National Journal articles from May 1999

National Journal archives from May 1999

At last, the stupidest law of all.(protecting working parents from job discrimination)
May 1, 1999... It was 2002, and the big law firm's profits were down. So when nine senior associates came up for promotion to partnership, only Jane made the cut. During the next few months, the eight others--Tom, Bill, Harry, Kirk, George, Sally, Peggy, and...

Why we bomb you.(NATO's policy against Kosovo)
May 1, 1999... Pressed about the Albanians, Mile... cites the purging of 200, 000 Serbs from the Krajina region of Croatia in just a few days when Croatian forces recaptured Serbian-held territory there in 1995. "The Americans did nothing, "he said. "So...

A Nifty Thrifty Loophole.(merging savings and loans with corporations)
May 1, 1999... CONGRESS MAY EXTEND A LOOPHOLE THAT ALLOWS BIG BUSINESS TO BUY S&LS, A MOVE THAT SOME SAY COULD DANGEROUSLY WEAKEN THE FIREWALL BETWEEN BANKING AND COMMERCE. In early 1997, Congress seemed poised to break one of American capitalism's...

Born Yet Again.(Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed becomes Republican political consultant)
May 1, 1999... EVEN THOUGH MANY OF HIS CANDIDATES LOST LAST YEAR, RALPH REED, A MASTER OF HIS OWN IMAGE, EMERGED A WINNER. NOW THE EX-SHEPHERD-IN-CHIEF OF THE CHRISTIAN COALITION IS THE GOP'S HOTTEST CAMPAIGN ADVISER. ATLANTA--One pleasant afternoon last...

A Stir Over Private Pens.(privately run prisons)
May 1, 1999... AS THE NUMBER OF IN MATES IN PRIVATE PRISONS GROWS, SO TOO DO THEIR COMPLAINTS, ALONG WITH QUESTIONS ABOUT THE ACCOUNTABILITY AND EFFICACY OF FOR-PROFIT INSTITUTIONS. In 1997 a videotape surfaced, showing corrections officers in a...

At last, Congress enters the war zone.(Kosovo, Yugoslavia)
May 1, 1999... As the conflict in Yugoslavia threatens to escalate into a full-scale ground war, Congress has signaled a surprising reluctance to back U.S. policy there. But that is a posture that carries considerable political risk. The question of how...

Sour medicine on managed care?(Congressional action)
May 1, 1999... In early February, when Rep. Michael Bilirakis, R-Fla., chairman of the House Commerce Health and Environment Subcommittee, introduced the House Republicans' legislation imposing new restrictions on managed health care plans, he openly...

Dodging bills and bullets.(Republican Party's view on Social Security and Medicare)
May 1, 1999... When it comes to working on ambitious legislation in the 106th Congress, it appears that Republicans are willing to take no for an answer. A resounding "No" was the response of congressional Republican leaders in recent days to the pleas...

Victory in Kosovo may be through Berlin.(Germany's role in NATO's military strategy)
May 1, 1999... The leaders of Britain and France came into last weekend's NATO summit roaring like lions about the need for ground troops to oust Serbian forces from Kosovo. They left town sounding more like lambs. At the insistence of Clinton Administration...

Medicare's state of play.
May 1, 1999... In late March, one week after President Clinton rejected a bipartisan commission's Medicare reform plan and pledged to send Congress a better proposal, a group of wary House Democrats convened a meeting on Capitol Hill with White House and...

People.(Appointments by lobbying firms, think tanks, media)
May 1, 1999... Consulting Game Trying to shake off that post-April 15 malaise? High-powered Republican lobbying firm Barbour, Griffith & Rogers has a solution: Hire a new tax man. The firm has signed up Bill Himpler, who for the past four and a half...

The winner is ... Cassidy & Associates.(lobbying firm with most 1998 revenue)
May 1, 1999... Slow-and-steady beat glitz-and-glamour in 1998, as Cassidy & Associates Inc. emerged as Washington's top-billing lobbying shop. The 1997 winner, Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand, the high-powered home of former Senate Majority...

From the K Street Corridor.(political news)
May 1, 1999... Muscling Milosevic Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just before the crisis in Kosovo erupted and NATO began bombing Belgrade, Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic seized the largest pharmaceutical plant in Yugoslavia....

A tussle over 'temps'.(the legal definition of 'employer')
May 1, 1999... Seattle trial lawyer David Stobaugh--a labor-law expert brash enough to sue Microsoft Corp. and smart enough to win--used to pay little heed to Capitol Hill. But last summer, his law firm--Bendich, Stobaugh & Strong--paid $200,000 to French &...

Local stands against faraway despots.(Massachusetts law prohibiting business with Burma ruled unconstitutional)
May 1, 1999... Boston--State Representative Byron Rushing is that most dangerous kind of zealot--a calm and practical one. Rushing's political enemies portray him as wild-eyed and quixotic, yet he seems anything but that. In his cramped Statehouse office one...

A new attack on PBS.(liberals attack corporate sponsorship of public broadcasting)
May 1, 1999... Get ready for a new round of attacks against public broadcasting--only this time, not from the right. For two decades, conservatives have argued that government has no business funding a television network, especially one they believe has a...

Behind a White House knifing.(political aspects of bringing China into the World Trade Organization)
May 1, 1999... U.S. and Chinese trade officials talked through the night of April 9, to complete an agreement granting China membership in the World Trade Organization. But the Clinton Administration refused to sign it, without further Chinese concessions...

From one ring to another.(wrestler Bob Backlund may run for Congress)
May 1, 1999... Watch out Jesse Ventura, you have competition in the wrestler-turned-politician arena. And not just any competition, but "All-American" Bob Backlund, a two-time World Wrestling Federation champion who bested you 10 times in the ring. ...

See the numbers slip and slide away.(support for Democrats in 2000 elections)
May 1, 1999... There has always been a tendency in American politics for the fortunes of political parties to ebb and flow. As the tide for one party comes in, it recedes for the other. During the closing days of the 1998 midterm election, and even more so...

Hotline Extra.(political news)
May 1, 1999... Front-Runners Stumbling? The media have begun warming to the notion that their appointed presidential front-runners--Vice President Al Gore for the Democrats and Texas Gov. George W. Bush for the Republicans--could face serious challenges...

A GOVERNOR IS AT WAR. GUESS WHO?(Jesse Ventura, Minnesota)
May 1, 1999... ST. PAUL, Minn.--With less than three weeks before the scheduled adjournment of the Minnesota Legislature, Reform Party Gov. Jesse Ventura is not mincing any words with the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and the Democrat-led...

AMMUNITION FOR LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES.(gun control and shooting incident in Littleton, Colorado)
May 1, 1999... In human terms, what happened in Colorado last week was tragic. In political terms, it was ironic. Colorado has been trending Republican. It was one of only three states that voted for Bill Clinton in 1992 and then switched to Bob Dole in 1996...

FDA vs. TOBACCO: LEGISLATIVE ABDICATION MAKES BAD LAW.
May 8, 1999... The Supreme Court has set the stage for a momentous ruling next year not only on whether the Food and Drug Administration can regulate tobacco--and perhaps even ban it someday--but also, more broadly, on the powers of the President and his...

DARE TO BE DULL.(economic forecasters prefer no surprises)
May 8, 1999... Thanks to the amazing resilience of America's current expansion, the outlook for the world economy is improving. Last year's centers of turmoil have stabilized, for the most part. Growth resumed in much of East Asia months ago, and now shows...

Show Me the Money.(Vice President Al Gore's campaign fundraising)
May 8, 1999... Early in the morning of April 13, the "Board of Directors" of Vice President Al Gore's presidential campaign gathered at the Westin Fairfax Hotel in Washington for a high-level powwow that was both a pep rally and a financial update on the...

Promoting the Power of the Purse.(political fundraisers target women)
May 8, 1999... An early-morning hike unexpectedly led Christine Toretti straight up the Republican fund-raising hierarchy. Toretti, CEO of the Pennsylvania-based S.W. Jack Drilling Co., was trekking up a mountain, just outside San Diego, with her friend Nancy...

Searching for the Right Password.(campaign fundraising in Silicon Valley, CA)
May 8, 1999... Silicon Valley's techno-libertarians are notoriously stingy with their campaign donations, despite the great wealth generated by their Wall Street stocks. But at least four presidential hopefuls two Democrats and two Republicans--hope to reap...

K Street, Where Donors Date Around.(campaign fundraising in Washington, DC)
May 8, 1999... When top fund-raisers for Texas Gov. George W. Bush began building a nationwide network of people who would pledge to raise $100,000 apiece, they knew they could count on K Street. Take Peter Jr., a managing partner at the American Continental...

TO ASSOCIATE, OR NOT TO ASSOCIATE.(campaign fundraising among Washington, DC's business elite)
May 8, 1999... Call them George W.'s secret weapons on K Street. More than a dozen trade association leaders are assiduously working their industries to raise big bucks for Texas Gov. Bush. A few aspire to join Bush's circle of "Pioneers," who are raising...

It's Principle, Not Principal.(lack of political ideology in the 1990s)
May 8, 1999... The dollars that ideologues are willing to donate to a presidential wanna-be's campaign are quite different--in quantity and purpose--from the money that special interests contribute in hopes of gaining temporal advantage. Whether from the Left...

Gay Rites: Giving to Democrats.
May 8, 1999... David Mixner remembers those heady days in early 1992 as "unique, innovative, and unheard-of." He and a small group of gay and lesbian friends from Los Angeles were raising millions of dollars for Bill Clinton. "At the time, hardly anyone in...

Why Main Street Runs Through Austin.
May 8, 1999... Atlanta businessman Michael A. Leven wasn't surprised when he got a call from his good friend Jonathan M. Tisch asking him to help raise money for Al Gore's presidential bid. Leven has supported Democrats before, and he and Tisch are both big...

Bull Market Pick: Donkey or Elephant?
May 8, 1999... Presidential candidates wouldn't dream of invoking Willie Sutton as a role model, but they do have something in common with him. When they're looking for cash, they head for financial institutions for the same reason he went to banks: "That's...

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back.
May 8, 1999... Bonnie Wong, founder and president of the New York City-based Asian Women in Business, was a Bill Clinton delegate in 1992, and she worked to re-elect him in 1996. But she has no plans to be involved in the 2000 presidential campaign. After...

Checking Out The Star Bucks.
May 8, 1999... When it comes to raising money for presidential candidates in Hollywood, all that glitters is not gold; a lot of it's not even gilt. Even though the entertainment economy cooled somewhat in 1998, television and movie production enjoyed...

Blacks and Hispanics: A Lock for Democrats?
May 8, 1999... Jose Villarreal was a political director for Michael Dukakis in 1988 an deputy campaign manager for Bill Clinton in 1992. This year, Villarreal, a partner at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld's law office in San Antonio, Texas, is serving as a...

Why Trial Lawyers Have a Beef With Bush.
May 8, 1999... Ask trial lawyers what they'll be doing in the 2000 presidential campaign, and the answer is simple: working to help elect anybody other than George W. Bush. Many trial lawyers view the Texas Governor's record on tort reform as hostile to their...

Rules? What Rules? A Guide to Loopholes.
May 8, 1999... In 1985, a bipartisan commission set up to study presidential campaign laws reached this rosy conclusion: "Public financing of presidential elections has clearly proved its worth in opening up the process, reducing undue influence of...

A Tale of Tears.
May 8, 1999... THE CHEROKEE NATION HIRED WASHINGTON INSIDER JAMES HAMILTON TO SOLVE ITS LEGAL PROBLEMS. INSTEAD, HE BECAME ENTANGLED IN A BITTER TRIBAL DISPUTE THAT LANDED HIS FIRM IN COURT AND PROVOKED A FIGHT OVER AT LEAST $600,000 IN LEGAL FEES. ...

STICKING TO THEIR GUNS.
May 8, 1999... House Republicans this week were not second-guessing their April 28 refusal to endorse the NATO air strikes in Yugoslavia. Nor were they second-guessing their Speaker. In fact, they were stubbornly defensive on both accounts. Criticism,...

LOOKING FOR THE UNION LABEL.
May 8, 1999... The Republican Party recently got a bit of stunningly good news. Just after James P. Hoffa was sworn in, on May 1, as president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, he made it clear that Democrats could no longer take his union for...

People.
May 8, 1999... Corporate Life Detroit-based General Motors Corp. will add a big wheel next month when former Transportation Secretary Andrew H. Card Jr. joins the car-making giant's Washington office as vice president of government relations. Card, 51,...

SOFTWARE SULTANS BATTLE MOVIE MOGULS.
May 8, 1999... It is a Washington moment: a clear test of clout for two important constituencies. The software industry is promoting a new Internet-commerce measure that key segments of the television, entertainment, and publishing industries oppose. Come...

THE WATER BOYS.(telecommunications cable projects)
May 8, 1999... Here's the skinny on Global Crossing Ltd., the Bermuda-based start-up that has made millions laying fiber-optic cable across the bottom of the world's oceans. Just two years old, the company already carries voice, video, data, and Internet...

WAR-MAKING BY COMMITTEE.
May 8, 1999... In the early weeks of Operation Allied Force, some NATO member-states devised a novel way to show their displeasure with the targets selected for the air campaign over Yugoslavia: They simply declined to bomb them. Some members of the alliance...

THE QUIET MAN.
May 8, 1999... He often gets next-to-no respect, but there may be no tougher job in government than the Commerce Secretary's. To be sure, the life-or-death kind of decisions made by the Pentagon's civilian boss are more gut-wrenching. And more is at stake...

Hotline Extra.
May 8, 1999... A Misfire for Dole? Elizabeth Dole's double-barrelled assault on the gun lobby in New Hampshire, a pro-gun state whose slogan is Live free or die. was a truly daring gambit. Appearing at the New Hampshire Republican Party's...

DOLE'S SHTICK IS WEARING A BIT THIN.
May 8, 1999... MANCHESTER, N.H.--It's fair to say that at the New Hampshire Republican Party's First-in-the-Nation Primary Kick-Off Dinner Sunday night, Elizabeth Dole was saved by a jeer. Leaving the stage and podium to speak to the crowd with a clip-on...

WHAT MCCAIN MISSED: ZILCH.
May 8, 1999... MANCHESTER, N.H.--When Arizona Sen. John McCain wondered aloud whether he could afford to skip the campaign-season "Kick-Off" dinner held by this state's Republican Committee the other night, ex-Sen. Warren Rudman, R-N.H., assured him there was...

ZEALOTS AND CRANKS, BE GONE.(presidential election in 2000)
May 8, 1999... AUSTIN, Texas---Think of the 2000 campaign as a war of dynastic succession. The War of the Roses, American-style, between the Bush Dynasty and the Clinton Dynasty. Both noble houses. Both with claims to the throne. A great battle between two...

Letters.
May 15, 1999... YES, PROFESSORS DO COUNT Your exacting analysis [4/24/99, p. 1090] of the sorts of persons invited to state dinners at the White House raises the question of whether we professors count. Certainly, no professorial names were mentioned, and...

THE CASE FOR LOSING, SORT OF.
May 15, 1999... Good grief, what a war. Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslav president, slaughters and "cleanses" Albanians by the thousands in Kosovo, while NATO seriously inconveniences Belgrade. Oops, there goes the Chinese Embassy. Well, war is hell; you can't...

ARE ENCRYPTION EXPORTS FREE SPEECH?
May 15, 1999... The classic Supreme Court precedents striking down "prior restraints" on speech have involved official efforts to suppress the dissemination of information or ideas by political groups with views disfavored by the censoring officials. Now,...

Corrections.
May 15, 1999... My Oct. 24, 1998, column erred in stating that Bowdoin College's current anti-harassment rules bar "behavior that is experienced by others as harassing." My Feb. 20 column erred in stating that the Justice Department had never invoked in court...

The Liberal Hawk Soars.
May 15, 1999... NEVER-AGAINISM, CARTERISM, AND PLURALISM ARE THE FATHERS OF THE LEFT'S NEW PHILOSOPHY OF WAR. The war in the Balkans, you may have noticed, has been a trading-places affair, with usually hawkish conservatives such as Senate Majority Leader...

BILL KILLERS.
May 15, 1999... HERE ARE THE 10 ISSUES MOST LIKELY TO WREAK HAVOC WITH THIS YEAR'S APPROPRIATIONS BILLS. Spring is supposed to be a time for fresh starts, but as the annual ritual of crafting the 13 must-do appropriations bills begins on Capitol Hill, the...

Vile Bodies: The Dinner.
May 15, 1999... LESSONS FROM THE MEDIA TRIBE'S GREAT POWWOW "At the White House Correspondents Association Dinner, the annual roast at which the Washington press corps honors the President, mingles with Government sources, and in recent years--gawks at...

THE SPEAKER OR THE CAUSE?
May 15, 1999... Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., usually has a lot to say about campaign finance reform, but these days, he's grown awfully quiet. His reticence is surprising--even puzzling--given how much angry talk the issue is generating in the House. ...

NOT YET A BANNER YEAR.
May 15, 1999... In what has become an early-summer ritual--timed of course to coincide with the two-week period from Memorial Day to Flag Day--the Senate is about to vote on a constitutional amendment that would ban desecration of the American flag. ...

MAPMAKER, MAPMAKER, MAKE ME A MAP.
May 15, 1999... It's a long way to the 2000 elections. But more than a few House members and party strategists are looking even further down the road--some nervously, others with great expectations--to Election Day 2002. They are already making plans for how...

HOW A KOSOVO PEACE MIGHT WORK.
May 15, 1999... Within 48 hours of U.S. Russian agreement on a formula to end the war in Kosovo, U.S. forces sent satellite-guided bombs slamming into the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. On such miscues are the courses of military campaigns, and diplomatic ones,...

INCITING THE DRAGON.
May 15, 1999... Ten years after Chinese demonstrators were massacred in Tiananmen Square by their own countrymen for advocating American-style democracy, it hardly seems possible that come June 4, the Chinese crowds are likely to be howling for American blood....

THE HMO EXODUS: ROUND TWO.
May 15, 1999... The Department of Health and Human Services is bracing for another round of bad news. For the second year in a row, health maintenance organizations that serve Medicare beneficiaries are planning to stop operating in some counties. Although...

WHY RUBIN IS LEAVING.
May 15, 1999... For nearly an hour in the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday, admirers of Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin sweltered in Washington's 83-degree sunshine so they could bear witness to his announcement that six-plus years as part of Bill...

THRIFT IS OUT, SPENDTHRIFTS ARE IN.
May 15, 1999... There are two rich ironies concealed in the news that, for the first time ever, consumption-crazy Americans are spending more than they earn. Ten years ago, when Americans were saving 2 percent to 3 percent of their income and the United...

ON PINS AND NEEDLES.(includes related article depicting ride-along with needle-exchange van drivers)
May 15, 1999... BALTIMORE--Although research shows that needle-exchange programs can save lives and taxpayer dollars, Congress and many states and cities have kept their distance from them. Many lawmakers argue that public money shouldn't be used to make it...

OK, ALAN, LIGHTEN UP.(Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan)
May 15, 1999... Think the good times will roll on for a long, long while? Quite likely not, according to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. In a recent speech in Dallas, this champion of open markets brandished protectionism's bloody shirt to rally...

STICKING IT TO THE BIG AIRLINES.
May 15, 1999... Not long after he quit as American Airlines Inc.'s top Washington lobbyist in 1996, Edward P. Faberman received an unusual gift--a voodoo doll of his former boss, CEO Robert L. Crandall. Faberman certainly needed all the help he could get in...

FROM THE K STREET CORRIDOR.
May 15, 1999... Selling China The NATO bombs that destroyed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade hurt the already-fragile prospects for China's entry into the World Trade Organization this year. But that's not stopping corporate America from planning a major...

People.
May 15, 1999... Corporate Life Frederick S. Humphries Jr. has a new calling--with a Baby Bell. He's left the office of House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt, D-Mo., where he was a senior policy adviser, to become the executive director for public...

FOR WHOM THE BELL TOILS.
May 15, 1999... Take a two-time failed Senate Candidate, a former vice president at a Fortune 100 corporation, a Princeton University politics professor, a former television producer, and what do you get? The eclectic mix of advisers to Gary L. Bauer in his...

HASTERT'S CHALLENGE: TO LISTEN OR TO LEAD?(J. Dennis Hastert)
May 15, 1999... Judging by the broadsides that have been coming his way of late, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's honeymoon is over. Now he seems to be fair game for the same sort of second-guessing and criticism weathered by his immediate predecessors:...

Hotline Extra.
May 15, 1999... `The Past Is the Past' Texas Gov. George W. Bush just can't shake media scrutiny into his youth. ABC's Good Morning America showed up ill Austin this week for a live Diane Sawyer interview with the Republican presidential hopeful. ...

OLD MAPS, FAMILIAR CONSEQUENCES.
May 15, 1999... In the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, President Clinton obviously shouldn't be blamed for the military's decision to rely on an outdated map that didn't show the diplomatic compound to be where it was. But neither, technically,...

Poll Readings.
May 15, 1999... Generally Speaking Do you approve or disapprove of the way Bill Clinton is handling his job as President? (margin of error [+ or -] 3 percentage points; Gallup Organization Inc. for CNN-USA Today) 5/2/99 APPROVE ...

CLINTON'S BOOM MAY NOT HELP GORE.
May 15, 1999... The economy's doing great. And when the economy's doing great, voters are supposed to reward the President's party. They certainly did last November, when Republicans turned the election into a referendum on Bill Clinton's survival. Millions of...

Capitol Hill's Hawks Unswayed By Pentagon Budget Plan.
May 15, 1999... BUDGET The Pentagon's pending $280.8 billion FY2000 budget request represents the first increase in defense spending since the end of the Cold War. However, defense hawks on Capitol Hill argue it falls far short of addressing...

INTERESTED PARTIES: Senators.
May 15, 1999... Senators * Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii. Ranking member on the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. Contact: (202) 224-3934. * Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. Ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee since 1997. Contact:...

INTERESTED PARTIES: Senators.
May 15, 1999... Industry * Boeing Co. The world's largest aerospace company, Boeing manufactures the F-15 and F/A-18 fighters, transport planes, tankers, helicopters and missiles; competing for construction of the Joint Strike Fighter. Contact: (703)...

Shipbuilding Carries A Big Load For Defense Industry.
May 15, 1999... DEFENSE A big ship takes a long time to turn around. A big shipbuilding program takes even longer. A relatively simple transport vessel takes months of construction and hundreds of millions of dollars. The queen of the fleet, a...

With Warner In Charge, Armed Services Panel Re-Emerges.(Virginia Senator John Warner, chairman of Senate Armed Services Committee)
May 15, 1999... * To Senate elders, it was one of the "Big Four," a committee that along with Finance, Appropriations and Foreign Relations possessed a certain gravitas. Its chairmen were no-non-sense Southerners like Richard Russell and John Stennis, courted...

DOD Fighter Program Tries To Navigate Turbulent Skies.(Department of Defense buys expensive new fighter planes)
May 15, 1999... DEFENSE Inside plant number 6 at Lockheed Martin Corp.'s sprawling complex in Marietta, Ga., the Air Force's next two F-22 Raptors are taking shape. At two adjacent workstations the skeletons of Raptors 4003 and 4004 are being constructed...

Army Prepared To Leap Into Future With `Digitization'.
May 15, 1999... TECHNOLOGY The Army's top modernization priority is not, as you might expect, a new tank or helicopter. It does not bang, boom or roar. It is as silent as your desktop computer. In fact, it is a distant, militarized cousin of the...

Congress, DOD At Odds Over Savings From Privatization.
May 15, 1999... GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS In the ongoing battle for more resources to upgrade an aging arsenal and keep troops primed for war, Defense Department officials think they have found a magic bullet: competitive sourcing. By forcing 229,000...