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Folder Title:
The American Spectator Annual Dinner 1/22/90 [OA 8309] [1]
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5
7
reggy
AMERICAN SPECTATOR ANNUAL DINNER
THE WILLARD HOTEL
JANUARY 22, 1990
7:00 P.M.
THANK YOU, DAVID {MORSE}. AND CONGRATULATIONS ON
THE WONDERFUL WORK YOUR ORGANIZATION -- LIBERTAD -- IS
DOING TO ADVANCE THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM IN THE WORLD.
LET ME RECOGNIZE LORD HENRY PLUMB -- FORMER PRESIDENT
OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT -- THE MANY MEMBERS OF MY
ADMINISTRATION, AND OUR REPUBLICAN TEAM ON CAPITOL
HILL. //
AND OF COURSE I'M ALWAYS PLEASED TO BE ON BOB
TYRRELL'S KINDER, GENTLER SIDE. // THAT'S HIS RIGHT
SIDE, OF COURSE. //
I UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS ACTUALLY THE AMERICAN
SPECTATOR'S 1989 ANNUAL DINNER. // NOW THAT'S TRUE
CONSERVATISM -- WAIT UNTIL THE YEAR'S COMPLETELY OVER
UNTIL YOU DECIDE WHETHER IT'S WORTH CELEBRATING
ABOUT.... // ACTUALLY, I'VE LEARNED TO BE MORE
FORGIVING ABOUT CONFUSIONS INVOLVING THE CALENDAR --
EVER SINCE I MADE SEPTEMBER 7TH A DATE THAT WOULD LIVE
IN INFAMY. //
- 2 -
BUT I AM DELIGHTED TO HELP CELEBRATE TONIGHT WITH
ALL OF YOU. OUR NATION'S INTELLECTUAL LIFE WOULD BE
MORE THAN A LITTLE POORER WITHOUT THE AMERICAN
SPECTATOR SURVEYING THE SCENE. YOUR CRITICAL EYE HELPS
US SEE BENEATH THE SURFACE -- BEYOND THE INTELLECTUAL
FADS AND FASHIONS OF THE DAY -- TO THE IDEAS AND THE
ENDURING VALUES THAT REALLY MATTER IN OUR SOCIETY.
THAT'S A VALUABLE SERVICE -- ESPECIALLY TODAY, BECAUSE
THERE'S A TENDENCY THESE DAYS TO MISTAKE SURFACE
APPEARANCES FOR THE SUBSTANCE OF THINGS.
TAKE AN ISSUE LIKE HOMELESSNESS. THERE IS NO
CONDITION MORE REPUGNANT TO DEMOCRATIC VALUES AND THE
DIGNITY OF THE INDIVIDUAL. AND THERE'S NO PROBLEM MORE
SUSCEPTIBLE TO MISUNDERSTANDING. WE'VE ALL HEARD OF
THE LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES. WELL, WHAT'S AT
WORK HERE IS WHAT WE COULD CALL THE LAW OF WELL-
INTENDED CONSEQUENCES.
IN SOME WAYS, OUR DIFFICULTY IN DEALING WITH
HOMELESSNESS BEGINS WITH THE LABEL -- A LABEL THAT
TELLS US WHAT THE HOMELESS LACK IS HOMES.
- 3 -
BUT THE PROBLEM IS FAR MORE COMPLEX -- MORE
COMPLEX BECAUSE THE REAL PROBLEM OF HOMELESSNESS IS NOT
ONE-DIMENSIONAL. THERE ARE HOMELESS FAMILIES -- CASES
WHERE THE HUSBAND, WIFE AND CHILDREN ARE ALL TOGETHER,
OUT ON THE STREET. BUT MOST OFTEN, HOMELESSNESS IS A
SYMPTOM OF MORE PERVASIVE PROBLEMS -- DRUG OR ALCOHOL
ADDICTION, CHRONIC JOBLESSNESS, MENTAL ILLNESS OR
FAMILY PROBLEMS -- CONDITIONS THAT PREVENT THE
UNFORTUNATE PEOPLE WE SEE ON THE STREETS FROM CARING
FOR THEIR CHILDREN, FROM KEEPING A HOME.
IF OUR POLICY TOWARDS THE HOMELESS DOESN'T TREAT
THESE CAUSES -- IF IT DOESN'T COMBINE THE BASIC NEED
FOR SHELTER WITH OTHER SUPPORT SERVICES THAT REACH THE
REAL REASONS FOR HOMELESSNESS -- ALL THE BEST
INTENTIONS AND ALL THE HOUSING IN THE WORLD WON'T GET
THE HOMELESS OFF THE STREET ONCE AND FOR ALL AND BACK
INTO SOCIETY. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY TO TRULY HELP THE
HOMELESS BREAK THE GRIP OF LIFE ON THE STREETS.
- 4 -
SO LAST NOVEMBER, I ANNOUNCED WHAT WE CALL THE
HOPE INITIATIVE, HOME OWNERSHIP AND OPPORTUNITY FOR
PEOPLE EVERYWHERE. ALONG WITH HELP FOR FIRST-TIME
HOMEBUYERS, THIS NEW PROPOSAL BRINGS OTHER CREATIVE
SOLUTIONS TO THE DIFFICULT HOUSING PROBLEMS FACING LOW-
INCOME FAMILIES. NOT NEW PUBLIC CONSTRUCTION PROGRAMS
THAT TOO OFTEN PROVE TO BE EXPENSIVE FAILURES BUT MORE
TENANT OWNERSHIP AND HOUSING VOUCHERS TO PROVIDE MORE
OPTIONS TO MORE PEOPLE. BUT AFFORDABILITY IS ONLY ONE
PART OF THE PROBLEM. AVAILABILITY IS THE OTHER. WE
MUST RENEW THE LOW-INCOME HOUSING TAX CREDIT TO SPUR
NEEDED PRIVATE CONSTRUCTION.
BUT WE'VE GOT TO GO EVEN FURTHER. WE NEED
POLICIES THAT ENCOURAGE THE GROWTH AND INVESTMENT THAT
PROVIDE JOBS - THE JOBS THAT TRANSLATE INTO HOMES. WE
NEED ENTERPRISE ZONES TO STIMULATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP.
WE NEED TO CUT THE CAPITAL GAINS TAX AND, IN THESE
POCKETS OF POVERTY - - ENTERPRISE ZONES, WE NEED TO
ELIMINATE IT ALTOGETHER.
- 5 -
BUT THE REAL ANSWER FOR THE HOMELESS WITH MENTAL
PROBLEMS OR DEPENDENT ON DRUGS OR ALCHOHOL, THE REAL
ANSWER IS SHELTER PLUS CARE. THE MCKINNEY ACT HAS NOW
BEEN SIGNED INTO LAW AND SUBSTANTIALLY INCREASES
FUNDING TO REDUCE HOMELESSNESS. BUT THE SOLUTION TO
THE PROBLEMS OF THE HOMELESS REQUIRES A PARTNERSHIP --
FEDERAL, STATE AND LOCAL. THROUGH HOPE, WE WILL IMPROVE
COORDINATION OF BASIC NEEDS LIKE SHELTER WITH OTHER
SOCIAL SERVICES TO HELP THE HOMELESS GET THE SUPPORT
THEY NEED TO CONTROL THEIR OWN LIVES AND FIND THE JOBS
THAT MEAN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A A LIFE OF DESPAIR
AND A LIFE OF DIGNITY.
BUT HOMELESSNESS ISN'T THE ONLY ISSUE WHERE WE
NEED TO LOOK BEYOND SUPERFICIAL, QUICK FIX SOLUTIONS.
TAKE OUR SCHOOLS -- EDUCATION. THERE IS NO SINGLE
FUNCTION MORE VITAL TO SOCIETY THAN WHAT GOES ON IN
THAT CLASSROOM. CULTIVATING THE SKILLS AND INTELLECT
WE NEED TO SUCCEED IN THE FUTURE. TRANSMITTING OUR
VALUES -- CENTURIES OF EXPERIENCE AND HARD-WON
WISDOM -- FROM GENERATION TO NEXT.
- 6 -
NOW THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM -- CURRENT WISDOM, I
GUESS YOU CALL IT ON THE BACK PAGE OF THE SPECTATOR --
IS THAT THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH OUR SCHOOLS THAT
CAN'T BE CORRECTED, IF ONLY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
WOULD JUST GET OUT THAT CHECKBOOK AND WRITE A CHECK.
WE ALL KNOW THE BIGGER THE PRICE TAG, THE BETTER THE
QUALITY. RIGHT? //
WELL, THE FACT IS, WE ALREADY SPEND AS MUCH OR
MORE THAN THE OTHER INDUSTRIALIZED DEMOCRACIES ON
EDUCATION -- AN AVERAGE OF ALMOST $4,000 DOLLARS PER
STUDENT EACH YEAR. AND WE ALL KNOW THE RESULTS. OUR
SCHOOLS AREN'T MAKING THE GRADE.
so WHAT'S WRONG? // IT'S NOT A QUESTION OF CASH.
WE'VE GOT TO USE OUR RESOURCES MORE WISELY -- LOOK TO
THOSE SCHOOLS THAT DO WORK. FIND OUT WHY. TRANSLATE
THEIR SUCCESS INTO GOALS ALL SCHOOLS CAN AIM FOR -- AND
THEN WE'VE GOT TO TAKE TWO MORE CRUCIAL STEPS. WE'VE
GOT TO GIVE PARENTS A CHOICE IN THEIR CHILDREN'S
SCHOOLS AND WE'VE GOT TO GIVE OUR SCHOOLS THE FREEDOM
AND FLEXIBILITY THEY NEED TO STRIVE FOR HIGHER
STANDARDS -- AND THEN HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE. THERE IS
NO SHORTCUT TO BETTER SCHOOLS.
- 7 -
AND THERE IS ALSO NO SHORTCUT TO THE VICTORY LINE
IN THE RACE AGAINST DRUGS AND CRIME. THERE IS NO
SIMPLE SOLUTION TO A PROBLEM AS COMPLEX AS THIS. HERE
AGAIN, IT WILL TAKE A PARTNERSHIP OF PEOPLE REACHING
INTO EVERY NEIGHBORHOOD AND EVERY SCHOOL. AT THE
FEDERAL LEVEL, WE HAVE DEVELOPED A COMPREHENSIVE
NATIONAL DRUG STRATEGY TO ATTACK THIS INSIDIOUS PLAGUE
ON FOUR FRONTS: ENFORCEMENT, INTERDICTION, EDUCATION
AND TREATMENT.
OVER THE PAST YEAR, WE HAVE SENT CONGRESS OUR
PROPOSALS AND MADE PROGRESS IN SOME AREAS. I AM
PLEASED CAPITOL HILL PROVIDED US WITH THE
REINFORCEMENTS WE ASKED FOR: NEW AGENTS, NEW
PROSECUTORS AND NEW PRISONS TO CATCH, CONVICT AND HOLD
THOSE WHO VALUE AMERICA SO LITTLE. BUT THESE NEW
TROOPS CAN'T DO IT ALONE. SIMPLY PUT: WE NEED TOUGHER
LAWS ON THE BOOKS -- INCREASED MANDATORY TIME FOR
FIREARMS OFFENSES. THE DEATH PENALTY FOR ANYONE WHO
KILLS A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER AND NO MORE LOOPHOLES
THAT LET CRIMINALS GO FREE.
- 8 -
WORKING TOGETHER, THE ADMINISTRATION AND CONGRESS
CAN MAKE EVEN MORE PROGRESS. BUT OUR DRUG AND CRIME
PROBLEMS GO BEYOND GOVERNMENT SOLUTIONS ALONE. GETTING
ADDICTS OFF DRUGS OR MAKING SURE HARDENED CRIMINALS DO
HARD TIME WILL TAKE THE COMMITMENT OF EVERYONE WHO
CARES ABOUT THIS COUNTRY. IT WILL TAKE A RETURN TO THE
VALUES THAT HAVE TAUGHT GENERATIONS OF AMERICANS THE
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RIGHT AND WRONG. IT'S NOT AN EASY
ROAD TO TRAVEL BUT IT'S THE SUREST ROUTE TO A DRUG-FREE
AMERICA.
THAT'S WHY, WITH ALL THE FLASH AND FLUFF IN THE
WORLD TODAY, THERE'S SOMETHING WE CAN'T AFFORD TO LOSE
SIGHT OF -- SOMETHING DECEPTIVELY SIMPLE: IT'S WHO WE
ARE THAT MAKES THIS NATION WHAT IT IS.
WE ALL KNOW DEMOCRACY IS MORE THAN THE MACHINERY
OF GOVERNMENT -- MORE THAN JUST A SYSTEM OF CHECKS AND
BALANCES AND CLASHING INTERESTS. MORE THAN ANYTHING
ELSE, DEMOCRACY DEPENDS ON THE DECENCY OF ITS PEOPLE.
- 9 -
AND I'M CONVINCED THAT THERE IS IN THIS COUNTRY A
DEEP RESERVOIR OF DEMOCRATIC DECENCY. A RESPECT FOR
OTHERS. A SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY. A SOLID
RECOGNITION THAT VALUES MATTER. THIS RESERVOIR OF
DECENCY IS THERE FOR US TO DRAW ON -- TO RENEW OUR
DEDICATION TO THE FUNDAMENTAL IDEALS OF FREE
GOVERNMENT.
AND IT'S NOT A MATTER OF EACH INDIVIDUAL WAGING A
LONELY BATTLE AGAINST THE IMPERSONAL FORCES OF SOCIETY.
WE'RE NOT ALONE. THE VALUES I'M TALKING ABOUT HAVE A
HOME IN THE FAMILY. IN OUR CHURCHES. IN OUR
COMMUNITIES.
AND THESE INSTITUTIONS ARE STRONG - -- MUCH STRONGER
THAN THE ALARMISTS OUT THERE WOULD HAVE US BELIEVE.
EACH OF THEM CONTRIBUTES TO OUR PUBLIC LIFE. ENRICHES
IT IN WAYS BEYOND MEASURE. EACH OF THEM MAKES THIS
NATION STRONG. GIVES IT A SENSE OF PURPOSE AND A ROLE
IN THE WORLD.
THIS IS THE CULTURE THAT SUSTAINS US -- THE
CULTURE THAT WE OURSELVES MUST SUSTAIN. //
- 10 -
THAT'S OUR CHALLENGE TODAY. TO SEE THE VALUES AND
INSTITUTIONS THAT ENDURE, BENEATH THE KALEIDOSCOPE OF
MODERN CULTURE. THE AMERICAN PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THERE
ARE NO SNAP ANSWERS -- THAT THE ONLY SOLUTIONS THAT
SUCCEED ARE ONES CONSISTENT WITH OUR CORE VALUES. AND
FOR ALL THE NOISE AND CLATTER OF CONTEMPORARY CULTURE,
THAT'S CAUSE FOR OPTIMISM.
THE CALENDAR OFFERS EACH OF US CONVENIENT LAUNCH
POINTS FOR A FRESH START. SOMETIMES, IT'S A NEW DAY, A
NEW YEAR. NOW, IT'S A NEW DECADE.
THE BEGINNING OF THE '90S INVITES AMERICA TO
CLEARLY PUT ITS SIGNATURE ON THE 20TH CENTURY -- TO
WRITE THE NEXT CHAPTER IN A BOOK OF SPECTACULAR
ACHIEVEMENTS IN FREEDOM, ECONOMICS, HUMAN ADVANCEMENT
AND WORLD LEADERSHIP.
I WELCOME THE '90S WITH OPTIMISM. IT IS AN IDEAL
TIME TO RENEW OUR VOWS AND OUR VALUES. TIME TO LOOK
BEYOND THE NEXT PAYCHECK AND THE NEXT PERSONAL PROBLEM.
TIME INSTEAD TO LOOK TO THE NEXT GENERATION.
- 11 -
I'M OPTIMISTIC ABOUT OUR FUTURE FOR ONE COMPELLING
REASON. TO SUCCEED, WE DO NOT HAVE TO ACQUIRE ANY NEW
QUALITIES. THE COURAGE, INGENUITY, AND COMPASSION THAT
MADE US THE LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD IS STILL IN EVERY
ONE OF US. WE SIMPLY HAVE TO REMEMBER THAT THE
AMERICAN ADVENTURE ISN'T OVER -- IT'S JUST BEGUN. THANK
YOU. GOD BLESS YOU -- AND GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA.
# # #
AMERICAN SPECTATOR ANNUAL DINNER
THE WILLARD HOTEL
JANUARY 22, 1990
7:00 P.M.
THANK YOU, DAVID {MORSE}. AND CONGRATULATIONS ON
THE WONDERFUL WORK YOUR ORGANIZATION -- LIBERTAD -- IS
DOING TO ADVANCE THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM IN THE WORLD.
EINTRODUCTORY ACKNOWL EDGEMENTS. RONALD BURR, PUBLISHER
LET ME RECOGNIZE
OF THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR. LORD HENRY PLUMB, FORMER
PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT. CHARL TON HESTON.
Allansio
REVEREND HIGGINS. SECRETARY CHENEY
THE MANY MEMBERS
Wm Alwater
OF My ADMIN,
GOVERNOR SUNUNU. ] 11
AND our REPUBLICAN
TEAM ON CAPITOC HILL.
ongon Camp Crame land
AND OF COURSE I'M ALWAYS PLEASED TO BE ON BOB
TYRRELL'S KINDER, GENTLER SIDE. // THAT'S HIS RIGHT
Gen. long Westmere
SIDE, OF COURSE. //
I UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS ACTUALLY THE AMERICAN
Lord Plumb
SPECTATOR'S 1989 ANNUAL DINNER. // NOW THAT'S TRUE
ion Burr
CONSERVATISM -- WAIT UNTIL THE YEAR'S COMPLETELY OVER
Frank 5
UNTIL YOU DECIDE WHETHER IT'S WORTH CELEBRATING
David Morse
ABOUT....
// ACTUALLY, I'VE LEARNED TO BE MORE
Mrs. Bush
FORGIVING ABOUT CONFUSIONS INVOLVING THE CALENDAR --
Bob Tyrrell
EVER SINCE I MADE SEPTEMBER 7TH A DATE THAT WOULD LIVE
www.eszczynsk IN INFAMY.
//
Zer. Higgins
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
January 18, 1990
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
THROUGH:
CHRISS WINSTON cw
FROM:
DAN MCGROARTY mich
SUBJECT:
AMERICAN SPECTATOR/LIBERTAD ANNUAL DINNER
I. SUMMARY
On Monday, January 22, at 7:00 p.m. you will address
the American Spectator/Libertad "Celebration of Liberty"
dinner at the Willard Hotel. About 250-300 people are
expected to attend.
Libertad is an organization committed to guaranteeing
commercial free speech around the world. The Chairman,
David A. Morse, will introduce you.
Also attending the dinner will be Lord Henry Plumb,
President of the European Parliament until July 1989.
II. DISCUSSION
The American Spectator prides itself on being a
conservative voice on contemporary culture. Accordingly, we
believe something more innovative than our standard agenda
speech would be well received.
This draft treats familiar topics like education and
homelessness in a somewhat different way -- showing how
modern culture can make it difficult to deal with the real
substance of the problems we face.
If you would prefer to deliver a more straightfoward
talk on the issues, we will be happy to prepare another
draft over the weekend. However, we believe this might
provide an interesting "change of pace" to the past ten days
of "agenda" speeches.
McGroarty/Dooley
January 17, 1990
5:00 pm
[SPEC]
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: AMERICAN SPECTATOR ANNUAL DINNER
THE WILLARD HOTEL
JANUARY 22, 1990
7:00 P.M.
Thank you, David {Morse}. And congratulations on the
wonderful work your organization -- Libertad -- is doing to
advance the cause of freedom in the world. [Introductory
acknowledgements. Ronald Burr, Publisher of the American
Spectator. Lord Henry Plumb, former President of the European
Parliament. Charleton Heston. Reverend Higgins. Secretary
Cheney, Governor Sununu.] //
And of course I'm always pleased to be on Bob Tyrrell's
kinder, gentler side. // That's his right side, of course. //
I understand that this is actually the American Spectator's
1989 annual dinner. // Now that's true conservatism -- wait
until the year's completely over until you decide whether it's
worth celebrating about
// Actually, I've learned to be
more forgiving about these confusions involving the calendar --
ever since I made September 7th a date that would live in infamy.
//
But I am delighted to help celebrate tonight with all of
you. Our nation's intellectual life would be more than a little
poorer without the American Spectator surveying the scene. Your
critical eye helps us see beneath the surface -- beyond the
2
intellectual fads and fashions of the day -- to the ideas and the
enduring values that really matter in our society.
That's a valuable service -- especially today, because
there's a tendency these days to mistake surface appearances for
the substance of things.
Partly, this tendency is the result of the pace of modern
life. We've convinced ourselves that our world is accelerating.
That whatever the issue is, we're running short on time. That's
what matters most today is instant analysis and immediate
response. Accuracy, effectiveness: these are after-thoughts.
This way of responding to our world is strengthened by the
very real advances we've made in defining what people think and
want. Advances that make it easy to forget that it's possible to
observe -- without really understanding.
This tendency affects our public policy. It creates a
strong pressure to go with the surface impression, to look for
the quick fix -- the instant answer. And to question the motives
of anyone who asks us to think twice, or who suggests that things
are more complicated than they seem.
We want solutions today that don't make us wait. We get
bored easily. If we don't like what we see, we hit the channel-
changer -- find something new.
Take an issue like homelessness. There is no condition more
repugnant to democratic values and the dignity of the individual.
And there's no problem more susceptible to misunderstanding.
We've all heard of the law of unintended consequences. Well,
3
what's at work here is what we could call the law of well-
intended consequences.
In some ways, our difficulty in dealing with homelessness
begins with the label -- a label that tells us what the homeless
lack is homes.
But, the problem is far more complex -- more complex because
the real problem of homelessness is not one-dimensional.
Homelessness is most often a symptom of more pervasive problems -
- of drug or alcohol addiction, of mental illness -- conditions
that prevent the unfortunate people we see on the streets from
holding down jobs, caring for their children, keeping a home.
If our policy towards the homeless doesn't treat these
causes -- if it doesn't combine the basic need for shelter with
other support services that reach the real reasons for
homelessness -- all the best intentions and all the housing in
the world won't get the homeless off the street once and for all
and back into society. There is no other way to truly help the
homeless break the grip of life on the streets and live in
dignity. ///
And homelessness isn't the only issue where we want progress
to be quick and easy. Take our schools -- education. There is
no single function more vital to society than what goes on in
that classroom. Cultivating the skills and intellect we need to
succeed in the future. Transmitting our values -- centuries of
experience and hard-won wisdom -- from one generation to the
next.
4
Now the conventional wisdom -- current wisdom, I guess you
call it on the back page of the Spectator -- is that there's
nothing wrong with our schools that can't be corrected, if only
the federal government would just get out that checkbook and
write a check. There's a solution straight out of the consumer
culture: the bigger the price tag, the better the quality. 11
Well, the fact is, we already spend as much or more than the
other industrialized democracies on education -- an average of
almost $4,000 dollars per student each year. And we all know the
results. Our schools aren't making the grade.
So what's wrong? // It's not a question of cash. We've got
to use our resources more wisely -- look to those schools that do
work. Find out why. Translate their success into goals all
schools can aim for -- and then we've got to take two more
crucial steps. We've got to give parents a choice in their
children's schools and we've got to give our schools the freedom
and flexibility they need to strive for higher standards -- and
then hold them accountable. There is no shortcut to better
schools. ///
*****
This desire to skim the surface -- to look for the quick and
easy fix --- goes beyond the public policy sphere. It's part of a
broader impulse in our contemporary culture to confuse what is
merely stylish with what is truly significant.
5
Think about it. We excel today at spotting trends,
conducting polls and market surveys -- figuring out what people
want to buy, what they want to wear, what they want to hear.
There's nothing wrong with that. After all, among other
things, it helps sell magazines. There's nothing wrong at all --
provided we remember that behind all the demographics and market
analyses are flesh-and-blood people. And that each of us is more
than a bundle of wants and needs, conditioned by what we earn,
where we live, and where we went to school. Who we are -- as
individuals and as Americans -- is always more than that.
That's why, with all the flash and fluff in the world today,
there's something we can't afford to lose sight of -- something
deceptively simple: it's who we are that makes this nation what
it is.
We all know democracy is more than the machinery of
government -- more than just a system of checks and balances and
clashing interests. More than anything else, democracy depends
on the decency of its people.
And I'm convinced that there is in this country a deep
reservoir of democratic decency. A respect for others. A sense
of responsibility. A solid recognition that values matter. This
reservoir of decency is there for us to draw on -- to renew our
dedication to the fundamental ideals of free government.
And it's not a matter of each individual waging a lonely
battle against the impersonal forces of society. We're not
1
6
alone. The values I'm talking about have a home in the family.
In our churches. In our communities.
And these institutions are strong -- much stronger than the
alarmists out there would have us believe. Each of them
contributes to our public life. Enriches it in ways beyond
measure. Each of them makes this nation strong. Gives it a
sense of purpose and a role in the world.
This is the culture that sustains us -- the culture that we
ourselves must sustain. //
That's our challenge today. To see the values and
institutions that endure, beneath the kaleidoscope of modern
culture. To see that it's time we get beyond the quick fix --
beyond the Cause-of-the-Month Club mentality that cares more
about finding new problems than solving the old ones. Beyond the
bumper-sticker solutions some people want to slap on the complex
problems facing us today.
And we can get beyond style -- to substance, provided we
enter the great public policy debates of our day with open minds,
and good will.
And provided we do one thing more: play it straight. I
think that's what the American people want. They understand
there are no snap answers -- that the only solutions that succeed
are ones consistent with our core values. If we talk straight,
they won't change the channel. // And for all the noise and
clatter of contemporary culture, that's cause for optimism.
7
Thank you. God bless you -- and God bless the United States
of America.
# # #
McGroarty/Dooley
January 16, 1990
11:00 am
[spec]
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: AMERICAN SPECTATOR ANNUAL DINNER
THE WILLARD HOTEL
JANUARY 22, 1990
7:00 P.M.
Thank you, David {Morse}. And congratulations on the
wonderful work your organization -- Libertad -- is doing to
advance the cause of freedom in the world. [Introductory
acknowledgements. Ronald Burr, Publisher of the American
Spectator. Lord Henry Plum, President of the European
Parliament. Charleton Heston. Reverend Higgins. Secretary
Cheney, Governor Sununu.] //
And of course I'm always pleased to be on Bob Tyrrell's
kinder, gentler side. // That's his right side, of course. //
I understand that this is actually the American Spectator's
1989 annual dinner. // Now that's true conservatism -- wait
until the year's completely over until you decide whether it's
worth celebrating about
// Actually, I've learned to be
more forgiving about these confusions involving the calendar --
ever since I made September 7th a date that would live in infamy.
//
But I am delighted to help celebrate tonight with all of
you. Our nation's intellectual life would be more than a little
poorer without the American Spectator surveying the scene. Your
critical eye helps us see beneath the surface -- beyond the
intellectual fads and fashions of the day -- to the ideas and the
enduring values that really matter in our society.
That's a valuable service -- especially today, because
there's a tendency these days to mistake surface appearances for
the substance of things.
Partly, this tendency is a matter of the pace of modern
life. We've convinced ourselves that our world is accelerating.
That whatever the issue is, we're running short on time. That
what matters most today is instant analysis and immediate
response. Accuracy, effectiveness: these are after-thoughts.
This way of responding to our world is strengthened by the
very real advances we've made in measuring what people think and
want. Advances that make it easy to forget that it's possible to
observe -- without really understanding.
This tendency affects our public policy. It creates a
strong pressure to go with the surface impression, to look for
the quick fix -- the instant answer. And to question the motives
of anyone who asks us to think twice, or who suggests that things
are more complicated than they seem.
We want solutions today that don't make us wait. We get
bored easily. If we don't like what we see, we hit the channel-
changer -- find something new.
Take an issue like homelessness. There is no condition more
repugnant to democratic valeus and the dignity of the individual.
And there's no problem more susceptible to misunderstanding.
We've all heard of the law of unintended consequences. Well,
what's at work here is what we could call the law of well-
intended consequences.
In some ways, our difficulty in dealing with homelessness
begins with the label -- a label that tells us what the homeless
lack is homes. If so -- if that were all there was to the
homeless problem -- then the answer is simple. All we'd need to
eliminate homelessness in America would be more housing --
especially public housing.
The real answer, of course, is far more complex -- more
complex because the real problem of homelessness is not one-
dimensional. Homelessness is most often a symptom of more
pervasive problems -- of drug or alcohol addiction, of mental
illness -- conditions that prevent the unfortunate people we see
on the streets from holding down jobs, caring for their children,
keeping a home.
If our policy towards the homeless doesn't treat these
causes -- if it doesn't combine the basic need for shelter with
other support services that reach the real reasons for
homelessness -- all the best intentions in the world won't help
the homeless get off the street and back into society. ///
And homelessness isn't the only issue where we want progress
to be quick and easy. Take our schools -- education. There is
no single function more vital to society than what goes on in
that classroom. Cultivating the skills and intellect we need to
succeed in the future. Transmitting our values from one
generation to the next. And no enterprise is more fragile:
Centuries of experience -- of the wisdom of great minds -- can be
cast aside, lost in a single generation.
Now the conventional wisdom -- current wisdom, I guess you
call it on the back page of the Spectator -- is that there's
nothing wrong with our schools that can't be corrected, if only
the federal government would just get out that checkbook and
write a check. There's a solution straight out of the consumer
culture: the bigger the price tag, the better the quality. //
Well, the fact is, we already spend as much or more than the
other industrialized democracies on education -- an average of
$100,000 dollars per classroom per year. And we all know the
results. Our schools aren't making the grade.
So what's wrong? // It's not a question of cash. We've got
to use our resources more wisely -- look to those schools that do
work. Find out why. And make those schools the models for a
system that truly serves the needs of all American students. ///
*****
This desire to skim the surface -- to look for the quick and
easy fix -- goes beyond the public policy sphere. It's part of a
broader impulse in our contemporary culture to confuse what is
merely stylish with what is truly significant.
Think about it. We excel today at spotting trends,
conducting polls and market surveys -- figuring out what people
want to buy, what they want to wear, what they want to hear.
There's nothing wrong with that. After all, among other
things, it helps sell magazines. There's nothing wrong at all --
provided we remember that behind all the demographics and market
analyses are flesh-and-blood people. And that each of us is more
than a bundle of wants and needs, conditioned by what we earn,
where we live, and where we went to school. Who we are -- as
individuals and as Americans -- is always more than that.
That's why, with all the flash and fluff in the world today,
there's something we can't afford to lose sight of -- something
deceptively simple: it's who we are that makes this nation what
it is.
We all know democracy is more than the machinery of
government -- more than just a system of checks and balances and
clashing interests. More than anything else, democracy depends
on the decency of its people.
And I'm convinced that there is in this country a deep
reservoir of democratic decency. A respect for others. A sense
of responsibility. A solid recognition that values matter. This
reservoir of decency is there for us to draw on -- to renew our
dedication to the fundamental ideals of free government.
And it's not a matter of each individual waging a lonely
battle against the impersonal forces of society. We're not
alone. The values I'm talking about have a home in the family.
In our churches. In our communities.
And these institutions are strong -- much stronger than the
alarmists out there would have us believe. Each of them
contributes to our public life. Enriches it in ways beyond
measure. Each of them makes this nation strong. Gives it a
sense of purpose and a role in the world.
This is the culture that sustains us -- the culture that we
ourselves must sustain. //
That's our challenge today. To see the values and
institutions that endure, beneath the kaleidoscope of modern
culture. To see that it's time we get beyond the quick fix --
beyond the Cause-of-the-Month Club mentality that cares more
about finding new problems than solving the old ones. Beyond the
bumper-sticker solutions some people want to slap on the complex
problems facing us today.
And we can -- provided we enter the great public policy
debates of our day with open minds, and good will. //
And I think that's what the American people want. I think
they understand there are no snap answers -- that the only
solutions that succeed are ones consistent with our core values.
And
Because I believe this is a message the American people are
ready to hear. If we talk straight, they won't change the
channel. And for all the noise and clatter of contemporary
culture, that's cause for optimism.
Thank you. God bless you -- and God bless the United States
of America.
# # #
american Spectator Dinner
Willard Hotel
NAME
OFFICE
PHONE
Lucy muckerman
W.H.Advance
456-7565
Pamela young
Am. Spec,
243-3733
WHIST, ANDREW
PRESIDENT-LIBERTAD
212.880.4010
DONNA WOOD
LIBERTAD
(212)880-3163
Peggy Dooley
Steven Ross
W.H. Press Achard
WH Speechwitting
456-7750
633-2415
BOBBY CARR
WH Press Duace
447-5091
BOB RISNEY
WHCA
395-5589
Dave Mitter
WHEN
395-6310
MIKE VERDEN
SECRETSERVICE LEAD
395-4011
ChipSmith
USSS
11
"
"
Bernie Murray
WOODY LEE
MILITARY AIDE
456-2150
Proposed Running Sheet
American Spectator/LIBERTAD
'A Celebration of Liberty'
6:30 pm
Cocktail Reception -
VIP's (50 guests) - The Franklin Pierce Room
Other Guests (200)
Pre Function Room
7:00 pm
President arrives - Goes to VIP reception -
Photographs
7:15 pm
All guests in pre function room are requested
to take seats
7:25 pm
President and hosts go to Garfield Room for
10 minutes
7:30 pm
President goes to dais - David Morse
introduces - 5 minutes
7:35 pm
President speaks - 15 minutes
7:50 pm
President leaves
7:55 pm
Dinner commences
8:40 pm
Dessert - Ron Burr introduces F. Shakespeare
3-5 minutes
8:45 pm
F. Shakespeare introduces R. Emmet Tyrrell
3-5 minutes
8:50 pm
R. Emmet Tyrrell speaks
9:05 pm
Coffee and cordials served - 10 minutes
9:15 pm
Entertainment commences - Rachelle Farrel
9:30 pm
INNAFEKT - First Number - 2 minutes
9:30 pm
Gene Harris and Andrew Simpkins Jr. - 5
minutes - up-tempo
9:37 pm
INNAFEKT - 2 minutes
9:39 pm
Gene Harris - 5 minutes Blues
9:44 pm
INNAFEKT - 2 minutes
9:46 pm
Gene Harris - Virtuoso - 3 minutes
9:50 pm
Dance to Gene Donati
10:45 pm
Dinner Concludes
Schedule O.K., but need to work in Charlton Heston
and invocation by The Rev. James Higgins.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
SCHEDULE OF THE PRESIDENT
FOR
DRAFT
WASHINGTON, D.C.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 1990
EVENT:
VIP Reception
The American Spectator Dinner
DRESS:
Men
- Business Suit
Women
- Cocktail Dress
CONTACT:
Office of Presidential Advance
John G. Keller, Jr.
- 202/456-7565
Trip Coordinator
Lucy Muckerman
- 202/456-7565
ADVANCE:
Mark Rosenker
- LEAD
Steven Ross
- PRESS
Mike Verden
- USSS
Sean Byrne
- MIL. AIDE
Bob Risney
- WHCA
WEATHER:
Showers, Mid 50's
SCHEDULE OF THE PRESIDENT
FOR
WASHINGTON, D.C.
MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 1990
6:55 pm
THE PRESIDENT departs White House en route Willard
Hotel.
MOTORCADE ASSIGNMENTS:
Lead
Spare
T. McBride
Doctor
LIMO
THE PRESIDENT
Follow Up
Control
A. Card
S. Rogich
Mil. Aide
Support
M. Fitzwater
J. Parmer
Official Photographer
Medic
Press Van I
J. Allison
Press Van II
(Drive Time: 5 Minutes)
7:00 pm
THE PRESIDENT arrives Willard Hotel and proceeds
to VIP Reception.
Met by:
Mr. Graham Jeffrey
General Manager, Willard Hotel
Mr. Werner Kupper
Director of Catering, Willard Hotel
Mr. David Morse
Chairman, Libertad
Mr. R. Emmet Tyrrell
Editor-in-Chief, American Spectator
EVENT:
VIP RECEPTION
OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHER ONLY
STAFF PHOTO
7:02 pm
THE PRESIDENT arrives VIP Reception and begins
participation in Staff Photo.
7:15 pm
THE PRESIDENT concludes participation in Staff
Photo and proceeds to Off-Stage Announcement Area.
7:17 pm
THE PRESIDENT arrives Off-Stage Announcement Area
and holds briefly.
EVENT:
THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR DINNER
OPEN PRESS
OFF-STAGE ANNOUNCEMENT
REMARKS
TELEPROMPTER
7:18 pm
THE PRESIDENT is announced onto Stage, proceeds to
Seat on Dais and is seated.
7:19 pm Mr. Charlton Heston introduces Mr. Morse
7:21 pm
THE PRESIDENT is introduced for Remarks by Mr.
Morse.
7:25 pm
THE PRESIDENT gives Remarks.
7:40 pm
THE PRESIDENT concludes Remarks, departs Dais and
proceeds to Holding Room.
7:42 pm
THE PRESIDENT arrives Holding Room and holds
briefly.
7:44 pm
THE PRESIDENT departs Holding Room and proceeds to
Motorcade.
7:45 pm
THE PRESIDENT boards Motorcade and departs Willard
Hotel en route White House.
MOTORCADE ASSIGNMENTS:
Same as on Arrival.
(Drive Time: 5 Minutes)
7:50 pm
THE PRESIDENT arrives White House.
THE:AMERICAN
SPECTATOR
The American Spectator
1987
cial, *80% donated money to a politi-
Reader Involvement
cal/charitable group, *29% gave a
Tom Wolfe
speech, *11% lobbied, *8% appeared
Readers of "opinion" magazines are
George Gilder * P. J. O'Rourke
on TV and 18% wrote a book/article
deeply involved with those publications
Brit Hume
*
Erich Eichman
*
Joe Mysak
for publication.
and The American Spectator is no excep-
Jeremy Rabkin * Terry Teachout
With an average family income of
tion. Over 90% of our readers discuss or
Brock Yates * Philip Terzian * Fred Barnes
$65,500, investment portfolio of
take action on articles or advertisements
Neil Howe Mark Falcoff
Vladimir Bukovsky
$302,000 and 88% holding profes-
read in our pages. And 78% state the
sional/managerial positions, it
Spectator influences their opinions.
becomes clear our audience is no aver-
It's not surprising direct response
age one.
advertisers abound in the Spectator
*(Mark Clements Research, 1987.)
because 87% read 4 out of 4 issues,
average time spent with each issue is 1
Magazine Profile
and 3/4 hours and readers refer back to
"Influence sells it." Adweek, "Influ-
a typical issue 4 times!
ential" New York Times,
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one of
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the nation's most energetic and
The American Spectator's readership
sprightly journals of opinion." Time,
Advertising Rates
is national with 90% of subscribers
"
outlined well in advance the
brought in via direct mail. Five percent
Advertising rate for a full page in
logic of this week's 'dramatic' deal."
of all copies are purchased on the news-
The American Spectator is $2,000 black
Wall Street Journal.
stand in the USA and Canada. Annual
and white and $3,800 for 4 Color.
The American Spectator is a lively
subscription price is $24 and over 88%
national opinion monthly, edited by
subscribe without a premium. The
founder R. Emmett Tyrrell, that influ-
magazine is a member of the Audit
ences political and cultural debate.
Bureau of Circulation.
Intellectual, funny, often unpredictable,
With 2.2 readers per copy, the Spec-
and always outspoken, the Spectator
tator offers advertisers over 82,000 lead-
features such writers as Tom Wolfe, P.J.
ers in government, business and
O'Rourke, Fred Barnes, Brit Hume,
journalism. All our readers have a keen
Ben Stein, and Robert Novak.
interest in politics; monitoring not only
Articles, investigative exposes and
what's happening now but more impor-
critical thinkpieces deepen reader's
tantly they read the Spectator to deter-
insight into the problems and issues
mine what may happen next month,
confronting America today. Public
next year, and even the next decade.
figures with widely disparate positions
In addition to subscribers in the White
and viewpoints agree on the importance
House, Senate and Congress, and Federal
of the Spectator to their thinking
agencies, we offer bonus circulation
and understanding.
throughout the year with distribution at
Closely read by the wielders of power
the State Department, Pentagon, and
and influence. Widely quoted by the
numerous association and business con-
molders of taste and opinion. The
ventions in Washington.
American Spectator.
Demographics
Special Advertising
The American Spectator's audience is
one of the most politically active groups
Opportunities
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AMSPEC
TEL No 7032436814
Jan 18,90 11:42 No. 003 P.01/04
THE AMERICAN
SPECTATOR,
1101 N. Highland, P.O. Box 10448, Arlington, VA 22210
(703) 243-3733
FAX #: 703-243-6814
DATE:
18 fanuory 90
TO:
Pessy Dooley
FROM:
Pam Young
NUMBER OF PAGES (INCLUDING THIS SHEET) : 4
COMMENTS:
Editor-in-Chief
14)
Managing Editor
Wanston Plesservaski
AMSPEC
TEL No. 7032436814
Jan 18,90 11:42 No.003 P.02/04
JAN 18 '90 12:27
P.C
04/01/90
10:41
KERR MODES QIL
NO. 512
THE LORD PLUNS 08 COLESHILL DL M&P
Lord Plumb was elected President of the European Parliament in
January 1987 and served until July 1989.
Bo has been the MEP for the Cotswolds since 1979 and was re-
elected in June 1984. and 10 June 1989.
From 1979 to May 1982. he was Chairman of the Perliament's
Agricultural Committee, subsequently & member of the Transport
Committee and he was Chairman of the European Democratic Group
from 1982 until 1987. Since July 1989. he 10 again's member of
the Parliament's Agricultural Committee.
Lord Plumb vas born in 1925 and educated at Analey Church of
England School and KIng Edward School. Nuneaton.
He 10 married with two daughters and A son. He has eight
grandchildren.
He was the second longest serving President of the National
Farmers' Union of England and Wales. holding this position for
nine years and retiring just prior to his election to the
European Parliament.
In 1977. he was the President or the Royal Agricultural Society
of England and was deputy to His Royal Highness. the Prince of
Wales. in 1978. For some years he has acted as Chief Steward to
the International Pavilion of the Royal Show.
(Sure)
Lord Plumb has long been a committed European. and was actively
involved in the 'European League for Economic Co-operation' and
in the 'Britain in Europe' Campaign during Britain's referendum
on membership of the EEC. He Has always seen the Community in
the vider world context and in May 1979. vas elected President
of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers. His
European connections were further widemed by his election as
President from January 1975 to May 1977 of the Comite des
Organisations Professionnelles Agricoles de la CEE (COPA).
Lord Plumb. Knighted is 1973, has received the Order of Merit
from # number of Europeen Countries.
He was created B Life Paer in February 1987 and took his seat
in the House of Lords in April 1987.
Lord Plumb 18 a non axacutive Director of Lloyds Bank. United
Biscuits. Fisons. and Chairman of Angora International pic.
August 1989
AMSPEC
TEL No. 7032436814
Jan 18,90 11:42 No. 003 P.03/04
JAN 18 '90 12:28
The Lord Plumb of Coleshill DL MEP
January 1987-
July
1989 President. European Parliament
1979-1984
Elected Member of the European Parliament for
1984-1989
The Cotswolds. England
1989-1994
1979-1982
Chairman. Agriculture Committee. European
Parliament
1984
Member. Transport Committee. Buropean Parliament
1982-1986
Chairman. Europeen Democratic Group
(Conservative) European Parliament
1989-
Member Agricultural Committee. European
Parliament,
1925
Born. Educated Analay Church of England School.
King Edvard V1 School. Nuneaton
Married with one son and two daughters.
Lord Plumb has eight grandchildren
1970-1979
President. National Farmers' Union of England
and Wales
The second longest serving President who hald the
position for nind years prior to his election to
the European Parliament
1973
Knighted by har Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
1977
Chairmen. Royal Agricultural Society of England
1978
Deputy to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales
For some years. Lord Plumb acted as Chief Steward
at the International Pavilion of the Royal Show
at Stoneleigh, Warvickshire
1975-1977
President. Comite des Organisations
Professionmallee Agricoles de 18 CEE
(COPA) Brussels
1979-1981
President. International Federation of
Agricultural Producers (IFAP) Paris
Lord Plumb has 10hx been a committed European.
and has always seen the Community in the wider
world context
1976
Grosses Verdienstkreuz des Verdienstordens der
Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic
of Germany: Order of Meric)
1987
Orden de Merito (Portugal: Order of Merit)
1987
Created A Life Pear
AMSPEC
TEL No. 7032436814
Jan 18,90 11:42 No 003 P.04/04
10
KERR MCGEE OIL
P.4
90 12. ad
NO.512
P224/034
LORD PLUMB, DL
The Cotswolds
Danmouth House. 2 Queen Anno's Gate,
London. SWIH 9AA.
Tel: 01-222 0411
MEP since June 1979
Born 1925. Married. three children. Farmer in
Warwickshire. President of National Farmers' Union
1970.79. Past President European Parmers'
Federation (COPA). Presidential the International
Federation of Agricultural Producers 1979-82.
President - National Federation of Young Farmers'
Clubs 1976. Independent Chairman - National
Carde Broeders Association. Knighted Juns 1973.
Deputy Liautenant for Warwichshire. Non-Executive
Member of the Board. Lloyds Bank. Fischa and
United Discuits. Awarded Order of Ment West
German Republic 1977. Honotary Director of
Science. Silsoe College of Technology 1984.
Chairman of the European Passiament Agriculture
Committee 1979-82. Chairman of the European
Democratic Group 1982-86. President of the
European Parliament 1987-1969. Elevated to the
peerage BS Lord Plumb of Coleshill, 1987.
Electrone : 558,115
Land Plumn of Colegn (C)
Sandury, Cheltenha-
94,852
Cirencoster & ,
Mrs. St.mb (Green)
49.174
Diaucester.
The ILBUI
18.130
dodny. Stroug. Withe,
1 Rond SLD,
18196
Causen
18.00
A report to the
financial supporters of
DONOR UPDATE
THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION, INC.
Quarter ending September 30, 1989
REPORTING PROGRESS MADE BY SPECTATOR
When the American Spectator left Bloomington, Indiana for
the laid-back Washington D.C. area four years ago, it included
among its primary goals the establishment of an investigative
reporting program, such as the liberals have always had, but with
lots of logic and verifiable facts.
One recent example of an influential
REPRINT
$2.50
Spectator report is "The Asbestos Rip-
THE AMERICAN
Off," the October cover story by Michael
SPECTATOR
Fumento. It disputed the thesis of the
OCTOBER 1989
MONTHLY REVIEW EDITED BY su EMMETT TYRRELL. n.
mainstream media/left-wing journal al-
The Asbestos Rip-Off
liance (if you doubt such an alliance,
by Michael Fumento
see below) that the asbestos in our
schools and other structures is a nation-
al health hazard. Rather, Fumento con-
cludes, current plans to remove asbestos
involve a multi-billion dollar boondoggle
that will end up causing more harm than
good. To date, the Spectator has sold
more than 800 reprints of the report (and
Reader's Digest plans to reprint the ar-
ticle in its January 1990 issue). It was
also the basis of Stephen Chapman's nationally syndicated Chicago
Tribune column, and was cited in many newspapers including the
Kansas City Star and the Baltimore Sun (of special note, TAS has
yet to receive a single rebuttal to any of the points Fumento
raised in his article). And the positive attention the report has
received may be an indication that some buildings will be spared
an expensive and dangerous asbestos abatement order.
NOW, ABOUT THAT ALLIANCE
The Media Research Center (MRC), located in Alexandria, Vir-
ginia, has published a study in its September Media Watch newslet-
ter on how supposedly objective journalists favor left-leaning
journals of opinion for their free-lance material. MRC looked at
the three-year period ending June 1989, and counted the number of
editorials and reports by mainstream journalists (i.e., writers
and executives at Time, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe,
-2-
and so forth) published in America's leading opinion journals.
The liberal New Republic led the field with 112 such articles, the
fellow-travelling Nation ran a substantial 44, and the lunar-left
Progressive tallied 18 pieces with journalistic by-lines. The
American Spectator led all major conservative journals by publish-
ing eleven pieces by mainstream reporters (made possible largely
by the aforementioned move to Washington), followed by Commentary
with five. In addition to commissioning skilled conservative
journalists like Michael Fumento, TAS will continue to seek out
fair and honest reporters, who, in turn, might begin to use fresh
ideas to influence their colleagues.
TAS WRITERS GETTING NOTICED
Two frequent TAS contributors, Dave Shiflett and Michael "I'm
writing asbestos I can" Fumento, have accepted employment with the
Rocky Mountain News in Denver. Both received employment offers in
response to the "Hire Shiflett" and "Fumento for Hire" advertise-
ments that ran in the May and September issues, respectively.
Elizabeth Kristol recently had an editorial published in the
New York Times, entitled "False Tolerance, False Unity" (25 Sep-
tember). It was commissioned by a Times editor who had read and
admired Kristol's TAS article on "feminist herstory" (July 1989).
Similarly, Joe Queenan was called by the editor of the New
York Times "Arts" section, who wanted to commission work by
Queenan after reading his "Quark Bites" article in the March 1989
TAS (Queenan reports that his submissions to the Times had pre-
viously been turned down, even though his work has appeared in the
New Republic, Spy, and Gentlemen's Quarterly).
FORMER STAFFERS REPORT
Andrew Ferguson has left his as-
sistant managing editor post at TAS to
write editorials for the Scripps-Howard
News Service (syndicated in papers
across the country including the Cincin-
nati Post, the Memphis Commercial Ap-
peal, and the Pittsburgh Press), as well
as to devote more time to his freelance
work. Andy arrived at TAS as an
editorial intern in 1984, having spent
some time as a copy editor at Pulp and
Paper magazine. His first article for
TAS was a profile of Leo "Dr. Hug" Bus-
caglia (April 1985), and Andy has been
heaving water balloons at obvious frauds
ever since. While at TAS, Andy also
Andrew Ferguson
-5-
THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR'S WASHINGTON CLUB
The American Spectator's Washington Club is composed of orga-
nizations and individuals who contribute $1,000 to $9,999 yearly
to The American Spectator Educational Foundation. For more in-
formation on the benefits of membership, please call or write
Ronald E. Burr at TAS.
Washington Club members include:
Mr. and Mrs. James A. Abele
H.J. Heinz
John C. Reel
Anonymous
C.T. Hellmuth, CLU, ChFC
Rockwell International
Anonymous
Charlton Heston
Karl Rove
Anonymous
Anonymous
Frank S. Ruddy
ARCO
Household International, Inc.
George S. Saunders, Jr.
The Armstrong Foundation
Inland Container Corporation
Paul J. Schmitt
John B. Bates
Foundation, Inc.
Raymond Shamie
Thomas A. Bolan
Stuart C. Irby, Jr.
Laurence Snelling
William H. Bowen
Phillip Jennings
Roger W. Spencer
Lee C. Bradley, Jr.
Glenn E. Johnson
The Stans Foundation
W.H. Brady Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. Harold Jones
Starr Foundation
Mrs. Thomas Breen
The Joyce Foundation
Benjamin J. Stein
Margaret G. Browne
The Kaltenborn Foundation
Irwin M. Stelzer
Franklin M. Buchta
Kaman Corporation
Joel M. Stern
Dan Burt
Anonymous
Strake Foundation
Forrest W. Byers
Constance Claffey Larcher
Timothy C. Swanson
Curtis Calder
James Lightner
Thomas Tarzian
William Coberly, Jr.
R.J. McCallum
J.M. Bryan Taylor
Clyde G. Culbertson
Anonymous
Thirty Five Twenty
D.J. Culbertson
Mesa Limited Partnership
Peter J. Travers
Harry C. Cushing, IV
Milliken Foundation
Anonymous
Brady W. Dougan
Julie & Arthur L. Montgomery
Anonymous
Roland M. Du Luart
The (Champaign-Urbana)
USG Foundation
The Earhart Foundation
News Gazette
Anonymous
Ford Motor Company Fund
Charles E. Nixon
Michael Valentine
Ellen Garwood
Terence M. Nolan
Russell J. Van
General Motors Corporation
Stanley J. Norton
Coevering, II
Mr. and Mrs. James Gidwitz
Mr. & Mrs. Daniel Oliver
Alex C. Walker
Anonymous
Shane O'Neil
Educational and Chari-
Gleason Memorial Fund, Inc.
William J. O'Neil
table Organization
Francis Goelet
Anonymous
Anonymous
Mr. and Mrs. Victor Gold
Alex Parkhurst
Marguerite Eyer Wilbur
BFGoodrich
Stephen M. Peck
Foundation
Anonymous
Pfizer Inc.
C. Dickerman Williams
Hallie Hargrove
L.E. Phillips Family
Christopher L. Harrop
Foundation, Inc.
Geoffrey B. Haynes
A. Werner Pleus
Robert M. Haynie
PROBE Foundation
-4-
(who also moonlights for TAS) were interviewed live on San Diego's
KFMB-AM radio, minutes before the broadcast of a San Diego Padres-
New York Mets baseball game. Incidentally, the items published in
the special CMP "Current Wisdom" (September) represent a tiny
sampling of the terrified liberal reactions TAS now has on file.
The American Spectator continues to set an example for con-
servative newspapers on college campuses around the country. Stu-
dent papers bearing the title "Spectator" are currently being pub-
lished at Amherst, Brown, Johns Hopkins, the University of Min-
nesota, Vassar, and the University of Washington. Many of these
and other campus-based conservative organizations cannot afford
magazine subscriptions. Perhaps your alma mater has such groups
who would greatly appreciate gift subscriptions of the American
Spectator.
The Spectator's office lease will expire on July 31, 1990.
Due to circumstances beyond its control, the magazine may be
moving. If you are in a position to donate idle office space to
TAS (which plans to remain in the Washington, D.C. environs), it
would help greatly. If you think you may be able to help, please
write or call Ronald E. Burr at the Spectator.
This photograph appeared in
a Ford Foundation newsletter
(which is similar to this one,
but produced on a larger budget),
accompanying an item on The In-
stitute of American Studies in
Beijing. Note that TAS is promi-
nently displayed on the magazine
rack behind the Chinese students.
Note also that it has obviously
been picked up and read many
times, in contrast to the clean,
untouched Nation, for example
(alas, this photo was taken be-
fore the Tiananmen Square
massacre--TAS is now undoubtedly
banned from the racks, while the
Nation has surely become required
reading).
Left to right: Zhang Yi, Mao Yushi,
and zi Zhingyun of the Institute of
American Studies in Beijing, China
*
*
*
-3-
wrote for the Wall Street Journal, National Review, Fortune, City
Paper (Washington, D.C.), and Chicago Times magazine.
Gregory Gutfeld, a 1988 TAS intern, is a screen writer living
in San Mateo, California. He has published several humorous
pieces in the San Francisco Chronicle of late, including a
"report" on "Vietnam Film Stress Syndrome," a form of psychosis
afflicting people who watch too many films about the Vietnam war.
Greg's story was taken seriously by a local television reporter
who called the Chronicle for more details.
Edward McFadden, another 1988 intern, has been in Brussels
since_February working as a-copy editor- at the Wall Street Jour-
nal, Europe. Ed has had two columns published on the Journal's
editorial pages (which consequently appeared in the United States
edition) recently, one on the historic changes in Poland, the
other on the plight of Turkey's refugees fleeing Bulgaria.
Malcolm Gladwell, a former TAS assistant managing editor, at
age 25 is the youngest person to hold the position of science
writer at the national desk of the Washington Post. He was
promoted after serving as a reporter for the Post's Business page
for a little more than a year. His most recent article for the
Spectator is "Risk, Regulation, and Biotechnology" (January 1989).
CONGRESS IN CRISIS
Thanks to special support from an Advisory Group member, the
American Spectator is committed to publishing a series of articles
on one of America's least democratic institutions--the United
States Congress. These articles will identify the sources of our
drift towards non-representative government, and propose remedial
actions. The first two articles in this "Congress in Crisis"
series are "So You Want to Reform Congress?" (Fred Barnes, Septem-
ber), and "Coming to Terms with Campaign Reform" (Robert England,
November). This series represents the Spectator's role in reform-
ing the institution of Congress. As for reforming the individual
Congressmen themselves, TAS will leave this in the hands of
professional witch doctors.
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
The Committee for Monumental Progress (CMP), TAS's recently
organized think-tank dedicated to revamping Mount Rushmore by ap-
pending Ronald Reagan's likeness to South Dakota's most famous
piece of art (see "Ron on the Rock," July 1989), continues to make
waves. The San Francisco Chronicle and the Washington Times have
dutifully kept their readers informed of CMP's activities. And in
August, R. Emmett Tyrrell and CMP executive director David Shanahan
-6-
THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR ADVISORY GROUP
The American Spectator Advisory Group is composed of organiza-
tions and individuals who contribute $10,000 or more per year to the
American Spectator Educational Foundation. Their dedication, as
well as the loyalty of all our contributors and subscribers, enables
us to continue the programs reported in these pages.
Our distinguished group includes:
The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
Anonymous
Adolph Coors Foundation
Theodore Forstmann
Sir James Goldsmith
James J. Griffitts, M.D.
John W. Hanes Foundation
The Grover Hermann Foundation
The J. M. Foundation
Donald and Jeanne Kahn
Michael Keiser
Marquette Charitable Organization
Romill Foundation
The Samuel Robert Noble Foundation
The John M. Olin Foundation
J. Howard Pew Freedom Trust
Sarah Scaife Foundation
Lloyd H. Smith
Anonymous
Raymond G. Sweeney
A. Alfred Taubman
Anonymous
THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION, INC.
1101 N. Highland, P.O. Box 10448, Arlington, VA 22210-1448
703-243-3733
THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION
1101 N. Highland Street
P.O. Box 10448
Arlington, Virginia 22210-1448
703-243-3733
11 January 1990
The American Spectator Educational Foundation is the
501 (c) (3) corporation that publishes the American Spectator.
Founded by R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. in 1967 as a campus magazine
at Indiana University, the publication went national in 1971,
and moved to the Washington, D.C. area in 1985. The Spectator's
mission is to attack and chip away at the "one-party media" that
dominates America. The American Spectator Educational Founda-
tion accomplishes this through its publishing and young journal-
ist training programs.
The humor, irreverence, and lively style of the Spectator
are designed to appeal to a sophisticated audience of writers,
editors, intellectuals, policy makers, and young people. One
out of five of the Spectator's 40,000 subscribers has written an
article or book within the past year. More than 4,000 working
journalists subscribe.
Many of the articles in the Spectator are quoted widely in
the mainstream media and reprinted on op-ed pages. Book pub-
lishers also solicit authors to expand their article theses into
books (three books resulted from Spectator articles last year).
Authors are frequently invited on radio and television interview
programs.
Apart from its editorial goals, the Spectator is also a
launching pad for young journalists. Former Spectator colum-
nists include James Grant (Grant's Interest Rate Observer),
Roger Rosenblatt (former editor of U.S. News and World Report),
Ben Stein (screenwriter for "Mary Hartman" television series),
and George Will (Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist). Former
Spectator staff members have gone on to Scripps Howard News Ser-
vice, Harper's, Insight, the Washington Times, the Washington
Post (science desk), the New York Times, and the Wall Street
Journal. Spectator editor R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. has a syndi-
cated column that is carried by the Washington Post, the New
York Post, Los Angeles Times, and 40 other papers.
Board members include Jeane Kirkpatrick, John Lehman, Frank
Shakespeare, William Simon, and General William C. Westmoreland.
Like all opinion publications the Spectator's circulation,
though influential, is too modest to generate sufficient sub-
scription and advertising revenue to be self-sufficient. There-
fore, the organization relies on contributions. The Spectator's
annual budget is $2 million, half of which is derived from oper-
ating revenue and the other half from contributions.
The American Spectator Educational Foundation, Inc.
The American Spectator Educational Foundation, which
publishes the American Spectator and offers training to
young people interested in journalism careers, was estab-
lished twenty-two years ago with the major objective of
fighting the left-liberal media bias. At the time of its
founding in 1967, the Spectator, an off-campus magazine at
Indiana University, attempted to defuse the influence of the
SDS-controlled student government and the radical un-
derground publications. Today, the Spectator's target is
the one-party media culture that prevails in America.
To accomplish our goals, the Spectator has a two-part
strategy:
First, we try to engage the best writers and reporters
to produce articles that provide a point of view often ig-
nored by the mainstream media. We take pains to ensure that
we maintain a subscriber list that includes influential
people who will read our articles and carry our message
where it might not otherwise be carried. We work to keep
our readers informed on vital issues, aware of the distrac-
tions that busy readers face. To expand our influence, we
try to promote the magazine and its contents to other
media--both print and broadcast.
Second, through our young journalist training program,
we try to discover and create new writers who believe in the
traditional American values and the free-market system. The
challenge is to find young people who want to write, and
then to assist them in becoming good writers. As part of
our program we work with young writers on article ideas,
edit and publish their work, and bring them to the attention
of other editors.
As we move into the 1990's we will continue to make
improvements in both of these approaches, enabling us to
reduce further the media bias that has dominated this coun-
try for so long.
page 10
The American Spectator Educational Foundation, Inc.
Officers
President and Chairman: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.
Vice Chairman: Hon. Frank Shakespeare
Secretary-Treasurer: Ronald E. Burr
Board of Directors
Jerry Gerde
Robert Groseth
Peter Hannaford
David W. Henderson
Hon. Jeane Kirkpatrick
John F. Lehman, Jr.
Shane O'Neil
Henry Regnery
Hon. William E. Simon
Dr. Alan Somers
Thomas Tarzian
Gen. William C. Westmoreland (Ret.)
The American Spectator
Educational Foundation
Prospectus
SUMMARY
The American Spectator Educational Foundation is a 22-
year-old 501 (c) (3) corporation that publishes the American
Spectator and trains young journalists for careers in the
media. The Spectator has an influential circulation--one
in five readers has written an article or book within the
past year. It is widely quoted and its writers are invited
to appear on radio and television programs. Many young
journalists have gained experience at the magazine and have
gone on to work and write for other publications, including
the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New
York Times.
Since our founding in 1967, a major objective of the
American Spectator has been to combat the left-liberal bias
that dominates so much of the media. When we were an off-
campus magazine at Indiana University, our goal was to
counter the official student newspaper and the radical un-
derground publications. Today, our target is the one-party
media culture dominating America.
Our strategy is two-fold. First, we publish the best
magazine possible, one filled with articles that provide a
point of view often ignored by the major media. By
maintaining a quality subscriber list, we ensure that these
articles are read by influential people. We constantly
work to keep on top of important subjects so we can compete
with the distractions that busy readers face. And we try
to promote the magazine and its contents to other media--
both print and broadcast--to increase our influence.
The second part of our strategy is to discover and
create new writers. This is more challenging and extremely
difficult to measure, yet it is one of the accomplishments
of which we are proudest. The challenge is to find people
who want to write, and assist them in becoming good
writers. To that end, we work with them on article ideas,
edit and publish their work, and promote them to other
editors.
As we look to the future, we must continue to make im-
provements in both of these strategic approaches. We must
-2-
be aware that we live in a highly competitive world and
that the American Spectator competes not only with other
magazines but also with all sorts of non-reading ac-
tivities. If we are to continue to work toward the goal of
a two-party media, we must build on our past successes,
making the Spectator into the premier opinion magazine of
the 1990s-one that the future generation of writers and
opinion leaders read and take seriously.
This prospectus outlines our plans for accomplishing
this, including a description of our five-part program to
improve the magazine and develop more writers. This pro-
gram includes: increasing our article budget to encourage
writers to stay with the trade and write well; hiring a
young person to serve as roving correspondent and gain
writing experience and valuable exposure; expanding our in-
tern program to include six interns and a full-time person
to train them; publicizing the articles in every issue of
the Spectator and arranging for reprints of the articles as
well as radio and television interviews for the authors;
and improving the reporting in the magazine by hiring a
full-time staff reporter.
The American Spectator Educational Foundation's annual
budget is $2 million, of which $800,000 is provided by con-
tributions. (The rest is from subscription and advertising
revenue.) The expansion program described in this proposal
will cost an additional $500,000 annually.
BACKGROUND
The American Spectator was founded in 1967 by R. Em-
mett Tyrrell, Jr. as an off-campus magazine at Indiana Uni-
versity. Opposed to radicalism and the SDS-controlled stu-
dent government, the Spectator also served as virtually the
only forum on campus for free enterprise and democratic
values. In 1971 we launched the magazine as a national
publication and it grew into an influential opinion maga-
zine. Four years ago we moved from Bloomington, Indiana,
to the Washington, D.C. area.
Like all opinion publications, the Spectator's sub-
scription and advertising revenues are insufficient to
cover costs and we must depend on the financial support of
interested foundations, corporations, and individuals.
Other publications that rely on similar financial support
include Mother Jones, the Nation, the New Republic, Com-
mentary, the Washington Journalism Review, Harper's, and
National Review. The trade magazine Folio reports that
consumer magazines must have a circulation of approximately
300,000 to break even. No opinion publication comes close
to this figure. Consequently, all need support from
wealthy owners, outside individuals, interested readers, or
academic institutions.
PROGRAM SUCCESS
Circulation
Over the years the Spectator has developed a quality
circulation. Today it stands at 40,000 throughout the
United States and in over 50 countries. The magazine has a
constituency of influential readers. One in five, for in-
stance, has written an article or book within the past year
and over 4,000 working journalists subscribe. The Spec-
tator is read in the editorial offices of virtually every
major daily newspaper in the United States. The magazine
is also listed in the Reader's Guide to Periodical Litera-
ture. This popular index is used for research by every
-4-
serious high school and college student in the United
States. Indexing of the Spectator increases our library
readership, and it exposes thousands of students to our
ideas.
Articles
The magazine has published many important articles and
investigative studies that have received widespread atten-
tion over the past two decades. These articles have been
reprinted on the op-ed pages of newspapers, discussed in
the news pages of magazines and major newspapers, mentioned
on radio and television broadcasts, and even reprinted in
books. Many of the articles have been on the cutting edge
of political and social debates.
Four years ago we relocated from Indiana to the Wash-
ington, D.C. area. Since the move, the magazine is having
more of an impact on journalists and policy-makers. The
Washington Post mentions the Spectator almost monthly. Our
editor, R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., managing editor, Wladyslaw
Pleszczynski, and writers such as William Tucker are fre-
quently invited to appear on television programs, including
CNN News, C-SPAN interview programs, "Nightline, "MacNeil-
Lehrer Newshour, " "Good Morning America, and others. And
European and Asian journals, including a number of un-
derground publications in Communist countries, translate
and reprint articles.
Our writers are also invited to write books based on
their Spectator articles. Stein and Day invited William
Tucker ("The Unjust World of Bernhard Goetz, " April 1985)
to write a book based on his article on Bernhard Goetz;
Random House asked Sheldon Kelly ("Kris Kristofferson in
Sapoa, " August 1988) to write on his experiences in
Nicaragua; and Harper & Row asked Micah Morrison ("While
Yellowstone Burned," November 1988) to write on the Yellow-
stone fires and the environmental movement.
Interns
The Spectator has been highly successful at training
young journalists for media careers. Former staffers have
gone on to influential positions at Harper's, the New York
Times, the Washington Times, the Washington Post, and other
publications (a list is in the appendix). Our last intern,
Edward McFadden, recently accepted a position on the
editorial page of the Wall Street Journal/Europe. He is
the third Spectator intern to work for the Journal.
-5-
Now that we are in Washington we have more op-
portunities to hire interns. As time goes on, I think we
can bring more young people through our shop, provide them
with valuable training, and help them advance their jour-
nalism careers.
FUTURE PLANS
When we began the Spectator, twenty-two years ago, our
strategy was to counter the dominance of the left on campus
through publication of the Spectator and by training of
young writers. Today, our goals are similar; however, we
are working with a national problem, rather than a local
one. Our future plans call for us to build on our success
over the past two decades and we plan to do this with a
two-part strategy to combat liberal dominance of the media.
As you well know, there is a serious problem of media
bias in this country. We have a two-party political system
but a one-party media. Our values and views are frequently
confined to one major newspaper, the Wall Street Journal,
while the remainder of the media are dominated by the left.
For years, many of us have been concerned with this prob-
lem. Unfortunately, the causes of media bias are complex
and there is no single solution on how to correct it. How-
ever, the Spectator can do its part to contribute to the
solution.
Our strategy is two-fold:
1) By publishing reports and presenting views unavail-
able in the mainstream media, the Spectator adds to diver-
sity in the media. The more the magazine is read and the
more its ideas appear in other publications, the less
monolithic are the liberal media;
2) By creating young writers, we make sure we have a
larger stable of writers for not only the Spectator but
other publications. Developing young writers lessens the
liberal hegemony over the media and it also builds for the
future.
No single organization can overcome media bias alone,
but the American Spectator Educational Foundation can help
change the balance and, along with other organizations,
help develop a "two-party media" in the United States.
Here are our plans for the next four years for the role we
can play toward achieving this goal.
-6-
Articles
We must continue to publish the best articles possible
and attract new writers. To do this we must be able to pay
more for articles as well as editing costs. Our present
annual editing and article budgets of $72,000 and $79,000,
respectively, are too modest.
Here is a description of how we acquire articles for
the Spectator, followed by a review of what could be done
were more money available.
The articles in the Spectator can generally be clas-
sified into three types. The first are pieces written by
established (and usually well-known) writers like Tom
Wolfe, P.J. O'Rourke and Paul Johnson. Such pieces require
little of our editing time but these writers command high
(for us) article fees of $500 and upward. The second type
are articles from beginning or less well-known journalists
who write interesting and persuasive pieces and require
modest to heavy editing. These article fees are lower,
perhaps in the $250 range, but the editing cost, in terms
of time, labor, and revisions is much higher than that of
the first group. The third group comprises investigative
pieces. For these pieces, the ability to collect data,
devote time to travel (if necessary), research, and inter-
views, is more important than writing skills. Such arti-
cles are usually lengthy, and include some of the more
memorable pieces we have published. However, they often
require extensive editing rewriting by our staff. They
are, obviously, the most time consuming and costly to pub-
lish in terms of editorial staff time.
Articles usually begin with our editors discussing
ideas with writers. In the case of a well-known writer
this initial approach might involve travel and entertain-
ment. For instance, editor Tyrrell traveling to New York
to have dinner with Tom Wolfe to ask him to write a piece
for the Spectator. With other writers it might involve a
telephone call from managing editor Wladyslaw Pleszczynski.
After the piece is commissioned and the manuscript is
received revisions are often suggested. Then our staff
edits the revised manuscript. As mentioned earlier, some
articles require few changes, but most require diligent
editing, line by line, with a goal of making the writing
clear, crisp, and lively. Care is also taken to avoid
changing the author's meaning in any way, and, where pos-
sible, to preserve his distinctive voice, since unlike some
other intellectual reviews, the American Spectator strives
to be hospitable to a variety of prose and intellectual
styles. All facts are checked and the article is proofread
-7-
for spelling errors a minimum of five times by at least
four different readers. Finally all revisions are reviewed
with the author for his final approval. Often when working
with young writers we instruct them on how to compose arti-
cles, and explain the reasons for revisions or editorial
changes. The goal is to publish the best articles possible
and, in the case of new writers, assist them in developing
their writing talent.
We propose paying more for articles and editing to:
1) improve the quality of writing in the Spectator; and 2)
develop beginning writers. Here is an elaboration.
1) Improve the quality of writing in the Spectator.
We are in a competitive environment and we need to com-
pensate writers so that they can devote enough time to
pieces that are well thought out and well researched. Jude
Wanniski, in his 1989 Media Guide, reports that there is
always one "must read" article in the (Spectator). With
greater resources we could expand from one "must read arti-
cle" into several articles every month that no one could
afford to miss.
Furthermore, publications like the Washington Post
reprint articles from the Spectator not because the Spec-
tator is conservative but because it is uniquely informa-
tive. Publishing the best articles possible will encourage
more reprints and discussion of articles.
Finally, offering a more competitive fee would allow
the Spectator articles to be more timely. We would be bet-
ter able to solicit articles and get people to write pieces
on short notice and meet their deadlines.
2) Develop beginning writers. The American Spectator
discovers and creates new writers. We find people who want
to write and then help them become writers. But writing
takes a great deal of time and diligent effort, and our
challenge is to encourage young writers to stay with the
trade. Higher article fees will help make writing an at-
tractive vocation or avocation for intelligent young con-
servatives. Just as the Reagan Administration had dif-
ficulty luring people away from lucrative private-sector
jobs, we have a similar problem enticing people to write
when they can spend their time in more remunerative pur-
suits.
The development of writers is critical to the nation's
intellectual vitality. Writers are always on the cutting
edge of changing the world. The question is: How do we
-8-
make sure our intellectuals and writers are the ones who
are changing the world? How do we bring promising young
people into the profession, and then make sure they stay
there? When Adam Meyerson came to the American Spectator
in 1974, he was a young college graduate who had supported
George McGovern. Now he is the editor of the Heritage
Foundation's Policy Review and one of the most talented
young journalists of his generation. Perhaps Adam would
have achieved his position without the American Spectator,
but it is also possible he would be a liberal college
professor or a non-political attorney. In many ways we
cannot prove that we develop individual writers, nor can we
really tell you how. But there are once-uncommon ideas
that today are common thanks to the American Spectator; and
that work continues not only through the Spectator itself
but also through other publications and institutions where
American Spectator graduates work. Our goal is to continue
to develop writers, and more of them.
To accomplish these two objectives we need to put more
money into article fees and editing. We need to pay more
for well-known writers so we can get them to contribute to
our pages. We do not necessarily have to compensate lesser
known writers and investigative reporters more, but in or-
der to bring their work up to the American Spectator's
standards, we need to put more resources into editing.
Presently our annual article budget is $72,000 ($6,000 an
issue) and our editing budget is $79,000. Roughly $1 is
spent on editing for every $1 spent on article fees. To
improve our articles and writing talent we propose increas-
ing our article budget to $120,000 and our editing budget
to $130,000 for a total increase of $99,000. We believe
that this would provide us with the resources to achieve
these goals. (Budgets for this and the following projects
are in the appendix.)
Roving Correspondent
On May 1 we hired Micah Morrison as the American Spec-
tator's roving correspondent. He will write six major
pieces for the Spectator over the next twelve months, and
the remainder of his time can be used to write for other
publications and for work on his two books. We will pub-
licize his articles, encourage newspapers to reprint or
discuss them, arrange radio and television interviews with
Micah, and do our best to establish his reputation as an
up-and-coming young writer. Again, the left does this
repeatedly with such writers as Michael Kinsley, James Fal-
lows, Nicholas Lehman, and other talented young journalists
-9-
who have come out of the Washington Monthly. This project
provides us an opportunity to advance the career of a young
writer who is pro-American and who appreciates liberty and
the free-market system. It also improves the coverage of
important events in the magazine. The cost of this project
is $30,000, and it is close to being completely funded.
Intern Program
As already mentioned, our intern program has been one
of our most successful undertakings, with graduates in
positions of influence in major media. We would like to
expand the program to provide opportunities for more young
people. When we were located in Bloomington we had one
full-time intern on our staff; now that we are in Washing-
ton we have three. Our experience is that there is a maxi-
mum number of interns we can take on at one time without
overwhelming our staff. The weakness of the program now is
that during the last two weeks before printing, our
editors' first priority is the production of the magazine,
and working with interns is on a time-available basis.
However, we believe we could take up to six interns if we
expanded and formalized our program. We need to hire a
full-time supervisor to administer the program, assign
writing assignments and other tasks to interns, and find
them positions after graduation from our program. This
person would also have editorial responsibilities and per-
form line editing and proofreading chores, relieving manag-
ing editor Wladyslaw Pleszczynski and assistant managing
editor Andrew Ferguson of some of these mundane chores,
while freeing them to do serious work with the interns. In
essence, we would be setting up a mini-graduate school in
journalism for young, pro-American journalists.
In addition to the daily training, we would also con-
duct monthly seminars in the office, inviting prominent
journalists from news organizations like the Wall Street
Journal, the New York Times and Scripps Howard to speak to
the interns. This would provide the interns with an op-
portunity to see, meet, and talk to people who live and
work in the journalism world. Furthermore, good training
is useless if these young people have no place to go after
finishing the program. Monthly seminars, and the network
it would establish, would help improve our ties with estab-
lished journalists and help ensure future placement of in-
terns.
The cost of the program, including an additional full-
time editor/instructor, salaries for six interns, and of-
fice space would be $211,000.
-10-
Reprints and Publicity
One of our goals is to make the Spectator an important
source of news by generating print and broadcast publicity
based on the articles in each issue. We would accomplish
this by hiring a public relations consultant and part-time
secretary to promote reprinting of articles, arrange radio
and television interviews with the authors, and get each
issue into the hands of individuals affected by the arti-
cles. As a special test of this, we hired Hugh C. Newton,
a long-time public relations consultant, to promote James
Ring Adams's article on Jim Wright and Tony Coelho's in-
volvement in the Savings and Loan crisis. Thanks to this
effort, as well as the timeliness of the issue, James Ring
Adams was interviewed on almost 200 radio programs. If we
had the staff and regular consulting assistance we could
get more of our articles discussed in major media and more
authors interviewed on radio and television, enhancing
their reputations. Psychology Today generates at least one
AP or UPI national story every month through public rela-
tions efforts. Forbes has one person on its staff who does
nothing but arrange radio interviews for their writers
every issue. The New Republic has a full-time public rela-
tions person on staff. If the Spectator engages in similar
efforts it would convey our ideas to a wider audience, help
change the direction of public debate, and publicize our
writers, thereby helping them to establish reputations and
stature. A public relations consultant, a part-time secre-
tary on our staff to assist the consultant with mailings,
telephone calls and other chores, postage, mailing, and
other costs come to $90,000 annually.
Improve Reporting
Over the past twenty years the Spectator has appealed
to readers with wide-ranging political views. According to
a readership survey, over 20 percent of our subscribers
disagree with the articles in the Spectator. In the future
we want to maintain this audience and make the Spectator
into a publication that must be read by those having
political values different from ours. One way of achieving
this is to improve our reporting.
One of the shortcomings of conservative publications
has been a reluctance to run reporting in their pages.
Conservatives have a tendency to dismiss reporting as a
liberal occupation, yet they complain incessantly about
liberal bias in the media. By keeping out of the fray,
conservative journalism often amounts to nothing more than
-11-
"armchair commentary," with little reporting to support the
opinion. Since coming to Washington four years ago we have
made a conscious effort to take advantage of our location
and increase the amount of reporting in the magazine. For
example, ABC News reporter Brit Hume's September 1987 arti-
cle on the Iran-contra hearings received a considerable
amount of attention and publicity. Ace Washington reporter
Fred Barnes's devastating profile of Senator Paul Trible
("Senator Jello,' October 1987) is still a hot topic in the
current Virginia gubernatorial campaign.
However, because of the small number of people on our
staff, most of our editors' time is spent producing the
magazine every month and writing in the Spectator is done
by individuals outside the organization. In many cases, we
are at their mercy when it comes to covering specific
stories, since outsiders are notorious for writing about
subjects of their choice, not their editors.' This often
prevents us from covering a story because we have no one on
the staff whom we can assign to it, no questions asked.
Moreover, assignments of this sort are often time consuming
because of the amount of background work required. (For
instance, the Washington Post assigned a reporter we know
to write an article on the Fairfax County Hospital monopoly
and told him to devote three months exclusively to re-
search, investigation, and interviews.)
We propose hiring a full-time reporter to cover events
for the American Spectator. He or she would be available
to report on such topical events as personnel problems at
the State Department or the increasing involvement of Con-
gress in scientific inquiry, as well as to undertake long-
term projects such as an investigation of the wasteful
policies of the Department of Health and Human Services or
the cooperation of the Food and Drug Administration in the
pesticide scares.
We envision this person working full-time on the staff
of the American Spectator. He or she would attend
editorial meetings and work under the direction and guid-
ance of editors Tyrrell and Pleszczynski. The reporter
would be responsible for ten articles a year, or roughly
one an issue. Three of the articles would be major
reports. Most of the work would be done out of our Wash-
ington area office, however some travel would be necessary
as well as expenses for the purpose of interviewing people.
This project would improve the magazine editorially.
Many of the reports that should be written will get done.
And this would give us an opportunity to develop and train
a young reporter. We have had three former staffers go on
-12-
to the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal. This
would give us an opportunity to develop a reporter for the
Journal or other newspaper. The cost is $74,500.
Here is a summary and annual costs of our five-part
program to improve the Spectator and develop more young
writers:
Increase article payments
$ 99,000
Add roving correspondent
30,000
Expand intern program
211,000
Promote TAS articles and writers
90,000
Improve reporting in TAS
74,500
Total
$504,500
Summary
Our total budget is $2 million this year and we must
raise $800,000 in contribution revenue. Furthermore, to
undertake our expansion plans, we need to raise $500,000
annually for the projects described above. We hope to have
the additional sources of funds to phase in each of the
above programs within four years.
Liberal and Conservative Opinion Publications
in the United States
Liberal
Circulation
Conservative
Circulation
America
34,800
The American Spectator
39,300
Antioch Review
4,100
Commentary
36,200
The Center Magazine
17,900
National Review
124,900
Columbia Journalism Review
32,000
Policy Review
20,000
Commonweal
19,200
The Public Interest
7,600
228,000
Democracy
8,800
Dissent
6,400
Foreign Affairs
85,500
Foreign Policy
20,400
Free Inquiry
9,300
The Humanist
15,200
In These Times
29,700
Mother Jones
174,700
Ms.
513,700
The Nation
92,000
The New Leader
19,200
The New Republic
99,600
The New York Review of Books
116,800
Partisan Review
7,500
The Progressive
32,100
Rolling Stone
780,700
The Village Voice
150,000
Washington Journalism Review
18,000
The Washington Monthly
25,400
Working Papers
12,000
Worldview
16,300
2,341,300
PRESENT POSITIONS OF FORMER AMERICAN SPECTATOR STAFF
Joseph P. Duggan
Special Assistant to Ambassador Edward
Rowny, U.S. Department of State
Erich Eichman
Managing Editor, the New Criterion
Vincent Fitzpatrick
Assistant Editor, American Life League
Susan France
Associate Editor, Reader's Digest
Malcolm Gladwell
Reporter, the Washington Post
Joyce Goldberg
Assistant Professor, University of
Texas at Arlington
Greg J. Gutfeld
Hollywood scriptwriter
Alan Keyes
Candidate for United States Senate
from Maryland, 1988
Liz Lilla
Senior Editor, Insight
Edward S. McFadden
Copy Editor, the Wall Street Journal,
European edition
William McGurn
Washington Bureau Chief, National
Review
Adam Meyerson
Editor, Policy Review
Steven Munson
News Special Chief, Voice of America
John Podhoretz
Assistant Managing Editor, the
Washington Times
Andy Stark
Policy Advisor, Office of the Prime
Minister, Canada
Richard Starr
Assistant Managing Editor, Insight
John Thomas
Reporter, Alexandria Gazette
PRESENT POSITIONS OF FORMER AMERICAN SPECTATOR COLUMNISTS
Robert Asahina
Senior Editor, Simon and Schuster
Martha Bayles
Television Critic, the Wall Street
Journal
Fred Barnes
Senior Editor, the New Republic
FORMER COLUMNISTS, CONTINUED
James Grant
Editor and Publisher, Grant's Interest
Rate Observer
John O'Sullivan
Chief Editorial Writer, the London
Times
Roger Rosenblatt
Editor, U.S. News and World Report
Peter Rusthoven
Washington Counsel, NASA to Space,
Counsel to Congressional Committee on
NASA
Benjamin Stein
Television scriptwriter and author
George Will
Columnist, ABC Television News
Commentator and author
WRITERS FORMERLY WITH THE REAGAN ADMINISTRATION
Kenneth Adelman
Director, Arms Control & Disarmament
Agency
Elliott Abrams
Assistant Secretary of State for
Inter-American Affairs
Aram Bakshian, Jr.
Director of Speechwriting for the
President
Christopher Buckley
Speechwriter for the Vice-President
James L. Buckley
Federal Judge on D.C. Court of
Appeals
Christopher DeMuth
Administrator for Information and
Regulatory Affairs, Office of
Management and Budget
Terry Eastland
Director of Communications, Justice
Department
Edward Erler
Head of Bicentennial Management
Committee
Chester Finn
Assistant Secretary of Education,
Educational Research & Improvement
Francis Fukuyama
State Department Policy Planning
Staff
Carl Gershman
President of National Endowment for
Democracy
Joshua Gilder
Speechwriter for the President
Victor Gold
Adviser to the Vice-President;
National correspondent for
Washingtonian magazine
Charles Horner
Associate Director of Programs, U.S.
Information Agency
Constance Horner
Director, Office of Personnel Man-
agement
Robert Kagan
Special Assistant to Secretary of
State for Inter-American Affairs
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Ambassador to the United Nations
(over, please)
-2-
William Kristol
Chief of Staff, Department of Educa-
tion
John Lehman
Secretary of the Navy
Daniel Pipes
Special Advisor to the Counselor,
Department of State
Richard Pipes
National Security Council Senior
Staff, Eastern Europe and the Soviet
Union
Peter Rodman
Senior Deputy for National Security
Affairs, Foreign Policy, White House
Eugene Rostow
Director, Arms Control & Disarmament
Agency
William J. Schneider, Jr. Under Secretary for Security As-
sistance, State Department
Joseph Shattan
Policy Advisor to the Secretary of
Education
Mary Tedeschl
Speechwriter for the Secretary of
State
Wayne Valis
Special Assistant to the President
PRESENT POSITIONS OF
THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR
SUMMER INTERNS
J. Anthony Daniel
Graduate student, University of
Southern California film school
Joseph W. DeBolt, Jr. Business assistant, the American
Spectator
Gary Feld
Graduate student, Boston University,
studying political science
Holly Hamilton
Sophomore, Wellesley College, majoring
in economics
Shawna Hornsby
Senior, Indiana University, majoring
in journalism and Latin
Marcia Kurop
Sophomore, Harvard University
majoring in classics and government
Alex Linder
Intern, Evans & Novak
William Linsenmeyer
Legislative analyst, The Legislative
Digest
Eric Ueland
Legislative analyst, Senate Republican
Policy Committee
The American Spectator
*Subscriber Profile
(Past twelve months)
Read 4 out of 4 issues
87%
Average time spent with each issue
1 3/4 hours
Professional/Managerial
88%
College educated
94%
Male
88%
Wrote an article or book for publication
18%
Discussed or took action based on articles
read in the Spectator
90%
Participated in public policy activities
91%
Wrote to editor of newspaper/magazine
34%
Wrote to a public official
48%
Sent telegram to public official
5%
The Spectator positively influences
my opinion
78%
Lobby for an interest or cause
11%
Appeared on radio/TV in the past
8%
Testified before a legislative body
4%
Gave a speech
29%
Involved with legislation/policy making
13%
Average number of books purchased/read
in past year
52
* Mark Clements Research, 1987
THE PRESS
TIME
MARCH7, 1977
ALTERNATIVE:
SPECTATOR
RICH FAVERTY
EDITOR R. EMMETT TYRRELL JR. WIPES HIS BROW ON THE HANDBALL COURT
separation of church and state. In fact,
if the Alternative has a guiding philos-
God and Man in Bloomington
ophy, it is little more than a disgust for
hypocrisy, utopian social engineering
and bad writing. Says Tyrrell: "We are
One day in 1966, National Review
field (son of Urbanologist Edward),
not after the right-wing yahoos or the
Editor William F. Buckley Jr. opened
Managing Editor Adam Meyerson (son
left-wing zealots."
his mail to find a check for $264,000.
of centrist Educator Martin), Contrib-
Still in Bloomington, Ind., the site
The sender was R. (for Robert) Emmett
utor Benjamin Stein (son of Economist
of the university, Tyrrell, 34, and his sev-
Tyrrell, a graduate student about to
Herbert).
en-member staff occupy a closet-sized
launch the Alternative, a right-wing cam-
In appearance the Alternative might
office above an Indian import store over-
pus newspaper at Indiana University.
be taken for a Department of Commerce
looking the Monroe County Courthouse.
Tyrrell had perhaps $27 in his bank ac-
bulletin printed on white bread, but its
The editor's office is guarded by a life-
count at the time, but he liked Buck-
opinions are couched in some of the live-
size papier-mâché statue of (who else?)
ley's magazine and was stirred by a no-
liest prose since the passing of H.L.
H.L. Mencken, a gift of Timothy Moy-
tice to subscribers that the weekly was
Mencken. Tyrrell's own monthly col-
nihan (Daniel Patrick's son). Tyrrell.
$264,000 in debt.
umn seethes with Menckenesque mal-
whose wealthy grandfather was the
Buckley never cashed the check, but
ice toward such figures as Playboy's
manufacturer of Crown gas ranges,
he made the acquaintance of his whim-
Hugh Hefner ("the Lutheran philoso-
plays vigorous handball each afternoon
sical would-be benefactor. When Tyrrell
pher"), Fanne Fox ("the Washington so-
and commutes by red Mercedes the two
decided to go national with his paper in
cialite") and Mao Tse-tung ("perhaps
miles to his rambling eleven-room
1970, Buckley lent-advice and encour-
the greatest statesman since Adolf Hit-
house, where he lives in country-gen-
agement and, before you could say Ed-
ler assumed room temperature"). Tyr-
tleman comfort with his wife Judy, their
mund Burke, the Alternative had become
rell's view of the Inauguration: "A new
son Patrick Daniel (named after Sen-
one of the nation's most energetic and
Government took office in Washington,
ator Moynihan). 3. and a bulldog called
sprightly journals of opinion. Though its
not via bayonets and tanks as is the cus-
Irving Kristol.
subscribers number only 15,000, they in-
tom in some of the world's capitals [but]
Ultimate Delusion. Unlike other
clude such influential citizens as Ron-
in the Democratic Way
via hyper-
modestly successful editors. Tyrrell has
ald Reagan, former Treasury Secretary
bole, sham. melodrama and public-spir-
no plans to widen his magazine's au-
William Simon and current Energy Czar
ited mendacity." To Tyrrell, "few pols
dience. "We aim to be read intensively,
James Schlesinger.
have ever been more banal, more tedious
not extensively," says he. "No little mag-
Liveliest Prose. For $10, the faith-
and more stupendously uninteresting"
azine alive is financially viable unless it
ful receive ten times a year a 40-page
than Jimmy Carter, whom he has
is trash. I successfully deluded myself
compendium of essays, satires. diatribes,
dubbed "a grinning dunce."
into thinking I would get good writers
as well as acid-etched reviews of books,
In recent issues, the magazine has
and the readership of intellectuals. No
movies and saloons (recent recommen-
argued that school busing is inherently
use going for the ultimate delusion that
dation: Delisa's Bungalow Beer Garden
racist, that the Red-hunting of the Mc-
we could make money." Little danger
in south St. Louis). The Alternative's
Carthy era was justified and that crim-
of that: the magazine. which was sub-
list of contributors reads like a Who's
inal court judges are overawed by psy-
titled An American Spectator in 1974 in
Who of the American right and cen-
chiatry. The Alternative's Harold Rob-
admiration of Britain's conservative
ter. Among them are Buckley, Public
bins Award for the worst book of 1976
Spectator, loses about $150.000 a year.
Interest Co-Editor Irving Kristol, Har-
was bestowed on Lillian Hellman's
The Alternative's tiny readership is so
vard Government Professor James Q.
Scoundrel Time (previous winner: The-
loyal, however, that annual deficits are
Wilson, Senator Daniel Patrick Moy-
odore H. White's Breach of Faith). Yet
met through periodic appeals to sub-
nihan and Social Theorist Sidney Hook.
the magazine has also discoursed with
scribers, and it is not impossible that
The masthead is a Who's Who of their
a minimum of polemic-though some-
some sympathetic young reader may
children: Senior Editor William Kristol
times at unnecessary length-on NATO,
some day be moved to mail Tyrrell a
(Irving's son), Art Adviser Elliott Ban-
the guaranteed annual income and the
check for $150,000.
Vol. 109 No. 10 1977 Time Inc.
Special
Section
50 Faces for America's Future
t has become an almost universal complaint that the
Monan expressed an instructive distinction: "Most of the
tribe of leaders has died out. That is true in one sense:
leaders I am acquainted with are not technicians. They have
those Olympian figures who dominated earlier decades of
large souls and a sense of values."
the century are gone. But leadership has not vanished; its
TIME'S portfolio of promise is more a sampler of out-
character has changed. So have the styles and opportu-
standing leadership than an effort to pick the 50 who ob-
nities of leaders, along with the perspectives. needs and
viously and definitively lead all the rest. There, were too
expectations of the led.
many excellent candidates to make any such specific claim;
Despite new hazards and constraints, there is no short-
inevitably, the choices were in part subjective. Some of
age of talent; leaders are continuing to emerge across the U.S.
the 50 were picked more for potential than for present
Here and on the following pages, TIME identifies some of
accomplishments; they are just starting out, but TIME's
them. The 200 young leaders of five years ago were all 45
editors liked where they are heading. The list does not
years old or younger. This time the age limit remains the
include many outstanding Americans who lead in the
same. But only 50 leaders were sought, not because of a di-
arts. The visionary architect, the composer, the actor. for
minished pool of talent but because many of the previous 200
example, may all make distinguished contributions to the
would once again qualify-they still have not reached 45.
quality of American life. But TIME was looking for people
In May, TIME correspondents and editors began gath-
whose effect upon the society was-and will be-more
ering suggestions from Congressmen, religious leaders, ed-
tangible and direct.
ucators, politicians and prominent citizens in every part of
Our search found a diverse and exciting group: edu-
the nation. TIME tried especially to find leaders on the local
cators, politicians, administrators, scientists. More than
and regional levels. As North Carolina Governor James B.
half are only in their 30s-which is an encouraging sign.
Hunt remarked: "I think we've got the attitude in this coun-
The list shows how times have changed; women and mi-
try that Government has to do everything for people. My
norities are better represented than they were five years
whole approach is 'Let's try to do it for ourselves on the
ago. All those on the list share one characteristic, the
local level.' The magazine sought figures of integrity who
sense of boldness that remains the prime prerequisite for
have exerted a significant social or civic impact. regardless
leadership in any era.
of politics or ideology. Boston College President J. Donald
Herewith, TIME presents 50 faces for the future.
44. R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., 35, has es-
44
tablished himself as one of the most irrever-
ent pundits of the new right. Back in 1966
when radicals briefly took over Indiana Uni-
versity's Bloomington campus, Tyrrell. then a
graduate student, launched a paper called the
Alternative ("to mainstream liberalism and the
radical movement"). With a burgeoning list
of contributors that included William F. Buck-
ley Jr., and Irving Kristol. the iconoclastic
monthly went national in 1970, changed its
name to the American Spectator, acquired
22,000 subscribers and earned a reputation
among intellectuals for good writing and bit-
ing humor. In his latest book. Public Nuisanc-
es, a collection of his editorials, Tyrrell ful-
minates against such targets as Jimmy Carter
("a grinning dunce") and women's lib ("the
most successful pestilence since Prohibition").
TIME
AUGUST 6, 1979 Vol. 114 No. 6
THE WEEKLY NEWSMAGAZINE
The Washington Post
July 27, 1979
The Great Gadfl
Emmett Tyrrell
Keeps Right
Except to Sass
By Henry Mitchell
R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. is
one of the most
"Perhaps you don't
luminous young gadflies
admire President Carter,"
now singing in the
I ventured, knowing
American wilderness, and
he calls Carter
I can only describe an
the Wonderboy, "and you
afternoon spent with him
didn't care much for
as joyful and zany.
Nixon or Kennedy or Ford.
From his moist home of
Whom would you like
Bloomington, Ind.,
to see in the White House?
he rises on middle or right
Reagan of the beautiful
wing to sting the
hair?
"Lincoln." he said. "Or
poseurs of the republic,
and as William Simon,
even Theodore Roosevelt."
the sometime Nixon
But what if those
Cabinet member has said,
adequate servants should
it is bound to do them
decline the next
a world of good.
nomination, who then?
Well, sir, the fellow
He edits a monthly
never said. Never did.
opinion paper,
He can charm the birds
The American Spectator,
where ou will not.
perhaps, find anything SO
gentle as Addison
and Steele, but will find
at least short sentences,
literate vocabulary and
a monthly ration of vitriol.
My chintzy office declined
to-let me visit him in
his home meadow
so we settled for the
Hay-Adams Hotel
right here in pea and nut
country where he said:
"Can't see the White
House from here."
He could have if he'd
stuck his head out the
window and craned
to the right.
"It's just as well."
he said. "Believe me, sir,
we are sitting across
from a house of fools.
down off the trees, something
to keep in mind if you ever
run into him, and although he
is only 35 he reminded me strangly
of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass).
He is well vitamined and caloried
and looks Irish. Possibly neither man
would care for the comparison,
though.
The Kennedys in general distress him
to think of, and if Tyrrell ever fainted
and needed to get the old blood pres-
sure, up, the whisper of "Camelot" in
his ear would do it.
Of the late president ("a presidency
of singular mediocrity and a life of
stunning sham") he has had little
good to say. So far as my own re-
searches go, he has said nothing beast-
ly about Rose Kennedy, but the others
seem to him somehow lacking in one
virtue or another:
"One could see him (the senator)
taking his rightful place in presiden-
tial annals as a genial and goatish
Grant
he shares the same worm's
eye view of the world."
Tyrrell does not go in for lengthy
expostulations and meditations and
harangues, nor does he weary the
intellect with subtle refinements of
thought or careful distinctions of mo-
tive:
"That his first ambition was not
politics is certain," he once wrote of
the same Sen. Kennedy. "In his early
years he had been jovially devoted to
the hooch and the harp, both of which
along with fast driving and cuties re-
main his only known cultural inter-
ests."
The language (though some might
nit-pick at the ultimate conclusion)
sounds like Gibbon on an early pope.
Whack of the Ax
Everybody knows that comedy is
rarer than documentaries on televi-
sion and rightly costs more, being
worth more, and most of us will settle
for a good laugh where we find it, on
or off the screen; on or off the printed
page.
But you do notice in Tyrrell not
only the exuberance of relative youth,
but the common vice of those under
54: namely, a detectable lack of humil-
ity, largeness. sweetness. Of course
nobody's perfect, or at least very few
of us.
And we ought to be ashamed to re-
quire of this well-read young man the
virtues of Rabelais, Shakespeare and
Cervantes.
Still, he does rather sieze the ruby
Surely these are good enough to be
of truth and give it a smart whack of
remembered and used against the
the ax. The resultant shrapnel does in-
neanderthal fascists?
deed call attention. to the precious
Nothing, after all, is easier than
jewel, though it is somewhat trans-
changing a name.
formed by that time.
Tyrrell believes that virtually every
But as Tyrrell sees it, there is SO
high-minded liberal notion results in a
much drivel and bombast and snivel-
shrinking of the island of liberty, and-
ing self-serving going on in the nation
invariably costs a lot of money. And
that the best thing is to let fly with
in 20 out of 21 cases, nothing is
epigrams or worse. Reasoned rebuttal,
changed. All that happens is a lot of
he reckons, is almost sure to be lost.
gush and the enrichment of yet an-
The basic sin, or one basic sin, that
other batch of liberals.
he keeps seeing amongst us is the fail-
But the liberals, as I kept
ure to discriminate. Words have so-
hammering at him all afternoon, see
norities and echoes but not specific
nothing wrong in that, and really this
meanings. People now, he notices, will
Tyrrell fellow ought to become more
say anything and therefore believe
tolerant and broad-minded.
anything or do anything.
He was a sub-Olympic swimmer, I
Tyrrell is a sort of book addict. He
found out. He did not swim Olympi-
never says he reads a lot, but he has a
cally, but was international-competi-
central and astonishing faith that if
tion material.
you read all there is to read you will
He also confessed a fondness. for
know all there is to know.
New York.
He said, for example, "What hap-
"Nobody likes New York," I pointed
pened to all those bright activists of
out.
the '60s? The ones that were on televi-
"Yes, I really like New York," he
sion sounding off instead of staying at
said.
home reading and learning."
Then who not move The American
Spectator there?
Any Cretin Won't Do
He suspects he might be "darling-
There is such a thing as being edu-
ized" and become an alcoholic. You
cated far beyond one's intelligence,
know. taken up by all the beautiful
people and wined and dined for his
and this is no doubt urged against
wit, only to lose perspective and fall
Tyrrell by those who admire, say, the
into some slough and be burned out at
ambassador to the United Nations,
40.
Andrew Young.
I thought that an interesting obser-
Tyrrell has reservations about
vation. The man has some modesty,
after all, and is not like those who
Young:
cannot conceive the great world's ever
"He (the ambassador) studied the
being able to do without them.
Christian occult at the famed Hart-
ford Theological Seminary
those
Gift for Words
were bookish years, and he emerged
His smile is easy, his eyes are bright
from them with an unshakeable grasp
of what appears to be liberal Christi-
But Tyrrell often misses the mercy
and his voice is normal. He dresses
of the liberal view.
neatly, in good suits. good striped
anity's key tenet; namely, Christ was
It goes without saying that similar
shirts, and good polished brown shoes.
a half-wit."
amusing sketches could be devised
He was educated at Indiana Univer-
Tyrrell goes on, not to split hairs:
about Buckley, any Buckley, Carl Cur-
sity. but I would have guessed Wil-
"He is a popinjay of nigh unto con-
tis or (if shamelessness knew no
liams or Virginia.
stant fluency" and observes moder-
bounds at all) Bess Truman.
His wife reviews books sometimes
ately that "within six months of
Tyrrell can hardly be expected to
but is not a fire-eater or sky-painter.
Young's U.N. appointment every
use his weapons against the fools on
and they have two young kids, one of
washroom attendant in New York
the conservative side, any more than
them named Patrick Daniel. a sort of
knew that Andy was a lightweight.
the Germans should have been ex-
homage. it is believed. to Sen. Moyni-
pected to blow up Berlin.
han. only backwards.
"But if they were to read the enco-
miums pouring in from the liberal
The bright editor smokes cigars,
But once the machinery of sass gets
clearly chosen for the amount of
brethren, large numbers of them
going, it can get out of hand. some
fumes they emit, and this is comfort-
would be growing sideburns. reading
would say, and there is some tasteless-
ing to sinners.
French menus and otherwise prepar-
ness in complaining that there's a
His journal of opinion has 20.000
ing for careers in high public office."
shortage of assassins or that the ones
subscribers. some of them eminent
Indeed, one of his underlying
that killed the Kennedys were not
and all of them amused.
themes is that people look around and
very brainy.
He loves the liberal concern for the
see cretins in high places and there-
fore suppose any cretin will do. and
The Island Shrinks
poor. especially the rich Kennedys.
the rich Galbraith. the rich Califano,
since that happens to be a liberal
Tyrrell's collection of pieces. titled
and so on, and rarely misses a chance
tenet. Tyrrell rejects it.
His sketch on Andrew Young, in
"Public Nuisances" and culled from
to point to their probable incomes.
fact, illustrates his distance from pre-
his Spectator, were never orginally
On the other hand. he is quite fair.
vailing liberal thought. Many a liberal
meant to be read bang-bang-bang,
Ralph Nader. who lives in a shipping
but one a month over several years.
crate or something and who eats noth-
believes that even if Young is not per-
They pale a bit when read all in an
ing and rarely sleeps, and can there-
fect, still he's as good as his predeces-
evening, since there is a similarity
fore hardly be reproached for Diocle-
sor. Besides (the liberal argument
amongst them.
tian living, gets at least as many ar-
goes) why shouldn't there be black
jackasses as well as white? And (their
Still, there are funny things there.
rows as any Kennedy.
unarguable conclusion) at least he's at
Of Lillian Hellman he observes she is
United Nations where it doesn't make
"often ambushed by the uncontrolla-
much difference. Not at Health, Edu-
ble thumpings of her very big heart"
and is "fain to admit her dominant
cation and Welfare.
role in saving us from the totalitarian
night."
thus
far
1S,
OF
gift for words really can make a dif-
ference, on rare occasions, to the suc-
cess of a writer.
Of sometime Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger:
"Surely he has seen many marvels:
stormtroopers in the old Furth, crest-
fallen stormtroopers in Allied Occu-
pied Germany; Harvard; the Councu
on Foreign- Relations; and, in the full
ness of time the White House-in
whose mess he fattened so prod:
giously that he became a hazard to
volving doors and a challenge to
Force One."
A lie, of course. Dr. Kissinger lost so
much weight that his evening clothes
no longer fit and his pants slid down
in the great ballroom of the Organiza-
tion of American States before the as-
sembled ambassadors of the place.
But then you can't expect Blooming-
ton to know all that Washington
knows.
Few things annoy him more than
the women's liberation movement.
Their point, he says, is that millions
of witches were burnt in the Middle
Ages and here we are with no inquest
till yet.
He believes that men in general
snore and trust the pestilence will
pass, and he assumes it will in time,
having added considerably to Ameri-
can confusion and having exposed
many sensible men to malevolent old
bags they would otherwise not have
met along life's highway.
His youth might, however, some day
lead him into error. In his opinion
journal there is a note that Tyrrell is
on leave of absence working on his
book about Nicaraguan restaurants.
But that is not true. He is taking a
vacation.
Likewise, if an investigative re-
porter may speak, his law firm is not
(as his masthead reports) called Soli-
tary, Poor, Nasty, Brutish and Short.
And this "Baron" Von Kannon, his
publisher, is not a baron at all but a
good old guy named John. But SO
much for muckraking.
Even if here and here one cannot
go along with Tyrrell's conclusions. at
least he has never said "genre" or
"bottom line" or "enhance" in his life.
And even if a stern God should
somewhere find a sin in the fellow,
surely it would be forgiven him. For
he has sassed much.
R. EMMETT TYRRELL, JR.
R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. is founder and editor-in-chief of The
American Spectator, a political and cultural monthly, which has been
published since 1967. He also writes a weekly column which appears
in the Washington Post and is syndicated by King Features to such
papers as the New York Post, the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, and
the San Francisco Examiner.
Currently Tyrrell is writing a book (working title, The Conservative
Crack-Up), scheduled for publication by Simon & Schuster next year.
His previous works include The Liberal Crack-Up (Simon & Schuster,
1984), Public Nuisances (Basic Books, 1979) and The Future That Doesn't
Work: Social Democracy's Failure in Britain (editor, Doubleday, 1977).
His articles have appeared in such publications as The Wall Street
Journal, Harper's, Commentary, The New York Times, National Review,
The (London) Spectator, The Sundav Telegraph (London), Le Figaro (Paris),
The Washingtonian. New York and the Yale Law Journal.
Tyrrell appears frequently on television, having been a guest on
"CBS Morning News, " "ABC Evening News," ABC's "Good Morning America,"
"The MacNeil/Lehrer Report," ABC's "Nightline," NBC's "Summer Sunday
USA." C-Span, PBS's "Firing Line." and "Late Night America," for example.
In Speaking Out, former White House spokesman Larry Speakes'
memoir, Speakes numbers Tyrrell among President Reagan's four favorite
columnists. Tom Wolfe has described Tyrrell as "the funniest politi-
cal essayist in years. " The London Times calls him "a man of great
mental energy and enthusiasm," and Ben Wattenberg says Tyrrell is
"pointed, tough-minded, and rib-ticklingly roguish."
2
Tyrrell founded The American Spectator (originally called The
Alternative) in 1967 after receiving an M.A. in history from Indiana
University, from which he also received his B.A. in 1965.
In 1979 Time magazine named Tyrrell one of the fifty future leaders
of America. In 1978 the U.S. Jaycees chose him as one of its "Ten
Outstanding Young Americans" of the year. IN 1977 he received the
American Institute for Public Service's award for the "Greatest Public
Service Performed by an American 35 Years or Under." The same year he
was presented with the American Eagle Award of the Invest-in-America
National Council.
Tyrrell currently serves as a member of the Academic Advisory
Board of the United States Naval Academy.
News Summary
OFFICE OF THE PRESS SECRETARY
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 1990 -- 6 a.m. EST EDITION
TODAY'S HEADLINES
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Battles Rage In Caucasus; Kremlin Declares State Of Emergency -- The
Kremlin dispatched army and KGB units to Azerbaijan and declared a state
of emergency in parts of the southern republic, where pitched battles
raged between hundreds of Azerbaijanis and Armenians.
(AP, Washington Post)
China Says Leaders Must Be Loyal To Marxism, Hints At Purges -- China
said Tuesday that the Communist Party must be led by people loyal to
Marxism and it hinted broadly at new purges and dismissals.
(Reuter)
NATIONAL NEWS
Bush To Offer Family Savings Plan -- The Bush Administration is getting
ready to offer a new enticement to encourage Americans to be more
thrifty, hoping to boost the country's low savings rate.
(Washington Times)
NETWORK NEWS (Monday evening)
LITHUANIA -- The Lithuanian
parliament elected the head of the
Communist Party there as the new
INTERNATIONAL
A-1
president of the Lithuanian republic.
NATIONAL NEWS
A-7
BULGARIA -- The Bulgarian National
Assembly voted to allow a multi-
NETWORK NEWS
B-1
party system for the first time in
43 years.
TALK SHOWS
C-1
EAST GERMANY -- Thousands of East
Germans ransacked the headquarters
of the secret police.
This Summary is prepared Monday through Friday by the White House News Summary Staff.
For complete stories or information, please call 456-2950.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
SOVIETS SEND TROOPS TO QUELL
NATIONALIST FIGHTING IN SOUTH
MOSCOW -- The Kremlin Monday night sent army, navy and KGB
security forces to the southern republic of Azerbaijan to put down what it
described as "attempts at armed overthrow of Soviet power," following two
days of armed clashes between Azerbaijanis and Armenians.
The decision to declare a full-scale state of emergency in the border
areas between Azerbaijan and Armenia was made at a hastily convened
session of the presidium of the Supreme Soviet that was chaired by
President Gorbachev. Prime Minister Ryzhkov said in a radio interview
earlier that the Kremlin had no choice but to use armed force to prevent a
civil war in the region.
The presidium decree suggested that the Soviet leadership regards
the latest events in Azerbaijan, where at least 40 people have been killed
in anti-Armenian attacks, as an intolerable challenge to its authority. It
said the situation in several cities -- including Baku, the Azerbaijan
capital, and Gandja -- had become "particularly tense."
Soviet television Monday night reported that several hundred
Armenians and Azerbaijanis, using helicopters, armored cars, and machine
guns, were fighting each other in the Khanlar and Shaumyan districts of
western Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani officials said mortar fire could be heard
around Gandja, where Azerbaijani activists have been trying to prevent
Soviet troops from moving south to protect embattled Armenian villages.
(Michael Dobbs, Washington Post, A1)
Battles Rage In Caucasus; Kremlin Declares State Of Emergency
MOSCOW -- The Kremlin dispatched army and KGB units to Azerbaijan
and declared a state of emergency in parts of the southern republic,
where pitched battles raged between hundreds of Azerbaijanis and
Armenians
Many of the fighters were armed with submachine guns and some flew
unmarked helicopters or rode in armored vehicles commandeered from
military posts, Soviet media reports said.
They described "open armed clashes" in the region, with 300 gunmen
fighting in a single battle and trenches being dug and other fortifications
built to defend villages against attack
Tass said the state of emergency means regular Red Army units and
KGB troops now will be used to protect residents of the strife-torn area
and vital installations like railroads.
(John-Thor Dahlburg, AP)
-more-
Tuesday, January 16, 1990 -- A-2
DEFENSE SECRETARY CHENEY SAYS
SOVIET REFORMS 'REVERSIBLE'
HOUSTON -- The U.S. and its allies must maintain a strong military
because reforms taking place in the Soviet Union "are potentially
reversible," Defense Secretary Cheney said Monday.
Cheney, in a speech to the Houston Forum Club which reiterated the
Bush Administration's defense policies, said Soviet leader Gorbachev faced
many problems which threatened to undo his moves toward reform.
"There's
no
question
that the litany of problems Mr. Gorbachev is
faced with is a very long one indeed," he said.
"It would be very risky business for the U.S. to make policy based
on the assumption that the transition we now see in the Soviet Union (Reuter) will
continue in a peaceful, orderly basis," Cheney said.
PROTESTERS RANSACK OFFICES
OF E. GERMAN SECRET POLICE
EAST BERLIN -- Crowds of demonstrators surged into the
headquarters compound of the secret police Monday, broke into a main
building and raided offices as anger against continued operation of the
security services erupted into one of the most violent demonstrations since
the start of East Germany's largely peaceful revolution.
The crowd, part of a huge gathering of 100,000 people called by
opposition groups to protest the slow pace of dismantling the hated
Stasi
stormed through the building, seizing files and papers, ripping
down a picture of ousted Communist leader Honecker, covering walls with
graffiti and ransacking a pantry and barbershop.
Windows were broken, but some witnesses said that the first glass
was shattered from inside before demonstrators forced their way in,
suggesting that provacateurs may have helped trigger the uncharacteristic
outburst
Prime Minister Modrow was whistled down when he first tried to
address the demonstrators, but he quieted the crowd long enough to call
for "prudence."
(Dan Morgan, Washington Post, A1)
BULGARIAN ASSEMBLY ENDS COMMUNIST PARTY PRIMACY,
AMNESTIES 60 PRISONERS
SOFIA -- The National Assembly took a further step forward Monday
toward multi-party democracy by repealing the constitutional provision
enshrining the Communist Party's political dominance and restoring the
reputations and rights of some of the victims of the old regime.
The assembly also approved acts to depoliticize the state police force
and place it under legislative authority. It granted amnesties to 60
political prisoners and sentence reductions to others. It also gave its
backing to an 11-point program for restoring full rights to the country's
1.5 million ethnic Turks and other Moslems persecuted previously.
The actions came on an emotional day in which the
communist-controlled legislative body sought to come to terms with a dark
chapter in this nation's history in attempting to define its future. But
critics said the effort was half-hearted and showed the reluctance of party
officials to confront the real legacy of 45 years of communist rule.
(Gler.n Frankel, Washington Post, A18)
-more-
Tuesday, January 16, 1990 -- A-3
PRAGUE, MOSCOW OPEN TROOP PULLOUT TALKS
New Czechoslovak Government Wants
Complete Soviet Withdrawal By Year's End
PRAGUE -- Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union began talks Monday
on removing the Kremlin's estimated 75,000 occupation troops here amid
some Western concern that meeting Prague's demands for a total withdrawal
could complicate existing East-West troop reduction negotiations.
Neither side has issued a formal statement on the first of several days
of talks
The Czechoslovak government
wants 50,000-60,000 Soviet soldiers
out by mid-May and a political commitment for a total evacuation by year's
end, sources close to the meeting said.
(Jonathan Randal, Washington Post, A20)
BANK TO AID EAST EUROPE LAUNCHED BY 34 NATIONS
PARIS -- Thirty-four nations from East and West laid the groundwork
Monday for a new international bank to help finance the economic
transformation of Eastern Europe.
President Mitterrand, opening the first day of negotiations, warned
officials gathered here they have to work fast or risk being overtaken by
the fast-moving events that have suddenly thrust Eastern Europe into a
new political and economic era
The institution, named the European Reconstruction and Development
Bank for Eastern Europe, is to be capitalized at $12 billion and start its
first loan operations with 30 percent of the amount in 1991, according to a
suggestion by Ireland.
(Edward Cody, Washington Post, C1)
FREED SOUTH AFRICANS MEET EXILES IN ZAMBIA
Black Leaders Exult After 27 Year Separation
LUSAKA, Zambia -- There was jubilation and high emotion at Lusaka
airport Monday as Walter Sisulu and six other recently freed South African
black nationalist prisoners were reunited with leaders of the exiled ANC
they had not seen in 27 years.
A crowd of 5,000 ANC exiles and Zambian supporters waited for three
hours in a downpour for a charter flight carrying their founding leaders
to land, then erupted in a display of uninhibited joy as they embraced,
kissed and danced across the wet tarmac with the freed prisoners
One ANC leader described the gathering as a "watershed moment" for
the black nationalist movement.
(Allister Sparks, Washington Post, A12)
-more-
Tuesday, January 16, 1990 -- A-4
CHINA SAYS LEADERS MUST BE LOYAL TO MARXISM,
HINTS AT PURGES
BEIJING -- China said Tuesday that the Communist Party must be
led by people loyal to Marxism and it hinted broadly at new purges and
dismissals.
The official People's Daily, in a front-page commentary entitled "The
Leadership Must Be Loyal To Marxism," said that the struggle against
Western ideals would continue.
"Those who aren't firm in their political stance, whose political caliber
isn't high enough or who are just opportunistspretending to be loyal
should not be given responsible posts," the newspaper said.
"If such people are in office, we must resolutely remove them," it
said.
The newspaper went on to say that any communists who opposed the
party must be kicked out. Problems within the party would eventually
destabilize the leadership and that had to be avoided, it said. (Reuter)
CONGRESS SET FOR CHINA POLICY BATTLE
Congress is putting on the gloves for a brawl with President Bush
over U.S. policy toward China
Many in Congress believe it's too early to lift sanctions because few
freedoms are yet available in China.
Chinese authorities' continuing repression of dissent "reinforces our
argument," says Rep. Pelosi (D.-Calif.), author of a bill that would waive
a U.S. requirement that Chinese students return home for two years when
their visas expire.
Passage of the law, vetoed by Bush in November, will "send a very
clear message to the people in Beijing that there has to be some change in
the way they treat their people if there's going to be continued opening
up," Pelosi said.
Sen. Simon (D.-III.) says he "welcomes" the end to martial law. "But
it is not satisfactory in terms of really, substantively easing and improving
relations. We have to send a stronger signal to China than we've been
sending. The White House on the whole Chinese question has been,
frankly, very anemic in standing up for freedom."
(Marilyn Greene, USA Today, A4)
5 BIG POWERS BEGIN TALKS ON CAMBODIA
Nations Seek Diplomatic End To Long War
PARIS -- The big powers launched a new effort to find a diplomatic
solution to the long-running war in Cambodia Monday and prevent the
brutal Khmer Rouge from fighting its way back to power in Phnom Penh.
Citing a growing consensus on having the U.N. enlarge its role,
officials said two days of talks here among the five permanent U.N.
Security Council members represents a chance to revive the momentum lost
in the peace process when a French-sponsored Cambodian conference broke
down last August.
Diplomats involved in the renewed peace initiative have been spurred
on by reports from Cambodia that fighting may be intensifying
The U.N.-based peace plan, sponsored by Australia, shifts emphasis
away from earlier efforts to form a provisional coalition in Phnom Penh
compromising Hun Sen's government and the three guerrilla factions in the
coalition.
(Edward Cody, Washington Post, A12)
-more-
Tuesday, January 16, 1990 -- A-5
CRISTIANI POSTPONES U.N. TRIP AS COUP RUMORS FLY
SAN SALVADOR -- President Cristiani postponed a planned visit to
U.N. headquarters in New York, but officials discounted speculation that
fears of a military coup prompted the delay.
"All that talk about coups and things like that is a thing of the
past,' presidential spokesman Sandoval said Monday.
Rumors have circulated in El Salvador's diplomatic circles in recent
weeks that Salvadoran commanders may be considering an attempt to oust
the conservative president bacause of his relatively aggressive stance
aginst military abuses.
Diplomatic sources said Cristiani has created tension within the
Salvadoran Armed Forces through his resolve to bring to justice military
officers "whoever they mat be" involved in the killing of six Jesuit
priests, their housekeeper and her teenage daughter. (Daniel Alder, UPI)
ELLIOT RICHARDSON PREDICTS FAIR NICARAGUAN VOTE
MANAGUA -- Elliot Richardson, the U.N. secretary general's personal
representative observing Nicaraguan elections, said Monday that he
believes voting on Feb. 25 will be carried out fairly, but he expressed
concerns about the atmosphere surrounding the campaign in the six weeks
remaining until election day.
In an interview and press conference later, Richardson mentioned
unbalanced coverage in the state-owned media and misuse of government
property for campaigning by the ruling Sandinista party. He cited
violence and intimidation at political rallies and by contra rebels in the
countryside as areas of particular concern.
During a three-hour meeting with Richardson Sunday night, at a
campaign rally and in remarks to reporters, President Ortega has raised
the possibility that the coalition opposing his Sandinista party might pull
out of the elections because "they know they are beaten."
(Don Podesta, Washington Post, A12)
FOUR CONVICTED IN DRUG RING WITH NORIEGA TIES
Four men were convicted Monday in a major drug-smuggling operation
with links to deposed Panamanian dictator Noriega, but 16 co-defendants in
the 2}-month trial were found not guilty.
The defendants, mostly boat captains and truck drivers, had been
charged with conspiracy, importation and distribution. Federal
prosecutors said the smuggled 48,000 pound of marijuana into North
Carolina in 1982 and 280,000 pounds into Louisiana in 1983
The same investigation that led to the trial also led to Noriega's 1988
indictment in Tampa on drug charges.
(AP, Washington Post, A8)
-more-
Tuesday, January 16, 1990 -- A-6
RABIN UNLIKELY TO BREAK MIDEAST DEADLOCK IN WASHINGTON
JERUSALEM -- Israeli Defense Minister Rabin is unlikely to advance
deadlocked U.S. efforts to convene Israeli-Palestinian talks when he meets
senior Bush Administration leaders in Washington this week
Israeli officials say he has no new proposals or concessions to offer,
amid indications that Secretary Baker is running out of patience with
Middle East recalcitrance and is turning his attention to other areas.
"Rabin is not supposed to deal in depth with the peace process. The
government has not yet agreed on a response to the latest U.S.
document," a Foreign Ministry official said.
(Paul Taylor, Reuter)
EDITOR'S NOTES: "Noriega Trial Captures The Center Ring In Miami," by
Laura Parker, appears in the Washington Post, A8.
"Military Leaders Of East And West Conferring As Europe Changes," by R.
Jeffrey Smith, appears in the Washington Post, A20.
"Beirut Government, Facing Rivals, Asks U.S. Arms;" by Ihsan Hijazi,
appears in the New York Times, A7.
"GI's in Panama And- 3 Embassies Still Sparring," by David Pitt, appears
in the New York Times, A13.
###
NATIONAL NEWS
MOYNIHAN'S TARGET: THE BUDGET DEFICIT
Senator's Proposal Unhinges
1983 Social Security Agreement
Sen. Moynihan's (D.-N.Y.) radical proposal has sparked an
impassioned debate that is quickly taking center stage in the battle
between the Bush Administration and Congress over federal spending and
taxes.
It also has raised the specter of major upheaval in the political
landscape. Democrats, after all, are supposed to be for tax increases, not
tax cuts. A number of leading Republicans are deeply worried that
because the Bush Administration is opposing Moynihan's proposal, the GOP
may be on the verge of losing its most valuable issue
Even those who applaud the senator believe Moynihan is using
political theatrics to drive home his point about the folly of the nation's
fiscal affairs.
"I don't think Moynihan proposed [cutting payroll taxes] with the
expectation that it would actually happen," said Norman Ornstein, resident
scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. "Maybe I'm wrong, but I
think he proposed it for the shock value."
Whatever his intentions, his proposal is rapidly gathering momentum
and threatens to produce far more than shock value
The political appeal of a tax cut may prove irresistible, forcing
Republicans and Democrats to scramble aboard the bandwagon, experts
say.
(Paul Blustein, Washington Post, A1)
Key Republicans Warn Of Political Stampede
Key Republicans warned the White House last week that the
Administration faces what one called a "stampede" in favor of a proposal
by Sen. Moynihan (D.-N.Y.) to cut Social Security taxes unless the
President and his surrogates can convince the public that the proposal is
an attack on Social Security benefits.
Even then, they said, the President might have to produce an
alternative plan that somehow cuts Social Security taxes
According to White House and Republican party sources, Rep.
Gingrich (R.-Ga.) warned White House officials last week that Moynihan's
proposal to cut Social Security taxes was a political ploy aimed at forcing
an eventual tax increase
Asking Republicans to oppose a tax cut in
an election year, he told the White House, is political trouble.
Gingrich, in an interview, said the Moynihan proposal
is
a
"bait-and-switch tactic. Once that $62 billion in surplus Social Security
revenue is no longer available to reduce the federal budget deficit, he
said, "I'll bet you any money Moynihan will propose a general tax
increase."
(Ann Devroy, Washington Post, A1)
-more-
Tuesday, January 16, 1990 -- A-8
One Tax Cut Bush Won't Back
President Bush, elected on a "no new taxes" pledge, is in the
awkward position of opposing a politically appealing proposal to cut Social
Security taxes
Despite support from conservatives, liberals and business groups,
Moynihan faces an uphill battle. But his proposal is gaining interest since
it was proposed last month.
The Heritage Foundation issued an analysis last week entitled
"Three Cheers For Moynihan's $55 Billion Tax Cut For Working
Americans."
At the liberal Institute of Policy Studies, analyst Robert Borosage,
campaign adviser to Rev. Jesse Jackson, called Moynihan's proposal "good
economics" and "good politics -- the first protest of an increasingly
hard-pressed middle class."
Conservative columnists raved about it. "A blow for candor and
equity," wrote George WIll. "The first Democratic tax cut in a generation
appealing to Middle America," said Evans and Novak.
(Bob Minzesheimer, USA Today, A7)
BUSH TO OFFER FAMILY SAVINGS PLAN
The Bush Administration is getting ready to offer a new enticement to
encourage Americans to be more thrifty, hoping to boost the country's low
savings rate.
President Bush will ask Congress to create a new "family savings
account" that would allow people to earn tax-free interest and dividends on
money that is squirreled away for a specified number of years,
Administration officials said.
These officials, who spoke on condition their names not be used, said
the savings accounts would be part of the President's 1991 budget, due to
be released Jan. 29, and would also be featured in Mr. Bush's state of the
union address to Congress Jan. 31
The Administration is touting the proposal as a key to bolstering the
country's lagging international economic fortunes by increasing the pool of
money available for investment and thus lowering the costs American
businesses must pay to expand and modernize.
However, many private economists remain skeptical, saying while the
proposal would be a popular tax break for the middle class, it would do
little to boost overall savings.
(Martin Crutsinger, Washington Times, A1)
THINK TANK: U.S. SPENDING ON EDUCATION
LAGS BEHIND OTHER NATIONS
harbe
Thirteen other industrial nations spend relatively more on elementary
Kolb
and secondary education than the U.S., says a report that challenges
President Bush's assertion that results -- not resources -- are the
problem.
il an
The U.S. leads only Ireland and Australia among industrial nations,
the labor-backed Economic Policy Institute said Monday in a briefing paper
"Shortchanging Education."
"If the U.S. were to increase spending for primary and secondary
132-3132
school up to the 'average' level found in the other 15 countries, we would
need to raise spending by over $20 billion annually," said the report.
(Tamara Henry, AP)
-more-
Tuesday, January 16, 1990 -- A-9
DEFENSE SECRETARY HAS NO PLANS
TO ALLOW WOMEN SOLDIERS IN COMBAT
HOUSTON -- Defense Secretary Cheney said Monday he has no plans
to allow American servicewomen in combat despite complaints from some
female soldiers and a call to do so from a congresswoman.
"My own personal view is that the current system is about right,"
Cheney said at a news conference
"I think there are situation in the nature of modern warfare that
women assigned to various combat support units or to M.P. units, for
example, as was the case in Panama, will in fact end up in combat and
have to defend themselves accordingly."
"That's a different proposition from taking a unit that has a specific
combat role and saying we ought to change the makeup of that unit and
include women to fill those roles. As a general proposition, I think the
current exclusion from certian types of units is appropriate."
(Michael Graczyk, AP)
THRIFTS COMPLAIN NEW FEDERAL RULE
BREAKS GOVERNMENT PLEDGE
Buyers of failed savings institutions in 1988 are protesting a new
regulation that revokes some of the financial breaks they received from the
government as part of the deal
The Office of Thrift Supervision says S&Ls must meet new and
tougher capital requirements, regardless of whether they earlier received
an exemption, known as a "forbearance," from meeting capital
requirements
Attorneys representing buyers in the 1988 deals regard the new deal
as a double-cross and predict the legal battle over the issue will reach the
Supreme Court.
"If this is upheld, nobody will ever feel secure doing business with
the government," Washington attorney and S&L lobbyist Douglas Faucette
said Monday."
(Dave Skidmore, AP)
EDITOR'S NOTES: "SHORT TAKES -- Groups Seek Action On Great Lakes
Plan," appears in the Washington Post, A21.
"SHORT TAKES -- Yeutter Warns Farmers," appears in the Washington
Post, A21.
"TALKING POINTS -- Energy Dept.'s Stello Injured In Wyoming Skiing
Accident," appears in the Washington Post, A21.
"Moynihan Leads Surplus Showdown," by Marilyn Greene, appears in USA
Today, A7.
"In City Of Shaky Egos, Treasury's Mulford Bruises Quite A Few," by
Alan Murray and Peter Truell, appears in the Wall Street Journal, A1.
-End of A-Section-
NETWORK NEWS SUMMARY
(Monday Evening, January 15)
AZERBAIJAN
ABC's Peter Jennings: We begin tonight in the southwest corner of the
Soviet Union, where the Soviet leadership believes that fighting
between Azerbaijanis and Armenians in the republic of Azerbaijan is
so bad that the region is on the verge of all-out civil war. There's
been so much bloodshed in the last three days that a state of
emergency has been declared in Nagorno-Karabakh, which is an
Armenian enclave in the heart of Azerbaijan. It amounts to yet
another enormous challenge for Mikhail Gorbachev.
ABC's Jim Laurie reports that Soviet television reports tonight the
situation still out of control in some areas of Azerbaijan, despite the
dispatch of additional security troops deployed in helicopter patrols to
try to keep apart warring Azerbaijanis and Armenians and curfews
imposed in several cities. The spate of killings was the worst in two
years, and developed after rallies in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku
last week, where Azerbaijanis demanded rmenians living there be
expelled. The Armenians are a tiny minority; about 20,000 in Baku,
another 140,000, most of them living in Nagorno-Karabakh, The
Armenians want to control Nagorno-Karabakh; the Azerbaijanis want
them out. In an interview today, Prime Minister Ryzhkov said the
only way to avoid an all-out civil war is to use military force. Soviet
television also noted casualties among troops. Azerbaijani nationalists
armed with machine guns opened fire on helicopters. Others tried to
prevent reinforcements from moving in to protect Armenian villagers
as Azerbaijanis attacked. Soviet reports from Azerbaijan speak of a
bloodbath, burned bodies thrown onto trash heaps, and militants
using stolen army vehicles and helicopters to do battle. Mikhail
Gorbachev has said he did not want to use force to settle ethnic
issues, but as one commentator here said tonight, now there's really
no choice.
Jennings reports that according to the Soviet media, at least 37
people have been killed in the violence so far; large numbers of
Armenians are reported to be fleeing from Baku.
(ABC-Lead)
NBC's Tom Brokaw reports that at least 32 people have been killed in
recent days there, more than 200 in the past two years.
NBC's Bob Abernethy reports that a Soviet spokesman agreed with
Prime Minister Ryzhkov that military force will have to be used to
prevent civil war.
(Nikolai Shislin, spokesman: "I'm quite sure of that. It is simply
necessary.")
In Moscow today, Armenians charged Gorbachev should have done
more to prevent the violence in Azerbaijan, rather than spending time
in Lithuania. The many kinds of unrest in the Soviet Union are now
so widespread they threaten to tear the country apart and bring
Gorbachev down.
(NBC-5)
-more-
Tuesday, January 16, 1990 -- B-2
CBS's Dan Rather: Russian soldiers lose control in a Muslim area.
Mikhail Gorbachev, just back from an unsuccessful effort to head off
a peaceful secession movement in Lithuania, tonight has a violent
crisis on his hands. The Kremlin declared a state of emergency in
parts of the southern republic of Azerbaijan. Thousands of Soviet
troops are already on the scene, but today the Soviet press reported
they had lost control. Fierce battles are reported near the disputed
region of Ngorno-Karabakh. Most of the 34 known dead were
Armenians, dragged out of their homes and slaughtered by Muslim
mobs over the weekend in the Azerbaijani capital city of Baku. Many
Armenians are reported to be fleeing. Two ferries carried about 700,
mostly women and children, across the Caspian Sea, over to the
Soviet republic of Turkmenia.
CBS's Barry Petersen reports that the Kremlin said attempts are
underway to overthrow Soviet power. Tass said opposing guerrilla
forces are using helicopters, armored vehicles and weapons, many
captured from soldiers or military bases. Throughout the area both
sides held rallies, the extremists calling for revenge, for more blood.
Rather discusses Gorbachev and Azerbaijan with Petersen.
Rather: What do these latest problems mean for Mikhail Gorbachev?
Petersen: You know, I think he has a chance to score one here.
He's been criticized in the past on this particular issue for moving
too slowly, for trying to apply 8 political solution to what is clearly
not a political problem. Now he's moved quickly and firmly and
militarily, and I think his own people will like that, because they like
that show of strength from their Soviet leader.
(CBS-Lead)
LITHUANIA
Jennings reports that today the Lithuanian parliament, in a clear signal of
defiance to Moscow, elected the head of the Communist Party there --
the same man who advocated getting the party from under Moscow's
control -- as the new President of the Lithuanian republic. (ABC-2)
E. GERMAN SECRET POLICE
ABC's Jerry King reports that thousands of East Germans, frustrated at
the slow pace of democratic reform, ransacked the headquarters of
the hated Stasi, the secret police. The force was supposed to have
been disbanded a month ago, yet Friday the government admitted the
Stasi was still spying on people. In revenge, the people rifled
through the archives, looking for anything that might be
incriminating to the Stasi. They found little they were interested in,
ignoring documents on American diplomats based in the U.S. Embassy
in Moscow and one covering the activities of Lech Walesa. They did
find evidence of privileges the secret police enjoyed. East German
police made no attempt to intervene as the anti-Stasi binge continued
for nearly two hours. The former chief of the secret police has
become the subject of an official investigation for high treason today.
Earlier today, opposition leaders had forced Prime MInister Modrow to
explain his policies to them personally at the so-called roundtable
talks. He's been under fire from all sides about the economy and for
not giving the opposition a fair chance in the May elections.
-more-
Tuesday, January 16, 1990 -- B-3
Jennings reports that the violence prompted East German television to
warn that democratic reforms in East Germany were in danger(ABC-3)
NBC's Mike Boettcher reports that Prime Minister Modrow rushed to the
Stasi headquarters to try to calm the crowd, but the damage had
been done. During a roundtable meeting with opposition groups,
Modrow pleaded with the nation to remain calm until the May
elections.
CBS's Tom Fenton reports that the uniformed police who were guarding the
compound had orders not to intervene. What angered the people was
that three months after the fall of Erich Honecker, most of the secret
police are still on the payroll.
(NBC-6, CBS-2)
BULGARIA
Jennings reports that the Bulgarian National Assembly voted today to allow
a multi-party system for the first time in 43 years. The government
has now promised free elections for this year.
(ABC-5, CBS-3)
CZECHOSLOVAKIA/SOVIET TROOPS
Rather reports that the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia began talks on
the withdrawal of Soviet troops. The new Czech government wants all
75,000 Soviet troops out by the end of this year
(CBS-4)
ROMANIA
ABC's John Donvan reports that students in Romania voted to boycott any
professor they believe had put Communism before truth. Also, most
Romanians believe the new government contains too many Communists.
And yet, most Romanians say they are prepared to suspend their
mistrust and to be patient, at least until spring, when free elections
are promised. However, food shortages are back again, and gas is
being rationed again because supplies are running low.
(ABC-4)
PANAMA/U.S.
CBS's Bob McNamara reports that while Americans school Panamanians to
keep their own civil order, the sight of a burly foreign military
occupation has brought an uneasy American self-consciousness and a
promise of change.
(Amb. Deane Hinton: "I can assure you, there are going to be a hell
of a lot fewer American forces, they're going to be hardly visible,
very, very soon.")
But with each American troop withdrawal and the scheduling of more,
Panamanians fear the Americans leaving too soon.
(Alfredo Maduro, Panamanian Chamber of Commerce: "The seed of
Noriega is still here. Noriega still lives.")
Though American troops paid close to a million dollars for
surrendered weapons, guns flourish. The fears of chaos after the
Americans go fuels a weapons' black market.
(CBS-10)
-more-
Tuesday, January 16, 1990 -- B-4
AT&T
NBC's Tom Brokaw: Long-distance telephone calls: business or pleasure,
we take them for granted. So when something goes wrong, it's more
than a nuisance, it's maddening, especially since that unpleasant little
recorded interruption is so mindless. Well, today, AT&T had a
nationwide glitch in its long-distance operation.
NBC's Bob Kur reports that even at this hour, only about half of
AT&T's long-distance calls are getting through. Earlier in the day,
beginning at about 2:30 p.m., it was even worse for about 90
minutes. Faxing was frustrating, too. From New York, calls to
Philadelphia, Atlanta, Miami, Chicago, Dallas, Seattle and San
Francisco did not go through. At the same time, some calls, to Los
Angeles, Minneapolis and Boston, did. For a couple of hours,
AT&T's public relations team would say only that the problem was an
anomaly, a fluke caused by computer software that operates the
switching equipment. Even 800 numbers were affected, and
disruptions would have been worse had so many offices not been
closed for Martin Luther King Day. Until the cause is determined,
AT&T cannot say tonight that the problem won't happen again.
(NBC-Lead, ABC-8, CBS-7)
CAMPEAU CORP.
Jennings reports that Campeau Corp., owned by Canadian businessman
Robert Campeau and owner of the two biggest department store chains
in the U.S. Allied and Federated, said it is so deeply in debt it has
asked the bankruptcy judge to keep the creditors away.
NBC's Mike Jensen reports that the biggest effect of the bankruptcy
is that suppliers to the department stores are starting to ship again.
The big losers are not the employees, but the people who helped
Campeau buy the stores by purchasing his junk bonds, which are
now selling for cents on the dollar. The banks are also potential
losers -- they're owed almost $2.5 billion. One of the reasons for the
bankruptcy filing was to give the stores more time to pay that debt.
Meanwhile the banks are lending even more money; the Campeau
stores got $700 million in new loans to buy spring merchandise and to
pay their bills.
(ABC-6, NBC-2, CBS-6)
AUTO INDUSTRY
Brokaw reports that Ward's Automotive reported today a car glut in the
U.S., the largest inventory of cars for sale in nine years in the U.S.
This is despite an aggressive rebate program, cutbacks in
production and big auto industry layoffs.
(NBC-3)
U.S. MEMORIES CORP.
Jennings reports that U.S. Memories Corp. said today it was going out of
business. The consortium had formed last May from seven companies
in order to pool resources to manufacture computer memory chips and
take the market back from the Japanese, but had failed to attract
other participants.
(ABC-6)
-more-
Tuesday, January 16, 1990 -- B-5
KING HOLIDAY/ADMINISTRATION
NBC's Kenley Jones reports that speakers at the annual service honoring
Martin Luther King, Jr. demanded that the Bush Administration spend
less money on the military and more for social programs.
(Rev. Joseph Lowery: "Let us, Mr. President, invade the run-down
ghettoes and barrios of this country for jobs and job training and
health care. How long, Mr. President, for a kind and gentle
nation?")
(NBC-9)
Jennings reports that the Rev. Joseph Lowery, head of the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference, asked President Bush today, "How
long, Mr. President, for a kinder, gentler nation?" Lowery said that
while the walls are tumbling down in Berlin and Eastern Europe, in
America, walls separating the haves and the have-nots are going up.
ABC's Walter Rodgers: Civil rights leaders credit President Bush
with reopening dialogues with blacks, Hispanics and women, but they
say his meetings like [those he holds with black leaders] reflect more
a change in tone than policy.
(Ralph Neas, Leadership Conference in Civil Rights: "You can talk
to President Bush, but thus far there has been very little
substantive leadership after those meetings."
Civil rights advocates have not forgiven the President for his muted
response in recent Supreme Court decisions sharply limiting racial
hiring quotas. Jesse Jackson faults the President for not yet
appointing an Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, the
government's point man on enforcement.
(Jesse Jackson: "It means, for example, that when the Supreme
Court decisions were rendered that have a negative impact upon
African-Americans, Hispanics and women, there was no one we could
turn to in the Justice Department.")
Senate Democrats rejected William Lucas, the President's first
nominee, for the civil rights post. Lucas, like the President, saw
nothing wrong with those restrictive Supreme Court decisions. But
despite a year-long vacancy in that top civil rights job, Attorney
General Thornburgh denies any drift or lack of enforcement.
(Attorney General Thornburgh: "Anyone who feels that the civil
rights division in this Department of Justice is asleep at the switch is
clearly wrong.")
The F.B.I. just finished its check on John Dunne, the man the
President is next expected to name to the civil rights post. Dunne is
a corporate lawyer with little civil rights experience -- a background
not reassuring to the civil rights community.
(ABC-10)
MINORITIES/COLLEGE
Brokaw reports that a new study by the American Council of Education
shows that blacks and Hispanics are losing ground significantly in
college attendance. The study found that in 1976, 40 percent of
low-income black high school graduates were in college. By 1988,
only 30 percent were in college. Among low-income Hispanics in 1976,
50 percent were in college, but by 1988 only 35 percent. (NBC-10)
-more-
Tuesday, January 16, 1990 -- B-6
SOVIETS/U.S. SPY
Brokaw reports that the Soviet Union said it captured and sentenced to
death a man who spied for the U.S. for almost 30 years. The Soviets
called him Donald, but sources in the U.S. intelligence community
believe he may be a celebrated spy code-named Top Hat, a double
agent who also spied for the Soviet Union.
(NBC-12)
AIR FORCE/PREGNANCIES
NBC's Katherine Couric reports that 22-year-old "Mary, who asked that
her real name not be used, was barred from a linguist's post for the
Air Force last spring. Air Force officials said she was an impressive
candidate until she was interviewed for her top-secret security
clearance.
("Mary": "He started with all kinds of questions, like 'how are your
finances,' and really inconsequential things, and then he asked me if
I'd ever been pregnant. I said yes three times no children --
I
had three abortions. And he just kind of leaned back in his chair
and said, 'Well, I'm afraid you're disqualified from your position.
"Mary" said she had the abortions during a monogamous, five-year
relationship, and that her birth control failed. But she claims the
Air Force wasn't interested In details.
(Lt. Col. Johnny Whitaker, Air Force spokesman: "This shows a
pattern of irresponsibility on the individual's part, a judgment
problem, if you will, and we question whether we should entrust the
nation's highest, most sensitive information to those individuals.")
And there were other considerations.
("Mary": "Then he started talking about other ridiculous things like,
'Well, and then there's a slim possibility of blackmail from communist
countries
I was really upset. I was half-crying and half just
really angry.")
But the Air Force says abortion is not the issue.
(Whitaker: "The Air Force policy regarding pregnancy, whether it's
a man who gets a woman pregnant two or more times or a woman who
becomes pregnant two or more times, out of wedlock, regardless of
the outcome of the pregnancy, will very likely not be granted a Top
Secret or higher security clearance.")
Some legal experts say the policy gives the male recruit an unfair
advantage. In fact, the Air Force acknowledges that unmarried
women are disqualified for unplanned parenthood three times more
often than men, even though women make up only 20 percent of all
recruits. In fact, both Army and Navy officials say if they
disqualified candidates for this reason, they'd lose too many qualified
people.
(ABC-13)
JAPANESE LOBBYISTS
CBS's Phil Jones reports that more than 100 American firms are getting at
least $100 million a year to lobby for some 250 Japanese interests.
(Sen. Hollings: "You see, I'm chairman of the Commerce, Science
and Transportation Committee, and none of these trade bills go in
that immediately my office doesn't fill up with the Japanese lawyers,
or the American lawyers, frankly, representing various Japanese
interests.")
-more-
Tuesday, January 16, 1990 -- B-7
Jones continues: It's no secret to the Japanese that James Lake is a
close personal friend and campaign adviser to former President
Reagan and President Bush. In 1988 Lake's company -- Robinson,
Lake, Lerer & Montgomery -- received $330,000 from Japanese clients
for access and advice that included 22 phone calls, 11 meals, and
nine meetings with policy makers from Commerce, Transportation,
Trade, and Congress. Legal contacts which have paid off for the
Japanese.
(James Lake: "We always want to have a scapegoat. If things aren't
going well, let's blame somebody. It's too easy, I think, to blame the
Japanese. And I think that's what's going on here. A lot of
Jap-bashing.")
The Japanese also hire Democrats, like Stuart Eizenstat, one of
President Carter's senior advisers.
(Eizenstat: "This town is full of hired guns for every kind of
interest imaginable, and because Japan has an increasing interest in
the United States, you're going to see increasing numbers of firms
representing those interests.")
The Japanese claim that because there is so much attempted trade
retaliation against them, they need to hire protection.
(Toshiyuki Tashano, Japanese Embassy: "To deal with American
legislation they obviously need some kind of help from American
lawyers."
Because of loopholes in the law, the true number of Japanese
lobbyists is unknown. If only advice is given to foreigners, and
there is no direct contact with U.S. officials, registration is not
required. One lobbyist who tried to get reporting regulations
tightened discovered how powerful Japanese interests are.
(Michelle Laxalt: "I was told pointedly, 'Do you want to be known as
a pariah in this town? Leave this alone, let sleeping dogs lie.
(CBS-8)
SOUTH AFRICA/ANC
Jennings reports that eight leaders of the African National Congress,
recently released from prison, were given permission by the South
African government to travel north to Zambia. They met there with
other members of their organization.
ABC's Richard Sergay reports that Walter Sisulu left South Africa
today for the first time in his life. He and seven other veteran ANC
leaders were then given a hero's sendoff.
(Winnie Mandela: "This is the beginning of a new chapter in the
history of our country.'
For the first time, the South African government is allowing ANC
leaders inside the country to visit their exiled comrades in Zambia.
President de Klerk's decision to give these men passports may be a
signal that his government is moving closer to negotiations.
Government officials are still demanding the ANC must still renounce
violence. The ANC says it will if the government does. ANC leaders
said it's up to President de Klerk to legalize the ANC, end the state
of emergency, and release all political prisoners, including Nelson
Mandela.
(ABC-13, CBS-11)
-End of B-Section-
ABC -- THIS WEEK WITH DAVID BRINKLEY
Moderator: David Brinkley. Panelists: George Will, Cokie Roberts.
Guests: Gov. Douglas Wilder, Actor James Earl Jones, Gen. Colin Powell.
Guest: Gov. Wilder.
Roberts: You have been described as a politician who happens to be
black, as opposed to a black politician. Is that an accurate description?
Wilder: I would like to believe that
I speak to issues
If you
speak to the issues rather than people, you can begin to solve the issues
of all of the people, and if you're going to be a representative of all of
the people, than you must speak to them all.
Roberts: You have now more elected black politicians than ever before in
history, and I wonder what good it's doing to the black community. You
have more trouble with black youths in the cities than you've ever had,
with black mayors there.
Wilder: Anyone who feels it does no good isn't properly reading the tea
leaves. For instance, Gen. Powell. You can't tell me that him being the
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is going to tolerate circumstances in
the military that 50 years ago would have been passe. You're not going to
tell me likewise that a a mayor of a city is going to tolerate discrimination,
is going to tolerate neighborhoods going neglected.
Roberts: Do you see a rollback of [affirmative action], with the Supreme
Court decisions that have come down this year and in the Administration's
attitude?
Wilder:
The rollback in terms of the national agenda has hurt
considerably, because there's been no thrust, and it goes back to the
psyche, the mentality. Are you suggesting that people are going to life
themselves up by their own bootstraps when they've been stepped on for
years, and given no remedey? It's impossible to believe that. So you've
got to provide some degree of remedy.
Guest: James Earl Jones.
Brinkley:
Racism is alive to some degree
Is it improving, in your
opinion?
Jones: Racism is an insanity. Until it is healed, it is hard to assess
In terms of the world I work in it's important that we keep addressing
history, ancient and contemporary
I think it's important to allow the
[entertainment] industry to present, as best we can, issues.
Brinkley: If you were President now, what would you do about this racial
problem?
Jones: First of all, I'd tremble. But I think it's a matter of setting
priorities.
-more-
Tuesday, January 16, 1990 -- C-2
Guest: Gen. Colin Powell.
Brinkley:
The Martin Luther King weekend holiday seems to be an
appropriate time to take a look at the state of race relations in our
country. I wonder if you can give us your judgment.
Gen. Powell: I think it's important to remember what his dream really
was. His dream really wasn't the first black chairman or the first black
mayor or the first black governor. His dream was that in due course and
time, every American should only be judged by the content of their
character and not by the color of their skin. And we've progressed a
great deal, I believe, since Dr. King uttered those words
But I think
we also have to acknowledge that there is much more to be done, because
that is still not the case. We still do have racism in this country, we do
still have areas of poverty
And all the Americans who are celebrating
what blacks have been able to achieve, it seems to me, should re-dedicate
to the proposition that Dr. King dreamed of.
Will: Is [the military] a meritocracy and an equal opportunity employer?
Gen. Powell: More so than any other form of endeavor in our society, and
I'm very proud at what we have done in the military over the years, and I
think for the most part it is a meritocracy and you're not limited by
anything but you're own ability and the ability to perform a job that you
are in within the military.
Will: The military has indeed been an escape for a good many black young
men and women, getting out of unpromising social settings and into a
career, and a great training program. Is that program apt to be
truncated as a result of
the end of the Cold War?
Gen. Powell: Obviously, as the armed forces draw down in size in
response to the budget situation as well as the changing situation in the
world, it will get smaller, and therefore there will be fewer opportunities
for people to serve. But I think the armed forces will continue to be seen
in the future as a road up, as a way to better oneself, as a way to serve
one's country, and to learn a trade and a skill.
Roberts: What is the problem with the Republican Party and blacks?
They really don't get black votes.
Gen. Powell: Well, I have served in both Democratic and Republican
administrations, and the last thing I wish to do is to start comparing them
in political matters, since I am apolitical and I'm asked to be in the armed
forces of the United States. I would just say that there's a responsibility
for all political leaders, of whatever party
to
re-dedicate
themselves
to
the dream that Dr. King believed so much in.
Roberts: We read that you regularly consult with Jesse Jackson. Is that
true, and why?
Gen. Powell: Jesse Jackson and I have been friends for a number of
years. I believe he is a great AMerican, one who has spoken out at the
issues of our time, and we keep in touch.
-more-
Tuesday, January 16, 1990 -- C-3
Will: How big is [the peace dividend] going to be and how
can we
spend it
Powell: Well, I'm not sure that there is really a peace dividend in the way
that people talk about it in town. I think what we're going to see in this
budget submitted at the end of this month and in subsequent years is that
the armed forces are going to get smaller in response to changing
geopolitical situation, in response to our own budget. But as we get
smaller, what that means is that we'll not be spending as much as we had
planned to spend. Whether those are real dollars out there to be allocated
for other programs or whether they will just go toward the reduction of
the deficit is for others to decide, not me. What I'm concerned about is
that as we go through this process of restructuring armed forces, let's do
it in a sensible way. I'm somewhat disturbed by some of the statements
that are out there that say all danger is gone, we don't have to worry
about anything any longer, and let's bring all the troops home.
Brinkley:
Why do we have an increasingly large underclass?
What
can we do about it?
Powell: It's essentially a problem of economics, of education, and of
opportunity. I'll always believe that we have to go after educating all
Americans and then provide them true opportunity and economic
incentives to pull them out of their despair.
Will:
You had one or two OF three [women in combat] in Panama. Is
there any evolution in military policy on this?
Powell:
Women
are serving in units that provide direct combat
support, they are serving in units that will be under fire. But by
American law, American policy and American tradition, we have not put
women in those direct combat units
I believe that's a sound policy, I
think it makes sense, I believe that it is what the American people wish,
and it has been successful.
Will: What about the women in the military?
Powell:
The last thing I think I would do right now is try to speak for
all the women in the military. But I would say that by and large they
recognized that over the years we have opened up as many occupational
specialties as we can for them, we have tried to provide routes to the top,
we have generals in the military services who are women, but at this point
I don't think you would find a groundswell of enthusiasm within our
military to join the infantry, the armor, the cannon artillery and things of
that nature.
Discussion segment. Bob Maynard of the Oakland Tribune joins.
On the Social Security payroll tax:
Brinkley:
Sen.
Moynihan
wants to repeal the increase in the Social
Security
tax
because the Social Security fund is piling up huge
surpluses
reducing the appearance of the deficit
He wants us to go
straight, to be honest.
-more-
Tuesday, January 16, 1990 -- C-4
Maynard:
It probably won't happen for the very reason that it is so
straightforward. But the fact is that we're masking a huge deficit which
is crippling our long-term economic growth
Will: The Bush Administration and Congress boasted, believe it or not, in
the seventh or eighth consecutive year of economic expansion, that the
deficit last year was only $152 billion
Take out Social Security alone,
you're at $204 billion
Moynihan's bill has the potential to change the
political conversation of this decade, because we're two weeks into the
decade, and the President is saying, I do not want to cut taxes for the
working man
but I want to cut the capital gains tax. That's the loser.
Clift: Politically, on the face of it, it's brilliant, on the part of
Moynihan
But what's so interesting is the Republican Party has
succeeded in convincing average Americans that any tax is a bad tax, so
therefore you've got working people who have never paid a capital gains
tax in their life saying, I'm for cutting the capital gains tax. And you
get any Democratic who says the word "tax", the voter seems to hear
increase," whether the Democrat is saying "cut" or not.
On the "peace dividend":
Will: First of all, arithmetic's not the President's strongest suit. You've
just heard the nation's number one soldier say the military's going to cet
smaller. There's going to be some, but remember, strategic arms, for
example, are a small portion of the defense budget. Most of the defense
budget is military pay and retirement
Maynard: We are going to have to
find ways to reduce the deficit
and
we're going to have to find ways to address an infrastructure which is
deteriorating.
On Lithuania:
Will:
The Soviet Union cannot remain communist and succeed
economically and socially. It cannot remain the Soviet Union, that is,
keeping all these restive
nations captive together, unless it is
communist.
Clift:
Instead of being in the forefront of the change, Gorbachev is
now behind it.
Maynard: I think Gorbachev made a terrible mistake in linking his fate to
keeping Lithuania in the Soviet Union
He thinks that he's playing
poker and the rest of us see a game of dominos going on, and I think it's
about time for him to sell the downsizing of the Soviet.
###
NBC -- MEET THE PRESS
Moderator: Garrick Utley. Panelists: David Broder, Andrea Mitchell.
Guest: Charles Keating.
investigation, Utley: the IRS, FBI have been doing the same thing
The government is suing you, the SEC is conducting an
Why do
you say that you are a victim, that all of these people are wrong?
Keating: Well, we bought a savings and loan in 1984. It operated
profitably until the government confiscated it. It seems to me that
something's wrong with a government that takes away a profitable
property.
Utley: But the fact is, the government took away the profitable property
because they said many of the profits that were shown there were not
real profits
that you had gone belly up
Isn't there any merit to
that case?
Keating: Not really. The trial is now on and truth will come to the
courtroom, and I think that the certifications of some of the best
accounting firms in the country of the facts which favor us will be made
known and the government just plain wrong.
Mitchell: Let's focus on the campaign contributions, on the Keating
Five
Is that what you were buying with more than a million dollars
in campaign contributions: Influence?
Keating: Typically of thousands of other fundraisers, I raised money.
No -- my contributions never came to anything even close to a million
dollars all included
I wanted to say that I wanted to be involved in
the process; it's important to me how this country goes, and it was
particularly important to me the way the savings and loan industry went.
Broder: You are a man of some experience in both the business and the
political world. You don't want to pretend that any ordinary citizen could
get five U.S. senators to hold a meeting on his behalf with the people
regulating him and his industry.
Keating: It wasn't an ordinary problem. It was a problem of taking down
a savings and loan which was critical to the economy, the employment in
those areas in which the senators served.
Utley:
You have said earlier that you expect the total cost of the
bailouts to be $500 billion or more. How do you come to that figure?
Keating: I expect it to be at least $500 billion or more, and I think that
the bailout bill will simply exacerbate the problem. They're confiscating.
assets right and left, and I think the cost of holding, warehousing and
selling those assets, the damage to the overall economy of the United
States will easily reach that number.
Utley:
It is, according to some people, the biggest land sale since the
Oklahoma land rush. What's going to be the impact of that?
-more-
Tuesday, January 16, 1990 -- C-6
Keating: First of all, it won't work. There's no way you can put that
much together in a pile and give it to a government who has no experience
whatsoever in selling that stuff and get the job done. The impact of
simply having it overhang the market will wreck the markets throughout
the country for years to come.
Utley: Should S&Ls exist in the future? Or has their time passed?
Keating: Their time has long passed
Utley:
You didn't help run the S&Ls into this mess?
Keating: I'm saying the opposite. Had they listened to the senators and
had they listened to me, there wouldn't be the mess today. It was
Messrs. Edwin Gray, William Black and Darrel Dochow, people like that
that did the damage.
Broder:
I'd like to know what you think about somebody like William
Seidman who has been very critical. You claim that your operation was
profitable. He says it wasn't legal.
Keating: I think Mr. Seidman is getting bad information. The opposite is
true
We took a failed savings and loan and made it enormously
profitable.
Mitchell: The reason people think that you and the people in your
industry were the problem is that in federal court it was shown there were
land deals that didn't appear on paper -- the real buyer and seller didn't
appear
As Judge Sporkin said to you, how can you run a
billion-dollar business on oral understandings?
Keating:
What you're doing is you're throwing at me the words of the
regulators
The housing industry is what wrecked the savings and
loan industry
It's what started the problem. These regulators and
this Administration -- it was on their watch that this problem developed.
###
CBS -- FACE THE NATION
Moderator: Lesley Stahl. Guests: Christopher Jehn, Asst. Sec. Def. for
Personnel; Rep. Pat Schroeder; Bryan Mitchell, author.
Stahl:
Why are [women] being deprived of these
combat jobs
[and]
of promotion and advancement?
Asst. Sec. Jehn: The simple answer is, it's the law. The Congress has
passed a law that for the Air Force and the Navy is quite explicit: Women
may not be assigned to combat vessels. Women may not be assigned to
combat aircraft.
Stahl: It's not the law in the Army?
Jehn: No, it's not the law in the Army. But the Army policy takes its
cue from the law applying to the Navy and the Air Force.
Stahl: But isn't it true that the military itself is against sending women
into combat?
Jehn: Without a doubt, there are some senior members in the military who
believe women should not be in combat. But believe me, there are others
who don't share that view. We have not taken a public position, however,
because it's not & technical and management or budget issue. It's really
an emotional, political issue that we think needs to be resolved in the
Congress, not by policy edict in the Defense Department.
Stahl: You have a proposal before you from one of your own advisory
committees that the army, which does not have this law, experiment with
women in combat. Do you think the army will go that way? And if not,
why not?
Jehn: Don;t know whether they will or won't
My concern would just
be that if in fact we do it, we need to define very carefully what we mean
by an experiment and what constitutes evidence of success or failure.
Stahl:
If there were a vote, is it your guess that Congress would vote
against it?
Jehn: I don't know. You're probably as qualified as I am to make a
judgment like that.
Stahl: I would guess they would vote against it.
Guests: Rep. Schroeder, Bryan Mitchell.
Stahl:
Do you think that if it came to a vote in Congress to open up.
these roles to combat that it would pass?
Rep. Schroeder: I think you'd see the same thing going on with Congress
you saw with the assistant secretary. They want to duck, waffle, tap
dance and everything else. They all know the distinctions are ridiculous.
-more-
Tuesday, January 16, 1990 -- C-8
Mitchell: I think you have to look at the statements we've seen come out
of Congress and the Pentagon in the last week. Sam Nunn said that he
doesn't support repeal of the combat exclusions. Beverly Byron says she
doesn't. Admiral Trost, chief of naval operations, told a group of young
female naval officers that he doesn't support repeal.
Rep. Schroeder:
I think basically politically most members of Congress
are terrified of the Lee Atwater types and figured that if they did what
was the right thing to do, you would suddenly find a Lee Atwater saying,
"This is the congressman who voted to put your daughter in combat
boots.
"
Mitchell: Women do not have the physical strength to do a lot of the jobs
they would be required to do in combat
The other reasons are, that
women do negatively impact the morale and discipline of units. They do
require more support in a field environment. And they are not as
deployable in emergency situations because they're pregnant or because
they're parents.
Rep. Schroeder:
Number one, no one has ever said lower the
standards
Secondly, the whole issue of childbirth. They have tested
that every way from the moon and found that really women came to work
more in the military service than the average young man. So I mean that
didn't hold up either
You and I know that the tests say just the
opposite of what you're saying, that the Defense Department's very own
advisory committee -- that the President and secretary appointed has come
forward and said, after all these years of testing, women have done very
well, and we should open these on a test basis and go the whole route.
Mitchell: well, I think she's just plainly misleading the American people.
And what she's saying is that the only reason that people oppose women in
combat is because they're afraid of the public outcry. The only public
outcry we've seen now [is] from proponents of women in the military, not
from the opponents.
###
THE McLAUGHLIN GROUP
Moderator: John McLaughlin. Panelists: Pat Buchanan, Fred Barnes,
Jack Germond, Eleanor Clift.
On Lithuania:
Buchanan:
The Lithuanians clearly want freedom and they're willing
to take risks for that, they don't want Gorbachev's style of Communism.
Barnes: Gorbachev is not the engine of history. He's being dragged
along or being run over by history
The guy is desperate
Gorbachev's got to. choose between cracking down militarily or letting
Lithuania go. I. think he's going to have to let him go.
Germond:
The Lithuanians are not driven by anti-Communism
They're driven by nationalism, a desire for independence. He'll survive
only if he finds some formula, a commonwealth-type formula, to let them
achieve an independence but maintain some ties.
Clift:
...I think Gorbachev's Western-style campaign to sell the fruits of
staying in the Soviet Union [to the Lithuanians] is going to flop
But
I don't think that means that Gorbachev is out or that the Communists in
Lithuania are out.
McLaughlin: Gorbachev is proposing that they give him the time to
draft a secession law. What do you think of that strategy?
Clift: I think it's really a ruse, because they're talking about Lithuania
having to pay resettlement costs to anybody who wants to leave.
McLaughlin: Gorbachev needs time to see if he can get his economic
reforms to work.
Barnes:
In late February, when there's an election, all the people who
are for total independence are going to win. The only reason the
Communists in Lithuania have come out for independence is because they
know that's the only thing that'll give them a chance.
Germond:
[Politburo member Yegor] Ligachev came out against the use
of force in very strong terms. That's a signal that they know they can't
do it that way.
Clift:
Lithuania gets 80 percent of its raw products from the Soviet
Union and all of its oil, and I think Gorbachev's trying to buy time so he
can put the economic screws to the Baltics.
McLaughlin: When will Lithuania break from the Soviet Union?
Will
they wait until the Gorbachev-Bush summit?
Barnes: It'll happen right after the [February] election.
Germond: The idea it will have anything to do with the Bush summit --
nobody cares about the Bush summit.
-more-
Tuesday, January 16, 1990 -- C-10
On Panama:
McLaughlin: Do you think that the public is having second thoughts about
the wisdom of the Panama invasion and the bringing of Manuel Noriega to
trial?
Germond: This was never legal, it was always political. You don't
determine what is good policy by the mob, you don't determine by poll
numbers. It was lousy policy, it was the wrong thing to do.
Buchanan: A lot of the old anti-interventionist right spoke out and
criticized and condemned it
Clift:
[The Democrats] are silent because their eyes are glued to their
political hides
They're not going to criticize George Bush when he's
riding this wave of patriotism. But the questinos will begin to come in;
it's going to cost us $2 billion to rebuild an economy we wrecked
And
we've really put our relationship with the other Latin American nations at
risk at a time when we need their coopération if we're going to go on to
the next stage of the drug war.
Germond People don't care about Panama
It makes their juices flow,
it's jingoistic, and they approve of what Bush did.
McLaughlin: About those aircraft carriers off the coast of Colombia. Do
you think that the President will have to pull them back, or do you think
he's going to work out a deal whereby they're going to be able to stay?
Buchanan: I think they're going to work some kind of deal where there
will not be any kind of blockade, but they'll be down there anyhow.
Barnes: I think he's going to take them back. It's a little overkill to
have aircraft carriers there.
Germond: He's going to have to pull them in.
Clift: It's a cowboy gesture. They're coming home.
On the Social Security payroll tax:
McLaughlin: Predictions. Will Congress cut the payroll Social Security
tax next year?
Buchanan: Yes, but not as much as Moynihan wants.
Barnes: Yes, and the White House will get beaten on this.
McLaughlin: Absolutely.
Clift: Yes, and the capital gains tax will be lowered, too.
McLaughlin:
Eleanor, you're right again.
###
INSIDE WASHINGTON
Moderator: Gordon Peterson. Panelists: Charles Krauthammer, Juan
Williams, Carl Rowan, James Kilpatrick.
On the Administration's foreign policy:
Peterson: Is the Bush Administration too quick with its praise [for the
governments of China and El Salvador]?
Kilpatrick:
You draw more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.
Williams:
To be quite honest, I don't think George Bush cares one way
or the other. I think George Bush is of a mind that, he's running the
government, he's maintaining relationships with China, and he'll do the
same with El Salvador.
Krauthammer: On Salvador, he's correct to praise a president who's
taking on his own army. On China, I thin he's wrong. China remains a
communist dictatorship at war with its own people; nothing's changed.
Rowan: This is a President who's been kicked around for kowtowing to
the CHinese and for his ho-hum attitude to what happened in Salvador, so
all we are getting from him is some self-serving comments.
On U.S. race relations:
Rowan:
In Boston, we had a gruesome murder, a hoax almost pulled
off because the white husband said a black guy did it. Yet we have the
contrast in Virginia, of people saying, "Let the black guy do it."
Krauthammer: I disagree with the opinion that the reason the story in
Boston was believed is because the accused was black. The reason the
story was believed was because there was no other plausible
explanation
It was a terrible hoax, but I think accepting that story is
not evidence of racism.
Williams:
In a city that I think is really tinged and troubled by race,
Boston, they really fell for that story.
Krauthammer: A year ago, we had another hoax in the Tawana Brawley
story
It was an example of another elaborate hoax which everyone
accepted.
Rowan: The police did not behave in the Tawana Brawley case quite the
way they did in this case. They didn't go busting into any white people's
houses.
Williams: The country's made tremendous progress on racial issues
But it is true that in the current public temperature, we are very very
much dealing with racial tempers, polarizations, stereotypes, and the Willie
Hortonization really does work. It's our urban fear come to life.
-more-
Tuesday, January 16, 1990 -- C-12
Rowan:
Virginia and Doug Wilder is as remarkable in its own right as
anything that's taken place in Boston.
Williams: The underclass in this country is now about 60 percent
black
Poverty and class issues now dominate as much as race, and
truly, that may be the change in the 90's is that race is no longer that
main factor so much as class.
On Lithuania:
Rowan:
We fought a terrible war over this issue of secession, and
Gorbachev may have the same kind of thing coming up.
Krauthammer: There's a difference between saving a union of democratic
states, which we were, and saving a union of socialist republics
The
problem is, if the Lithuanians get [national rights], the Estonians and the
Latvians and the Georgians and Ukrainians are next. And that means the
end of the Soviet Union, and that also means, I'm convinced, the end of
Gorbachev, which is a paradox and a real problem, because Gorbachev is
the one who brought human rights to the Soviet Union in larger measure
than anyone in the last hundred years.
Williams
What you're going to see is Gorbachev using the public
pressures of the crowds in the streets to say that he must reform the
Communist Party. He's going to use that combination of tactics to
undercut it because secession is never going to happen. It would not only
undercut Gorbachev, it would underout the Soviet Union
Rowan: But he runs up against the Lithuanian feeling that they never
were part of the Soviet Union
They have the right to walk away, and
this could lead to war.
On El Salvador:
Williams: I don't think President Cristiani is really pointing at his
military, I think he was pointing at the United States Congress
He's
concerned about U.S. aid to El Salvador
When [people say] that the
Bush Administration is right to support this man, they're simply playing
into a complex political set that really doesn't do anything for human
rights in that country.
Krauthammer: It's true that Cristiani has pressure on him to do this, but
the fact is that he's risking his life and his government by doing this,
and it's a courageous act.
Rowan:
All this lip service about saving American lives and restoring
democracy in Panama and so forth. All it ever comes down to is, Is this
S.O.B. on our side, or is he on somebody else's side?
Kilpatrick: I think you go into the armed forces and you have to
sublimate these values of human life to some degree. Otherwise, you'd
never pull a trigger in anger.
-more-
Tuesday, January 16, 1990 -- C-13
Williams: That's one of the consequences of having all these World War II
veterans running the U.S. government. They all think that really all it's
about is the Cold War
Human rights will become more of an issue, and
not so much how it plays in the East-West strategy game.
Krauthammer: If human rights is the issue in Salvador, than we are on the
right side. The other side is led by hard-line Marxist Leninists of the
Kim II-Sung variety
If anybody thinks human rights will be improved
under that they are wrong.
On the Social Security tax:
Peterson: Sen. Moynihan wants to repeal this year's Social Security tax
hike and cut it again next Jan. 1. The Heritage Foundation, no less,
says three for Pat Moynihan. The Bush Administration, however, does not
say three cheers.
Kilpatrick: We're piling up these tremendous surpluses in the Social
Security, quote, trust fund, unquote. And they're being used for the
operating expenses of government today. And this is wrong, it's just as
deceptive and fraudulent as it could be. It's pure sham.
Rowan: Also, this payroll tax is one of the most regressive taxes in the
land. It does an injustice to poor and middle class people.
Krauthammer: The fact is, this is not the time for anyone to be proposing
tax cuts
Our country has run up $3 trillion in debt, and it's
irresponsible for anyone to propose a tax cut without proposing at the
same time an offsetting cut in spending, or a rise, for example in the
income tax.
Williams: The question is, is Social Security secure. I think a lot of
people are concerned about that.
-End of News Summary-
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