National Journal articles from August 1998

National Journal archives from August 1998

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 1998... THE HIGH-TECH `HAVES' In a recent article on the information technology industry's contribution to heightened income inequality in the United States ["For Richer and Poorer," 7/18/98, p. 1676], Neil Munro does not tell the real high-tech...

CLINTON'S DILEMMA: THE RISK OF MORE "LYING ABOUT SEX".
August 1, 1998... The conventional wisdom has been that the American people would (and should) forgive President Clinton even if Kenneth Starr can prove that Clinton lied about sex, assuming that's all Starr can prove. I share that view, at least in terms of...

A BILL OF RIGHTS OR A BILL OF GOODS?(Statistical Data Included)
August 1, 1998... Look around the world's advanced economies and you see a bewildering variety of health care systems. Yet certain features seem nearly universal: enormous, and rapidly rising, costs; chronic popular dissatisfaction, punctuated by spells of acute...

The Moment of Truth.(investigation of Bill Clinton)
August 1, 1998... PRESIDENT CLINTON WEATHERED THE FIRST MONICA LEWINSKY STORM. CAN HE WITHSTAND THE SECOND? ENDGAME SCENARIOS RANGE FROM EXONERATION TO IMPEACHMENT--WITH OTHERS IN BETWEEN. MUCH HINGES ON WHAT CLINTON DECIDES TO TELL THE GRAND JURY. It felt...

Choosing New Sides.(abortion debate)
August 1, 1998... CAPITOL HILL DEMOCRATS CAN NO LONGER BE COUNTED ON TO CONSISTENTLY SUPPORT A WOMAN'S "RIGHT TO CHOOSE." A GROWING NUMBER OF THEIR RANKS ARE JOINING WITH REPUBLICANS TO CAST DECIDING VOTES AGAINST ABORTION. There was something odd about the...

THE CAPITOL GRIEVES.
August 1, 1998... For those who watched on television across the nation, the events of July 24 in the Capitol were horrifying and sensational, but also impersonal and in a sense routine--murder in the cathedral of democracy, but also just another bit of...

People.
August 1, 1998... Around the Agencies After seven controversial years as Oregon's first openly gay state representative, Gail Shibley has shifted gears: She's moved to the nation's capital and taken a job as communications director at the Federal Highway...

IRAN'S MUSHROOMING NUCLEAR AMBITIONS.(Statistical Data Included)
August 1, 1998... Iran's July 22 testing of a ballistic missile raises a chilling question: Is the day when Tehran becomes capable of threatening its neighbors, and even the United States, with nuclear-tipped missiles rapidly approaching? U.S. experts in...

ARAFAT'S MAN IN WASHINGTON.
August 1, 1998... Far from the grandeur of Embassy Row, on the 10th floor of one of K Street's modernist cubes, is another generic office. With its scuffed white walls and jobs-and-services message board, this could be the home of any struggling nonprofit in...

From the K Street Corridor.
August 1, 1998... Paying for the Disaster in the Alps Former Reps. L.F. Payne Jr., D-Va., and Beryl F. Anthony Jr., D-Ark., are pressing Congress to compensate the families of the 20 Europeans killed last winter when a U.S. Marine jet sliced the cables...

BREAKING THE BANKS.
August 1, 1998... Not long after the Senate voted, the champagne was uncorked and the party began. With a toast, Daniel A. Mica, president and CEO of the Credit Union National Association, saluted his troops, who had conquered the banks, his trade group's...

Hotline Extra.
August 1, 1998... The Debate, Naturally, Resumes The shooting tragedy on Capitol Hill brought a moment's pause in partisan sniping, but gradually the inevitable conflicts returned. Partisans in the gun control debate were quick to seek advantage in the...

NATURAL STATES AND WISHFUL THINKING.
August 1, 1998... In the early days of the fall of 1994, as the Republican tidal wave began gathering strength, Democrats had a hard time comprehending what was coming. They chose to take solace in the old "Tip" O'Neill adage that "all politics is local," even...

WHAT PRICE STONEWALLING?(delaying tactics by President Bill Clinton)
August 1, 1998... Now that independent counsel Kenneth W. Start is accelerating his six-month investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, perjury and obstruction of justice against Bill Clinton, perhaps it's time to take stock of the effects of the...

VIEWS ON CONGRESSIONAL PERFORMANCE.(Statistical Data Included)
August 1, 1998... VIEWS ON CONGRESSIONAL PERFORMANCE Generally Speaking Do you approve or disapprove of the way Congress is doing its job? (ABC News-The Washington Post) 7/98 APPROVE ...

AND NOW, THE DOBSON AND BAUER SHOW!
August 1, 1998... In early May, Religious Right leaders had a showdown with congressional Republicans. We delivered for you, they told the House's GOP leaders. Now we're waiting for you to deliver for us. And if you don't, we may not be there for you this...

Bombast and Begone.(Congressional politics)
August 8, 1998... THEY'LL ROAR OVER THE SPENDING BILLS COME SEPTEMBER, BUT ALL THAT GOP LAWMAKERS REALLY WANT TO DO IS GO HOME. Appease the party activists, push enough initiatives to neutralize Democrats' attacks and hightail it out of town, the sooner the...

Sermons on the Count.(census 2000)
August 8, 1998... THE FIGHTING OVER CENSUS 2000 REVOLVES AROUND THE USE OF SAMPLING. REPUBLICANS FEAR THAT THIS METHOD WOULD SAP THEIR POLITICAL POWER. THE DEMOCRATIC STRATEGY IS TO CRY FOUL, TRY TO AVOID THE REPUBLICAN THRUSTS AND STICK TO THE PLAN. When...

Deregulation Shorts Out.(electric utilities)(Statistical Data Included)
August 8, 1998... WHILE CONGRESS ARGUES, MANY STATES ARE MOVING AHEAD WITH DEREGULATION OF THE ELECTRICITY INDUSTRY. BUT A CONSUMER BACKLASH COULD SHORT-CIRCUIT THE MOVEMENT. SAN FRANCISCO--Nettie Hoge thinks homeowners and small-business owners got a raw...

RENO-BAITING AND REFORM BILLS.(Janet Reno)
August 8, 1998... Just when it seemed that voters couldn't care less about campaign finance reform, political money controversies suddenly grabbed center stage on Capitol Hill. Attorney General Janet Reno's investigation into alleged abuses in the 1996...

THROWING THE BANKS OFF BALANCE.(Statistical Data Included)
August 8, 1998... This session of Congress has the potential to be the most important for the American banking and financial services industries in recent memory. An array of landmark measures--from an overhaul of Depression-era banking laws to tougher limits on...

ABOVE, OR BELOW, THE LAW?(Pres Bill Clinton)
August 8, 1998... On the day last week when President Clinton's private attorney, David Kendall, read a short statement in front of the White House to announce that his client would answer Kenneth W. Starr's questions about sex with a former White House intern...

CLINTON'S CODE OF PRIVATE CONDUCT.(Pres Bill Clinton)
August 8, 1998... There was a time--seven years ago, to be exact--when Bill Clinton could talk about extramarital affairs and their consequences to a politician, even the stark prospect of DNA testing. And he could do so with insight, sensitivity and a devilish...

REGULATING DIGITAL AIRTIME.
August 8, 1998... The National Association of Broadcasters will soon face yet another regulatory donnybrook. The Federal Communications Commission is trying to decide whether television broadcasters' public-interest obligations should increase as they introduce...

People.
August 8, 1998... Consulting Game When he left the Energy Department in January under a cloud of criticism, assistant secretary for environmental management Alvin L. Alm joked about entering the priesthood. Now he's seen the light and has decided to become...

WIRED IN WASHINGTON.(Statistical Data Included)
August 8, 1998... In mid-June, the Interactive Services Association opted for a snazzy new name--the Internet Alliance. It's begun a membership drive, signing up eBay Inc., the Net's largest auctioneer, and recruiting mega-bookseller Amazon.com, Web site...

WHEN TRIBAL TOM-TOMS BEAT.(investigation of Pres Bill Clinton)
August 8, 1998... On July 29, the day after former White House intern Monica Lewinsky formally agreed to cooperate with independent counsel Kenneth W. Start, one of the president's legal defenders met with a well-placed Democratic lobbyist to assess the...

Campaign Circuit.
August 8, 1998... Democrats for Engler? Michigan Republicans are predicting that it won't be long before Democratic officials start to distance themselves from the party's maverick gubernatorial nominee, Geoffrey Fieger. the attorney who has defended...

IN IDAHO, DEMOCRATS RETURN FROM THE DEAD.
August 8, 1998... BOISE, Idaho--One of the most Republican states in the nation is serving as a surprising beacon of hope for beleaguered Democrats in the mountain West. Although Republicans here enjoy a 6-1 advantage in the state legislature, Democrats have an...

AND AFTER A CLINTON MEA CULPA?(Pres Bill Clinton)
August 8, 1998... Politicians are the ultimate pragmatists, so the operative question before Congress these days is how, if at all, President Clinton's travail will help or hurt them on Election Day, still almost three months down the road. The answer may be...

HOW KEY SENATE RACES ARE SHAPING UP.(Statistical Data Included)
August 8, 1998... Since the beginning of the 1997-98 election cycle, the assumption has been that Democrats would lose Senate seats. Sen. Robert Kerrey of Nebraska, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, even conceded that his goal was for...

Views on the American Scene.(Statistical Data Included)
August 8, 1998... VIEWS OF THE AMERICAN SCENE The State of the Union Considering how things are today, would you say that the United States is generally headed in the right direction, or is if off on the wrong track? (Opinion Dynamics Corp. for Fox News...

Hotline Extra.(investigation of Pres Bill Clinton)
August 8, 1998... Grass Roots Rising President Clinton's ex scandal seems to be catching on outside the nation's capital, where it has long obsessed news media and political leaders. With former White House intern Monica Lewinsky getting immunity to...

HOW CLINTON MIGHT SLIP BY AGAIN.
August 8, 1998... The Clinton presidency survives on a great distinction: The difference between public and private morality. Now the day of reckoning is at hand. President Clinton must give a full and complete accounting of himself, to the grand jury and to the...

Letters.
August 15, 1998... "BALANCED PERSPECTIVE" WAS MISSING Carl M. Cannon's article "What We Did in China" [7/18/98, p. 1668] gives an incomplete picture of the opinions the people of Taiwan hold of President Clinton's Shanghai remarks. The article...

WITH THE ECONOMY AT A CROSSROADS, A GLANCE AT THE MAP.
August 15, 1998... Up until Wall Street got the jitters a few weeks ago, American capitalism was very pleased with itself--and, perhaps more than at any other time in the past half-century, entitled to be. The economy was humming along. Seven straight years of...

America: All Locked Up.(US prisons in the late 1990s)(Statistical Data Included)
August 15, 1998... TOUGH SENTENCING LAWS ARE PUTTING RECORD NUMBERS OF AMERICANS BEHIND BARS. SUPPORTERS SAY THE RESULT HAS BEEN LOWER CRIME RATES, BUT CRITICS QUESTIONS WHETHER WE'VE GONE TOO FAR. In what has become a familiar ritual in federal courthouses,...

Richer or Poorer.(marriage tax penalty)
August 15, 1998... CONGRESSIONAL CONSERVATIVES SAY THE TAX CODE SHOULD BE REVISED TO DO AWAY WITH ITS UNFAIR TREATMENT OF COUPLES. BUT WHY IS SO LITTLE SAID ABOUT THE MARRIAGE BONUSES ALREADY ON THE BOOKS? Imagine a federal income tax system that gives a...

ARE HMOs OFF THE CRITICAL LIST?(Health Maintenance Organizations)(includes related article on Office of Management and Budget)
August 15, 1998... Despite all the excitement it generated on Capitol Hill this summer, "patient protection" legislation may actually be losing its punch as an election issue. After sailing through the House, in fact, legislation to regulate managed care health...

ARE THERE LIMITS TO LOYALTY?(political loyalty amidst a presidential scandal)
August 15, 1998... President Clinton may have been blessed by the vulnerabilities of his enemies (Kenneth W. Starr, Newt Gingrich and Linda Tripp come to mind), but he's been particularly well served by the strengths of his friends. Clinton has tested the...

THE DRILL IN ALASKA: OIL'S ROYAL.(oil industry and Alaska's environmental politics)
August 15, 1998... Last summer, Interior Secretary Bruce E. Babbitt went on a five-day tour of Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve, a massive, wild region west of the Prudhoe Bay oil fields on Alaska's North Slope, and declared that oil company officials had made...

People.(politics and media)
August 15, 1998... Consulting Game It doesn't take one of G. Evans Witt's polls to extrapolate that a frequent Washington-New York commute ranks low on the desirability scale. Witt, a longtime resident of the nation's capital, was unable to convince the New...

DEVASTATION IN A TRUCK.(terrorist truck bombs)
August 15, 1998... Buildings reduced to crumbled concrete; debris and carnage scattered over city blocks. These scenes from last week's terrorist attacks in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam were a terrifying replay of bombings in cities as disparate as New York,...

THE ROMAN LEGION.(Roman Catholic journalists and politicians respond to the Monica Lewinsky scandal)
August 15, 1998... One Wednesday night a few weeks ago, former White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta was a guest on Hardball, which is one of those cable-television shows that obsess over Clinton-Lewinsky. His chat with the show's host, Chris Matthews, wasn't...

BETTER TEACHERS FASTER.(solving the teacher shortage)
August 15, 1998... The failings of America's schools of education were brought into sharp relief in Massachusetts recently. Of the state's aspiring teachers--all graduates of state education programs--56 per cent flunked a basic math and literacy exam. In...

THEY'RE GOING NUCLEAR IN DIXIE.(includes related article on government contract to Sierra Health Services, Inc.)
August 15, 1998... In tiny Hollywood, Ala., stands one of the government's biggest white elephants, the still-unfinished Bellefonte nuclear power plant. Erected in fits and starts by the Tennessee Valley Authority over a 20-year period, Bellefonte was cursed with...

FROM THE K STREET CORRIDOR.(Washington D.C. news)
August 15, 1998... Capitoline Crumples Hard hit by the loss of three lucrative foreign clients, Capitoline/MS&L, a seven-year-old lobbying and public relations firm, has ceased operations. On July 31, the firm's 17 employees received their last paychecks,...

Views on the American Scene.(public opinion poll)(Statistical Data Included)
August 15, 1998... VIEWS ON THE AMERICAN SCENE Pocketbook Issues Would you describe the state of the nation's economy these days as excellent, good, not good or poor? (ABC News) 8/98 EXCELLENT ...

CAMPAIGN ADS: THE SEARCH FOR MEANING.(1998 elections)
August 15, 1998... Two years ago, House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and his revolutionary Republican Congress were the focal point of Democratic campaign attack ads. Four years ago, President Clinton and his faltering health care plan were under fire from...

Campaign Circuit.(Republican 2000 national convention; New York governor's race)
August 15, 1998... Does Size Matter? Will Republicans play the ethnic card or the space card when they select the site of their national convention in 2000? Of the five cities that made the Republican National Committee's final cut, two, New York and San...

Two districts, similar stories.(California congressional election)
August 15, 1998... SACRAMENTO, Calif.--The conventional wisdom in Washington says that this year's congressional races--unlike the midterm elections of 1994--won't be affected much by national trends. Judging by a pair of open House seats in northern California,...

And after the Starr Inquiry.(Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr)
August 15, 1998... Beyond the breathless focus on President Clinton's long-awaited testimony before the grand jury in the Monica Lewinsky scandal is the long-term matter of what independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr's relentless pursuit augurs for the law that has...

WHEN THE DOW DROPS, BEWARE OF THE ITCH.(influence of economy on political elections)
August 15, 1998... It's been said that Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is the most important member of President Clinton's legal defense team a joke that's not entirely off the mark. There is no question that voters are much more tolerant of an elected...

Hotline Extra.(politics)
August 15, 1998... Kennedys 2000 Just when it seemed a presidential campaign might go by without Kennedys, the next generation has surfaced. While they aren't running themselves, Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, DR.I., and Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend...

Correction.
August 15, 1998... A recent article on electricity (8/8/98, p. 1862) incorrectly implied that Ralph Cavanagh, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, is a member of Californians for Affordable and Reliable Electric Service, an industry-led...

Where the sun's setting on comity.(state government)
August 15, 1998... As Congress has given more power to the states, state legislatures have begun to look more like Congress: more partisan and more competitive. That was the sense at last month's meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures in Las...

HE'S STILL DOING IT: CLINTON'S DEFINING LIE.(Pres Bill Clinton's response to the Monica Lewinsky scandal)
August 22, 1998... As you know," President Clinton told the American people Monday night, "in a deposition in January, I was asked questions about my relationship with Monica Lewinsky. While my answers were legally accurate, I did not volunteer information." With...

The Storm Ahead.(Pres Bill Clinton's fate after he admits affair)
August 22, 1998... WITH NO END TO THE SCANDAL IN SIGHT, THE PRESIDENT, HIS ALLIES AND HIS OPPONENTS BEGIN MAPPING THEIR NEXT MOVES AND COURTING PUBLIC FAVOR. January 26: "I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again. I did not have sexual relations...

Capital Lies.(history of political deception)
August 22, 1998... IF THERE'S MORE LYING IN WASHINGTON THAN THERE USED TO BE, IT'S ONLY BECAUSE MORE QUESTIONS ARE ASKED. Even before President Clinton owned up to having "misled" the American public about his extramarital behavior, the citizenry had seen no...

UPHILL STRUGGLE FOR CAMPAIGN REFORMERS.(includes related article on age and turnover rate of legislative aides)
August 22, 1998... It seems a little like Sisyphus rolling his rock up a hill, but campaign finance reformers are again plotting strategies to try to push a bill over Mount Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and to final passage in the Senate this fall. The reformers...

SHEATHING THE BIG STICK.(use of military force against Iraq)
August 22, 1998... Earlier this month, by defying U.N. weapons inspectors yet again, Saddam Hussein threw into sharp relief a big shift in U.S. policy toward the Iraqi dictator. Not only did Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright avoid the customary threats of...

People.
August 22, 1998... Media People Washington Post TV columnist John Carmody "set the gold standard for reporting on the television business," in the words of Post assistant managing editor David von Drehle. Now Carmody is retiring after 36 years at the...

YUCK! WHAT A GREAT STORY!
August 22, 1998... On the night before one of the most dramatic days in American political history, CNN did something very weird. The cable network invited viewers to spend the eve of the President's grand jury appearance watching one of its "national town...

A KINDER, GENTLER EPA.
August 22, 1998... Early this year, as congressional conservatives made headlines accusing the Clinton administration of over-regulating industry by trying to curb global warming, Weyerhaeuser Co. quietly celebrated its first year in an innovative new regulatory...

THE RISE, FALL AND RISE OF A THINK TANK.
August 22, 1998... In late 1995, the Progress and Freedom Foundation held a lavish Christmas party at its fancy new digs on K Street. At the time, the "digital age" think tank founded in 1992 by free-marketeer Jeffrey A. Eisenach was riding high, courtesy of his...

$200,000 A YEAR, NO TAKERS.
August 22, 1998... Wanted: savvy political insider with bulging Rolodex and penchant for schmoozing with members of Congress and top government regulators. Position: senior vice president, government affairs, at the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States....

Hotline Extra.
August 22, 1998... Inside the Bible Belt As White House scandal watchers debate the reversal of President Clinton's once-finn denials, his predicament threatens to surface as a campaign issue in the conservative South. Republican congressional candidate Dan...

WILL THEY SHRUG, OR STAY HOME ON NOV. 3?
August 22, 1998... About the only thing that can be said for certain is that this whole mess is hardly over. President Clinton's remarks Monday night were short on contrition, long on defiance, infuriating to his critics and guaranteed to keep the Monica Lewinsky...

OFF THE MARK BY A MILE.
August 22, 1998... Considering his history, it's no surprise that President Clinton's long-awaited Aug. 17 address to the nation was designed not only to end the argument but also to win the argument. In the end, however, he fell short of both goals. Indeed,...

CORRECTION.(correction to article published on Aug 8, 1998, p. 1854)
August 22, 1998... A recent story on the next national census (8/8/98, p. 1854) incorrectly said that the sampling of those who do not return their census form would be calculated by blocks. Actually, the Census Bureau plan calls for determining the sample size...

NOT A PRESIDENT TO RESPECT OR FEAR.
August 22, 1998... President Clinton now faces the toughest challenge of his career: rebuilding public trust. After his extraordinary confession Monday night, the early indications were that he's losing that public trust--and fast. The Lewinsky matter had nothing...