National Journal articles from October 1998

National Journal archives from October 1998

LETTERS.
October 3, 1998... ASSESSING A "COUNTERFEIT BILL" You fell for a political snow job by Reps. Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., and James C. Greenwood, R-Pa. ["Choosing New Sides," 8/1/98, p. 1806]. NJ described their so-called Late-Term Abortion Restriction Act as a...

WHY AL GORE IS NOT IN BIG TROUBLE.
October 3, 1998... As the impeachment pot simmers, the possibility that Vice President Al Gore could also find himself facing criminal charges has some Republicans salivating and some Democrats in a cold sweat. But the legal clouds hanging over Gore--in the...

ALL (HEDGE) BETS ARE OFF. WHAT"S ON?
October 3, 1998... No sooner has attention settled on one aspect of the current turmoil in the world economy than another shows itself. This time it's hedge funds. Up to now the main question about these institutions has been: Are they good global citizens--or is...

The Ailing AMA.
October 3, 1998... THE DOCTOR'S LOBBY IS STRUGGLING TO RECRUIT MEMBERS AND RETAIN ITS STATUS AS A WASHINGTON POWERHOUSE. During 20 years as a doctor, Stephanie Joan Woolhandler has received a steady stream of mailings inviting her to join the American...

Knockin' on NATO's Door.(Baltic States)
October 3, 1998... THE BALTIC NATIONS' DRIVE TO BECOME PART OF NATO HAS PROMPTED FEARS OF RILING RUSSIA AND DRASTICALLY ALTERING THE ALLIANCE. KLAIPEDA, Lithuania Even as Russia veered toward economic and political chaos this summer, American troops were...

Medicare's Exodus.(Medicare Health Maintenance Organizations)
October 3, 1998... CONGRESS WANTS MORE OF THE ELDERLY IN HMOS, BUT MANY HMOS DON'T WANT MORE ELDERLY. THEY SAY THEY CAN'T AFFORD TO PROVIDE BENEFITS, AND ARE CALLING IT QUITS. When Congress passed last year's balanced budget act, elderly Americans were...

BREAKING THE SURPLUS LOGJAM.(includes related article on defining impeachable offenses regarding President Bill Clinton)
October 3, 1998... At a glance these days, tax cut politics seem passe. Last weekend, the House approved, in a mostly party-line vote, a modest tax cut. The pre-election gift generated a bit of publicity--but less than its GOP backers had hoped. And the idea...

OF GRUDGES AND CONFEDERACIES.(investigations of former President Richard M. Nixon and President Bill Clinton)
October 3, 1998... Richard M. Nixon has been on people's minds this week. First, the House Judiciary Committee announced it was following the procedures used 24 years ago during Nixon's impeachment proceedings. Then, in a nearly symmetrical response, the Clinton...

MIKE MCCURRY'S COMPLICATED LEGACY.(former press secretary to President Bill Clinton)
October 3, 1998... In the near future, Michael D. McCurry, one of the best White House press secretaries of the modern presidency, will be offering, for a price, his candid thoughts about his tumultuous two decades as a Washington spokesman. Audiences will gather...

VIEWS ON CONGRESSIONAL PERFORMANCE.
October 3, 1998... How's Congress Doing? Do you approve or disapprove of the way that Congress is handling its job? (CBS News) 9/98 APPROVE 57% DISAPPROVE 32 DON'T KNOW 11 Who's the Boss? Whom do you want...

People.(media professionals and politicians)
October 3, 1998... Media People News reports have suggested that Washington bureau chief Jonathan Broder's split with Salon magazine following its Henry Hyde expose was rather unpleasant. But this is just how ugly it got: In the thick of it, Salon editor...

EVEN A VISIONARY NEEDS TAX BREAKS.(Cisco Systems, Inc., chief executive John T. Chambers)
October 3, 1998... For most lobbyists, getting 20 U.S. senators to attend an 8 A.M. pitch is a moment of absolute transcendence. But it's just one small step for mankind when your goal is to foment a worldwide technological revolution to transfer power from...

FROM THE K STREET CORRIDOR.
October 3, 1998... All the President's Lobbyists As the White House scrambles to head off the impeachment of President Clinton, it's relying increasingly on a team of about a dozen former Democratic House members-turned-lobbyists for help. The White House,...

OUT FOR CLOUT.(gay politicians)
October 3, 1998... If Democrat Christine Kehoe beats Rep. Brian P. Bilbray, R-Calif., in November, she will become the first openly lesbian candidate elected to Congress. Gay activists around the country will toast her victory. But if it is true that the personal...

OUR FINEST HOUR.(media coverage of Pres Bill Clinton's sex scandal)
October 3, 1998... Something happened after the global broadcast of the president's grand jury appearance. The video had promised to lay bare at last the secret Bill Clinton beneath the masks--a raging, profane, purple-faced scoundrel, the creep we've heard about...

NOT BY A DAM SITE!(controversy over Oregon's Rogue River dam)
October 3, 1998... MEDFORD, Ore,--ln southern Oregon's Rogue River basin, people either love their dams or hate them. And when those opposing forces clash, government starts to do strange things. Determined to preserve the wild and scenic Rogue basin, local...

FORD AND GM TO CHRYSLER: DROP DEAD.(General Motors; Chrysler Corporation's merger with Germany's Daimler-Benz)
October 3, 1998... Inside America's auto industry, where competition with foreign carmakers is still viewed as the equivalent of war, the friendly coupling next month of Chrysler Corp. with Germany's Daimler-Benz AG is going down hard. Unlike other businesses...

FIVE DEMOCRATS, FACING THE DILEMMA.(campaign politics and Pres Bill Clinton's scandal)
October 3, 1998... Should they embrace him, or condemn him? Distance themselves, or welcome his support? With the midterm elections less than six weeks away, those are some of the questions Democrats are asking themselves as they weigh the impact of President...

HOW MUCH POWER TO THE PEOPLE?(laws regarding ballot initiatives)
October 3, 1998... One of the longest-running (and loftiest) controversies in American politics--whether the country is better served by direct or representative democracy--is re-emerging this year. Beset by large numbers of citizen-initiated ballot measures...

The Most Anti-Environmental Congress EVER?
October 3, 1998... The current, 105th Congress is on the brink of enacting more anti-environmental legislation than any Congress in American history. They have already enacted laws that threaten our clean air, national forests, parks and wildlife. Currently...

A TALE OF HOPES AND TWO HOUSES.(electoral forecast for Democrats and Republicans)
October 3, 1998... Don't be surprised by the spring in the step of Republican senators these days. Their numbers appear almost certain to grow after Election Day. A gain of at least three seats seems very likely. Four seats appears probable, and five seats seems...

Spot Check.(political advertising)
October 3, 1998... A weekly roundup of political advertising * Where the Buys Are Sept. 6-12, 1998 CONNECTICUT SENATE: 168 airings $205,820 Hartford/ Christopher J. Dodd(D) NewHaven FLORIDA SENATE: Charlie...

HOTLINE EXTRA.
October 3, 1998... California's Movin' On Up Presidential campaign junkies are in a dither because the California race is moving up a few weeks in the 2000 primary calendar. California Gov. Pete Wilson ended speculation about his support for the change...

STILL BLESSED WITH INEPT FOES.(President Bill Clinton's sex scandal)
October 3, 1998... The Clinton White House has launched a broad counterattack against targets that range from Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Start and his staff to House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee and the rest of...

AND LO, THE MOMENTUM SHIFTED.(President Bill Clinton's sex scandal)
October 3, 1998... Everyone knows the clich,: "Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it." Congressional Republicans should have heeded the old saw. Because they got what they wished for, and it turned out to be nothing like what they expected. ...

A CRIPPLED PRESIDENT, A RISKY ENDGAME.
October 10, 1998... Which two people in Washington most dread the possibility of Al Gore's becoming president through the removal or forced resignation of President Clinton? One of them is Bill Clinton. The other is Newt Gingrich. If Gingrich is the...

LIES, DAMN LIES, AND STATISTICS.
October 10, 1998... I'm going to say this again. I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. --President Clinton, Jan. 26 The murder rate in Holland is double that in the United States.... That's drugs. --drug czar Barry...

Lights. Camera. History!(includes related article)
October 10, 1998... LAWMAKERS WHO SIT ON THE HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE ARE SETTLING INTO THEIR ROLES FOR THE BIGGEST POLITICAL PERFORMANCE THEY'LL EVER GIVE. For members of the House Judiciary Committee, the defining moment of their political careers is at...

Impeachment Improv.(includes related article)
October 10, 1998... THERE'S NO PLAYBOOK SO THE WHITE HOUSE IS MAKING IT UP AS IT GOES ALONG. AND THUS FAR, THE CAMPAIGN TO THWART IMPEACHMENT AND SAVE CLINTON LOOKS RAGGED, BUT EFFECTIVE. As Georgetown University law professor Mark V. Tushnet sat Monday night...

WHY NATO'S CREDIBILITY IS AT STAKE.
October 10, 1998... In June, when the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was beginning to intensify its attacks on ethnic Albanians in the Serbian province of Kosovo, NATO defense ministers decided to remind Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic of the might of the...

WHEN TERROR STRIKES.
October 10, 1998... In 1995, the year of the Oklahoma City bombing, a Japanese cult called Aum Shinrikyo released nerve gas into the Tokyo subway system. That first-ever mass use of chemical weapons by terrorists, while mercifully incompetent, still resulted in a...

People.
October 10, 1998... Media People And the flight of the tasteful continues. Yet another Washington journalist, sick of the the sex-over-substance nature of the game these days, is trading hackery for flackery. Terry Lemons has quit his job as the Little Rock...

BEAT NEW YORK'S GIANTS!(corporate law in Washington D.C. and New York City)
October 10, 1998... Over scotch and sodas in Grand Central Station's Oyster Bar, New York City corporate lawyers once belittled their Washington counterparts for practicing what they termed conversational law. No mergers, no deals, no trials, they jeered....

From the K Street Corridor.
October 10, 1998... Gunfight at the NRA Corral After four-and-a-half years as the National Rifle Association's chief lobbyist, Tanya K. Metaksa has been sacked. The new top gun will be James J. Baker, her immediate predecessor. Baker has more recently been an...

DEFLECTING CRAYON BULLETS.
October 10, 1998... FAIRFAX, Va.--Eddie Eagle struts to the head of the class assembled in the atrium of the National Rifle Association's twin-towered headquarters near Washington. With his 3-foot-long wing, the sweatsuit-clad "bird" chooses two boys and two girls...

HMOs--THE GOOD GUYS AGAIN?
October 10, 1998... Wasn't it just a month ago that Congress was rushing to slap government controls on health maintenance organizations and other managed care plans for supposedly offering lousy treatment? Yes, but in Washington, that was ages ago. Now, as...

ILL WINDS FROM THE EAST.(Japan)
October 10, 1998... When historians (and economists) look back at it all one day, they may recall October 1998 as a sober time when Washington had a glimpse of its future relations with Tokyo and the vision was decidedly grim. Consider this week's annual...

HE GOT (PRESIDENTIAL) GAME?(Bill Bradley)(includes related article)
October 10, 1998... Is the time finally--finally--right for Bill Bradley to run for president? Bradley's supporters think so, and there are signs that the former New Jersey senator, who has a well-deserved reputation for shying away from races for the White House,...

WHY WEAK DEMOCRATS COULD HURT THE PARTY.
October 10, 1998... Whatever difficulties President Clinton's problems cause for Democrats this fall, they could be compounded by the weak candidates the party is fielding in several key states. In states with exciting, high-stakes races, voters from both parties...

Spot Check.(Statistical Data Included)
October 10, 1998... A weekly roundup of political advertising * Addenda * Number of ads featuring 10 Las Vegas candidate John Ensign * Number of ads featuring 1 Las Vegas crooner Wayne Newton * Number of ads...

Hotline Extra.
October 10, 1998... Debates, Debates, Debates With less than a month before Election Day, campaigns are heavily into debate season. Social Security, tax cuts and health care are among the most prominent issues that keep coming up, while the White House sex...

IN THREE KEY DISTRICTS, DEMOCRATS LAG.
October 10, 1998... HARRISBURG, Pa.--No one really knows how President Clinton's legal travails will affect the Nov. 3 elections. And now the equation has been further complicated by the decision of the Republicans to press ahead with a full-scale impeachment...

GERMANY'S SCHROEDER: ANOTHER CLINTONIAN.
October 10, 1998... President Clinton may be imperiled, but Clintonism appears to be thriving around the world. On Sept. 27, Helmut Kohl became the first chancellor in the history of the Federal Republic to be defeated for re-election, as Germany turned to the...

LOW DEEDS AND `HIGH CRIMES'.(grounds for impeachment)
October 17, 1998... President Clinton's lawyers have rested his defense not on any serious contention. that he is innocent of the perjuries and other crimes alleged in Kenneth Starr's report, but on the argument that even if he is guilty, impeachment would violate...

LEADERSHIP LOST--AND WHY IT MIGHT NOT MATTER.(economic policy)
October 17, 1998... Histories of the Great Depression emphasize lack of leadership as a main cause of that calamity. By the early 1930s, Britain could no longer play the role of the world's chief economic power, and America was not yet willing to. With no one in...

Lead On--Please!(international economic crisis)
October 17, 1998... MANY ANALYSTS (AN OTHER WORRIERS) WONDER WHY, AFTER NEARLY A YEAR AND A HALF OF WORLD ECONOMIC TURMOIL, THE ADMINISTRATION HAS YET TO DRAFT A COHERENT BATTLE PLAN. EARLIER THIS MONTH, DURING THE BIG BELLY-RUB THAT THE INTERNATIONAL...

We're OK (This Week).
October 17, 1998... IS AMERICA SUDDENLY ON THE VERGE OF THE MOST AWFUL ECONOMIC SLUMP SINCE THE GREAT DEPRESSION? PROBABLY NOT, BUT ALL IS NOT WELL. AFTER AN EXTRAORDINARY BOOM THAT LASTED LONGER than anyone expected, the United States is headed into a period...

Betting the Bank.(risks of banks investing in derivatives)
October 17, 1998... AMERICAN BANKS, A MODEL FOR THE WORLD, ARE FACING UNSETTLING RISKS FROM THE NEWFANGLED FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS KNOWN AS DERIVATIVES, WHICH MAY OUTSTRIP REGULATORS' ABILITY TO ASSURE BANK'S SAFETY. AS THE WORLD TEETERS ON THE BRINK of an...

Hooked on Polls.
October 17, 1998... THEY'RE BEING USED LIKE NEVER BEFORE. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT? In 1992, Ross Perot brought a radical idea to American presidential politics: the real-time plebiscite. In Perot's world, decisions on the great issues...

ONCE AGAIN, CONSERVATIVES ARE GRUMBLING.
October 17, 1998... The debate over the fiscal 1999 federal budget that culminated this week shows that although House conservatives and their party leaders may have learned a few things since taking over Congress four years ago, they continue to lack the...

WHAT'S OFF-LIMITS FOR CLINTON?
October 17, 1998... Back in May of 1994--when the Whitewater investigation dogged the Clintons and Paula Jones filed her sexual harassment lawsuit against the president--his aides debated whether he should strike the theme of "responsibility" in a series of...

People.
October 17, 1998... Around the Agencies Paul Drazek is deserting the front lines of the trade wars. As special assistant on trade issues to Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman for the past three years, Drazek has spent much of his time battling--in vain--to...

WASHINGTON'S SMALL-BUSINESS BOOMLET.
October 17, 1998... Conventional Washington wisdom holds that this is an era of small business, not big business. If the blossoming number of small-business advocacy groups in the nation's capital is any indication, that assertion may be correct. "Small...

FROM THE K STREET CORRIDOR.(Washington DC lobbyists)
October 17, 1998... Mating Calls Congress is wrapping up its business--and that means lobbying firms and soon-to-be-former members, especially those with Republican pedigrees, are stepping up their courtship rituals. Top recruits include two Republican...

ALL ABOARD THE GRAVY TRAIN.(lucrative aspects of lobbying)
October 17, 1998... On Oct. 21, members of the Exchequer Club will gather at the Capital Hilton hotel for their regular luncheon meeting. The club's membership includes most of Washington's banking, insurance and securities industry elite. The scheduled topic du...

MONICA MADNESS? NOT REALLY.
October 17, 1998... Everyone knows what the media elite think. They insist that presidential lying and lawbreaking are a big deal. Worse, those elite meanies want this scandal to go on and on and on, because 1) they're getting rich and famous from it, and 2) they...

ADMIRABLE RESTRAINT? OR FEINGOLD'S FOLLY?(Sen Russell Feingold's campaign budget)
October 17, 1998... Call it Feingold's last stand. Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., has decided to stake his entire political career on the premise that voters will reward him for running a clean campaign, unsullied by attack advertisements or big money. It's a...

WEBWARD HO! CANDIDATES IN CYBERSPACE.
October 17, 1998... For Republican and Democratic computer enthusiasts alike, the 1998 elections are a warm-up for the races in 2000. The next cycle is when they hope to use techniques and technology now emerging to pitch their message on the Internet. ...

LOOK FOR REPUBLICAN GAINS IN THE SENATE.(1998 midterm elections)
October 17, 1998... The 1998 midterm elections look likely to produce a very mixed message: big Republican gains in the Senate, in the three-to-five-seat range, but few GOP pickups in the House and gubernatorial contests. Whatever Republican tide existed after...

Hotline Extra.
October 17, 1998... The Group of 31, Part I When the House passed the Republican plan for an impeachment inquiry, all eyes were on 31 Democrats who crossed party lines to support it. Most of the so-called Democratic defectors are on the balance beam of modern...

Spot Check.(political advertisements)(Statistical Data Included)
October 17, 1998... A weekly roundup of political advertising * Addenda * Number of ads featuring real judge Don Chairez, who is running for office this year 2 * Number of ads featuring TV judge Ed Koch, who is...

IN WISCONSIN, MONICA'S NOT THE MESSAGE.
October 17, 1998... MILWAUKEE--When Rep. Mark W. Neumann, R-Wis., who is trying to unseat Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., is asked about President Clinton's big problem, he doesn't equivocate. "I think the honorable thing for the president of the United States to...

VIEWS ON PRESIDENTIAL PERFORMANCE.
October 17, 1998... Job Performance Do you approve or disapprove of the way that Bill Clinton is handling his job as president? (CBS News) 10/98 APPROVE 63% DISAPPROVE 31 DON'T KNOW 6 Bill vs. Hillary Is your...

ON THE BALLOT: CLINTON'S NECK.
October 17, 1998... For the time being, the United States has a parliamentary system. The fate of the president is in the hands of Congress, and the fate of Congress is in the hands of the voters. Will the midterm election be interpreted as a referendum on...

WHERE McCARTHYISM REALLY REIGNS.
October 24, 1998... Complaints about thought control and censorship of politically incorrect speech on the nation's campuses had seemed a bit passe to me. After all, speech codes at several state universities were struck down by a succession of court decisions a...

DROP THAT AD, OR WE SHOOT.
October 24, 1998... Trying to figure out why the state of Wisconsin believes that, legally speaking, political ads are like obscenity, I went prowling the World Wide Web to places where I saw unclad men engaged in interesting and acrobatic maneuvers. I thumbed the...

Where Republicans Rule.(Statistical Data Included)
October 24, 1998... GOP GOVERNORS ARE NOW AT THE HELM IN 32 STATES, AND THEIR NUMBERS COULD GROW. THEY'RE POSITIONED TO INFLUENCE REDISTRICTING AND EXERCISE MORE CLOUT IN WASHINGTON. Candor from political party leaders is usually in short supply when time's...

A LOOK AT THE KEY RACES FOR GOVERNOR.(includes related article)
October 24, 1998... So where's the hottest gubernatorial race in the nation this year? South Carolina, a Bible Belt state where poker and sex have emerged as key campaign issues, is certainly a contender. So, too, is Maryland, where incumbent Democrat Parris N....

A Comeback for Nukes?
October 24, 1998... THE COMBINATION OF GLOBAL WARMING AND ELECTRICITY DEREGULATION IS CAUSING UTILITY EXECUTIVES TO TAKE A SECOND LOOK AT NUCLEAR POWER. REPORTS OF ITS DEMISE MAY HAVE BEEN PREMATURE. LUSBY, Md.--Fifty miles southeast of the U.S. Capitol...

Privacy in a Wired World.
October 24, 1998... COMPUTERS MAKE IT EASY TO COLLECT ALL KINDS OF PERSONAL DATA. INDUSTRY OFFICIALS INSIST THEY CAN BE TRUSTED TO PROTECT THEIR CUSTOMERS' PRIVACY, BUT CRITICS AREN'T SO SURE. Every week, Michele Bartoli-Cain trades away a slice of her private...

VIEWS ON CONGRESSIONAL PERFORMANCE.(Statistical Data Included)
October 24, 1998... Generally Speaking Do you approve or disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job? (Gallup Organization Inc. for CNN-USA Today) 10/98 APPROVE 47%...

AN AUTUMN OF DISCONTENT.
October 24, 1998... The making of congressional sausage is never an attractive sight, but sometimes it is more revolting than usual. Such was the case on Capitol Hill in recent days, as Republican leaders ground out a $500 billion budget bill in a fashion that...

People.
October 24, 1998... In the Tanks Irwin M. Stelzer, for nine years a prominent egghead-in-residence at the American Enterprise Institute, has not only defected to the Hudson Institute, a rival right-leaning think tank, he has also openly trashed his former...

SO MUCH MONEY, SO LITTLE TIME.
October 24, 1998... In nine short weeks, President Clinton will put the finishing touches on the policy proposals he hopes might salvage his second term--and maybe even his presidency. On the domestic front, Clinton has said he wants 1999 to be the year...

AND NOW, PODESTA.
October 24, 1998... In elevating longtime administration troubleshooter John D. Podesta to the post of White House chief of staff, President Clinton continues to display a knack for tapping someone who possesses the precise traits he needs at that moment in his...

THE BIG GREEN ELECTION MACHINE.
October 24, 1998... When national polls in September indicated that Americans would stay away from the ballot box in droves on Election Day, the Sierra Club launched its first-ever get-out-the-vote campaign to activate more than 250,000 of its members in 20...

From the K Street Corridor.
October 24, 1998... Knott's Landing Kerry Knott, stop dithering! Knott, the chief of staff to House Majority Leader Richard K. Armey, R-Texas, is one of the hottest recruits on Capitol Hill, and he's almost ready to announce his career move. Knott confirmed...

TIMBER! THERE GOES COLLABORATION!
October 24, 1998... QUINCY, Calif.--Here in the Sierra Nevada, timber company executives and environmental activists spent years cobbling together an agreement to cover timber cutting in nearby federal forests. The plan was to become--or so it was hoped--a model...

THE POLITICS OF SURVIVAL.
October 24, 1998... It's not quite the World Series, but the Clinton Administration's all-out drive to help Rep. Leonard L. Boswell, D-Iowa, has all the frenzy of the fall classic. This week, the administration went to bat big-time for Boswell. On Oct. 20,...

Hotline Extra.
October 24, 1998... Prop Watch Ballot propositions, like candidates, come in all stripes. Some are more appealing than others, and a few, while not generating as much attention, turn out to be supremely significant to the political world. A look at key...

A DEMOCRAT WAITING FOR A MIRACLE.(re-election campaign of Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun)
October 24, 1998... CHICAGO--Hounded by personal and political missteps during her freshman term in the Senate, Carol Moseley-Braun, D-Ill., has been resorting to desperate measures to resuscitate her flagging re-election campaign against Republican state Sen....

Spot Check.(Statistical Data Included)
October 24, 1998... A Weekly roundup of political advertising Addenda * Number of ads in 5 which candidates say they grew up in shacks * Number of ads de- 7 scribing candidates as hailing from the 'burbs *...

MEET THE `WHAT, ME WORRY?' ELECTORATE.
October 24, 1998... An odd thing happened this week. The 105th Congress passed a budget that looked like a huge political victory for President Clinton. But all of his big-agenda items went down in flames. There's no tobacco deal, no health care reform, no...

FEEL-GOOD POLITICS, FROM LEFT AND RIGHT.
October 31, 1998... What do liberal causes such as hate-crime laws and the London detention of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet have in common with conservative causes such as the Defense of Marriage Act and harsh mandatory prison terms for drug offenders?...