National Journal articles from February 1999

National Journal archives from February 1999

LAST HOPE FOR AN HONEST EXIT.(Bill Clinton impeachment trial)
February 6, 1999... A mid ever-more-disingenuous diversions by President Clinton's apologists--ranging from Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle to the front page of The New York Times--the last hope for bringing the Senate trial to a tolerably honest, tolerably...

READ THIS OR I'LL SUE YOU.(lawsuits as a way of achieving political means)
February 6, 1999... "Granddad, our social studies teacher says that court suits used to be called `lawsuits,' because in those days they were actually about law." Yes, but that was a long time ago. "He said it used to be that judges and sometimes even...

So Very, Very Tired.(public opinon about President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial)
February 6, 1999... AFTER GENNIFER AND MONICA, FILEGATE AND TRAVELGATE, CATTLE FUTURES AND COFFEE KLATCHES, WE JUST DON'T CARE. It was a typical morning in the exercise room of a big-city hotel this one happened to be the Westin-Bonaventure in Los Angeles and...

Black Ink Brawl.(federal budget)
February 6, 1999... PRESIDENT CLINTON MAY HAVE PROPOSED A MODEST BUDGET, BUT REPUBLICANS ARE FINDING PLENTY TO QUIBBLE WITH. When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, the deficit stood at the daunting level of more than $250 billion--and there, more or less, it...

The Politics of Sprawl.(suburban districts)
February 6, 1999... THE VICE PRESIDENT IS BETTING THAT HIS PLEDGE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT SUBURBAN SPRAWL WILL CLICK WITH THE SOCCER MOMS AND THE LAWYER DADS WHO LIVE IN THE INCREASINGLY CROWDED OUTER EDGES OF AMERICA'S CITIES. It's an eternal question: Can a...

PUSHING THE LIMITS ON CAMPAIGN FINANCE.
February 6, 1999... Until recently, advocates of campaign finance reform had busied themselves with trying to enact strict new election laws. But now they've got a new, more fundamental worry: defending even the existing rules from constitutional challenge. ...

NOT MUCH FLAK FROM THE FOLKS BACK HOME.(constituent views about President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial)
February 6, 1999... Senators of both parties have taken great pains to characterize their handling of impeachment as much less partisan than the House's bitterly divided proceedings late last year. As it turns out, though, pivotal players in the House are voicing...

IF IT'S GOOD ENOUGH FOR CONGRESSMEN ...(Medicare)
February 6, 1999... A plan under consideration by a bipartisan commission would model Medicare after the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, the much-praised system that insures members of Congress, federal workers, and White House officials. But not...

WHERE'S THE BEEF? WITH INS.
February 6, 1999... When the Immigration and Naturalization Service kicked off a new enforcement project at Nebraska meatpacking plants last fall, agency officials hoped the effort would silence critics who say the agency has turned a blind eye to illegal...

TO GLOAT, OR NOT TO GLOAT.(President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial)
February 6, 1999... The end is nigh. Well, nearly nigh. At last. And President Clinton is only too ready to change the subject. Inside the White House, aides veer between their primal urges to plan, plan, plan the President's next moves, and a superstitious...

People.
February 6, 1999... At the Bar For one veteran of the Clinton scandal wars, it's farewell to Monica, Whitewater, and all that. Robert J. Bittman, 36, one of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's three principal deputies and the man who headed his investigation...

A TRANS-ATLANTIC TIFF OVER PRIVACY.
February 6, 1999... A European Union directive on electronic privacy has sparked a furious counterattack from American companies that fear the EU measure could slow the transatlantic growth of electronic commerce. At the urging of U.S. corporations, the U.S....

PRO SPORTS' HEAVIEST HITTER.(Major League Baseball's lobbying efforts)
February 6, 1999... Practice the fundamentals. Hustle on offense, stay aggressive on defense. Swing for the fences. Win the close ones. Wear pinstripes. Spend big bucks for top talent. The New York Yankees? Maybe. Major League Baseball's Washington lobbying...

FROM THE K STREET CORRIDOR.(Rep. Bob Livingston's lobbying hopes)
February 6, 1999... Livingston Will Fly on His Own Spurning piles of money from law and lobbying firms, Rep. Bob Livingston, R-La., plans to establish a Washington lobbying shop with several of his aides--including longtime Chief of Staff J. Allen...

WRITERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!(copyright issues in publishing )
February 6, 1999... Jonathan Tasini is a soldier in the information revolution. A fierce partisan, Tasini, the president of the 4,800-member National Writers Union, a United Auto Workers affiliate, is fighting for his group's fair share of the riches of the...

IN SOME CITIES, A `LIVING WAGE' PREVAILS.
February 6, 1999... BALTIMORE--President Clinton has proposed a modest hike in the minimum wage, large enough to satisfy most liberals and so small that conservatives and business groups might not be able to stop it--50 cents this year and next. Clinton says the...

RIP 1999 TRADE ACT.
February 6, 1999... An undercurrent of ill will and a general inclination of the Senate and House to disagree on anything involving foreign commerce probably means that major trade legislation this year could well be dead on arrival--before it is even introduced....

FUTURE PHARMERS OF AMERICA.
February 6, 1999... Doctors are lobbying for more tobacco production, hogs are selling for a hefty $3,500, and the farmer raising both commodities boasts a Ph.D. and wears a lab coat. Welcome to the future of American farming, as transformed by 21st-century...

WHERE LOBBYISTS GO FOR A GOOD TIME.
February 6, 1999... As White House hopefuls begin to gear up their campaigns for 2000, Washington's big lobbyists are preparing for their quadrennial stints in the armies of presidential politics. Last month, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., tapped Richard H. Davis, a...

BEFORE JESSE, THERE WAS MIKE.(Louisiana Governor Mike Foster)
February 6, 1999... BATON ROUGE, La.--Think of a sitting Governor who fits all of these descriptions: a beefy guy with a mustache and cue-ball scalp, who won his office on the slogan, "Not just another pretty face." A blunt talker who spent most of his life...

WHAT WILL WE EXPECT OF THE NEXT PRESIDENT?(2000 elections)
February 6, 1999... One year from now, the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates that have survived the Iowa caucus will be crisscrossing the cities and hamlets of New Hampshire. They will be campaigning for a job that will be remarkably different from...

Hotline Extra.(public opinion of House managers )
February 6, 1999... Vox Populi House leaders pursuing the impeachment trial of President Clinton are facing trouble at home, and with Republican colleagues on Capitol Hill. Rep. Henry J. Hyde, R-Ill. got bad news in a Chicago Tribune poll showing that...

NOW, HERE'S A GOOD-TIMES BUDGET.(federal budget after impeachment process)
February 6, 1999... The widely held view these days is that President Clinton's popularity in the face of scandal can be traced in large measure to the booming domestic economy. If times were bad, the theory goes, Americans would not be so forgiving. But things...

VIEWS ON THE AMERICAN SCENE.
February 6, 1999... Generally Speaking Do you think things in this country are generally going in the right direction, or are they seriously off on the wrong track? (Los Angeles Times) 1/99 RIGHT...

FORGET, HELL! NOT BY ELECTION DAY, ANYWAY.(Tom Campbell)
February 6, 1999... SANTA CLARA, Calif.--If there's a price to be paid for impeaching the President, moderate Republicans will pay it. Most of them voted with their party, not with their constituents. And that has the voters back home hopping mad, as Rep. Tom...

HEROES: BRAVE DEMOCRATS AND OTHERS.
February 13, 1999... As the battle for history begins, here's a dissent from the prevailing view that the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, unlike the great and glorious Watergate adventure, is devoid of heroes. Actually, there may be more heroes now than there were...

HOW TO FORGET MONICA--AND DO GOOD, TOO.
February 13, 1999... The end of the impeachment fiasco leaves Bill Clinton and his adversaries in Congress all in need of the same thing--a way to restore their sullied reputations. The best cleanser would be a big new policy: something to be remembered for,...

Politics as Nightmare.
February 13, 1999... THE BLOOD SPORT BEGAN BEFORE CLINTON, BEFORE PACKWOOD AND TOWER, AND EVEN BEFORE BORK. WHEN WILL IT END? President Gerald R. Ford, minutes after being sworn in as the 38th President of the United States, famously assured his fellow...

A Do-Little Congress?
February 13, 1999... AFTER IMPEACHMENT, ONLY INCREMENTAL LEGISLATIVE PROGRESS IS LIKELY. The conclusion of the impeachment debate means the return to Congress as usual. It won't be pretty. It never is. But it'll be a breath of fresh air, compared with the...

Tanning Hyde.
February 13, 1999... HE'S BEEN POUNDED AS THE LEADER OF THE IMPEACHMENT DRIVE, BUT SEEMS TO HAVE NO REGRETS. As Rep. Henry J. Hyde, R-Ill., delivered the final remarks on behalf of the House managers prosecuting President Clinton this week, it should have come...

When Making Nice Is Necessary.
February 13, 1999... WHILE CLINTON MAY TRY TO UNSEAT GOP CRITICS IN 2000, HE ALSO NEEDS TO WORK WITH THEM. Depending on who's been doing the skewering on Capitol Hill, Bill Clinton has been described as reckless, shameful, deceitful, dishonest, immoral,...

A Morality Play for Our Times.
February 13, 1999... THE IMPEACHMENT OF CLINTON HAS BEEN DISMISSED AS A TAWDRY LITTLE TALE. ACTUALLY, IT'S A HIGH, AND MEANINGFUL, DRAMA As it went on, month after tawdry month, the saga of President Clinton's impeachment and unaccepted disgrace, seemed, in its...

Who Will Rule the Net?(Review)
February 13, 1999... AS INTERNET COMMERCE EXPANDS, THE HIGHTECH INDUSTRY IS WORKING TO PREVENT INDIVIDUAL NATIONS FROM REGULATING THE LUCRATIVE ELECTRONIC MARKETPLACE. Quietly, without any publicity or controversy, the U.S. government took an unprecedented...

AT THE CBO, COUNTING ON CONTROVERSY.
February 13, 1999... The knock on June E. O'Neill, the director of the Congressional Budget Office for the past four years, was that she didn't understand Capitol Hill. Congressional insiders of both parties complained that the chief numbers cruncher had trouble...

A KING DIES, A TORCH PASSES.
February 13, 1999... One by one, they filed past the coffin in Raghadan Palace, an aging band of Arab leaders come to pay their respects to King Hussein--and perhaps to peer ahead for a moment at their own mortality. Stricken by cancer at age 63, Jordan's King...

People.
February 13, 1999... Around the Agencies National Economic Council boy wonder Jonathan Orszag can take a deep breath. Orszag, 25, an adviser to NEC Director Gene B. Sperling for much of the past three years, is headed to the Commerce Department, where he'll...

TRADE GROUPS' TIRADE OVER NEW TAX.
February 13, 1999... Even before President Clinton unveiled his fiscal 2000 budget on Feb. 1, the American Society of Association Executives began mobilizing against a huge new tax on business trade groups. Within 48 hours, dozens of ASAE members outside...

RELATED ARTICLE: SPEAKER HASTERT'S MOVEABLE FEAST.
February 13, 1999... It sure hasn't taken long for Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., to learn about the plums--not to mention the creme caramels and cabernet sauvignons--that come with the job. On Feb. 2, for example, lobbyist Haley Barbour, a former Republican...

FROM THE K STREET CORRIDOR.
February 13, 1999... A Million-to-One Shot Those sweepstakes companies that offer you an irresistible chance to win millions just for subscribing to a magazine for, say, the next millennium are in big trouble. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has introduced a bill...

THE CLOUTLESS CLUB.
February 13, 1999... To a Beltway observer of media folkways, the ongoing unpleasantness between journalist Christopher Hitchens and Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal is rich stuff. The particulars of the story--the long but suddenly shattered friendship, the...

ON THE MEND, BUT FOR HOW LONG?
February 13, 1999... TOKYO--The economic metaphor of the moment here is the bouncing ball. Japanese government officials contend that their economy has finally hit bottom, after two years of recession, and is on the ascent. But the imagery is a bit off. Left alone,...

DOWN, BUT NOT OUT, IN THE DUST BOWL.
February 13, 1999... OKLAHOMA CITY--Rarely has a state's elected elite changed so radically, and so quickly, as Oklahoma's did in 1994. Early that year, Democrats held Oklahoma's governorship, occupied its senior U.S. Senate seat, and boasted a 4-to-2 edge in the...

WHERE DO YOU GO TO FIND A MATE THESE DAYS?
February 13, 1999... As premature as it may seem, the speculation has already begun about who might be Vice President Al Gore's running mate. Obviously, Gore doesn't have the Democratic presidential nomination wrapped up. He has yet to bond with most voters. While...

Hotline Extra.
February 13, 1999... Dole on a Roll Elizabeth Dole had no trouble getting media attention during her first trip to New Hampshire since leaving the American Red Cross to weigh a bid for the presidency. Flanked by 40 reporters, 10 television cameras, and 12...

MISSING: A HERO OR TWO.
February 13, 1999... Politics is a game that usually produces clear winners and losers. But Capitol Hill's impeachment proceedings, political though they may be, have produced only losers. No one emerges from this tawdry exercise with any legitimate claim to...

VIEWS ON CONGRESSIONAL PERFORMANCE.
February 13, 1999... Generally Speaking Do you approve or disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job? (CBS News-The New York Times) 2/99 APPROVE 45% DISAPPROVE...

THERE'S RISK IN RUNNING AGAINST WICKEDNESS.
February 13, 1999... "Does impeachment hurt us in 2000? No. But does it hurt us today? Yes." That was the cautiously optimistic message Rep. Thomas M. Davis III of Virginia, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, delivered to GOP colleagues...

On lethal speech and attacking Miranda.(Miranda rights)
February 20, 1999... Two major Supreme Court precedents from the Earl Warren era have been called into question by headline-making developments in lower federal courts this month. First on Feb. 2 came an Oregon jury's $107 million damage award against a group...

You're saved, Mr. President. Now resign.(Column)
February 20, 1999... Among the many questions that I am asked by my devoted readers is, "What are the leading pitfalls that a distinguished columnist should avoid?" I reply by warning against ever using the expression "happy campers," or listening to editors, or...

The Other, Softer, GOP.(Republican Party)
February 20, 1999... CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS WANT TO MAKE WAR. STATE REPUBLICANS WANT TO MAKE NICE. Frankly, he says, he likes being called "Governor" a lot more than "Senator." And why shouldn't he? He has exchanged the chef, the chauffeured Lincoln, and...

Expensive bird of prey.(F-22 Raptor military aircraft)
February 20, 1999... THE F-22 RAPTOR HAS SURVIVED THE END OF THE COLD WAR, BUDGET DEFICITS, PROCUREMENT REFORMS, AND THREE PRESIDENTS TO BECOME THE COSTLIEST PENTAGON WEAPONS PROGRAM EVER. Edwards air force base, Calif.--Where Antelope Valley slices north...

Security Forces.(Social security debate)
February 20, 1999... GET READY FOR A BATTLE ROYAL OVER SOCIAL SECURITY. THE STUGGLE PITS CORPORATIONS AND RIGHT-LEANING THINK TANKS AGAINST LABOR AND LIBERAL GROUPS. Six months ago, Leanne J. Abdnor was comfortably ensconced as a vice president at the...

Will electricity deregulation fizzle again?
February 20, 1999... In early February, House Commerce Committee Republicans were asked to sign a letter urging committee Chairman Thomas J. Bliley Jr., R-Va., and Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Joe L. Barton, R-Texas, to swiftly pass legislation...

FOR ARKANSAS, NO ABUNDANCE OF CLOUT.
February 20, 1999... LITTLE ROCK, Ark.--It was here, in 1957, that white residents clashed with nine black students seeking to enroll in the all-white Central High School. The melee that ensued as federal troops tried to shield the students from an angry mob...

Independent-Counsel Law, R.I.P.(rest in peace)
February 20, 1999... Stick a fork in it. The 1978 independent-counsel law is not only done, it's burnt to a crisp. In fact, the statute that has come to be viewed as synonymous with drawn-out, costly investigations--like the one Kenneth W. Start pursued against...

Affirmative action, on the mend.
February 20, 1999... In July 1995, President Clinton responded to attacks on affirmative action with the catchy slogan of "Mend it, don't end it." Three-and-a-half years later, the slogan is finally starting to take on some meaning. Late last month, at a...

Much ado about muck.(Houston, TX, shipping channel)
February 20, 1999... Houston--After 30 years of planning, dredging specialists directed by the Army Corps of Engineers have finally begun widening the Houston Ship Channel by 130 feet and deepening it by 5 feet. The $500 million waterway expansion--which may make...

HILLARY'S NEW YORK MINUET.
February 20, 1999... Just when Washington thought things might settle down a bit-that political life might be dull enough to allow one to ponder Al Gore's poll numbers or George W. Bush's presidential passions--the city got a jolting reminder of just how addicted...

People.
February 20, 1999... Interest Groups The impending retirement of Rep. Bob Livingston, R-La., has sent his staffers scrambling for new posts, and left former aides on K Street disappointed. John G. Emling, former executive director of Livingston's Building Our...

PEOPLE FOR AN IMPEACHMENT BACKLASH.
February 20, 1999... In mid-January, just as the Senate trial of President Clinton was getting under way, a retired California publisher walked into People for the American Way's headquarters on M Street and offered the liberal advocacy group $100,000. "Within...

From the K Street Corridor.(Washington DC news)
February 20, 1999... Mugging Managed Care With Congress again considering legislation calling for increased regulation of the $110 billion-a-year managed care industry, several business and insurance groups are mobilizing to block the various bills. On Feb....

A city wires itself for the future.(Anaheim, California; telecommunications infrastructure)
February 20, 1999... Anaheim, Calif.--Given the giddy headlines and the rampant optimism everywhere about the promise of high-tech communications, you might think that entrepreneurs would be falling over each other to wire the United States for the Internet age. In...

So far, the news is mostly good.(Hong Kong transition from Great Britain to China)
February 20, 1999... Hong Kong--High above this city's crowded harbor, the red-starred flag of China flutters alongside the white bauhinia-flowered standard of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. In the year and a half since London ceded control of Hong...

High-tech giving - and getting.(charitable contributions of high-technology industry)
February 20, 1999... It is Washington's version of immaculate conception. High-tech companies get good press and free advertising by announcing a giveaway of valuable products; politicians get on the evening news by handing out the gifts at press conferences;...

Three lone stars outshine social security.(City officials in Galveston, Texas, create private pension plan)
February 20, 1999... Galveston, Texas--As Washington's best minds ponder whether to privatize Social Security, the story of three scrappy Texans--a bacteria salesman, a financial entrepreneur, and a retired politico--offers an instructive tale of how policy ideas...

GORE'S NAGGING NUMBERS.
February 20, 1999... President Clinton's job-approval rating is riding high, his good luck seems to be rubbing off on the rest of his party, and Democrats on Capitol Hill suspect that the GOP's failed attempt to remove the President will help them to retake control...

A look at senators who seem vulnerable.(2000 election)
February 20, 1999... As national public opinion polls continue to feed Republicans a steady diet of depressing about news, the GOP is understandably concerned about the status of its 55-45-seat Senate majority. Although Republican control of the Senate is not as...

VIEWS ON PRESIDENTIAL PERFORMANCE.
February 20, 1999... Generally Speaking Do you agree or disapprove of the way Bill Clinton is handling his job as a President? (CBS News) 2/99 APPROVE 73% DISAPPROVE ...

Hotline Extra.(Washington DC news)
February 20, 1999... Awash in Polls Rarely have Americans been polled as much as they were in the aftermath of the Senate's Feb. 12 vote to acquit President Clinton of perjury and obstruction charges. As the country began to absorb the Senate's rejection...

NOT MUCH CALIFORNIA DREAMIN'.
February 20, 1999... Los Angeles--For the first time in 16 years, Republicans in California, the single most valuable state in the presidential sweepstakes, are without a titular head. That gives every GOP White House aspirant plenty to worry about. With Democrat...

HE'S A CAD AND A LIAR. SO?
February 20, 1999... Franklin D. Roosevelt had four freedoms. Richard Nixon had six crises. Bill Clinton has beaten them both; he's just proved he's got nine lives. President Clinton's first political life ended in 1980, when he lost his re-election bid for...

Correction.
February 27, 1999... The Edison Electric Institute's position on electric utility deregulation was incorrectly described as "a go-slow approach" in a recent story (NJ, 2/20/99, p.472). The group supports federal legislation that encourages competition in the...

IRRATIONAL EXCESSES, BARBARIC PENALTIES AND POLITICAL OPPORTUNISM.
February 27, 1999... What do Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), former Attorney General Edwin Meese III, the American Bar Association, a federal prisoner named Rita Gluzman, and Kenneth Starr's more ardent critics have in common? All have arrived at the view...

MEMO TO RUBIN: FULL EMPLOYMENT IS NO BURDEN.
February 27, 1999... America had harsh words for Europe's economic leaders last weekend. At a meeting in Bonn, Germany, of finance ministers from the big industrial economies, the Group of Seven, Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin said the United States is...

Inviting Workers, Importing Poverty.
February 27, 1999... CHANGES IN CALIFORNIA'S VAST AND FERTILE CENTRAL VALLEY HAVE GROWERS ASKING FOR MORE FARMWORKERS AND ACTIVISTS PREDICTING PERMANENT POVERTY. Fresno, Calif.--Nestled between the snow-capped Sierra Nevada and the coastal Diablo Range, the...

Ignore Us, Please.
February 27, 1999... TIRED OF BEING ON THE DEFENSIVE IN WASHINGTON, THE TRADE GROUP THAT REPRESENTS HMOs IS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE AND IOWA WITH A MESSAGE FOR GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES: LEAVE US ALONE. Bud Hawkins, vice president of National Aperture Inc., a small,...

Texas Son Wilts Flower Child.
February 27, 1999... DIEHARD CONSERVATIVE PHIL GRAMM KILLED A MAJOR BANKING REFORM BILL LAST YEAR BECAUSE OF A DO-GOOD LAW, BORN OF THE 1960s, CALLED THE COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT ACT. NOW HE MAY DO IT AGAIN. Sen. Phil Gramm has never been one to go along and get...

A CATs AND DOGS FIGHT OVER THE BUDGET.
February 27, 1999... Nothing, apparently, will come easy this year in the House. What with the Republicans' continuing divisions and their slim majority, the Democrats' overriding intention to wage a two-year campaign to win back control, and the lingering...

RESTRAINT, NOT RADICALISM, ON EDUCATION.
February 27, 1999... For their opening education initiative of the new Congress, House Republicans are downplaying conservative staples such as block granting, school vouchers, and sweeping regulatory reforms. Instead, their agenda appears to be, of all things,...

UNDAUNTED BY MINORITY STATUS.
February 27, 1999... The recent retirement announcements by veteran Democratic Senators haven't discouraged other ambitious members of their party. For four Democrats who left the House earlier this decade--two voluntarily, two because of reelection defeats--the...

ANOTHER YEAR, ANOTHER TRUST FUND FRACAS.
February 27, 1999... If packed airports and long ticket lines bother you now, brace yourself: In the next decade or so, the number of air passengers is expected to increase by more than 60 percent, while the number of aircraft in the skies is supposed to increase...

NEXT STOP, KOSOVO.
February 27, 1999... Already spread thin, U.S. forces stand at the precipice of another open-ended deployment to the Balkans. Meanwhile, the armed services continue to miss recruiting and retention goals, and the Clinton Administration and Congress are fighting...

People.
February 27, 1999... Corporate Life Thomas D. Gallagher wants to see some political action, and Washington isn't cutting it anymore--so he's going global. After 13 years as managing director in New York City-based Lehman Brothers Inc.'s Washington Equity...

GLOBAL WARFARE OVER CELL PHONES.
February 27, 1999... When a cellular telephone company is battling for global market share, its most important weapon may not be its technological advantages or marketing skills, but rather the talents of its lawyers and Washington lobbyists. Consider the cell...