National Journal articles from December 1998

National Journal archives from December 1998

THE BEST CASE AGAINT IMPEACHMENT.
December 5, 1998... A mid the breathtaking buffoonery and mendacity of many of the House Judiciary Committee's Democrats, some honest and thoughtful arguments against impeachment were set forth, at long last, at a hearing on Tuesday. The strongest of them...

LEFT VS. RIGHT VS. WHAT REALLY MATTERS.(Augusto Pinochet)
December 5, 1998... The debate over Augusto Pinochet, arrested in Britain and facing extradition to Spain for crimes against humanity, has been dispiriting. What should have been an argument about the proper scope of international law has become entangled in...

THE TRIAL OF EX-PRESIDENT CLINTON.
December 5, 1998... The latest redundant evidence that the House Judiciary Republicans lack the maturity to run an impeachment proceeding, or possibly a flea circus, came this week when they decided to turn the impeachment hearings into yet another trawl through...

It's a Wet, Wet, Wet World.(1998 elections)
December 5, 1998... How was this election different from all other elections? Not in party strength: Republicans and Democrats won almost exactly the same percentages in House races as in 1996. Nor was there any great mandate for change: Only a handful of...

Reinforcing Steel.(steel industry wanting anti-dumping measures)
December 5, 1998... FIFTEEN YEARS AFTER THE LATEST ROUND OF PROTECTIONISM, A TRANSFORMED AND EFFICIENT AMERICAN STEEL INDUSTRY ASKS FOR NEW SEAWALLS AGAINST A FLOOD OF CHEAP IMPORTS FROM ASIA, RUSSIA, AND BRAZIL. Those who have seen the steel industry's...

After Argentina.(global warming negotiations in Buenos Aires)
December 5, 1998... CLINTON'S PLAN FOR TACKLING GLOBAL WARMING BEGAN WINNING CONVERTS AT THE INTERNATIONAL NEGOTIATIONS IN BUENOS AIRES. BUT WILL HIS MARKET-BASED SOLUTIONS WORK? For a while last month, it looked as if the Clinton administration couldn't do...

JEERS, NOT CHEERS, ON IMPEACHMENT.
December 5, 1998... It wasn't supposed to turn out this way. By this time, the House Judiciary Committee was expected to be moving in an orderly fashion toward impeaching President Clinton, while his lawyers and congressional Democrats scrambled to try to stave...

A HISTORY LESSON FOR LIVINGSTON.
December 5, 1998... They might not seem like kindred spirits, but House Speakers Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and Jim Wright, D-Texas, traveled strikingly similar routes to power--and to collapse. An examination of their career paths shows that despite the turmoil of...

STAYING VAGUE ON SOCIAL SECURITY.
December 5, 1998... President Clinton is poised to launch a legislative campaign that will produce, once and for all, an answer to one of the abiding questions of Iris presidency: Can he lead? The subject is the future insolvency of Social Security, and the...

THE MYTH OF THE $600 HAMMER.
December 5, 1998... Ever since the Defense Department procurement scandals of the '80s, the $600 hammer has been held up as an icon of Pentagon incompetence. Immortalized in the "Hammer Awards" that Vice President Al Gore's program to reinvent government gives out...

FREQUENT FLIERS AT THE FAA.
December 5, 1998... What started out as a program for pilots and air traffic controllers to become more familiar with one another's problems has turned into a way for thousands of controllers and other Federal Aviation Administration employees to fly scheduled...

BENDING LIVINGSTON'S EAR.
December 5, 1998... In late October, Bob Livingston was at Reagan National Airport awaiting a flight to Chicago for a fund-raiser, when he spotted an old acquaintance. "Skunk!" shouted Livingston to a man sporting a ponytail and wearing a beret. The next speaker...

GEARING UP FOR SOCIAL SECURITY.
December 5, 1998... Just in time for the White House confab on overhauling social security that's due to start on Dec. 8, business and liberal groups are beginning to unveil their policy prescriptions. It's a preview of what could be the hottest debate in...

UNDER TOM'S THUMB.(House Majority Whip Tom D. DeLay)
December 5, 1998... For House Majority Whip Tom D. DeLay, R-Texas, it was a November to remember. In that extraordinary month, Republicans lost five seats in the House, watched the crash landing of Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and selected as his likely successor...

People.(Carole A. Parmelee )
December 5, 1998... In the Tanks She spent two years in a pressure cooker-now Carole A. Parmelee will be making an adjustment. "I have to learn to function in a quiet setting," said Parmelee, 53, who recently left the 14-hour-a-day pace of the White House to...

TRUE CONFESSIONS: WE LOVE THE BIG LUG.(the media's coverage of President Bill Clinton and)(Bill Bradley )
December 5, 1998... Popular wisdom has it that the media's favorite pastime is destroying public figures, the more public the figure and the more utter the destruction, the better. Every rising politico is an Icarus just asking to have his wax melted, and the...

THE NEXT KOREAN CONFLICT.
December 5, 1998... At the end of a 1994 showdown with North Korea, William J. Perry was troubled because the American people did not know how close the nation had come to war. In internal administration debates, then-Secretary of Defense Perry had argued for a...

LET THE ANNOUNCEMENTS BEGIN.(Republican presidential hopefuls for year 2000)
December 5, 1998... On Feb. 7, most of the Republican presidential cast for 2000 will descend on Manchester, N.H., for the state GOP's annual fundraising dinner. But while the other GOP White House hopefuls preen and prowl for the affections of Granite State...

HOW THE FIGHT FOR THE SENATE LOOKS NOW.
December 5, 1998... It's far too early to predict who will control the White House and the House after the 2000 elections, but forecasting the Senate results may be a bit easier: Republicans, who now enjoy a 55-45 majority, appear likely to stay in charge....

Hotline Extra.
December 5, 1998... Gore in the Clear Even a few Republicans seemed relieved that Vice President Al Gore dodged a bullet when Attorney General Janet Reno opted against requesting that an independent counsel be named to investigate his fired-raising practices....

SHAMEFUL, YES, BUT NOT IMPEACHABLE.
December 5, 1998... On the eve of up-or-down votes on impeaching President Clinton, the contrast between the political climate that prevailed at the same juncture in the Watergate inquiry nearly a quarter-century ago and the one that exists today could hardly be...

MAYBE HISTORY IS REPEATING ITSELF.
December 5, 1998... The prevailing view among congressional Republicans is that President Clinton should be impeached but not convicted. Let the House vote to impeach him even if there's not a chance in the world that two-thirds of the Senate will vote to convict...

Letters.
December 12, 1998... EDDIE EAGLE SQUAWKS I was shocked at being blatantly misquoted in commenting on the intent of the Eddie Eagle Gun Safety Program ["Deflecting Crayon Bullets," 10/10/98, p. 2388]. I never "acknowledged that Eddie Eagle is aimed at `getting...

A DECEPTIVE DEFENSE BRIEF.
December 12, 1998... To get the flavor of President Clinton's long-awaited, 184-page, definitive defense against charges of criminality and impeachable offenses, let's turn to page 77. That's where the Clinton brief seeks to explain away a succession of sworn...

The Hollow Force Myth.
December 12, 1998... NEITHER BROKEN NOR HOLLOW, THE U.S. MILITARY IS SIMPLY LEARNING NEW POSTCOLD WAR RHYTHMS, WHILE STILL CARRYING OUT THE SMOOTHEST DEMOBILIZATION OF THE 20TH CENTURY. As they walked into the Hart Senate Office Building on Sept. 29 for one of...

The Train Rolls On.(impeachment process)
December 12, 1998... CAN THE REPUBLICAN IMPEACHMENT DRIVE BE STOPPED IN THE HOUSE? Maybe this has been the tale of the dog that didn't bark. A story with no great dramatic turning points, no discoveries of guns still smoking, no tell-all witnesses or Oval...

Dethroning King Andy.(impeachment of Andrew Johnson)
December 12, 1998... IT TOOK THREE TIMES TO IMPEACH ANDREW JOHNSON, THOUGH HE WAS HIS OWN WORST ENEMY AND GRAND PRINCIPLE WAS AT STAKE. COMEBACK KIDS, TAKE HEART. The Speaker of the House, presiding over a packed and tense chamber, slammed down his gavel and...

High-Tech's High Anxiety.(international trade and national security)
December 12, 1998... WITH THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION'S BLESSING, U.S. COMPANIES ARE PEDDLING HIGH TECHNOLOGY TO CHINA AND OTHER NATIONS. BUT SOME REPUBLICANS SAY THESE EXPORTS THREATEN NATIONAL SECURITY. Just before Thanksgiving, the National Association of...

A RADIOACTIVE ISSUE FOR THE 106TH.
December 12, 1998... The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has a surprising top environmental priority for the 106th Congress: nuclear waste legislation. The group has joined forces with the nuclear power industry in backing a bill that would require the Energy Department...

AN OVERTURE, AGAIN, ON HEALTH REFORM.
December 12, 1998... Health care premiums are rising, the ranks of the uninsured are growing, and Rep. William M. Thomas, R-Calif., is shopping around an idea that could lay the ground work for Congress's next attempt at major health care reform. The...

THE TWILIGHT ZONE, WHERE SUBSTANCE REIGNS.(political issues)
December 12, 1998... These days, White House aides often refer with perplexed consternation to the scandal and impeachment threats that continue to swirl around the President as the "parallel universe." The real universe, they assure themselves, consists of dire...

BEATING SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES.
December 12, 1998... In the 1997 film The Peacemaker, a government scientist, played by Nicole Kidman, discovers that a Russian nuclear warhead has been stolen by terrorists, tracks it down on the streets of Manhattan, and finally defuses the device with a...

ON SOCIAL SECURITY, GAB IS GOOD.
December 12, 1998... On the opening day of the White House conference on Social Security, after five hours of panel discussions, ad hoc press conferences, and tete-a-tetes with fellow VIPs, Rep. Charles W. Stenholm, D-Texas, confessed he was "about confabbed out."...

ARE TWO JEFFERSONS BETTER THAN ONE?
December 12, 1998... The Jefferson Group, the public affairs firm that a former partner once dubbed "Bosnia on the Potomac" because of its bitter internal squabbles, is putting the finishing touches on its very own Dayton Accord. In April, the 11-year-old...

From the K Street Corridor.(News Briefs)
December 12, 1998... Get a Life Dealing a heavy financial blow to the American Council of Life Insurance, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., which last year paid about $3.1 million in dues to the insurance trade group, is quitting as of Jan. 1. Met Life was...

People.(News Briefs)
December 12, 1998... Hill Dwellers At least he won't have to print up new business cards. After trying out three new jobs in the past two years, Frederick W. Hatfield has returned to the office of Sen. John B. Breaux, D-La., where he served as chief of staff...

TURNING TO MEXICO FOR HELP.(bilingual programs)
December 12, 1998... DALTON, Ga.--Every hour or so, an earsplitting whistle rattles this north Georgia mill town as a freight train rumbles to or from one of several dozen sprawling carpet factories. Standing on West Crawford Street in front of the court-house, a...

COMMAND PERFORMANCE IN NORFOLK.(military exercises)
December 12, 1998... NATIONAL SECURITY NORFOLK, Va.--This year the Pentagon conducted military exercises here to determine how the Information Revolution will affect the ability of the four armed services to fight together, or "jointly." The results were...

ALMOST NOW-OR-NEVER TIME.(China's international trade status)
December 12, 1998... Making China a part of the world's formal, play-by-the rules trading system is a high-priority challenge for Washington. Why? It's a matter of red ink. A third of America's record-setting trade deficit for this year--about $60 billion--will be...

COURTING ALAN PAGE.(Minnesota Supreme Court Justice)
December 12, 1998... In 1967, the Minnesota Vikings drafted Alan Page, a 6-foot-4-inch All-American defensive lineman from the University of Notre Dame. As part of the team's feared Purple People Eater defense, Page led the Vikings to three Super Bowl appearances...

A VOTE TO IMPEACH COULD HURT THE GOP.
December 12, 1998... Imagine for a moment that Republicans control the Congress, the American economy is booming, the federal budget is balanced for the first time in 30 years, and the COP has not made any noteworthy policy missteps in Washington. Let's also assume...

Hotline Extra.(News Briefs)
December 12, 1998... Moderation Alert With the presidential hopefuls for 2000 starting to line up, moderates in both political parties are maneuvering to influence the outcome. The Democratic Leadership Council, a moderate group that counts Bill Clinton...

MAYBE IT'S NOT A LOCK FOR AL.(Albert Gore, Jr.)
December 12, 1998... Vice President Al Gore may have presumed a bit much the other day when he took a swipe at the "compassionate conservatism" of Gov. George W. Bush, the leading candidate at the moment for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination. The...

VIEWS ON THE AMERICAN SCENE.
December 12, 1998... Generally Speaking Considering how things are today, would you say that the country is generally headed in the right direction, or is it off on the wrong track? (Opinion Dynamics Corp. for Fox News Channel) ...

NO MODESTY, PLEASE, WE'RE THE DLC.(Democratic Leadership Council)
December 12, 1998... When a group of moderate, business-oriented Democrats organized the Democratic Leadership Council in 1985, at the peak of the Reagan Revolution, their aim was to change the philosophy of the Democratic Party. They could hardly have imagined,...

ALL HAIL THE EURO--WELL, WE'LL SEE.(European currency)
December 19, 1998... In a fortnight's time, an astonishing thing will happen: Eleven of the 15 countries in the European Union will "irrevocably" fuse their currencies, creating a single monetary area. National notes and coins will continue to circulate until...

AFTER THE VOTE, THE VENGEANCE.(President Bill Clinton's impeachment)
December 19, 1998... The revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer: When he meeteth him, he shall slay him. Numbers 35:19 So they pulled the trigger. A few weeks ago, I said that the impeachment process was soon to end in censure or collapse....

WHY THE SENATE MIGHT REMOVE HIM.
December 19, 1998... "No one imagines that the Senate will come close to obtaining the two-thirds majority needed to convict the President and remove him from office," The New York Times asserted on Dec. 13, in a "Week in Review" piece by David E. Rosenbaum. ...

Downfall and Defiance.(President Bill Clinton)
December 19, 1998... Late at night on Nov. 3, 1998, President Clinton hovered over the shoulder of his chief of staff, John Podesta, who was receiving minute-by-minute election returns on his personal computer. For Clinton, these were results to be savored. Down...

A Remarkable Week.
December 19, 1998... FRIDAY, DEC. 11: PRESIDENT CLINTON WALKS with measured steps into the Rose Garden and asks Congress to rebuke and censure him for his "errors of word and deed." An airplane overhead threatens to drown out the fourth and fifth sentences: "What I...

Another Leader Falls.(Speaker-elect Bob Livingston)
December 19, 1998... FOR SPEAKER-DESIGNATE BOB LIVINGSTON, R-La., the handwriting was on the wall by Friday. The day before, he had preempted pending news reports by acknowledging to his fellow House Republicans that he had "on occasion strayed from my marriage."...

THE ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT.
December 19, 1998... ARTICLE I In his conduct while President of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve,...

`THE FLAG IS FALLING, CATCH THE FALLING FLAG'.
December 19, 1998... Henry Hyde, R-Ill. Mr. Speaker, my colleagues of the people's house, I wish to talk to you about the rule of law... The issue is perjury, lying under oath. The issue is obstruction of justice, which the President has sworn the most solemn...

Democracy's Dilemma.
December 19, 1998... THIS ALMOST NEVER HAPPENS: That this government of the people, by the people, and for the people falls so dramatically out of sync with the people. But in voting to impeach President Clinton, the House of Representatives--the people's...

Opposing Forces.(Democrats differ with Republicans over impeachment)
December 19, 1998... THE CHRISTIAN COALITION SENT some 250,000 petitions to House members, imploring them to impeach President Clinton. Republican strategists and pollsters quietly spread the word that a vote for impeachment wouldn't hurt a moderate member's...

Sifting Through the Wreckage.
December 19, 1998... THEY QUARRELED FOR THREE MONTHS over impeachment, and now the 21 Republicans and 16 Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have a new bone of contention: how they themselves performed during their historic proceedings. "A partisan...

Who Benefits?
December 19, 1998... CANDIDATES IN 1998 often found that their campaigns were overshadowed by the twists and turns of the investigation of President Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Likewise, an impeachment trial in the Senate wouldn't necessarily have...

What Becomes a Legend Most?
December 19, 1998... JOURNALISTS ARE GREAT EGOISTS, certain that momentous historic events are constantly erupting in the immediate vicinity of their persons. They tend to believe that they must immediately spread the news of these impressive happenings to the...

Flak Over Iraq.
December 19, 1998... AFTER A YEAR OF CALLING CLINTON A LIAR, SOME ON CAPITOL HILL FIND IT HARD TO BREAK THE HABIT; THEY DOUBT THE PRESIDENT'S MOTIVES IN IRAQ. Not since this country was rent by the Vietnam War has a U.S. military operation been launched under...

washingtonclout.com.(Internet use laws)
December 19, 1998... THE INTERNET BOOM HAS COME TO THE NATION'S CAPITAL. FACED WITH THE THREAT OF REGULATION AND LEGISLATION, ONCE-TINY COMPANIES WORTH BILLIONS ON WALL STREET HAVE DISCOVERED THEY NEED HELP ON STREET. When Pierre Omidyar started eBay Inc. three...

BUYING A SOCIAL SECURITY DEAL.
December 19, 1998... It has been billed as the most sensitive political issue of all: fixing Social Security before it goes broke in 2032. So it came as something of a surprise on Dec. 3 when an ideologically diverse group of members of Congress filed out of a...

The Elites Speak.(congressional aide survey)
December 19, 1998... For the moment, Congress may be caught up in the awful rowing toward impeachment, but life in the legislative shipping lanes will eventually go on. A recent National Journal/Frederick Schneiders Research survey of top congressional aides...

THE COMMANDER IN PERIL.(the military and impeachment of Bill Clinton)
December 19, 1998... That the Monica Lewinsky scandal and Watergate are vastly different is apparent in the Pentagon's different reactions during the final days of each impeachment drama. As the House wrapped up its drive to impeach President Nixon in August 1974,...

RED LIGHTS ON THE BORDER.(trade with Mexico)
December 19, 1998... Trucks carry approximately 80 percent of the booming commerce between the United States and Mexico. But only certain trucks: U.S. trucks don't go into Mexico, and Mexican trucks can travel only as far as the U.S. commercial zones near the...

People.(News Briefs)
December 19, 1998... Political Stripes Breaking up may be hard to do, but for Anita Dunn, the separation is only temporary. She's taking a leave of absence from the Washington Democratic media consulting firm of Squier Knapp Dunn Communications, where she's a...

Poll Readings.
December 19, 1998... VIEWS ON THE AMERICAN SCENE Social Security Reform Do you believe the Social Security program should continue working as it currently does, or do you think people should have the option to invest their Social Security contributions...

FROM THE K STREET CORRIDOR.(political news briefs)
December 19, 1998... All in the Democratic Family That dynamic duo of White House aides, Chief of Staff John D. Podesta and his deputy, Steve Ricchetti, a relatively recent arrival from K Street, will soon have more in common than their efforts to stave off...

KINDRED SPIRITS.(congressional conservatives)
December 19, 1998... Meet Ed Buckham, a mega-winner in the 1998 political sweepstakes. The sometime-consultant, occasional Capitol Hill strategist and full-time conservative activist, Buckham is on a roll. During the fall, he masterminded the re-election of Rep....

A TOWERING MAYOR WHO'S STUBLING.
December 19, 1998... JERSEY CITY, NJ.--On the second day of a raucous late-November teachers' strike, a disoriented Bret D. Schundler tramps through a drab basement garage looking for an elevator. The Republican mayor of the most ethnically diverse city in the...

HOW MANY DEMOCRATS WILL TAKE ON GORE?(Albert Gore, Jr.)
December 19, 1998... While House members have been consumed with the debate on impeaching the current President, some Democrats have been looking ahead to the 2000 campaign and to the race to succeed him. Vice President Al Gore remains the overwhelming favorite to...

Correction.
December 19, 1998... In a chart accompanying my column in the Dec. 12 issue of National Journal, Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., was grouped with House Republicans who face three risk factors if they vote to impeach President Clinton. He should have been grouped with...

Hotline Extra.(impeachment)
December 19, 1998... How Impeachment's Playing A sampling of what editorial writers are saying: The Abilene (Texas) Reporter: "No blame should attach to anyone voting for impeachment." (12/13) Albany (N.Y.) Times Union: "The future of the nation hangs...

IT'S BEEN NEITHER PRETTY NOR FAIR.(impeachment)
December 19, 1998... Years from now, historians looking back at the impeachment proceedings that targeted President Clinton will have a field day examining how such a solemn undertaking could have disintegrated so deplorably--and so quickly--into the rawest of...

IT'S A VALUES THING. OR NOT.(impeachment)
December 19, 1998... If congressional Democrats and Republicans seem to be living in two different worlds, it's because there are two different political worlds out there in the country. How far apart are they? Go to the congressional districts represented by the...