National Journal articles from June 2000

National Journal archives from June 2000

Correction.(Correction Notice)
June 3, 2000... An article on the Microsoft antitrust case (5/27/2000, p.1692) misidentified the agency that is reviewing the merger of America Online and Time Warner. It is the Federal Trade Commission.

GORE AND THE BUDDHIST TEMPLE: A PHONY SCANDAL?
June 3, 2000... One staple of Washington life is the phony scandal: a conflagration of bogus accusations and intimations of criminality and sleaze, fanned to an inferno by the media and partisan enemies of the accused, only to finally fade away for lack of...

WHY BOTH BUSH AND GORE ARE WRONG ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY.
June 3, 2000... Advocates of Social Security reform are bound to have mixed feelings about George W. Bush's decision to take up the cause. It is a brave move. Leading Al Gore in the polls, Bush can hope to win in November without gambling on dramatic new...

Madame Secretary.
June 3, 2000... EXCERPTS FROM A NEW BOOK ON MADELEINE ALBRIGHT'S APPROACH TO HER JOB AS SECRETARY OF STATE. Madeleine Korbel Albright was in the right place at the right time. When President Clinton selected her in December 1996 to be Secretary of State...

Electric Power Play.
June 3, 2000... AS DEMANDS ON THE NATIONAL POWER GRID RAISE THE POSSIBILITY OF OUTAGES, CONGRESS STRUGGLES TO RESTRUCTURE THE ELECTRICITY INDUSTRY In early March, former Sen. J. Bennett Johnston, D-La., now a Washington lobbyist, called his powerful friend...

The New-Model Army.
June 3, 2000... "Speed is life" is an aphorism that applies equally in politics and on the battlefield. Or so Gen. Eric Shinseki hopes, because in both arenas, the Army Chief of Staff has staked his service's future on speed. Installed only a year ago as...

THE COLLAPSE OF THE SENATE.
June 3, 2000... As lawmakers return from their Memorial Day recess, the question on many of their minds will be this: Will the World's Greatest Deliberative Body continue the World's Greatest Staring Contest? In recent years, Senators have become...

Hill People.(Brief Article)
June 3, 2000... House Count Selena T. Walsh as another of the many former Capitol Hill staffers who have climbed aboard the dot-corn bandwagon. Walsh, the executive director of the 18-member Congressional Hispanic Caucus, is joining Voter.com as the Web...

WHICH WAY TO MEMORY LANE?(Brief Article)
June 3, 2000... Ohio Democrats are pining for the good-old days. They need to go back only to the 1980s to conjure up a period when their party dominated the state. But the fact that the nostalgic journey is a short one only makes the pain that much worse. ...

McCAFFREY RESPONDS TO THE NEW YORKER.(Interview)
June 3, 2000... In its May 22 issue, The New Yorker published the story of a hyper-aggressive and near renegade division commander in Operation Desert Storm. The article, by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, alleges that after an announced cease-fire, this...

FOR FRIENDS IN NEED, BUSINESS MONEY INDEED.
June 3, 2000... During the current election cycle, Republicans have received 64 percent of the $75 million that business and trade association political action committees have contributed to House and Senate candidates, according to data compiled for National...

FROM THE K STREET CORRIDOR.(Brief Article)
June 3, 2000... Business Coalition Woos Mitchell After making some headway in the House, a business coalition wants to add some prestige to its Senate lobbying team that is striving to delay the Environmental Protection Agency from launching a major...

WILL THE AMBASSADOR FROM NAVAJO YIELD?
June 3, 2000... World-weary State Department bureaucrats have spent the better part of the past decade worrying about the breakup of the former Yugoslavia into small and hostile ethnocentric enclaves--essentially the rebalkanization of the Balkans. But lately,...

OFF THE MONEY.(Brief Article)
June 3, 2000... When our extremely intelligent media people stumble on a subject that's a tad beyond their training or experience--something technical and abstruse like high finance--they never get flustered; they don't even break a sweat. What they do is...

MAYBE JAPAN'S REGULATORS ARE DIVINE.(Brief Article)
June 3, 2000... Deregulating the Japanese marketplace would do much to spur Japan's economic recovery, open Japan to foreign competition, and improve U.S.-Japanese economic relations. That is why for the past three years, with less of the saber rattling than...

CAUTION! PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!
June 3, 2000... George W. Bush's Social Security plan, which would give individuals the option of investing a portion of their Social Security taxes in the stock market, is going to affect the 2000 presidential campaign in at least one of the three following...

Campaign Circuit.(Brief Article)
June 3, 2000... Republicans on a High The Democratic National Committee's record-setting $26 million fired-raiser on May 24 wasn't the only event that night to reach a new high. The annual dinner sponsored jointly by the Republican House and Senate...

Campaign Coffers.(Brief Article)
June 3, 2000... Memorial Day may mark the unofficial start of summer, but George W. Bush will not be swayed from raising as much money for his general election campaign as possible. After addressing a crowd at the Fort Hood Army Base in Texas, the presumptive...

The GOP in Jersey.(Brief Article)
June 3, 2000... Club for Growth Produced by Warfield and Co. Republican Leadership Council Produced by Mattola and Associates 3 30-second ads As the GOP struggles with internal debates between its conservative and moderate wings, the battle is playing out...

POLL TRACK.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 3, 2000... Views on policy and politics * The Odd Question DOG DAYS In the spring an American's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of leave. School will soon be out; summer rentals, trashy page-turners, and SPF-15 will be in. With that warm and...

LISTEN TO POLITICAL SCIENTISTS, BUT BE WARY.
June 3, 2000... If you listen to political scientists, the 2000 presidential election is a foregone conclusion. The Washington Post recently surveyed six political scientists who have run political/economic models of the 2000 election and found all six...

Hotline Extra.
June 3, 2000... Nader-Nader Land The Green Party might have Vice President Al Gore seeing red pretty soon. According to a recent profile of the party's presidential hopeful, Ralph Nader. "Nader knows he has no hope of winning." Yet the "possibility that...

HOLD UP ON GORE REMAKE II.(Brief Article)
June 3, 2000... The prevailing view at this point in the presidential campaign--still with many months to go before Election Day--seems to be that Vice President Al Gore may be too cold and calculating, too aggressive, even too mean about his opponent to be...

People.
June 3, 2000... Interest Groups Adonis E. Hoffman, deputy bureau chief of the Federal Communications Commission's Cable Services Bureau, is departing for the American Association of Advertising Agencies, where he will be a senior vice president and...

AL'S CAMPAIGN CAN BE BORN AGAIN.(Brief Article)
June 3, 2000... What do voters see as the biggest difference between George W. Bush and Al Gore? Is it (a) issues, (b) experience, (c) likability, or (d) leadership? Likability, you say? Is that your final answer? Too bad. Because the biggest difference...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
June 10, 2000... As a result of an editing error by National Journal, an excerpt from a book about Madeleine Albright (6/3/00, p. 1736) contained the wrong first name of former Secretary of State Warren Christopher.

Letters.
June 10, 2000... A KLEIN RESPONSE A recent piece on antitrust policy, "Omens From the Microsoft Case" [5/27/2000, p. 1692], contained errors that merit correction. The article erroneously reported that the Antitrust Division is reviewing the proposed...

THE MICROSOFT CASE: FAIR, NECESSARY, AND TOTALLY RANDOM.
June 10, 2000... Before I get on with writing about the Microsoft antitrust case, I suppose I should mention that I hate Microsoft's products. Windows is the first product I have owned since my 1969 Chevy Malibu that regards breaking down ("crashing") at...

The Tipping Point.
June 10, 2000... AN ACTIVIST, BUT CENTRIST, SUPREME COURT IS FLEXING ITS MUSCLES BY CURBING CONGRESS, THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH, AND THE STATES. ONE NEW APPOINTMENT COULD CHANGE ITS BALANCE OF POWER. Justice Antonin Scalia's demeanor was charming, his delivery...

Arrested Development.
June 10, 2000... AS PROTESTERS SKEWER THE WORLD BANK, THIRD WORLD POVERTY STATISTICS WORSEN, AND DONOR NATIONS TIRE OF GIVING--THE METHODS AND GOALS OF FOREIGN AID ARE BEING REAPPRAISED. The small buzzing insect Simulium appears innocuous enough--it's a...

"Building a Profession".
June 10, 2000... AFT calls for higher standards for new teachers and teacher education programs. When the AFT recently released its report on how to improve teacher education, our call for a national test for those entering the teaching profession got a...

THE COUNTRY BOYS OF HIGH TECH.
June 10, 2000... Big Stone Gap, the southwestern Virginia mining town known historically as the Gateway to the Coalfields, is on the other side of the state--and the Appalachian Mountains--from the bustling Northern Virginia technology corridor often dubbed the...

PIVOTAL EVENTS IN CONGRESS.
June 10, 2000... JUNE 5-8 House Approves Defense Spending Bill In an election-year show of support for the nation's military, the House on June 7 approved, 367-58, a $289 billion Defense appropriations bill for fiscal 2001. Unlike many of the other...

HOUSE-SENATE COMMITTEE ACTION.
June 10, 2000... JUNE 5-8 BY NATIONAL JOURNAL NEWS SERVICE * OVERVIEW The Senate this week took a break from moving any more money bills through committee because a procedural logjam had kept appropriations legislation off the floor in that chamber....

Hot Bills.
June 10, 2000... Here is the status of major legislation on the congressional front burner: CHINA TRADE House: Approved H.R. 4444 on May 24, 237-197. Senate: Finance Committee approved S. 2277 on May 17, 19-1. Outlook: Finance Committee...

Hill People.
June 10, 2000... For Victor F. Klatt III, it was time to go private. This week, after 13 years as a federal employee, Klatt, 38, left the House Education and the Workforce Committee to become a vice president with the Washington lobbying firm Van Scoyoc...

LANDS LEGACY GAINS GROUND.
June 10, 2000... The Clinton-Gore years sprang to life with a flurry of inaugural balls, 11 in all, and none was a more hopeful occasion for liberals than the first-ever Environmental Ball. There, in the Sequoia Restaurant, Bill and Hillary Clinton mingled with...

PRODUCING UNITED'S TALENT SHOW.
June 10, 2000... These days, Shelley A. Longmuir is honchoing a band of K Street all-stars charged with winning the feds' stamp of approval for United Airlines' $11.6 billion merger with US Airways. It's a role that some industry experts never thought Longmuir,...

From the K Street Corridor.
June 10, 2000... Taking Time Off for Gore Roy M. Neel, the president and CEO of the United States Telecom Association, will take a leave of absence this summer to work on Vice President Al Gore's presidential campaign. "I do expect at some point to leave...

WATTS UP?
June 10, 2000... The web of a thousand spiders can capture a tiger, says an African proverb. But can an unlikely coalition of the Indigo Girls, the Catholic bishops, college radio stations, punk-rock fans, and a collage of Washington interest groups overwhelm...

Poll Track.
June 10, 2000... Views on policy and politics * White House 2000 LEAD US NOT INTO RECESSION With experts suggesting that the economy may be slowing down, a Zogby International poll asked whether a recession would be more likely under a Bush or a...

SHADOW WAR OVER IRAQ.
June 10, 2000... NATIONAL SECURITY Eight times in the past three months, American combat jets have dropped bombs or sent rockets slamming into targets on the ground in Iraq. The latest incident came on June 6 when U.S. fighters, participating in Operation...

DUCK, SOLDIER! CRANBERRIES INCOMING!
June 10, 2000... After loudly condemning President Clinton for the declining readiness of the American military, a tough-talking Congress this election year has taken defense matters into its own hands. Here's how some powerful Senators would set things right:...

DRAMA CLUB.
June 10, 2000... ON THE MEDIA I know we're famous and powerful and so forth, but put that out of your mind. Think of us as a little-theater group just putting on a play. We don't want it to seem scripted or planned, though. It's supposed to look haphazard,...

THE OVERLOOKED BOOM DOWN UNDER.
June 10, 2000... MELBOURNE, Australia--When Lufthansa German Airlines went looking for a place for its Asian call center--a facility to handle customer inquiries from all parts of the region--it chose this city, even though the airline doesn't fly to Australia....

Hotline Extra.
June 10, 2000... Politics of Capital Punishment Texas Gov. George W. Bush offered a glimpse at his compassionate side when he granted a 30-day stay in the execution of convicted murderer Ricky Nolan McGinn. Bush's move marks the first time he has exercised...

HOW THE SENATE RACES ARE SHAPING UP.
June 10, 2000... So there are Senate races other than the one in New York. For a while, the New York contest was the only one getting any attention. But that's starting to change as Election Day nears and the races in other states become more defined. With a...

Verbatim.
June 10, 2000... Excerpts from a June 4 interview with the Green Party's Ralph Nader on Fox News Sunday Juan Williams: Why would you not support [Al Gore] ? Ralph Nader: Because on corporate power issues... and the takeover of the political government...

Campaign Coffers.
June 10, 2000... According to Federal Election Commission reports released on June 5, Democratic challengers--especially those vying for House seats--significantly improved their warchests between Jan. 1, 1999, and March 31, 2000, compared with election cycles...

`STAR WARS' IS STILL A TOUGH SELL.
June 10, 2000... MISSILE DEFENSE IS BACK, BUT BY MOST MEASURES YOUR AVERAGE AMERICAN VOTER COULD NOT CARE LESS. WASHINGTON--Ever since Ronald Reagan was first smitten with the notion that scientists could build an invulnerable shield over the United...

People.
June 10, 2000... Image-Makers Safety is the name of her game. Cathleen L. Hickey, 29, is taking more than eight years of public relations experience in the auto safety industry to Strat@comm, a Washington PR firm specializing in transportation safety,...

GROWING DOUBTS ABOUT THE DEATH PENALTY.
June 10, 2000... SUDDENLY, THE POLITICS OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT APPEARS TO BE CHANGING. For years, the death penalty has been the ultimate litmus test in American politics. If you opposed the death penalty, you were so far outside the mainstream, you may as...

Letters.
June 17, 2000... James Kitfield's National Journal interview with Gen. Barry McCaffrey [6/3/00] about Seymour Hersh's New Yorker article "Overwhelming Force" is riddled with misinformation and inaccuracies. It also comes with a curious background. McCaffrey...

CABBIES, COPS, PIZZA DELIVERIES, AND RACIAL PROFILING.
June 17, 2000... Imagine yourself a hard-working, law-abiding, young black man in any big city in America. You hail cabs, and they speed by as though you were invisible, only to pick up a white person down the block. You call to order a pizza, only to have the...

DOES ANYBODY HERE REALLY BELIEVE IN EFFICIENT MARKETS?
June 17, 2000... Merton Miller, the University of Chicago professor who died on June 3 at the age of 77, was a man of great distinction. He was one of the 20th century's most brilliant economic theorists, a founder of modern finance, belatedly recognized by the...

Charity for Profit.(social entrepreneurship)(includes related article)
June 17, 2000... HOW THE NEW SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS ARE CREATING GOOD BY CREATING WEALTH. Until a few years ago, Diane Flannery was a respected San Francisco social worker who did the Lord's work almost every day. Armed with good intentions, a doctorate in...

Not-So-Innocents Abroad.
June 17, 2000... AMERICA'S LATEST AND GREATEST EXPORT MAY BE WASHINGTON POLITICAL CONSULTANTS, WHO ARE POLLING, FOCUS-GROUPING, AND TRIANGULATING ALL OVER THE WORLD. If you're struck by the impulse to look for Bill Clinton's legacy, you might think about...

A REPETITIVE PROBLEM IN THE HOUSE.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2000... The issue of ergonomics has confronted the House so many times that it is causing members repetitive stress. It might also be affecting their memories. For years, Republicans and their business allies have questioned whether there is sufficient...

PIVOTAL EVENTS IN CONGESS.
June 17, 2000... JUNE 12-15 GOP Writes Prescription for a Fight The election-year battle over adding a prescription drug benefit to Medicare intensified this week as House Republicans, aided by a few conservative Democrats, charged forward on plans to...

The Week Ahead.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2000... Both chambers will keep on slogging through appropriations bills during the week of June 19. The House, which has a full five-day week planned, will finish the Veterans Affairs-Housing and Urban Development spending bill, and then proceed to...

CONGRESSDAILY'S FINAL WORD.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2000... "Well, I've been talking to [Senate Majority Leader Trent] Lott about it. To the extent that amounts to work, then I'm working on it." --Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle, D-S.D., giving a tongue-in-cheek response on June 12 when...

HOUSE-SENATE COMMITTEE ACTION.
June 17, 2000... JUNE 12-15 Senate Hits the Road On Drunk Drivers, SUVs * APPROPRIATIONS The Senate Appropriations Committee on June 13 slid into the driver's seat to set transportation policy--not just control the purse strings--when it approved a...

Hot Bills.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2000... Here is the status of major legislation on the congressional front burner. CHINA TRADE House: Approved H.R. 4444 on May 24, 237-197. Senate: Finance Committee approved S. 2277 on May 17, 19-1. Outlook: Republican leaders have...

Hill People.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2000... House Veteran health policy analyst Shalini Vallabhan is taking the reins as director of policy research at the American Cancer Society in Washington. Vallabhan, 30, comes from the office of Minority Whip David E. Bonior of Michigan, where...

COPING WITH THE TRAFFIC JAM.
June 17, 2000... In a recent survey by the Pew Center for Civic Journalism, Americans listed traffic congestion and sprawl as the most important local issues they face. Interest groups, think tanks, and some politicians have been searching for solutions, but...

ALLAYING THE FEAR OF BIG BROTHER INC.
June 17, 2000... Almost nothing concentrates the mind of a corporate executive like the prospect of new government regulation. Given the Federal Trade Commission's decision to ask Congress for the authority to protect the privacy of online consumers, corporate...

From the K Street Corridor.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2000... Internet Ventures Battle the Baby Bells Internet companies that provide telephone service over the World Wide Web are pushing to kill a provision in an Internet tax bill that would require the Federal Communications Commission to regulate...

GORE AND BUSH TOOT THE REFORM HORN.
June 17, 2000... BUREAUCRACY In an election year, this is the season of rehearsals. Both parties are assembling their repertoires of policies, proposals, and pitches for the big opening nights at the national conventions in late summer. The stage managers...

THE SIGNED-ON MAJORITY.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2000... ON THE MEDIA Normally you wouldn't be paying much attention, not this early in the game. Who has time? Past years, you'd never give it a thought until maybe October. The World Series would end, and that was your signal to start thinking...

PERSONNEL MATTERS.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2000... RESOLVING A HOST OF THORNY TRADE DIFFERENCES WITH EUROPE MAY HAVE BECOME EVEN HARDER. One evening in December 1992, as the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade talks dragged on, weary U.S. trade specialists gathered informally in Geneva to...

DANCING WITH THE POLICE.
June 17, 2000... Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush met with members of the Fraternal Order of Police last month, each nominee-to-be hoping to win the influential group's endorsement and enhance his crime-fighting credentials. After...

WHY THE RACES FOR GOVERNOR ARE CLOSE.
June 17, 2000... Republicans entered the 2000 campaign with a 30-18 advantage nationwide in governorships (independents hold two seats). But it's far from clear whether Democrats can close the gap in November. Only 11 governorships are up for grabs this year,...

Hotline Extra.
June 17, 2000... Little Progress on Prosperity Front Despite the strong economy. Vice President Al Gore "can't shake" George W. Bush, writes Helen Kennedy of the New York Daily News "None of Gore's tactical shills has prompted voters to embrace him...

Tuned In.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 17, 2000... News programs have been hit with a deluge of political ads and money, while coverage of the candidates and their views has continued to dwindle, say two studies released on June 13. During the first four months of the year, broadcasters...

`Social Security'.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2000... Republican National Committee Produced by National Media 60 seconds Fight Democratic health care proposals with Republican Social Security plans. That's how the Republican National Committee responded to the Democratic National Committee's...

THE NEW NEW YORK RACE STILL EMERGING.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2000... NEW YORK CITY--Republican and Democratic strategists here agree that the withdrawal of New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani from the Senate race, and his replacement by Rep. Rick A. Lazio of Long Island as the GOP candidate against Hillary Rodham...

Issue Spotlight.(Brief Article)(Polling Data)(Statistical Data Included)
June 17, 2000... A SURPLUS OF SPENDING IDEAS How should this year's federal budget surplus he parceled out? Of the respondents in a Bloomberg News poll by Princeton Survey Research Associates, 32 percent said the money should be used to bolster Social...

Poll Track.(Brief Article)(Polling Data)(Statistical Data Included)
June 17, 2000... The Electorate PAYING ATTENTION TO THE POLLS Americans' interest in the presidential campaign may be waning, and so is their attention span, at least where opinion polls are concerned. In a survey conducted by the Vanishing Voter...

People.
June 17, 2000... Interest Groups William A. Allen, 59, is bringing decades of experience to his new position as vice president for development at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. The nonpartisan, nonprofit organization studies public...

HIGH-TECH QUERIES, SLOW-MO ANSWERS.
June 17, 2000... Bill Gates may be the richest man in the country, but Washington has cut him down to size. Cut him in half, in fact. Federal District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ordered Microsoft Corp. split in two because, he said, Microsoft "has proved...

AND NOW HE'S TAKEN ON A CORKER.
June 24, 2000... In September 1976, Jimmy Carter, the Democratic presidential nominee, ended the first day of his general election campaign by flying into Scranton, Pa. It was, he had been assured, a good Democratic town. As it turned out, however, Carter...

Poll Track.(Brief Article)(Polling Data)(Statistical Data Included)
June 24, 2000... Views on policy and politics * New York Senate Race ARE YOU EXPERIENCED? In the New York Senate race, experience counts, according to a poll by CBS News and The New York Times--but it may not make much difference. Their numbers...

Issue Spotlight.(Brief Article)(Polling Data)(Statistical Data Included)
June 24, 2000... ABORTION: A NON-ISSUE In a Los Angeles Times poll, a plurality of voters surveyed weren't familiar with the positions that Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore have taken on abortion. Thirty-one percent knew that Gore...

People.
June 24, 2000... Tom's Time The newish American Association for Homecare has never had a CEO before, and that's part of the challenge Thomas A. Connaughton says he is looking forward to Connaughton, 57, will take on the top job at the association beginning...