National Journal articles from October 2001

National Journal archives from October 2001

Letters.
October 6, 2001... DEEP-POCKETED AND QUALIFIED Your cover story "Diplomatic Rewards" [9/1/01, p. 2658] rehashed an old and increasingly irrelevant debate on career versus noncareer ambassadorial appointments and presumed that noncareer appointees were less...

THERE'S ONE DEMOCRAT WHO'S STILL TALKING ABOUT 2004.(Al Sharpton)(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... Gore disappointed a lot of us in the Florida situation. He certainly did not deal with the voting rights angle. He lost his home state, he lost Clinton's home state, he won the election, but he didn't fight like a winner." Embrace him or...

WIRETAPS ARE AN OVERBLOWN THREAT TO PRIVACY.
October 6, 2001... The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover,... he could be seen as well as heard. How often, or on what system, the Thought...

BLAME AMERICA? WHAT SELF-LOATHING RUBBISH.(Editorial)
October 6, 2001... The notion that America and its friends are partly to blame for the attacks of September 11 is being seriously discussed in enlightened circles in the West, and in its more sober and sophisticated journals. The suggestion is that the United...

Between Fear and Faith.
October 6, 2001... BENEATH THE SURFACE OF UNITY RUNS A MORE COMPLICATED STORY ABOUT THE STATE OF THE NATION, AT A TIME WHEN EVERYONE IS WAITING FOR SOMETHING TO HAPPEN. As her father prepared to take a business trip this week, an Arlington, Va., first-grader...

When You're in the Minority.
October 6, 2001... ANTIWAR ICONS OF THE PAST, AND THEIR MODERN-DAY DESCENDANTS, TALKABOUT THE DYNAMICS OF DISSENT. Nobody threw rocks, or fruit, or even harsh words at the estimated 7,000 protesters as they marched festively on September 29 along...

Worries on Campus.
October 6, 2001... Ryan Aaron hadn't planned to go to college--at least immediately--until the September 11 attacks came along. A senior at U.S. Grant High School in Oklahoma City, he now says he will attend Oklahoma State University next year. "I did it mainly...

Putin's Leap of Faith.
October 6, 2001... THE ATTACKS OF SEPTEMBER 11 HAVE DRIVEN RUSSIA'S PRESIDENT TO CAST HIS LOT FULLY WITH THE WEST. BUT MANY RUSSIANS REMAIN SUSPICIOUS OF THE DEAL, AND OF WASHINGTON. MOSCOW--With its towering churches, traffic-snarled streets, and...

The Saudi Problem.
October 6, 2001... THE UNITED STATES NEEDS THE KINGDOM'S OIL, INFLUENCE, AND AFFLUENCE, BUT THE ROOTS OF TERROR ALSO GROW IN ITS DESERT SOIL. It is ironic that one of America's staunchest political and economic allies in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, is the...

Egypt: Of Two Minds About America.
October 6, 2001... CAIRO IS A KEY ALLY IN THE WAR AGAINST TERRORISM. BUT THE LAND OF THE PHAROAHS IS ALSO A HOTBED OF ANTI-AMERICANISM AND FUNDAMENTALIST PASSIONS. An urbane Cairo lawyer, who shared his views in the days after September 11, reflects the...

The Balancing Act That Is Jordan.
October 6, 2001... A YOUNG AND MODERATE KING WALKS A TIGHTROPE BETWEEN IRAQ TO HIS EAST AND ANGRY PALESTINIANS AT HOME. Even before September 11, Jordan's King Abdullah II found himself in one of the toughest diplomatic positions in the world. Abdullah's...

Cranking Up the Volume.
October 6, 2001... A GOVERNMENT INFORMATION CAMPAIGN WILL ATTEMPT TO SPREAD THE U.S. MESSAGE TO A GLOBAL AUDIENCE. Over the past few years, the U.S. government has been trying to build a better global loudspeaker. This "public diplomacy" program got a boost...

SHORTWAVE SOLDIERS.
October 6, 2001... While President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are threatening the Taliban with war, broadcasters from the Voice of America and the British Broadcasting Corp. are using short-wave radio to woo the Afghan citizenry. Radio is the...

THE NEW RUMSFELD IN THE COCKPIT.
October 6, 2001... During the Vietnam War, establishment columnist Joseph Alsop used to lament that Robert S. McNamara "is a good Secretary of Defense but a poor Secretary of War." It is beginning to look like just the opposite is true of Defense Secretary Donald...

Stepping Into the Limelight.
October 6, 2001... IN THE WAKE OF THE TERRORIST ATTACKS, MEMBERSOF CONGRESS WITH EXPERTISE IN HOW TO RESPOND FIND THEIR PHONES ARE SUDDENLY RINGING OFF THE HOOK. Rep. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., has been quietly working behind the scenes since the beginning of...

THE ANGST APPROACH.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... There can be no question about it: The Bush Administration is in the fear business. Fear is what galvanized the government's response immediately after September 11. It has been the invisible weapon turned against Osama bin Laden and...

Ignorance Is No Defense.
October 6, 2001... MEDICAL PERSONNEL AREN'T PREPARED TO DEAL WITH BIOWAR DISEASES. The assaults of September 11 have prompted medical groups to develop crash courses on recognizing deadly diseases that might result from a bioterrorism attack. The sudden...

A WAY TO GO TO THE FINISH LINE.
October 6, 2001... For eight years, congressional conservatives blamed Bill Clinton for annual increases in federal spending. Just give us a Republican President, they vowed, and he'll take care of Washington's bad habits. Well, conservatives got their Republican...

Anti-Terror Bills Crafted in Both Chambers.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... The House and Senate are expected to debate legislation next week expanding law enforcement powers to combat terrorism, following significant progress by both Judiciary Committees this week. In the Senate, a triumphant Judiciary Committee...

Airport Security Bill Not Ready for Takeoff.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... Two weeks after Congress put aside its differences to pass a $15 billion bailout for the airline industry, the Senate this week bogged down on a bipartisan bill aimed at strengthening airport security. Senate Republicans objected to beginning...

Stimulus Package Gets the Green Light.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... Congressional leaders from both parties got behind the idea of a $50-billion-to-$75-billion economic stimulus package advocated this week by President Bush and blessed by Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan, White House economic...

Deal Reached on Fiscal 2002 Spending.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... After lots of wrangling, Congress and the White House this week agreed on an overall discretionary spending figure of $686 billion for fiscal 2002, thus allowing the final work on the 13 annual appropriations bills to begin. For weeks,...

Senate OKs Defense Bill, Minus Energy Plan.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... The Senate voted 99-0 on October 2 to approve its $345 billion Defense authorization bill after Republicans called off a campaign to tack on far-reaching energy-policy legislation. The GOP effort had delayed the Defense bill's approval for a...

House Stubbornly Proceeds on Farm Bill.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... The House this week took up the Farm Security Act--a 10-year, $170 billion farm bill that would replace the 1996 Freedom to Farm Act--despite an October 3 statement from the Bush Administration saying that it does not support the legislation...

Senate Recesses When Thurmond Takes Ill.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., the oldest and longest-serving Senator in history, returned to work on October 3 upon his release from Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he had been taken the day before after apparently fainting on the Senate...

The Week Ahead.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... The Senate is expected to take up anti-terrorism legislation once it finishes the pending airport security bill. The House also may debate both of those measures next week, as well as an extension of presidential trade-negotiating authority. In...

CONGRESS DAILY'S FINAL WORD.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... "We need to recognize that the whole country is watching. The whole country is expecting us to respond." --Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle, D-S.D., complaining during an October 3 floor statement after Republicans blocked...

SPIN DOCTORS SEARCH FOR THE RIGHT SPIN.(public relations in an age of terrorism)(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... Like most business sectors, the public relations industry took a major economic hit after the terrorist attacks of September 11. But given the sudden change in public attitudes and political agendas, PR professionals face even more uncertainty...

OLD PACKAGES, NEW WRAPPING.(lobbyists in an era of terrorism)(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... Two days after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, most Americans were thinking about the devastation and worrying about the fate of missing victims. But a Washington-based lobbyist at the National Education...

Anti-Tax Group Feeling Touchy.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... These are touchy times for the economic conservatives at the Center for Freedom and Prosperity: The September 11 terrorist strikes have put them on the defensive. The center has been leading the fight in Washington against proposals to penalize...

They Helped Open National's Runways.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... The drive to improve airport security has generated lobbying and consulting work (some of it pro bono) for two Washington firms, Patton Boggs and Bracewell & Patterson. They were tapped for help in the effort to reopen Reagan Washington...

She's Buffing Up the Big Apple.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority--which operates subways, trains, and buses that move 2, billion riders a year--has retained Washington lobbyist and former Rep. Susan Molinari, R-N.Y., to help win more federal money for mass...

Bridgestone/Firestone's Big Lobbying Tab.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... A PR disaster is a surefire way to change a company's approach to Washington. That lesson keeps hitting home for beleaguered tire manufacturer Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. In its latest federal lobbying filing, the Nashville, Tenn.-based firm...

CAN THE FBI SWITCH GEARS?
October 6, 2001... As its agents sift through rubble and interview countless people about the attacks of September 11, the FBI is in its element. Its traditions, rules, and organizational structure generally make it very adept at crime-solving--but very poor at...

AMTRAK MAKES A BID.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... Unlike the 266 airline passengers and crew members who were tragically killed in the terrorist attacks on September 11, Paul Weinstein traveled that morning by train. Weinstein, a senior fellow at the centrist Progressive Policy Institute, took...

A VERY SECRET WAR.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... The drop arrived at my house by special courier shortly before dawn on October 1. An opaque plastic bag concealed the contents from foreign agents who might be walking their dogs on [redacted] Lane at that hour. I do not know the identity of my...

Off-Center Stage.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... Al Gore is back, sort of The Los Angeles Times's Ron Brownstein reports, "Edging back onto the political stage," the former Vice President described President Bush as "my commander in chief." Gore, appearing at the Iowa Democrats'...

Harkin Hears a Who's Who.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... But was there another beneficiary, to Gore's Iowa visit? Roll Call's Chris Cillizza reports that Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, "stands to gain from the early jockeying" for his party's 2004 presidential nomination. While Gore didn't raise money for...

Sufferin' Suffrage.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... Kansas state Sen. Kay O'Connor's belief's have "touched off a political furor" She argues that women's suffrage is a sign that American society doesn't value families enough and that women wouldn't have to vote if men look care of them...

Not-So-Giants Steps.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... Will all major events be coming soon to a New York City near you? Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., "urged" the National Football League to hold the next Super Bowl "in Giants Stadium to help boost morale in the region" after the attacks on the...

Erskine-y Dipping.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... With former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno running for governor of Florida and former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson eyeing New Mexico's governorship, the 2002 roster is already full of ex-Clintonites. But there may be one more joining the...

Fuzzy Wrath.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... Televangelist Pat Robertson contends the terrorist attacks were a "wake-up call from God." In a speech marking die 40th anniversary of his Christian Broadcasting Network, the Rev. Robertson said: "The Lord is getting ready to shake this nation....

The Tegaban?(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... Apparently, even international politics is local. A Tega Cay S.C., City Council disagreement "intensified" last week when Councilor Gerry Parker sent an e-mail to fellow council members that criticized city leaders. In the e-mail, Parker said,...

Quotables.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... "In early tests, elderly voters responded favorably to the touch screens and then spent 20 minutes waiting for their money to come out." --Weekend Update anchor Tina Fey on Palm Beach voting reforms (Saturday Night Live, NBC, 9/29) "If I...

WHIP'S RACE IS PERSONAL FOR HOUSE DEMOCRATS.
October 6, 2001... Congressional leadership elections are difficult to predict, because the people eligible to vote in them interact daily with the candidates, so the choices are intensely personal. Some lawmakers cast their ballots based on ideological...

Lobby Shops.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... Former U.S. Mint Director Philip N. Diehl is returning to Washington to manage the day-to-day operations of PR firm Fleishman-Hillard's lobby shop, FH/GPC. Diehl, 50, took over at the mint in 1994. "I think what I'm most proud of is how we...

Hill People.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... New to the staff of Rep. Bob Schaffer, R-Colo., is Jon Hrobsky, a 26-year-old Colorado native who recently signed on as Schaffer's legislative director. Hrobsky decided during his senior year in college to become a public servant. "I was one of...

Consulting Game.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... "I was a really strange kid," says former Hill staffer David Schwarz. "As most 10-year-olds were watching Sunday morning cartoons, I used to sit around with my older brother and watch the Sunday morning political talk shows." The Savannah, Ga.,...

Around the Agencies.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... The Overseas Private Investment Corp., a federal investment services agency, has named five new vice presidents. Christopher Coughlin, 37, the new vice president of external affairs, knows something about OPIC: He was deputy director of...

Interest Groups.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... Journalist-turned-advocate David Elliot recently became the communications director for the Washington-based National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. His transformation started eight years ago when, as a reporter for The Austin...

In the Tanks.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... When Kent Lassman started at the Washington-based Progress & Freedom Foundation in 1994, he spent a lot of time at the Olsson's bookstore near his office. As a budget, housing, and telecommunications researcher, he depended on the store to...

The American Way.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 6, 2001... OPEN HEARTS--AND OPEN WALLETS? Moved to generosity but jittery about the economy, Americans are apparently still willing to spend, and they remain fairly confident about their personal finances. Although many are worried about the nation's...

Homeland Security.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 6, 2001... OVER HERE Will President Bush's creation of the Office of Homeland Security, headed by former Pennsylvania Guy. Tom Ridge, make the country a safer place? Fifty-six percent of those surveyed for CNN and Time magazine said it will; 32...

Waiting for War.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 6, 2001... W. MAKES THE GRADE Seventy-five percent of Americans say President Bush has "done about right" in his military preparations after the September 11 terrorist attacks, according to a Gallup poll for CNN and USA Today. In response to a...

A COLD WAR-STYLE CONFLICT.(Brief Article)
October 6, 2001... How united is the country? President Bush's job-approval rating in the Gallup Poll has hit 90 percent, the highest ever recorded for any President. He's even got the support of 84 percent of Democrats. Public support for military...

Correction.(September 29, 2001, issue)(Correction Notice)
October 13, 2001... A recent story (9/29/01), p. 3011) erroneously reported that the FBI served search warrants on the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development and the Islamic Association for Palestine. No search warrants have been served. National Journal...

Survival Lessons.(surviving terrorism, especially in public schools)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2001... A commentary on public education and other critical issues On September 11, some 8,000 children were at school in what Americans have come to know as "ground zero." Many of the children saw, from their classroom windows, the World Trade...

A LITTLE CONSISTENCY, PLEASE. NOW, IT'S IMPORTANT.(use strategic petroleum reserve)
October 13, 2001... On Tuesday, October 9, the House of Representatives passed--by a vote of 409-3--a nonbinding resolution calling upon the Bush Administration to expand the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to the level of a billion barrels. In case you are...

THE RAGE OF GENOCIDAL MASSES MUST NOT RESTRAIN US.
October 13, 2001... Should America's war aims be big and bold, or small and soft? Should we go in forcefully to make sure that Osama bin Laden is killed and the Taliban overthrown, or hold back for fear of inflaming the "Death-to-America" mobs and destabilizing...

ISLAM HAS BEEN HIJACKED, AND ONLY MUSLIMS CAN SAVE IT.
October 13, 2001... In the wake of last month's attacks, leading Muslims in America and other Western countries rushed to condemn the killings. Yet they were slower to condemn the likely killers. "They, of course, condemn the destruction that happened on September...

Next Stop--Baghdad?
October 13, 2001... MANY EXPERTS SEE THE UNSEEN HAND OF SADDAM HUSSEIN BEHIND THE EVENTS OF SEPTEMBER 11. THEY ARE URGING THE SON TO FINISH A JOB STARTED BY HIS FATHER When President Bush's top advisers gathered at Camp David on September 15, it was as if the...

WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE?(Osama bin Laden)
October 13, 2001... Dead or alive? On September 17, President Bush said the United States would take terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, one way or the other. But the President didn't express a preference. With U.S. bombs falling over Afghanistan and a...

Not a Pretty Sight.(preventing terrorism)
October 13, 2001... COUNTRIES THAT SUCCESSFULLY CONTROL DOMESTIC TERRORISM OFTEN USE TACTICS THAT MANY AMERICANS WOULD FIND APPALLING. As the White House pressures scores of other nations to crack down on terrorist networks, the Bush Administration eventually...

The Stimulus Skirmish.
October 13, 2001... REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS ARE PUSHING VERY DIFFERENT PROPOSALS TO JUMP-START THE ECONOMY. HERE'S A LOOK AT LEADING OPTIONS. What was shaping up to be a typical autumn in Congress has been transformed by the events of September 11. Lawmakers...

Taxing Times on K Street.
October 13, 2001... THE ECONOMIC STIMULUS PACKAGE HAS PUMPED NEW LIFE INTO WASHINGTON'S LOBBY SHOPS, ESPECIALLY THOSE SEEKING BUSINESS TAX BREAKS. K Street is quiet no longer. As Washington returns haltingly to its old rhythms one month after September 11,...

AIRPORT SECURITY: TURBULENCE AHEAD.
October 13, 2001... Air marshals. Fortified cockpit doors. Federalized airport screeners. Before September 11, few had paid much attention to these terms or to their policy implications. But after terrorists--armed only with small box-cutter knives--hijacked U.S....

THE SENATE'S WARTIME REBELS.(political independence during national crisis)
October 13, 2001... The verdict from editorial writers across the country was swift, blunt, and harsh. Sen. James M. Inhofe, ROkla., had gone too far, they argued, by trying to exploit the crisis following the terrorist attacks to advance his pet proposal,...

REDISTRICTING, WITHOUT THE LINE-DRAWING.
October 13, 2001... Since the 1960s, the once-a-decade process of redrawing the congressional lines has been torturous in the nation's most populous state. Redistricting in California has been tainted by vicious political brawls, lengthy court challenges, and even...

PIVOTAL EVENTS IN CONGRESS.
October 13, 2001... OCTOBER 9-11 As Bombs Drop, Hill's Testy--and Nervous Afew days after U.S. military strikes began in Afghanistan, President Bush and the four top bipartisan congressional leaders breakfasted together yet again this week at the White...

CONGRESSDAILY'S FINAL WORD.(Brief Article)
October 13, 2001... She know how to do that gently. And she may have to do taht in aother way." --House Minority Whip Dvid E. Bonior, D-Mich., praising the whip-cracking skills of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as he presented her with a black leather whip

MORE STRESS ON A STRESSED-OUT SYSTEM.
October 13, 2001... Administration officials and members of Congress say they are keenly aware of people's need for mental health assistance in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, but there's little consensus about how to help Americans, many of...

SHOULD SOMEONE BE IN CHARGE?(managing influx of donations to charities after World Trade Center attack)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2001... If the disaster of September 11 was unprecedented, so was the response. And now, American charities have found themselves with an unfamiliar problem: They are awash in cash, pledges, and in-kind donations earmarked for the survivors of those...

TERROR AND THE TABS.(why attack American Media Inc. with anthrax)
October 13, 2001... In the middle of the week, when the Florida anthrax scare was first starting to look like a real crisis, The New York Times said in an editorial: "Those who think the evidence points toward terrorism note that the contaminated building was...

Bad Bet on the Bayou.(Review)
October 13, 2001... Bad Bet on the Bayou By Tyler Bridges Farrar, Straus, & Giroux 422 pages $27.00 In troubling times, what should be more diverting than a dip into a book about Louisiana politics, specifically a biography of that rascal of rascals, Edwin...

Here: A Biography of the New American Continent.(Review)
October 13, 2001... Here: A Biography of the New American Continent By Anthony DePalma Public Affairs 375 pages $26.00 Back in college, the professor who taught my History of South Africa course assigned us Move Your Shadow, Joseph Lelyveld's book about...

WE'RE IN. CAN WE GET OUT?
October 13, 2001... "It's easy to get in these things, but it's hard to get out without showing the white feather." So spoke Gen. Robert Barrow, Marine Corps commandant from 1979-83, nearly two decades ago, while sharing his thoughts with me on presidential...

WARTIME PRESIDENTS, MIDTERM LOSSES.
October 13, 2001... War is hell, but midterm elections aren't so great for wartime Presidents either. Since World War I, whenever the commander in chief has had the nation on a war footing at midterm election time, his party has, on average, lost 28 House seats...

DEMOCRATS HOPE TO COPY GOP's 1993 GRAND SLAM.
October 13, 2001... Nearly eight years ago, Republican Party leaders crowed over their sweep of the 1993 elections by touting their victories in the races for mayor in Los Angeles and New York City and for governor in Virginia and New Jersey. In each case, a...

The Dole Enchilada.(Republican Senate candidate Elizabeth Dole)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2001... Apparently, times of crisis make being an insider a good thing. Republican Senate candidate Elizabeth Dole "sounded almost like an incumbent" as she "touted her long" experience in Washington during a "handful" of appearances in North...

The Shadow Knows.(Missouri's Senate race)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2001... The biggest question in Missouri's Senate race is how large a role a familiar face might play. Former Rep. Jim Talent, R-Mo., has announced that he will challenge Democratic Sen. Jean Carnahan in 2002. (Associated Press, 10/9) Talent's entry...

Just Desserts, for Now.(former Vice President Al Gore)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2001... So how, exactly, do you run for President when virtually everyone likes the guy you're hoping to beat? Former Vice President Al Gore appears to be crafting a dinner-party strategy. New Hampshire's Democratic "high rollers" will get their chance...

Singing a New Thune?(South Dakota Senate candidate John Thune)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2001... Can a Republican Senate candidate win by praising Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle, D-S.D.? Rep. John Thune, R-S.D., returned to his hometown and "ended months of speculation about his political plans," when he announced that he will...

Pulling No Punches.(book on former President Bill Clinton)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2001... One of Washington's "most prominent and outspoken" Republicans "is about to shatter the capital's political truce with a book savaging" former President Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton "for the way they left the White House." The...

Bush v. McCain Redux.(Bush supporters versus McCain supporters in race for GOP chair, South Carolina)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2001... Apparently, butterfly ballots and hanging chads aren't the only legacies of the 2000 presidential race. Lee Bandy of The State, in Columbia, S.C., reports that South Carolina supporters of President Bush are "spreading the word" that they want...