clinton Administration's point man in...

Dollar Bill's new bank shot.(former US Senator Bill Bradley's presidential campaign)
April 3, 1999... Twenty-four years ago, Larry Lucchino, like everyone else on Princeton University's NCAA Final Four basketball team, was passing the ball to its star shooting forward, Bill Bradley. Now Lucchino is president of Major League Baseball's San Diego...

A New Role for McAuliffe?(President Bill Clinton's fund raiser Terence R. McAuliffe)
April 3, 1999... As Democrats begin pulling the pieces together for next year's national convention in Los Angeles, the leading candidate to chair the quadrennial gathering appears to be President Clinton's fund-raiser extraordinaire Terence R. McAuliffe....

Hotline Extra.(March 1999 news of presidential candidates and other political figures)
April 3, 1999... Keep Hoops Alive As a college basketball star playing for Princeton University in 1965, Bill Bradley set NCAA Tournament records for the most points in a Final Four game (58), free-throw accuracy in one tourney game (16/16), and the...

Why Kosovo fails to stir public passions.(Kosovo, Yugoslavia military conflict)
April 3, 1999... The public seems to be curiously detached about the fighting in Yugoslavia. Although it is divided--roughly one-half of Americans favor the current U.S. and NATO bombing of Serbian military targets and about one-third oppose the military...

When addition begets division.(controversy over US census)
April 3, 1999... Commerce Department officials and Republicans in Congress remain on a collision course over how to conduct the 2000 census, one year before the scheduled April 1 start of the nose counting. At stake could be control of the House of...

Risky business for the President.(President Bill Clinton's military policy in Yugoslavia)
April 3, 1999... When it comes to U.S. military intervention abroad, the rule is: Drop bombs, don't send troops. The reason isn't military. It's political. Bombing seems safer, at least for Americans. Especially smart bombs that can blow up carefully...

CORRECTION.
April 10, 1999... The article "Milosevic and Martyrdom" (4/3/99, p. 872) referred to "Mohammed-worshiping Ottomans." This phrase, an editor's error, was incorrect. Muslims are monotheists who worship Allah. They consider the worship of any human being, including...

DRIVE A STAKE THROUGH THE DAMNED THING.
April 10, 1999... The independent-counsel statute will expire on June 30 unless Congress acts. With the law under attack both by Democrats who formerly championed it and by Republicans who have never liked it, a diverse, bipartisan group may seek to salvage a...

NATO's WAR AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA--AND WHY IT IS ALREADY LOST.
April 10, 1999... This week the wealth of nations must wait while I have my say on the warring of nations. Over the past few weeks, the incompetence of NATO's leaders has licensed rank amateurs--economic commentators, even--to speak as if expertly on this most...

Tax Cut Conundrum.
April 10, 1999... REPUBLICANS WANT TO CUT TAXES. BUT THEY HAVE TO FIGURE OUT WHICH ONES TO CUT AND HOW TO SELL THE PUBLIC ON THEIR PLAN. In early February, House Republicans left Washington and its frustrating ways and traveled 150 miles south to the...

Break Dancing.
April 10, 1999... DEMS WANT LONG-TERM SAVINGS; THE GOP PUSHES SHORT-TERM STIMULUS. AN ERA OF PLENTY IS CHANGING THE PARTIES' TUNES ON TAX CUTS. Whatever happened to the good old days, when men were men, Democrats were Keynesians, Republicans were...

Gimme Shelter.
April 10, 1999... LOBBYISTS ARE GEARING UP TO FIGHT AN ADMINISTRATION PLAN THAT EXPANDS IRS POWER TO CRACK DOWN ON LUCRATIVE TAX SHELTERS. WILL ANTI-IRS SENTIMENT IN CONGRESS HELP THEIR CAUSE? The ink was barely dry on President Clinton's budget plan for...

Airfares: Fair or Foul?
April 10, 1999... TRY FLYING TO CHARLESTON, S.C., OR ROCHESTER, N.Y., AND YOU'RE LIKELY TO PAY THROUGH THE NOSE. CITY LEADERS BLAME AIRLINE DEREGULATION AND WANT CONGRESS TO INTERVENE. NOW. CHARLESTON, S.C.--Look almost anywhere in this scenic Southern city...

STILL NO CONSENSUS ON THE CENSUS.
April 10, 1999... In 1997, when key lawmakers and the White House couldn't settle the contentious issue of whether to use "sampling" techniques in the 2000 census, Congress did what it does best: It punted. Instead of crafting a long-term solution, the...

MINIMIZING THE DAMAGE ON THE MINIMUM WAGE.
April 10, 1999... The political dynamics of the minimum-wage issue have shifted so dramatically during the past few months that House Republicans who have traditionally opposed a minimum-wage increase--and still do--are now seriously considering moving their own...

NOT SEEING RED OVER CHINA.
April 10, 1999... Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., has learned of late that it can pay to be a busy man during an otherwise not so busy Congress. With his high-profile investigation of the Clinton Administration's handling of commercial satellite sales to China,...

VIEWS ON THE AMERICAN SCENE.
April 10, 1999... Foreign Policy Whom do you trust more on issues of foreign policy--President Clinton or the Republicans in Congress? (margin of error [+ or -]3 percentage points; Yankelovich Partners Inc. for CNN-Time magazine) ...

SECOND-GUESSING, WITHOUT ATTRIBUTION.
April 10, 1999... Almost immediately after NATO bombing began in Yugoslavia on March 24, the dissenters, the doubters, and the detractors of President Clinton and his policy began to second-guess the wisdom of U.S. involvement in an assault in the Balkans. That...

People.
April 10, 1999... At the Bar Michael Aisenberg has ridden on the wings of the Year 2000 computer bug to a new post at Wilkinson, Barker, Knauer & Quinn, a Washington-based telecommunications and Internet law boutique. The 47-year-old attorney is known for...

MERGERS FURROW A FEW FARM BROWS.
April 10, 1999... AGRICULTURE Ten years ago, as Greg Koether's three children took the 15-mile bus ride from their home to school every day in Clayton County, Iowa, they passed a farm each half-mile. Now along that route there is just one--Koether's 600...

MAKING HATE A FEDERAL CASE.
April 10, 1999... JUSTICE Unlike the anonymity visited upon most murder victims, the names, faces, and lives of James Byrd Jr., Matthew Shepard, and Billy Jack Gaither have been burned into the nation's consciousness this past year. Byrd, a black man, was...

WANTED: AN ALTERNATIVE TO IMPORT QUOTAS.
April 10, 1999... PROTECTIONISM CAN BE HEADED OFF IF THE PRESIDENT STANDS UP FOR AMERICAN INDUSTRY With the House's approval of steel import quota legislation last month (notwithstanding the recent decline in steel imports), the embers of protectionism are...

A FRONT-RUNNER'S CAMPAIGN INTRIGUE.
April 10, 1999... Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the front-runner for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination, has yet to get his campaign up and running in Iowa, the starting gate in the race for the White House. Many of Bush's Hawkeye supporters had expected...

Hotline Extra.
April 10, 1999... Valley Volleys Silicon Valley is making its presence felt in the 2000 presidential contest--and not just on behalf of that computer-chip-off-the-old-block, Al Gore. Timed for Gore's California trip this week, 50 prominent high-tech...

THE GOP's BALKANS CHALLENGE.
April 10, 1999... MOST REPUBLICANS HAVE BEEN CONTENT TO BASH CLINTON FOR THE CRISIS IN KOSOVO; THEY NEED TO DO MORE. Right off the bat, a key question for Republicans returning to Washington after the Easter break is whether they can define (and maybe even...

KOSOVO COULD MAKE OR BREAK MCCAIN, TOO.
April 10, 1999... JOHN McCAIN RISKS BECOMING THE TOP CHOICE OF DEMOCRATS FOR THE GOP NOMINATION. Critics assert that the Clinton Administration is following a doctrine of immaculate coercion in Yugoslavia. America is trying to control the situation in...

CORRECTION.(correction to photograph published as J.D. Foster in the March 10, 1999 issue, p. 933)(Correction Notice)
April 17, 1999... A photo of Tom Buis of the National Farmers Union mistakenly accompanied a caption referring to J.D. Foster of the Tax Foundation in the article "Tax Cut Conundrum" (4/10/99, p. 933). Here's a photo of the real J.D. Foster.

IS THIS WAR ILLEGAL? DOES IT MATTER?
April 17, 1999... It is inarguable that NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia--provoked by atrocities in a civil war in a sovereign nation that has not attacked any NATO member--is hard to square either with the United Nations Charter or with the 1949 treaty that created...

NATO's ILL-TIMED PARTY IS A CHANCE TO THINK THINGS THROUGH.
April 17, 1999... The bungling-on war against Yugoslavia is horrible enough, but even that was not so chilling as Boris Yeltsin's warning last week that the conflict could broaden into a bigger European or even world war, amid claims from Moscow (later denied)...

NATO FINDS A PURPOSE (UH-OH).
April 17, 1999... As Presidents go, Bill Clinton is not much of a driver, but what a hitchhiker! When he sets off on his own to do something bold--to reorganize the health care system, or to allow avowed homosexuals into the military, or to bring China into the...

Isolationism Be Damned.
April 17, 1999... IN FITS AND STARTS, AND SOMETIMES BEGRUDGINGLY, AMERICA HAS BECOME (MOSTLY) INTERNATIONALIST, AND NOW IS WAIST-DEEP IN "ENTANGLING ALLIANCES" At its birth, the United States was a weak nation besieged by powerful enemies. England,...

Indispensable, Yet Uncertain.(strategic position of US military)(includes related article on the international arms trade)
April 17, 1999... AFTER THE COLD WAR, LITTLE IN THE WORLD GETS DONE WITHOUT AMERICAN MILITARY AND DIPLOMATIC LEADERSHIP. BUT STILL LACKING IN THIS SHINING CITY ON A HILL IS A GUIDING BEACON. There have been times in his presidency when Bill Clinton has...

Growing Pains.(NATO)
April 17, 1999... WITH NEW MEMBERS AND MISSIONS, AND NEW SCHISMS, NATO FACES THE NEXT CENTURY WHILE FIGHTING THE ISMs OF THIS ONE. Not since the tense days of its birth during the Berlin Blockade of 1949 has NATO confronted a moment so charged with both...

Over There.(changes in US military)
April 17, 1999... AS AMERICA'S MIGHT IS CALLED TO EVER-MORE-DISTANT LANDS, THE ARMED FORCES ARE LEARNING TO BECOME MORE EXPEDITIONARY--LIGHTER, MORE MOBILE, MORE FLEXIBLE. If the Persian Gulf War showed the overwhelming power of the American military, the...

Backseat Drivers.(US Congress)
April 17, 1999... WHY CONGRESS IS SO ALIENATED FROM DECISION-MAKING ON U.S. FOREIGN POLICY. Congress has never been particularly engaged, consistent, or wise in overseeing U.S. foreign policy. But it is difficult to recall a time in the post-Cold War world...

Moscow Mirage.(US view of Russia)
April 17, 1999... THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION SEES WHAT IT WANTS TO SEE IN RUSSIA RATHER THAN WHAT IS REALLY THERE. In his influential 1972 book, Victims of Groupthink, Yale University social scientist Irving L. Janis explained how a skewed mind-set, shared...

The China Debate (Continued).
April 17, 1999... CRITICS HOWL ABOUT THE SHORTCOMINGS OF THE UNITED STATES' POLICY OF "ENGAGEMENT" WITH BEIJING. America is in the throes of another of its recurring China crises, this one stemming less from Beijing's misbehavior than from our increasingly...

Riding to the Rescues.(economic aid for Asia and Russia)(includes related article on the Treasury Department's Exchange Stabilization Fund)
April 17, 1999... THE FAILURE OF THE WEST TO SHORE UP THE RUSSIAN ECONOMY (THE HARDEST-HIT VICTIM OF THE ASIA MELTDOWN) DEMONSTRATED THE LIMITS OF U.S. ECONOMIC LEADERSHIP. A popular precept of the early days of the post-Cold War era was that the economic...

Whose Share Is Fair?(US and European shares of NATO responsibilites)
April 17, 1999... UNLESS EUROPE AND AMERICA CAN FIND A BETTER WAY TO SHARE THE BURDENS OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL LEADERSHIP, NATO MAY NOT BE AROUND FOR ITS 60TH. Florence, Italy--As Easter Week tourists filled the streets and Florentines lingered...

Exporting Uncle Sam.(US technological influence)
April 17, 1999... FROM THE REGULATION OF TELEPHONES TO CRAFTING MODEL CIVIL SERVICE RULES, THE WORLD IS LEARNING THE AMERICAN WAY OF GOVERNMENT. The United States may be an uncomfortable and even an accidental empire, but an empire of sorts it is, and like...

Going Slow on Kosovo.
April 17, 1999... CONGRESS WAS IN NO HURRY TO TAKE A BOLD STAND. Congressional Republicans returning this week from their Easter recess were eager to jump into the Washington gab-fest over what to do about Kosovo. In fact, other than agreeing to shovel...

People.
April 17, 1999... Interest Groups From high-stakes strategizing to high finance: David V. Marventano, former chief of staff to former Rep. Bill Paxon, R-N.Y., has signed on with the Securities Industry Association, the trade group that represents investment...

Hotline Extra.
April 17, 1999... Echoes of Vietnam? As the debate over sending ground troops to Yugoslavia intensified with Congress's return, so did the not-so-nostalgic comparisons with Vietnam. ABC's George Stephanopoulos had a Vietnam parallel for Vice President...

POTLUCK SUPPERS AND OTHER SURPRISES.(2000 presidential election)
April 17, 1999... At this stage of a presidential campaign, candidates can safely spend their time raising funds and pressing the flesh. Problem is, they're also expected to have something to say, even though it's not always obvious what subjects they should be...

IOWA HAS A BUMPER CROP.(presidential candidates)
April 17, 1999... DES MOINES, Iowa--Ten months before the first votes are to be cast in the Iowa presidential caucuses, both major party's declared and prospective candidates--11 Republicans, two Democrats--are off and running. The state's traditional role as a...

BOMBS FALL--AND NOBODY'S PROTESTING.(NATO operations in Kosovo, Yugoslavia)
April 17, 1999... Surprising things are happening in the world right now. And not all of them are bad. The 19-nation NATO alliance is holding together in support of the first massive bombing operation in Europe in 50 years. What's holding it together is a threat...

Letters.
April 24, 1999... TO WAR WITH "BORROWED" ARMS I read with great interest the latest installment in James Kitfield's continuing coverage of the U.S. military. There was, however, one point in his "High-Tech Hegemony" [4/3/99, p. 886] that I believe he...

RACIAL PROFILING: THE LIBERALS ARE RIGHT.
April 24, 1999... While fueled by demagogic rhetoric and political opportunism, the current uproar over allegedly racist police practices in New York City and elsewhere has spotlighted one clearly abusive practice that moderates, conservatives, and, indeed,...

WHY GOOD CORPORATE CITIZENS ARE A PUBLIC MENACE.
April 24, 1999... This is a giving age, a caring age, an age of corporate responsibility. Such times demand of business a redeeming social purpose. Harnessing business for the social good is a favorite third-way nostrum. America's modernized Democrats talk of...

Conspicuous Consumption.
April 24, 1999... YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE RICH, POWERFUL, AND GLAMOROUS TO SCORE AN INVITATION TO A STATE DINNER-BUT IT HELPS. This President and first lady throw a lot of state dinners. The next one, for the prime minister of Japan, is scheduled for May 3,...

STATE DINNERS: THE LIST.
April 24, 1999... Go ahead, admit it: You look at the state dinner guest lists when they run in the morning paper. Maybe you even study them, pondering such imponderables as why Howie Mandel got invited and you didn't. Well, get ready for more reflection....

Prescription 2000.
April 24, 1999... DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS ARE TALKING ABOUT ADDING A MEDICARE BENEFIT FOR MEDICATIONS. BUT DO THEY WANT AGREEMENT OR AN ISSUE FOR THE NEXT ELECTION? Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., made headlines back home this month when he tackled an issue that...

A SPENDING BONANZA, THANKS TO KOSOVO.
April 24, 1999... Logic dictates that the more Congress spends on a Kosovo-related defense funding bill during the next few weeks, the less appropriators will have to allocate to other programs later this year. But very little is logical about the way that...

NO SPARKS HERE.
April 24, 1999... When Energy Secretary Bill Richardson unveiled the Clinton Administration's blueprint for deregulating the $212 billion-a-year electricity industry on April 15, he closed the press conference with a parade of more than a dozen representatives...

RESERVING FIRE ON A CONSERVATION PACKAGE.
April 24, 1999... The April 20 media event had a familiar air: Washington lobbyists and lawmakers gathered on the Capitol grounds around a microphone, all eyes on a featured celebrity--in this case, Super Bowl running back Terrell Davis of the Denver Broncos....

A PURIST GETS HIS HANDS DIRTY.(Sen. John McCain)
April 24, 1999... Watch Sen. John McCain in action, and you are always reminded that this is not a politician of the old school. The Arizona Republican has no taste for the mutual backscratching that is the traditional means of winning colleagues' support. To...

PARSING THE LANGUAGE OF WAR.
April 24, 1999... In the summer of 1944, as British and American planes continued their air raids over Germany, George Orwell received a letter from a reader of his newspaper column troubled by the huge numbers of civilian casualties. The reader wrote that he...

IS HILLARY WEARING THIN?
April 24, 1999... Hillary Rodham Clinton has decided she'd like to be a U.S. Senator from New York. That's what her advisers whisper to reporters, and that's a fact that became obvious this week as the first lady hopscotched around Gotham. But there's still...

ENTER THE APACHE.
April 24, 1999... A cockpit videotape from an Apache helicopter gunship operating during the Persian Gulf War offers a sobering preview of the destruction that may soon descend on Serbian forces out of the Balkan night sky. This particular tape was made while...

TALKING POINTS, ANYONE?
April 24, 1999... Pity Keizo Obuchi, the first Japanese Prime Minister in a dozen years to be invited to Washington for an "official" visit--complete with a May 3 state dinner at the White House. But he hits town in the wake of the triumphal American tour of...

VIEWS ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
April 24, 1999... The President's Role Do you approve or disapprove of the way Bill Clinton is handling foreign affairs? (margin of error [+ or -] 3 percentage points; Gallup Organization Inc. for CNN-USA Today) ...

People.
April 24, 1999... Interest Groups Gaston Caperton--the former two-term Democratic Governor of West Virginia and incoming president of the College Board--managed to make it to the fourth grade without learning to read. He later discovered that he had...

LIVINGSTON'S LIFE IN THE FAST LANE.
April 24, 1999... To hear former House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston, R-La., tell it, the move from Capitol Hill to K Street was an almost seamless transition. "It's very similar to what we've done for years, in terms of putting people...

PAYDAY FOR PR PROS.
April 24, 1999... With $33.9 million in fee income last year, Burson-Marsteller remains Washington s No. 1 public relations firm, according to O'Dwyer's Washington Report. Hill and Knowlton Inc. ranked second (with $27 million in fees), and Fleishman-Hillard...

FROM THE K STREET CORRIDOR.
April 24, 1999... A Stitch in Time Here's the bad news for Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds: The booming law firm recently lost its biggest lobbying client, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory in the Pacific, which had...

THE MONICA FACTOR.
April 24, 1999... After a respectable start in 1998, Powell Tate finished the year with its fees up just a tad from 1997. "We had a very good first three quarters," says Jody Powell, the chairman and CEO of the high-profile public affairs firm. "The last quarter...

FLORIDA'S OUTSIDE AGITATORS.
April 24, 1999... TAMPA, Fla.--Fresh from victories in California and Washington state, Ward Connerly is hoping that Florida will be the next state to place an initiative on the ballot to end race-based contracting, college admissions, and government employment...

HOW KEY RACES FOR THE SENATE LOOK NOW.
April 24, 1999... Although the Senate contests in 2000 are expected to take a back seat to the presidential campaign and the battle for control of the House, the number of competitive Senate races is growing. At this point, there are seven highly competitive...

Hotline Extra.
April 24, 1999... Macedonian Makeover "Suddenly, Elizabeth Dole is talking tough," wrote Steve Fraske in The Kansas City Star. (4/18) After touring refugee camps in the Balkans, Dole told ABC's Good Morning America: "This is incredible. This is...

IFFY PROSPECTS FOR REFORMS.
April 24, 1999... House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's Mr. Nice Guy style--a sharp contrast to the confrontational approach of predecessor Newt Gingrich--faces an acid test in the House Democrats' renewed drive to bring campaign finance reform proposals to the...

WHY CLINTON'S LOW-RISK POLICY IS A BOMB.
April 24, 1999... In his public life, unlike in his private life, President Clinton has turned out to be a low-risk President. His policies have been small-scale, cautious, and incremental. He stays very close to what the public wants. That's one reason the...