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[09/28/1994 – 10/07/1994]
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[09/28/1994 – 10/07/1994]
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Presidential Electronic Mail from the Automated Records Management System (ARMS)
Automated Records Management System (ARMS) Email from the White House Office (WHO) Bucket
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RECORD TYPE: PRESIDENTIAL (ALL-IN-1 MAIL)
CREATOR: Gordon Li (LI_G) (WHO)
CREATION DATE/TIME:28-SEP-1994 17:40:57.24
SUBJECT: FYI
TO: Remote Addressee
(
[email protected]@INET@EOPMRX)
READ:NOT READ
TEXT:
ATTACHMENT
ATT CREATION TIME/DATE:28-SEP-1994 17:40:00.00
ATT BODYPART TYPE:p
ATT CREATOR: Gordon Li
TEXT:
--- Wednesday September 28, 1994 ---
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--- THE DAILY BRIEFING ON AMERICAN POLITICS ---
Updated Each Morning At 11:50
(c) The American Political Network, Inc.
282 North Washington Street, Falls Church, VA (703) 237-5130
PHOTO-OP, ISSUE-OP
SPOTLIGHT
300 GOP House candidates at
Capitol show photogenic unity,
MIGHTY MORPHING MUD RANGERS
I
but their manifesto takes hits
from budget analysts and social
The mud-slinging season
conservatives. Dems grateful
I
has arrived with a fresh
to have a campaign issue. (#22) I round of negative TV ads.
WITH A KNICK-KNACK HAITI-GATT
MA SEN: Romney (R) fires
I
House Foreign Affairs today
back at Kennedy's (D)
considers a 3/95 vote on troops
"twisted attacks." (#2)
in Haiti. WH throws Finance
MI SEN: Abraham (R) says
Chair HOLLINGS a bone, but his | Carr (D) reminds him of
threat remains to sit on GATT I Sen. Riegle (D) when it
until next year. (#23, 24)
I
comes to lobbyists. (#3)
PA SEN: Wofford (D) hits
BUT IT'S A DRY RECOUNT
I
Santorum (R) on reform and
In first day of AZ Dem Senate
I
ethics.
(#6)
re-tally, COPPERSMITH's lead I TX SEN: Fisher (D) says
grows to 141 votes. (#1)
I
Hutchison's (R) health-care
I
donations resulted in "cash
THIS TIME IT'S A LEGIT POLL
register politics." (#7)
Speaker FOLEY is shown
WY SEN: In ad for Thomas
trailing NETHERCUTT 51-37% in
(R), Cheney calls Sullivan
Seattle TV poll. (#11)
(D) an F.O.B. (#10)
GA GOV: Millner (R)
CLOSER THAN YOU THOUGHT?
calls it the "Clinton-
SUN poll shows MD gov. race
Miller" team: "Now we're
tight, with GLENDENING (D) over
I
feeling their pain." (#13)
SAUERBREY (R) 47-40%, just
TX GOV: Richards (D)
within margin of error. (#17) calls Bush (R) a business
failure. (#19)
LOUISIANA VOTES THIS SATURDAY
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"We just think who the president is isn't
particularly relevant to this race."
-- David Seldin, spokesperson for MD Dem Gov. nominee Parris
Glendening and ex-Clinton WH press aide, Balto. SUN, 9/28.
(c) 1994 by the American Political Network, Inc. Any
reproduction -- by photocopy, FAX, or other form -- in whole
or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly
prohibited without the consent of APN. This prohibition
extends to sharing this publication with clients and/or
affiliate companies. All rights reserved.
Phone: 703/237-5130 FAX: 703/237-5149
HOTLINE mailbag by E-mail: [email protected]
Publishers: Doug Bailey, Roger Craver
Editor-in-Chief: Robert Balkin
Managing Editor: Ken Rudin
Editorial Assts.:
Dep. Managing Editor: Vaughn Ververs
Christian Hudson
Associate Editor: Jessica Gavora
Douglas Hyde
TV Editor: Vincent Fusco
Staff Writers: Blair Campbell, Arti Finn, James Kaleigh
HOTLINE/DATABASE INDEX
SENATE WATCH:
AZ: Recount begins (#1); MA: Ted hits Romney (#2);
MI: (#3); NJ: Haytaian name recognition (#4); OK (#5); PA (#6);
TX: Fisher on TV (#7); VA: Wilder endorsement of Robb? (#8);
WA: Debating debate. (#9); WY: Cheney calls Sullivan F.O.B (#10)
ON THE HOUSE: WA 05 (#11); Briefings (#12)
GOVERNORS '94: GA (#13); HI (#14); IL (#15); IA (#16);
MD (#17); MI (#18); TX (#19)
CALIFORNIA CABLE: Senate/Governor (#20); House (#21)
NATIONAL BRIEFING: GOP CONTRACT: "Mother of all photo-ops." (#22)
GATT (#23); HAITI (#24);
POLL UPDATE: CNN/USA TODAY/GALLUP (#25)
TV MONITOR (#26)
OPENINGS: GREENWIRE, APN's daily briefing on the environment, is
seeking a staff writer. Position open immediately. Please fax
resume and cover letter to Dale Curtis at 703-237-9100. ALSO,
there is an entry-level position open on APN's technical staff.
Candidates must have good verbal communications skills;
experience with modems and online communications; C++
programming; knowledge of DOS, OS/2, Windows, WordPerfect.
Please fax resumes to Karl Eisenhower at 703-237-5288.
???? OVERLOOKED ????
"HILLARY CLINTON IS PREGNANT!"
"First Couple's bundle of joy due in April!"
-- Front-page of this week's WEEKLY WORLD NEWS, 10/11 issue
SENATE WATCH
*1 ARIZONA: RECOUNT BEGINS; COPPERSMITH LEAD UP TO 141 VOTES
The first day of the recount to determine a Dem nominee
ended with Rep. Sam Coppersmith (D-01) picking up 15 votes and
Sec/State Dick Mahoney getting an additional six; the recount is
expected to be completed 9/29. But if the matter is not resolved
by the end of the week, "Coppersmith will find it tough to raise
enough money to beat Republican candidate Jon Kyl, who is likely
to have more than $4 million to spend." This was the first
mandated recount in AZ history, required because Coppersmith led
by less than 200 votes. Current totals: Coppersmith 82,010,
Mahoney 81,869 (Muller, ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 9/28).
*2 MASSACHUSETTS: TED HITS ROMNEY ON MORMON RACIAL POLICIES
"Although he previously said religion should not be a
campaign issue," Sen. Ted Kennedy (D) said businessman Mitt
Romney (R) "should be asked where he stood on his church's past
racially exclusive policies." Kennedy's remarks came after Rep.
Joe Kennedy (D-MA), his nephew, apologized for statements about
the Mormon Church and said he hoped religion would not be an
issue. Kennedy, "noting the Mormon Church in 1978 decided to
allow blacks to become priests": "Where is Mr. Romney on those
issues in terms of equality of race prior to 1978 and other kinds
of issues in question?" Romney consultant Charles Manning
"charged Kennedy had changed his tune on religion as the race has
tightened" (Lehigh, BOSTON GLOBE, 9/27). More Manning: "They're
getting to the religion thing. This is the first time Teddy's
done it himself." Kennedy said Joe Kennedy had "raised important
questions" and had "also indicated that some of the areas are not
appropriate" (Miga, BOSTON HERALD, 9/27).
THE "SLEAZY" AD: Romney released a 30-second TV ad by Greg
Stevens & Company 9/27 titled "Sleazy." TEXT: "The private
investigators Ted Kennedy hired to dig up dirt got it wrong. The
companies Mitt Romney ran provide generous health care benefits
to all their employees and have helped create over 10,000 new
jobs. But Kennedy's in big trouble - so now he's stooping to
twisted attacks - distortions -- already called 'sleazy.' Ted
Kennedy is trying to destroy Mitt Romney even though Kennedy's
never held a job in the real world. After 32 years, the last
thing he can talk about is change" (Romney release, 9/27).
THE MONEY SOURCE: According to a GOP report on Kennedy's
fund-raising dating to early 1989, more than half of Kennedy's
largest donations were raised outside the state, while only 23
percent were raised in Massachusetts" (Phillips, GLOBE, 9/27).
*3 MICHIGAN: ABRAHAM AD "MORPHS" CARR INTO RIEGLE
Ex-MI GOP chair Spencer Abraham (R) unveiled a new 30-sec.
ad 9/26 produced by Mike Murphy entitled "Twins." The spot
features a picture of Rep. Bob Carr (D-08) being "morphed" into a
picture of Sen. Don Riegle (D). ANNCR: "Congressman Bob Carr.
After 18 years in Washington, he likes to do favors for
lobbyists. Just like Don Riegle. And while Riegle takes too
much special interest money (Riegle head morphs into Carr
head) So does Carr. 74% of his money comes from out of
state. Carr even voted for Bill Clinton's big tax increase.
Just like Riegle did. No wonder Riegle supports Bob Carr for
Senate. Career politicians Riegle and Carr. (Heads switch.)
They're everything that's wrong with Congress" (Abraham release,
9/27). Carr manager Jack Weeks said the "mean-spirited attack ad
against Bob Carr stinks of hypocrisy." He said Abraham, as NRCC
chair, "raised $33 million in special interest money from all
over the country" (Carr release, 9/26).
*4 NEW JERSEY: HAYTAIAN SEARCHES FOR NAME RECOGNITION
In a new ad produced by Murphy, Pintak, Gautier which began
airing 9/26 in Phila. and NYC, Assembly Speaker Chuck Haytaian
(R) defines himself as a "budget-cutting fiscal conservative" in
the mold of Gov. Christie Whitman (R). But a "more subliminal --
yet equally central point of the commercial is the deliberate
repetition of Haytaian's name which is unfamiliar to many
voters." In the ad, Haytaian's name is mentioned 6 times in 30
seconds. It also appears 10 times in the form of banners,
buttons, and bold type which "flash" across the screen. Local
political analysts characterized Haytaian's ad, which never
mentions Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D) by name, as "wise." Eagleton
Institute's Cliff Zukin: "Before he can cut Lautenberg down, he's
got to establish himself. If people don't know what a
Haytaian is, it's hard to attach adjectives to it." The ad also
touts Haytaian's 94-point plan to cut government waste.
Haytaian, from the ad: "I balance my budget at home with my wife.
You balance your budget. Washington thinks it's a gimmick."
Lautenberg aides have noted that "during the Haytaian years in
Trenton, state spending has increased by 2 1/2 times" Lautenberg
manager David Eichenbaum: "There is just one little problem with
Mr. Haytaian's television commercial: it's called his record"
(Phillips, PHILA. INQUIRER, 9/27).
*5 OKLAHOMA: INHOFE TAKES ON MCCURDY AND TULSA WORLD
Rep. James Inhofe (R-01) "bashed" Rep. Dave McCurdy (D-04)
over the weekend for "flip flops" on issues like gays in the
military and also "smacked" the TULSA WORLD, saying the newspaper
has "self-righteously bashed Inhofe" in opinion pieces. In the
"latest flurry of exchanged accusations," Inhofe Comm. Dir. Jack
Edens produced a reprint from the 11/18/92 DAILY OKLAHOMAN that
states, "(McCurdy) said he endorses President-elect Bill
Clinton's plan to allow gays to serve in the armed services and
sees no reason why they should not be treated like anyone else."
The Inhofe campaign has accused McCurdy of "compromising away the
ban (on homosexuals in the military) by supporting the 'don't
ask, don't tell' policy." McCurdy manager Tim Phillips maintains
that Inhofe has "distorted" the article and the record: "McCurdy
and Inhofe voted for the policy of Senate Armed Services Chairman
Sam Nunn when it was introduced in the House, Both also voted
against Clinton's policy." Phillips also noted another recent
OKLAHOMAN article that quoted Nunn saying McCurdy "supported the
same law that I backed and that all the conservative Republicans
supported, and that's the current policy" (TULSA WORLD, 9/27). A
WORLD editorial: "OK, so [Inhofe] lied about graduating from
college. It was just a little lie Give the man a break. He
is after all, a career politician. The trouble is that Inhofe
doesn't know when to stop stretching the truth. Based on
his
record, Inhofe's little lies about when he graduated from college
may be the least of his problems with the truth before this
campaign ends" (9/24).
*6 PENNSYLVANIA: WOFFORD ON THE OFFENSIVE
Sen. Harris Wofford (D) released a new 30-second TV ad,
titled "Straight," 9/27 that "exposes the gap" between Rep. Rick
Santorum's (R-18) "political rhetoric and his actions in
Congress." TEXT: "Who's being straight with Pennsylvania?
Congressman Santorum got elected to Congress in 1990 by opposing
the pay raise. Then he took it. Harris Wofford refused the pay
raise. Santorum campaigned against taxpayer financed junk mail -
- then he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on it. Wofford
refused to send out junk mail, which saved taxpayers a million
dollars. Santorum said he'd reform Congress, but he's charged
with ethics violations by a non-partisan watchdog group" (Wofford
release, 9/27). Santorum spokesperson Mike Mihalke: "It's
cyclical for Wofford. The more vulnerable he is, the more he
lies. The more he lies, the more vulnerable he appears. This is
one desperate candidate whose campaign is in dire straights." A
Santorum release says "the ad lies about Santorum's record and
misrepresents Wofford's record" (9/27).
SANTORUM AD: Santorum's campaign is airing a TV ad
statewide. A PHILA. DAILY NEWS ad watch says the key scene is a
picture of Wofford with his strategist James Carville. The
screen reads "Wofford's lies. Promised: A Middle-Class Tax Cut."
DAILY NEWS's Weisensee: "When you make an ad accusing your
opponent of lying, at the very least you should make sure you're
not lying. This Brabender-Cox ad takes a quote by James Carville
utterly out of context and distorts its meaning" (9/27).
"DOING A SLOW BURN": W. TIMES' "Inside the Beltway" reports
Wofford's campaign is "doing a slow burn." Wofford "is said to
believe Mr. Carville is spending too much time on the talk-show
circuit promoting" the book he and wife, Mary Matalin, wrote
together (9/27).
SANTORUM RILED: Santorum says the PA AFL-CIO "lied about
his voting record in a mailing it sent to about 10,000 of its
members." It gave him a score of zero while Wofford got 100%.
Santorum says the group "lied about two of his votes -- the
striker replacements" and NAFTA. PA AFL-CIO spokesperson Jim
Deegan on Santorum: "Our people have a right to know whether a
candidate has changed his position. And he has changed his
position 'on striker replacements" (Wisensee, DAILY NEWS, 9/24).
LIFE AFTER DEATH: W.S. JOURNAL's Seib writes that with the
death of health care reform, Wofford faces a "simple question" in
his bid for re-election: "Is there life after health care?"
Though "lots of people have assumed the answer is no," analyst
Terry Madonna comments, "I think he's in much better shape now
than he was six months ago. He's got a much more focused
campaign." In fact, a clear three step strategy in Wofford's
campaign can now be seen. Step one: "Define the failure of
health reform as a temporary product of Republican
obstructionism. That keeps the issue alive for the middle-class
voters who still want change and energizes blue-collar workers
always suspicious of Republican intentions." Step two:
"Capitalize on the new crime bill, particularly in the crucial
suburbs. Wofford figures it plays well among suburbanites who
lose no love for assault weapons." Step three: "Play up Sen.
Wofford's own image as an outsider and reformer. Along the
way Wofford's advisors hope to expose what they consider Rep.
Santorum's weak underbelly: double standards in his own record as
a reformer." Still, Santorum is "happy" to have Wofford accuse
him of stopping Clinton-style health care: "I'm not sure I'd go
out there accusing my opponent of doing something that 80% of the
voters want you to do." But, ultimately this race will likely
turn on "how big a drag President Clinton is, and how many
Democrats bother to vote" (9/28).
WOFFORD THREATENS SENATE: Since Congress failed to pass any
health reform legislation this year, Wofford introduced a bill to
strip his colleagues of their "taxpayer-provided health
insurance." Wofford: "I think it will be very hard for members
of Congress in good conscience with a straight face to look their
constituents in the eye" and tell them they have to keep paying
for insurance for members of Congress "when we've failed to take
action to see that they have the same kind of choice" (Griffith,
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 9/28).
*7 TEXAS: FISHER MAKES RARE APPEARANCE ON TV
Businessman Richard Fisher (D), who won his primary race on
a "diet of heavy TV advertising," is "returning to the airwaves
with an assault" on his opponent, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R).
In Fisher's "first real advertising since April," he focuses on
the $727,000 Hutchison has raised from the insurance and medical
industries and "suggests a connection between those givers and
her stand on health care reform." PARTIAL TEXT: "No wonder she
now says we have the best health care system in the world.
Cash register politics. It should be against the law.
Government should have strong ethics, no cheating, no breaking
the law." The second half of the ad makes a "veiled reference"
to the Senator's indictment on ethics charges earlier this year,
although Hutchison was later acquitted of the charges. Hutchison
spokesperson David Beckwith attacked the figures used in the TV
spot and called on the Fisher campaign to pull the ads off the
air: "Only about one-third of that money came from health care
related PACs. The rest came from ordinary citizens [and]
they are not special interests at all unless you consider that
any contribution is a special interest contribution." Beckwith,
responding to the ethics attacks: "We have never challenged Mr.
Fisher's integrity." The Fisher campaign said that the spot is a
factual, "comparative" ad and will stay up. Fisher's ad is the
first one either candidate has run thus far in the general
campaign. The Hutchison campaign said they expect to begin
airing ads 10/3 (Ramsey, HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 9/28).
*8 VIRGINIA: ROBB AND WILDER MEET ON "POSSIBLE ENDORSEMENT"
After gaining the backing of the VA Legislative Black
Caucus, Sen. Chuck Robb (D) met with ex-Dem gov. Doug Wilder for
about an hour to "talk about a possible endorsement." Robb,
noting that the support of black voters is "central to any hopes
I have of retaining my seat," described the meeting as "positive"
and said he would "welcome" a Wilder endorsement at the
"appropriate time." Meanwhile, Oliver North (R) held a news
conference to offer a "small, single-tiered wedding cake adorned
with two shotgun shells to dramatize what North called 'a bizarre
shotgun wedding.' North accused the Clinton admin. of
"engineering a cynical marriage of political convenience to
resurrect Chuck Robb's 'failing, sagging campaign' by hitching
his broken down 'Chuck Wagon' to Doug Wilder's 'star." North
praised Wilder as a candidate and said he would welcome his
support. Wilder spokesperson Glenn Davidson: "[Robb] didn't
specifically ask [for Wilder's endorsement], nor was it
tendered." When asked if Wilder would eventually endorse Robb,
Davidson responded, "not necessarily," but added that "the timing
and method of endorsements can be important." A Dem source
commented that a Wilder endorsement of Robb is "possible,"
another called it "almost certain" (Whitley/Hardin, RICHMOND
TIMES-DISPATCH, 9/28). North suggested that the WH might reward
Wilder with a "high-ranking job" if he backs Robb: "I have no
doubt Bill Clinton will do whatever is in his power to save his
good friend Chuck Robb. We all know how the game is played"
(Baker/Jenkins, W. POST, 9/28).
PRESIDENT NORTH? North "declined to guarantee" that he
would not run for president after two terms in the Senate but
added, "I have no other ambitions to any other office" (Kellman,
W. TIMES, 9/28).
*9 WASHINGTON: GORTON, SIMS ENGAGE IN DEBATE DEBATE
Sen. Slade Gorton (R), who spent the year on everyone's
"endangered" list and then won an impressive 52% in the 9/20 open
primary, may have found himself back on the list after a KING-TV
post-primary poll conducted by Elway Research showed Gorton up
41-29% (see HOTLINE, 9/27). Gorton refused to commit to future
debates after a 9/25 encounter with King Co. Councilmember Ron
Sims (D), and Sims said such a refusal was an "insult" to WA
voters and a "blatant attempt to hide behind a multi-million
dollar warchest of special interest money" (Sims release, 9/27).
Gorton has "opened the door to the possibility" of more debates
with Sims, with his camp suggesting a decision will be made by
10/1. Debates in WA have "played an important role" in recent
elections, as there have been "famous slipups": Ex-Gov. Albert
Rosellini (D) "destroyed his comeback" in a '72 debate when he
referred to Gov. Dan Evans (R) as "Danny Boy." Rep. Rod Chandler
(R) "trounced" Patty Murray (D) in a '92 debate but then
"inexplicably" broke into a verse of the old Roger Miller song,
"Dang me." And Gorton made Sen. Warren Magunson's (D) refusal to
debate an issue in his '80 upset win (Connelly, SEATTLE POST-
INTELLIGENCER, 9/28). Meanwhile, an internal Gorton poll by
Moore Information conducted 9/24 of 400 voters, +/- 5%, gave
Gorton a 56-32% lead over Sims (NRSC release, 9/27).
*10 WYOMING: CHENEY, IN THOMAS AD, CALLS SULLIVAN A F.O.B.
Rep. Craig Thomas (R-At Large) aired a new TV ad 9/23 that
features ex-WY Rep. Dick Cheney. From the ad, Cheney: "Bill
Clinton's proposals for government run health care, higher taxes,
gun control and his weak foreign policy have been a disaster for
our nation. We need a Senator who thinks the way we do and will
fight Bill Clinton's bad ideas. We simply cannot afford to
send another friend of Bill Clinton's to Washington" (Thomas
release, 9/23). Thomas spokesperson Dan Kunsman "said Cheney
appeared in the ad 'free of charge" (AP/Casper STAR-TRIBUNE,
9/27). A Rock Springs DAILY ROCKET-MINER editorial, responding
to Thomas' charge that Gov. Mike Sullivan (D), as a friend of
Clinton's, would not be able to work for WY in the Senate: "We
consider that allegation to be completely without foundation.
[Sullivan] has served Wyoming and served it well for the past
eight years. His friendship with Bill Clinton or anyone else
hasn't got in the way" (9/15).
ON THE HOUSE
WA 05: ANOTHER POLL BRINGS BAD NEWS FOR FOLEY
A KING-TV poll, conducted 9/23-25 by Elway Research,
surveyed 400 likely voters; margin of error +/- 5%. The poll
showed atty George Nethercutt (R) leading Speaker Tom Foley (D),
51% to 37%, with 12% undecided (Hanson, SEATTLE POST-
INTELLIGENCER, 9/28). Dem pollster Tim Hibbits said Foley is in
"a very desperate battle for survival, as are all Democrats.
There's no patience out there with what a corrupt, stinking
morass Washington, D.C. is, and I think it will be taken out on
him." Nethercutt said Foley "has lost touch with real people and
has come to embody an aloof Congress that is wrapped up in its
own games." N.Y. TIMES' Seelye writes Foley "has played right
into Mr. Nethercutt's hands by bringing a lawsuit to overturn
last year's approval of term limits for Congress." Pollster
Stuart Elway said that after Foley filed suit, "voters in his
district were deeply offended that someone would take such an
active role in trying to overturn what the voters had approved"
(9/28). Frosh Rep. Jennifer Dunn (R), a former WA GOP chair who
attended the GOP Contract with America rally in DC, called Foley
"the epitome of the Washington, D.C. insider" (POST-
INTELLIGENCER, 9/28).
NOTE: A "Bullet" poll conducted in WA 05 for a Seattle TV
station received wide publicity in the WA media and thus was
covered in the HOTLINE 9/26. The "Bullet" poll, as conducted by
Hypoteneuse Inc., uses a recorded voice (usually of a local news
anchor) and urges respondents to use their touch-tone phones to
respond. Its accuracy was greatly challenged during the Detroit
Mayor's race in '93, although the TV station there stood by its
use. The HOTLINE does not normally carry the results of these
"Bullet" polls.
*12 BRIEFINGS: LOUISIANA GENERAL ELECTION IS SATURDAY
IA 04: Rep. Neal Smith (D) won his 18th term in '92 with
62%. He ran unopposed in '90. He has gotten at least 60% of the
vote in every election (except '80) since 1962. And yet by all
accounts Smith is in the race of his life. Surgeon Greg Ganske
(R) "has been working doggedly to tap into anti-incumbent voter
sentiment by painting Smith as a longtime congressional
insider who has lost touch with lowans." Ganske: "For 36 years
he has done what every career congressman has done. They blame
each other, spend more money and then raise your taxes." Smith:
"I am able to work on things that are important to lowa."
Although in the House since '59, Smith has represented 10 of the
13 counties in the 4th CD for only the last two years after it
was redrawn. He lost earlier in the year to chair the Approps.
Committee. Ganske, who campaigns in a '58 DeSoto to remind
voters how long Smith has been in Congress, supports a balanced-
budget amendment, a line-item veto and term limits. ISU's
Steffen Schmidt: "I think [Smith] is in real trouble. It will be
an extremely tight race" (Gertzen, OMAHA WORLD-HERALD, 9/23).
LA 07: A candidate receiving 50% of the vote in the state's
10/1 primary is automatically elected, otherwise the top two
candidates go on to an 11/8 runoff; all of LA's CDs are expected
to be settled on Saturday. The one race worth watching is the
battle between Rep. Jimmy Hayes (D) and ex-Rep. Clyde Holloway
(R), a contest where the candidates are "slipping and sliding
on a sea of mud," where each has "a similar determination to
undermine the character of the other." Asked why he won't debate
Holloway, Hayes said, "I only debate mammals." Holloway painted
Hayes "as a rich man incapable of understanding the problems of
working people like him." An internal GOP poll had Holloway
about 10 points down (Snyder, N.O. TIMES-PICAYUNE, 9/26).
NE 02: In their first debate of the campaign, Rep. Peter
Hoagland (D) and insurance exec. Jon Christensen (R) argued over
Hoagland's characterization of his opponent as an extremist.
Hoagland said, "He's a member of the radical right" who is "100
percent in agreement with Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell."
Christensen tied Hoagland to Pres. Clinton and responded, "I
don't know the positions of [Falwell and Robertson], but what I
do know is that this country is heading in the wrong
direction" (Cordes, OMAHA WORLD-HERALD, 9/26). A Gallup poll
shows Clinton to be the "most disapproved president of the past
25 years" in NE, "the highest disapproval rating for a U.S.
president since the WORLD-HERALD began measuring the job
performance of presidents when Richard Nixon was in the White
House." Predictably, Clinton "has a standing invitation" to come
to NE to campaign for the Dem ticket "from the Nebraska
Republican Party" (Kotok, WORLD-HERALD, 9/27).
OH 06: Businessman Frank Cremeans (R) said he is against
gay rights "partly because homosexuals made unwelcome passes at
him when he was younger": "I've had two homosexuals after me in
my lifetime. It happened once when I was 18 and later, when I
was in graduate school. I had one of my professors after me.
I'm opposed to that. If homosexuals are in the foxholes with our
soldiers, it would be very demoralizing" (Kelly, MARIETTA TIMES,
9/21). Dem: frosh Rep. Ted Strickland.
TX 25: Univ./Houston's Richard Murray sees the race between
Ken Bentsen (D) and Dr. Gene Fontenot (R) as a battle between "a
famous-name Democrat going up against a rich guy willing to spend
as much as $2.5 million of his own money." Bentsen, nephew of
Treas. Sec. Lloyd Bentsen, said his job "is to get out the
message not only who Ken Bentsen is, but who Gene Fontenot really
is. And he's a radical extremist." Fontenot "disputed" the
"religious extremist" label the Dems have put on him, saying, "I
go to church just like 160 million other people in the United
States" (Kilday, DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 9/26). Rep. Mike Andrews
(D) was defeated in the Senate primary.
WA 03: An internal poll for state Sen. Linda Smith (R) by
Moore Information surveyed 300 likely voters; +/-6%. The poll,
with leaners, had Smith with 52% and Unsoeld with 38%, 2% for Gun
Control Party's Caitlin Davis Carlson and 8% undecided (NRCC
release, 9/26).
GOVERNORS '94
*13 GEORGIA: MILLER TIME IS CLINTON TIME, SAYS MILLNER AD
Businessman Guy Millner (R) is running a TV ad which "shows
the strong tie" between Gov. Zell Miller (D) and "his longtime
friend" Pres. Clinton. The spot shows Miller striding up to the
podium to address the '92 Dem convention as an announcer says,
"Zell Miller promised us Bill Clinton was a new Democrat. But
the Clinton-Miller team has just given the same old thing.
Broken promises and the largest tax increase ever, including
Clinton's big tax increase on the middle class. The Clinton-
Miller team. Now, we're feeling their pain" (Millner release,
9/27). Miller, on the ad: "This is a race for governor of
Georgia. If Guy wants to run for president, he should be
investigating when they are going to have filing for the New
Hampshire primary" (Walston, ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 9/28).
STUCK IN THE MUD: CONSTITUTION editorial: "The TV
commercials in Georgia's race for governor have already descended
deep into the mire. So far, the two men are exhibiting all
the depth of a mud puddle, and in fact seem content to wallow in
that puddle as long as the voters let them" (9/23).
*14 HAWAII: FOES FAULT FASI FOR FALSE FACTS
Best Party candidate/Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi (I) said his
latest ad "is designed to force his opponents in the race for
governor to take stands on the issues. His challengers say the
ad is 'vintage Frank Fasi." Ex-Rep. Pat Saiki (R): "What he
does is shade the truth. And it's absolutely blatant. I really
don't think he serves the voters well by giving them false
information." LG Ben Cayetano (D): "I'm not offended, because
Frank Fasi has made it a career to distort what people say. The
man is really desperate. He's really grasping at straws. He
hasn't moved (in the polls) in a long time and he knows if he
doesn't do something he's going to stay there." The full-page ad
in HI newspapers compares Fasi's record with those of Saiki and
Cayetano. Fasi's opponents "say several of their positions have
been misstated and also question the truth of some of Fasi's
positions." Saiki "said the most blatant of the 'lies' suggests
she favors same-sex marriage." She says she opposes same-sex
unions but is willing to consider domestic partnership laws.
Cayetano said the ad "distorts Fasi's own record by claiming that
he would stop all campaign contributions from anyone doing
business with state or county government." Fasi had earlier
promised not to accept such contributions but continued to do so
when Cayetano and Saiki refused to follow suit. Cayetano: "He's
already squeezed everybody for $4 million, so he can talk like
that" (Botticelli, HONOLULU ADVERTISER, 9/23). An ADVERTISER
editorial: "Fasi as usual has played fast and loose with the
truth. We wish he'd cut it out" (9/25).
*15 ILLINOIS: SEE YOUR AD & RAISE YOU AN OUTRAGE
CHICAGO TRIBUNE's Kendall reports, after Dems and GOPers
"took turns Sunday accusing each other of airing inaccurate
television commercials each side vied to show the greatest
moral outrage." An ad from Comptroller Dawn Clark Netsch (D)
"includes criticism" of a law backed by Gov. Jim Edgar (R)
containing an early release provision for prisoners that Edgar's
running mate, LG Bob Kustra, "claimed Netsch had vowed not to
criticize." Kustra: "I don't know if this is Dawn Clark Netsch
personally involved in this deception, or whether hers is a
campaign that is simply out of control." Netsch claims the ads
are to "set the record straight" on her position on the death
penalty. From the Edgar ad: "Netsch said that if elected
governor she would sign legislation to abolish the death
penalty." Netsch: "They have strongly suggested in their ads
that 1 would commute the death sentences of everyone on Death Row
- absolute utter falsehood and they know it" (9/26). CHICAGO
SUN-TIMES' Neal reports that by "attacking" Netsch on the death
penalty, "Edgar has defined" her "as soft on crime and has moved
into an overwhelming lead." IL House Speaker Michael Madigan (D)
"has acknowledged to Democratic fund-raisers that Netsch's
weakness on the crime issue is a potential liability" for other
Dem candidates (9/26).
CANCER: Netsch's husband, architect Walter Netsch, "last
week completed six-and-a-half weeks of radiation therapy for skin
cancer on his nose and ear." Netsch's running mate state Sen.
Penny Severns "has been undergoing radiation and chemotherapy for
breast cancer" (Collin/Wetzel, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 9/27).
*16 IOWA: CAMPBELL TELLS BRANSTAD TO "QUIT WHINING"
DES MOINES REGISTER's Yepsen reports that Gov. Terry
Branstad (R) has "demanded" that AG Bonnie Campbell (D) apologize
for a television ad, while Campbell said the governor should
"quit whining." However, just a couple of weeks ago it was
Campbell who "was demanding an apology and the governor who was
admonishing her to quit complaining." The latest Campbell ad,
which raises the case of Matthew Gill, a convicted killer who was
released from prison after serving just a few years of a 60-year
sentence, asserts that the case is part of Branstad's "shameful
record on crime." Branstad said the ad is "false and a smear
campaign and she knows it to be factually incorrect": "I ask her
to pull this false ad, to apologize for it and to take charge of
her campaign to see these things never happen again." Campbell:
"The governor should quit whining. This ain't bean bag. It's
hardball and he started the game" (9/27).
*17 MARYLAND: SAUERBRAY IS WITHIN SEVEN IN NEW POLL
A Balto. SUN poll, conducted 9/21-23 by Mason-Dixon/PMR,
surveyed 829 registered voters; margin of error 3.5%. Tested:
Prince Georges Co. Exec. Parris Glendening (D), House Del. Ellen
Sauerbray (R).
ALL MEN WOMEN BLACK WHITE FAV/UNFAV ID
Glendening
47%
41%
53%
78%
37%
42%/
21%
95%
Sauerbray
40
44
36
8
51
32
/
16
88
Undecided 13 15 11 14 12
PARRIS AND JOHN-JOHN: Glendening "welcomed" JFK, Jr., cousin
of Glendening running mate Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, for three
9/27 fundraising events while "keeping his distance" from Pres.
Clinton. "Like many Democrats across the country," Glendening
"has no interest" in bringing Clinton to MD, according to
Glendening spokesperson/ex-WH press aide David Seldin. Seldin:
"We're talking about Maryland and state government and what
Parris can do to address the real problems of this state. We're
not worrying about national issues, national politics. We
just think who the president is isn't particularly relevant to
this race." Sauerbray: "It's understandable that Glendening
wouldn't want Clinton to campaign with him. After all, bringing
in a fellow tax-and-spend liberal would only serve to point out
their similarities. He obviously prefers to divert public
attention from the real issues of this campaign by importing the
Kennedy glitterati" (Waldron, Balto. SUN, 9/28).
MORE STAR POWER: NJ Gov. Christie Whitman stumped for
Sauerbray 9/26. Whitman, on Sauerbray: "There are some striking
parallels here. She's promising to cut taxes, not because it
makes a good campaign slogan, not because it grabs headlines, but
because it makes good economic sense" (W. POST, 9/27).
ELLEN'S COFFERS: "Charting the unexplored waters" of public
financing, AG Joseph Curran (D) ruled that the GOP can spend no
money on behalf of Sauerbray. Any money spent by the party on
her behalf must count against the maximum of $1 million in
taxpayer funds Sauerbray can spend under public campaign
financing law. The opinion "appears to be a major setback" for
the GOP, which had hoped to spend its own money to help Sauerbray
"close the money gap" on the "better-financed" Glendening. GOP
officials called the opinion "politically motivated" and said
they were considering a court challenge. MD GOP Chair Joyce
Terhes: "They've tried to tilt the playing field. I think it
will backfire on them" (Waldron, Balto. SUN, 9/24).
*18 MICHIGAN: NO "CLEAR WINNER" IN ENGLER-WOLPE DEBATE
Under the header "Sparring match was missing a knockout
blow," DETROIT FREE PRESS' McDiarmid reports on the 9/26 debate
between Gov. John Engler (R) and ex-Rep. John Wolpe (D):
"Frankly, Howard Wolpe, though he complained bitterly and
repeatedly about how 'the governor isn't being straight with us,'
didn't lay a glove on him." As for Engler, he "appeared relaxed
and confident"; "made few, if any, mistakes" and "called Wolpe 'a
taxer' or 'a liberal' at least a dozen times." McDiarmid writes
Engler "must have won, right? Yeah
I suppose. Although most
of it was fairly benign and predictable.
But
it's
a
long
way
from over" (9/27). FREE PRESS' Christoff & Bell write Wolpe
"branded" Engler as a "deceptive, divisive leader, while Engler
labeled Wolpe an incorrigible liberal who favors high taxes":
"Neither was a clear winner. Wolpe appeared nervous and stumbled
over his words, especially early in the debate" (9/27).
STABENOW "SNUBBED" AS UWSA RALLY: Wolpe running mate/state
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D) "was not permitted to speak as a stand
in" for Wolpe at the United We Stand rally. Engler "got loud
applause when he talked about his support for term limits and
tough policies for welfare recipients." Wolpe, as expected, did
not attend. MI UWSA's Susan Esser, who "wouldn't let Stabenow
speak": "They are not going to manipulate us." Stabenow said she
"overheard Engler say to Esser, 'No surrogates, right?" Esser
agreed, Stabenow said. Engler, on Stabenow's assertion: "Those
were the ground rules in advance, and she knew that coming down
here" (Cook/Adams, FREE PRESS, 9/24).
*19 TEXAS: IT'S NOTHING PERSONAL
Gov. Ann Richards (D) launched a "pointed television
advertising attack" 9/27 against businessman George W. Bush's (R)
business experience, claiming firms he has helped run have lost
$371.6 million since '85. PARTIAL TEXT: "He says that he is a
successful businessman. But official records show that every
other Bush business venture has lost money - big money net
losses of $371 million. Texas is on the comeback trail. But can
we afford the business experiences of George W. Bush?"
(Ratcliffe, HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 9/28).
BUSH RESPONSE: Bush immediately countered by airing a new
ad accusing Richards of "making a personal attack to avoid
talking about issues" such as crime, education, and welfare.
Having expected an attack from Richards, the Bush ad was taped
9/17 and edited 9/22. Both the Richards ad and the Bush ad are
running statewide. The Richards camp said their ad is not a
"personal attack" because it focuses on Bush's business
experience. Richards spokesperson Chuck McDonald: "When Mr.
Bush, or anyone else, presents business success as a
qualification and record to hold public office, then that success
and the public records that either document it or refute it
should be examined." Bush spokesperson Karen Hughes: "Ann
Richards' negative and untrue personal attack against George
Bush's successful business career is Texas politics at its
mudslinging worst." Bush, from his ad: "The governor and I have
honest disagreements on the issues and that should be the focus
of the campaign, not personal attacks" (CHRONICLE, 9/27).
FORNIA CABLE
*20 SENATE/GOVERNOR: BROWN SPARKS DEM INTERNECINE WARFARE
The campaign of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) "found itself in
an unusual position Monday defending itself against a
political charge leveled by fellow Democrat" Treas. Kathleen
Brown. The campaigns of both Gov. Pete Wilson (R) and Rep. Mike
Huffington (R-22) distributed excerpts 9/26 from a recent Brown
interview with the NATIONAL JOURNAL in which she discussed her
personal opposition to the death penalty and "took swipes" at
five prominent CA Dems. Brown: "I could have done what every
politician in California has done. I could have changed my
position like Dianne Feinstein did and (U.S. Sen.) Barbara Boxer
did and (Lt. Gov.) Leo McCarthy did and (former Rep.) Mel Levine
did and (Assembly Speaker) Willie Brown did. Every single one of
them changed their position to run for higher office. I couldn't
do that the way I was raised. I was raised to believe that
politics was also about principle and not just politics."
Feinstein aides "were not amused." Manager Kam Kuwata: "She's
just wrong. I don't know what the hell she's referring to.
Maybe she should just check her facts. Anyone who knows Dianne
Feinstein's record knows that she's been for the death penalty
since the early 1970s." Wilson spokesperson Dan Schnur:
"Kathleen Brown has somehow managed to disparage the integrity of
five of the leading Democrats of the state of California. I
don't think I've ever been able to do that before." Brown issued
a statement noting Feinstein has had a "strong and consistent
pro-death penalty position" for 25 years: "Mistakenly, Dianne
Feinstein was included among a list of political figures who have
changed their position on the death penalty" (Chance, SACRAMENTO
BEE, 9/27).
*21 HOUSE: CLINTON A FACTOR IN CLOSE RACES
SACRAMENTO BEE's Green writes Pres. Clinton's "unpopularity
is emerging as a strong factor in a number of CA's close
congressional races." San Jose State Univ.'s Stephen Van Beek
said that "with polls showing Clinton's popularity at the lowest
point of his presidency Democratic candidates in swing seats
'better have their own separate programs that they can sell to
voters. Democrats are trying to run as independent of
Clinton. Republicans are trying to tie them to Clinton." Rep.
Richard Lehman (D-19), who came within 1,130 votes of losing to
an "unknown" in '92, is "especially vulnerable." He faces ex-
Mariposa Co. Supervisor George Radanovich (R), who "carries a
cardboard cutout of Clinton to campaign appearances." GOP
analyst Tony Quinn said, "I'd be especially worried if I were Vic
Fazio even though the Republican is not a heavyweight candidate.
That isn't an easy seat for a Democrat." Rep. Fazio faces
businessman Tim LeFever (R) in the 3rd CD. In the 22nd CD being
vacated by Senate candidate Michael Huffington (R), Assemblywoman
Andrea Seastrand (R) faces professor Walter Capps (D). Seastrand
aide Ralph Wunder said, "I can't tell you how happy I was to see
Hillary Clinton come in here" for a Capps fundraiser (9/25).
NATIONAL BRIEFING
*22 GOP CONTRACT: "THE MOTHER OF ALL PHOTO-OPS"
"Emboldened by the likelihood of big gains" in November,
over 300 GOP House candidates "sought to spur a national GOP tide
with a voter 'contract' vowing action on tax cuts, crime, welfare
and term limits." GOP leaders "hope the long-planned manifesto
will appeal to crucial independent voters and counter a
widespread perception of Republicans as naysayers -- even as GOP
tactics in Congress' final days have killed" Clinton's health-
care reform and "threaten bills on education, the environment and
campaign-finance reform" (Calmes, W.S. JOURNAL, 9/28). COPLEY's
Barabak writes the GOP "offered a platform long on popular
promises but short on specifics of how to pay for the proposals"
(S.D. UNION-TRIBUNE, 9/28). House Min. Whip Newt Gingrich: "This
is the first step toward reviving the American civilization."
Rep. Dick Armey (R-TX): "Today, we Republicans are signing a
'Contract with America.' We pledge ourselves, in writing, to a
new agenda of reform, respect and renewal" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE,
9/27). The contract "promises a feel-good agenda of tax cuts,
stronger defense and a balanced budget amendment." Gingrich:
"Clinton is in such trouble with the American people that our job
is to go out and offer a clear, positive alternative" (Welch, USA
TODAY, 9/28). GOPers "touted the plan as a way to improve the
economy and reduce the size of government" (Lemons, ARKANSAS
DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE, 9/28). NBC's Brokaw: "It is long on promises,
but short on sound premises" (9/27). CNN's Franken: "It was the
mother of all photo-ops" (9/27).
DANGEROUS STRATEGY? The GOP "strategy represents a risk in
a year when the political winds have been blowing in the party's
favor. For one, it gives Democrats something to shoot at and
forces the Republicans to defend the specifics of a program with
unanswered questions." DCCC chair Vic Fazio: "What we have here
isn't so much positive, but everything (Republicans) ran on
during Reagan's heyday. We're able to go back on the offensive
in district after district. Our Democratic candidates will be
asking them to explain this and calling them to account" (Cooper,
W. POST, 9/28). NBC's Myers: "An independent budget expert
called it 'standard political bunk." Budget analyst Carol Cox
Wait: "It doesn't add up because nobody wants to hear the truth.
Everybody wants to talk about benefits and nobody wants to talk
about cost" (9/27). Rep. Dick Armey (R-TX): "There is not one
dime of increased spending in this ten point long legislative
agenda" ("Crossfire," CNN, 9/27). NPR's Arnold: "While some
Republican challengers were reluctant to come to Washington and
line themselves with the establishment they were running against,
the contract was difficult to oppose" (9/28).
DEM TALKING POINTS: ABC's Cochran: "For the moment
Democrats are demoralized and can only hope that the Republicans
have peaked too soon for an election that is still six weeks
away" (9/27). Clinton pollster Stan Greenberg: "They have thrown
something new into the mix that does not favor their candidates.
It gives them a record. Up until now, they were running against
the Democratic incumbent, and many of their challengers were just
challengers. Now they have all signed onto trickle-down
economics and trillion-dollar deficits, cutting Medicare and
marching lock step with the Republican leaders in Congress, who,
believe me, are not popular" (GANNETT NEWS SERVICE, 9/28). Rep.
Bob Matsui (D-CA): "Frankly, I thought Republicans should have
left a good thing alone. Now they've set themselves up. They
can't cut taxes, increase spending and balance the budget at the
same time without causing massive cuts in Social Security,
Medicare, student loans and other middle-class programs" (S.F.
CHRONICLE, 9/28). WH CoS Leon Panetta: "This is fraud, and I
think the American people need to know that" (N.Y. NEWSDAY,
9/28). House Budget Chair Martin Sabo (D-MN): "It's hard to take
the Republican plan seriously" (W. POST, 9/28). House Maj.
Leader Dick Gephardt: "It's really Reagan reupholstered" (PHILA.
INQUIRER, 9/28). DNC adviser Tony Coehlo: "They want to go back
to where we were with big deficits. They used the credit card
and didn't pay the bills. Now we need to go ahead and pay the
bill that they put on the books" ("Inside Politics," CNN, 9/27).
HITS FROM THE RIGHT: Some "social conservatives" said that
the contract "ignored family values." Free Congress Foundation
Pres. Paul Weyrich: "Contract With America' is fine as far as it
goes. However, the document fails to address many of the
concerns of the cultural conservatives and as such is incomplete.
Republicans take social-issue conservatives for granted at their
own peril" (Hallow, W. TIMES, 9/28).
THIS IS REFORM? Hours after signing the contract, "many of
the GOP hopefuls attended a $5,000-a-table fund-raising dinner at
which individuals or political action committees purchasing a
table could request a specific GOP House member or candidate to
sit at their table." Gingrich: "It's perfectly legitimate." The
DCCC "reportedly was sending a crew to film the GOP candidates
entering, for possible use in campaign ads" (Leubsdorf, DALLAS
MORNING NEWS, 9/28). Most reports noted the fund-raiser. NBC's
Myers: "Gingrich said any term limit bill probably will apply
only to future members of Congress." Gingrich: "I don't think
you can say to everybody's who's been here 12 years, you know,
this is you're last term, you don't run again." Myers: "And
politicians wonder why voters are cynical" (9/27).
OTHER REAX: David Broder writes, "It would be wonderful if
we could balance the budget by improved CPR techniques, while
cutting taxes at the same time. But it sounds suspiciously like
the fairy-tale economics of the 1980s, which landed us in this
budgetary mess. Do Republicans really want a referendum on that?
(W. POST, 9/28). N.Y. POST editorial: "We'd like to see a
parallel document from the Democrats so Americans could choose
between two competing philosophies and two distinct visions for
the future" (9/28). USA TODAY editorial: "The GOP blew it,
choosing to offer up yet another course of all politicians'
favorite meal: free lunch" (9/28). N.Y. TIMES editorial calls
the contract "duplicitous propaganda" (9/28). W. POST editorial:
"Apart from the welfare cuts, the Republicans limit themselves to
a list of only illustrative or 'possible' spending cuts. The
list would not begin to get them to the balanced budget that they
claim as a goal" (9/28).
*23 GATT: COMMERCE CHAIR HOLLINGS MAY STALL VOTE
Senate Commerce Cmte Chair Fritz Hollings (D-SC) has
"threatened to use his powers" to hold up a vote "until well into
next year" on the GATT implementing legislation that the admin.
introduced to Congress 9/27. Hollings can utilize his powers as
chair to hold up action for 45 days. The WH is "betting" that a
lobbying blitz by Pres. Clinton and the Cabinet and Clinton's
"friendship" with Hollings will get Hollings to back off.
Hollings "could win promises of additional favors on textiles,
telecommunications and other issues." In a "marathon drafting
session" late 9/26, the WH failed to win Hollings over, despite
some final deals meant to "woo" him. The admin. added provisions
sought by Hollings "that could prompt foreign companies to charge
as much as 10% or more for their goods in this country as they do
in their domestic markets, protecting U.S. companies." The
admin. also "dropped a plan to reduce textile and apparel tariffs
for Caribbean nations to the level of Mexico under NAFTA. The
[admin.] plans to reintroduce the plan early next year"
(Davis/Rogers, W.S. JOURNAL, 9/28). Clinton and USTR Mickey
Kantor met with Hollings 9/27 but the admin. "received no
assurances" that the measure would come to a vote this month.
"With each step to placate Hollings," the admin. "has angered
some pro-trade Republicans" (Behr, W. POST, 9/28).
OUTLOOK: GATT needs a majority in the House but Senate
rules require it to receive 60 votes in that chamber. "It
appears to have majorities in its favor in the House and Senate
alike." It currently falls under the "fast-track" provisions
which allow Congress only an up-or-down vote. The admin.'s
"fast-track" authorization expires at the end of the year. If
GATT does not come to a vote this year, some believe it could be
larded with amendments next year. The two chief Senate sponsors
are Senate Maj. Leader George Mitchell and ranking GOPer on
Senate Finance Bob Packwood (R-OR). Hill Dems "say they are not
certain whether" Sen. Min. Leader Bob Dole "will try to drag his
feet and let the bill lapse into next year -- denying President
Clinton a major foreign policy victory and adding to his
embarrassment at having lost health care" (Friedman, N.Y. TIMES,
9/28). House Min. Whip Newt Gingrich: "We're not as strong on
GATT as we were [on NAFTA]. I am very cautious. If they
don't have the votes locked, this is a high-risk gamble"
(Davis/Rogers, W.S. JOURNAL, 9/28). Sen. Finance Chair Pat
Moynihan (D-NY): "It is the largest tax cut in history and the
culmination of 60 years of American trade policy. It must pass
this year" (N.Y. TIMES, 9/28).
ANTI-GATT: Ross Perot, in an open letter to Congress, urged
the Senate not to waive budget rules in order to pass GATT (UWSA
release, 9/26). GATT will cost the U.S. an estimated $11.5
billion in lost tariff revenues during its first five years. The
Senate Finance Cmte and House Ways & Means have proposed how to
make up the difference so that the deficit is not increased.
Public Citizen's GATT Project called 46% of the new revenue
proposals "funny money" based on "accounting gimmicks" (PC
release, 9/26).
*24 HAITI: CLINTON ADMIN. WARNS CONGRESS AGAINST DEADLINE
NPR's Naylor reports, "Congress is uneasy with the presence
with
the
American
forces.
[House Foreign Affairc smte]
members are expected to set a deadline today for the troops'
withdrawal, perhaps as soon as the end of the year or as late as
next March" (9/28). W. POST's Lippman & Dewar report the Clinton
admin. urged Congress not to set a specific date for ending U.S
military operation in Haiti, and "despite a chilly reception
appeared to have enough support to fend off" a mandatory pullout
deadline. Both Republicans and Dems "signaled that the initial
success of the mission was not sufficient to overcome their
anger at having been bypassed in making the decision to send the
expedition." But senior members of both Houses indicated that
they will not insist on a mandatory pullout dealine. Senate Min.
Leader Bob Dole: "We're not trying to create problems." Sen.
Chris Dodd (D-CT) said he believed "second thoughts" about
setting a deadline were "growing especially among Republicans,
who, he said, are reluctant to ignore military advice against a
deadline. But he acknowledged the reluctance of many senators
to go home to face voters" without having set a deadline. Dodd:
"We're not talking about military strategy we're talking
about local political strategy." The House Foreign Affairs Cmte
is scheduled to meet 9/28 to act on a resolution that would
authorize the Haiti deployment until 3/95, at which point Pres.
Clinton would have to seek cong. approval to continue. Rep. Bob
Torricelli (D-NJ), who is critical of the admin. sending troops
without a vote in Congress: "Democracy may be enhanced in Haiti
by this operation, but not in the United States. Tying the
president's hands is what the Constitution is all about" (9/28).
Clinton admin. officials "took pains" to assure Congress that
U.S. Forces wouldn't get drawn into "an open-ended and
increasingly dangerous mission" in Haiti (Fialka/Cooper, W.S.
JOURNAL, 9/28).
POLL UPDATE
*25 CNN/USA TODAY/GALLUP: POWELL AS GOPer BEATS CLINTON 54-34%
1,008 adults surveyed 9/23-25; margin of error +/- 3% (CNN
release, 9/28).
(RVs ONLY)
'94 ELECTION NOW 9/6-7 8/94 6/94 11/93 9/92 9/90
Republican
47%
48%
43%
42%
44%
43%
41%
Democrat
45
46
47
50
49
55
49
WHICH PARTY?
DEMS GOP
More likely to keep U.S. out of war
38% 42%
Will do better job keeping U.S. prosperous 38
48
COLIN POWELL
NOW 9/93
Would like to see him run for office some day
60% 49%
Would not like to see him run for office some day
28
30
PRES. ELECTION '96
NOW 9/93
Colin Powell, as the Republican
54%
40%
Bill Clinton, as the Democrat
34
38
CLINTON TIME SPENT ON FOREIGN POLICY MATTERS NOW 6/94
Too much
26% 22%
Not enough
25
25
About right amount
44 46
CLINTON'S APPROACH TO USING MILITARY FORCE IN INT'L PROBLEMS
Too reluctant
13%
Too eager
29
About right
54
ARISTIDE
NOW 9/16-18
Favorable
20%
12%
Unfavorable 33 27
WHEN U.S. TROOPS LEAVE HAITI, THE HAITIAN PEOPLE WILL BE
Better off
52%
Worse off
7
Not changed
39
JIMMY CARTER'S ROLE IN CLINTON ADMIN. SHOULD
Be more active
22%
Be less active
19
Remain the same 58
TV MONITOR
*26 THIS MORNING: ABC's "GMA" hosted British Foreign Minister
Douglas Hurd. NBC's "Today" hosted U.S. Amb. to Haiti William
Swing. "CBS This Morning" hosted Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon
Peres and U.S. Amb. to Haiti William Swing.
LAST NIGHT: ABC, CBS and CNN led with Haiti. NBC and
"MacNeil/Lehrer" led with the Clinton-Yeltsin summit. "M/L"
focused on health care with Sen. Maj. Leader George Mitchell and
Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX). CNN's "Moneyline" hosted NEC Dir. Robert
Rubin. CNN's "Crossfire" hosted DCCC Chair Vic Fazio (D-CA) and
House GOP Conference Chair Dick Armey (R-TX). CNBC's "Equal
Time" hosted Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX). AMERICA'S TALKING's "In
Depth" hosted NEWSWEEK's Howard Fineman and Rep. Dave Camp (R-
MI). ABC's "Nightline" examined jury selection for O.J. Simpson.
TONIGHT: C-SPAN airs a one-hour AR gov. debate between Gov.
Jim Guy Tucker (D) and Sheffield Nelson (R) at 8:00p (EDT).
LAUGHS: Jay Leno, on the U.S. getting out of Haiti: "Since
we have so many soldiers down there, Clinton ought to declare the
whole thing a military base, shut it down. The boys would be
home in a day." Leno, on John Bobbitt's desire to get back
together with ex-wife Lorena: "Actually part of him wants to go
back, part of him doesn't" ("Tonight Show," NBC, 9/27).
TOP TEN SURPRISES IN THE DOLLY PARTON AUTOBIOGRAPHY
10) At birth, doctor thought he was delivering triplets.
9) Once hitchhiked cross-country without ever lifting a thumb.
8) Makes all of her own leather mini-skirts by trapping and
skinning vermin.
7) She was the inspiration for the huge overhanging balcony at
the new Grand Ole Opry.
6) Went on tour in early '70's with Dalai Lama in a show
called, "A Couple of Dollys."
5) She was designed by same guy who did New York's twin towers.
4) Tom Arnold once asked to marry her because he wanted to get
his own show on "The Nashville Network."
3) In order to remain vertical, wears special counterweights on
her back developed by NASA.
2) One night got drunk and slept with the Oak Ridge Boys.
1) Consulted on the Wonderbra project.
("Late Show," CBS, 9/27).
TV SOUNDBITE
"It is long on promises, but short on sound premises."
-- NBC's Tom Brokaw, on the House GOP's
"Contract with America," 9/27
####
END ATTACHMENT 1
RECORD TYPE: PRESIDENTIAL (ALL-IN-1 MAIL)
CREATOR: Dianna A. Pierce (PIERCE_D) (WHO)
CREATION DATE/TIME: 5-OCT-1994 14:58:12.55
SUBJECT: White House Wire Report
TO: FAX (9-647-5573,rebecca)
(TLXAIMAIL_\F:9-647-5573\C:rebeca)
READ:NOT READ
TEXT:
PRINTER FONT 12_POINT_COURIER
WHITE HOUSE WIRE REPORT
12:30 p.m. edition
Wednesday, October 5, 1994
Produced by the Office of News Analysis (OEOB 161, 6-5694)
Index of wire stories:
Clinton seen revising health strategy to stress costs
(DJ)
Clinton may soon find himself fighting rear-guard action
against new Congress (KR)
Democrats agree to delay in key trade vote (AP)
House delays vote on GATT bill until Thursday (Reu)
GATT test vote planned in House tonight (BBN)
Foley says GATT is not in trouble (UPI)
Last GATT vote on tap in House (UPI)
GATT hearing to address controversial telecommunications
provision (UPI)
Bentsen: Saudi faces short-term credit problems (Reu)
Agricultural price support and subsidy reform to
dominate 1994 farm bill debate (AP)
U.S. House votes smoking ban on foreign flights (Reu)
Kassenbaum, Helms in tussle over school prayer (AP)
Rostenkowski attorneys press constitutional case (AP)
Supreme Court freedom of speech case
surrounds the distribution of child pornography (AP)
Mandela says he will meet with Aristide while in
Washington (AP)
Military leaders attend funeral for 10 killed in U.S.
firefight (AP)
1,000 Bangledeshi troops head to Haiti (UPI)
Second apparent suicide of U.S. military man reported
(AP)
Second U.S. soldier commits suicide (UPI)
Russian military official urges conventional arms
adjustments (UPI)
Belgrade celebrates easing of sanctions, but is border
shut? (AP)
U.N. food convoys reach Gorazde (Reu)
Benin president Soglo leaves for U.S., Canada (Reu)
Factory orders soar in August (AP)
August factory orders up 4.4 percent (UPI)
CNN (12 p.m.)
Live coverage of Simpson trial
Hourly News Summary
Around the World, Around the Clock with United Press
International.
-0-
Swiss authorities say they don't know what may have
prompted a possible mass suicide in two separate
locations. The bodies of at least 40 people were
discovered earlier today.
-0-
The Commerce Department says orders for U.S.
manufactured goods made their largest climb in more than a
year-and-a-half during August. Commerce says factory goods
orders increased 4.4 percent.
-0-
The military regime is crumbling in Haiti. The police
chief has left for the Dominican Republic and another
leader has promised to lay down his arms.
-0-
House Democratic leaders say they will try in the face
of stiff opposition to get the embattled GATT legislation
to the floor for a vote this evening.
House Republicans vow they will try to delay action on
the global trade pact by attempting to defeat a procedural
motion and block the legislation from coming up for a
vote.
-0-
A federal judge has ordered California to close its gas
chambers, declaring them to be cruel and unusual
puniishment.
-0-
Joan Kennedy has put off a challenge to her 12-year-old
divorce settlement with Massachusetts Democratic Senator
Edward M. Kennedy. She won't bring it up again until after
the November 8 election. Senator Kennedy is in the battle
of his political life.
Although Joan Kennedy refused to explain her decision,
she reportedly may have been promised a more generous
settlement if she delayed the case until after the
election.
-0-
By Shirley Smith (UPI)
REPEAT: Clinton Seen Revising Health Strategy To Stress
Costs
By Carl Johnston
Dow Jones Staff Reporter
WASHINGTON -DJ- Like General MacArthur and Arnold
Schwarzenegger, health care reform - though defeated for
now - shall return, and President Clinton may begin
hammering out a new strategy as early as December.
However, the White House will likely couch the debate in
different terms next year - stressing the need to change
health care delivery systems to avert disastrous federal
budget deficits at the turn of the century as well as
health costs generally.
In an interview this week, Chief of?Staff?Leon Panetta
said a fresh strategy for passing health care reform will
likely figure into the administration's planning for a
fiscal 1996 budget.
The budget process has already begun with federal
agencies making their final spending requests for the
coming fiscal year. Word around the White House is that
the requests already exceed spending caps set by the 1993
budget law by a substantial sum and will require major
trimming.
Major decisions on new spending won't be made until
spending outlines begin to hit President Clinton's desk in
December - after the heat of mid-term elections has
passed.
"By December, when we make the budget decisions, we
will clearly decide what our health care strategy will be
as part of that," said Panetta.
"But there's no question a proposal (on health care)
should be tested based on whether or not it's going to
control not only the cost of Medicare, but also health
care costs in this country," Panetta added.
(MORE) DOW JONES NEWS 10-05-94
11:49 AM
Clinton - Health Strategy -2: Universal Coverage Still Goal
Panetta said the administration will likely keep the
focus more on controlling costs and the need to control
government spending. Medicare, the government program
providing health services for people 65 and over, is the
fastest growing segment of the budget and a big reason why
the administration expects the federal deficit to balloon
again around the turn of the century after narrowing in
the early 1990s.
One of the big failures of the unsuccessful bid for
health care reform in 1994 was "to not keep enough of the
focus on the issue of health care costs and the need to
control those costs," said Panetta.
"That issue seemed to be lost in the debate," he said.
But the focus on costs doesn't necessarily mean the
administration will jettison President Clinton's call for
universal coverage.
"Under any scenario, I think we still have to move
toward universal coverage," said Panetta. "My view is we
have a linkage between cost control and universal
coverage."
However, universal coverage could be an overall goal,
rather than the target of one specific bill, according to
one possible strategy the administration might consider.
"Whether you do it (universal coverage) in the context
of one bill, or you try to phase it in, I think those
kinds of decisions are going to be left to the strategy
team (to decide) between now and December," Panetta said.
Losing the health care initiative this year might
actually prove to be a good thing since citizens and
government will be forced to focus on continuing problems
in the health care system, according to Panetta.
"In losing the bill, we are getting greater attention
to the consequences that are taking place now in health
care in the absence of reform," said Panetta. "We're
seeing problems continue in costs and the loss of health
care coverage."
Those problems won't go away next year, and may not ever
go away without government action.
On the other hand, an argument for health reform based
on costs could fail if health cost gains remain restrained
as they have for the past couple of years and the federal
deficit appears to be tame.
Just today, for example, Treasury Secretary Lloyd
Bentsen came up with a statement that seems to undercut
the argument that budget savings are needed.
Bentsen, speaking in Saudi Arabia, said the net effect
of the Clinton administration's efforts to trim the U.S.
budget deficit will total nearly $700 billion in deficit
reduction instead of $500 billion, as originally thought.
(END) DOW JONES NEWS 10-05-94
11:51 AM
BC-TICE op-ed:SP
Clinton soon may find himself fighting rear-guard action
against new Congress
By D.J. Tice
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
Like all mid-term congressional elections, this fall's
campaign is widely seen as a ``referendum on the
president." As is customary, a decisive vote of no
confidence is confidently anticipated. Bill Clinton has
masterfully implemented the one, sure-fire strategy for a
drop in presidential popularity.
That is, he got elected and has attempted to govern.
That alone does the trick almost every time.
Yet there is a sense in which support for Clinton has
proven remarkably stable. In the latest polls, 40 percent
of Americans praise the job the president is doing. That
is not meaningfully different from the 43 percent of
voters who elected him in the first place which in turn
was suspiciously like Walter Mondale's 41 percent in 1984
and Michael Dukakis's 44 percent in 1988.
Clinton is merely back where he began supported by the
core liberal, Democrat constituency and by almost nobody
else. The distinctive fact of Clinton's presidency is
that, despite a healthy economy, he has won over so few
Americans mostly because he hasn't much tried to win
anyone over.
One suspects that few Americans wholeheartedly believed
Clinton's 1992 campaign claim of being a "new Democrat."
Many who voted for him secretly hoped, and many who didn't
openly feared, that he was just another big government
liberal in a thin but stylish moderate disguise.
He's mostly proved the skeptics right. Beginning in the
first months of his adminstration, Clinton forcefully
delivered on those campaign promises that had appealed to
the left (favoring a tax hike on the rich, gays in the
military, a stimulus spending program, etc.), while
reneging on the promises with which moderates had been
wooed. The middle class tax cut vanished like a daydream,
replaced with an abortive proposal for a middle class
fuel-tax increase. Welfare reform was faked, with a
half-hearted proposal half-heartedly advanced.
It is true that Clinton pressed hard for NAFTA, has
seemed surprisingly enthused about ``reinventing
government" reforms and has made reasonable appointments
to the Supreme Court. But he also spent the past year
prescribing a health care reform proposal many Americans
perceived as a sweeping and irreversible expansion of
government.
So the sizeable majority of voters who didn't back
Clinton to begin with must be forgiven for feeling that
only congressional Republicans and conservative Democrats
have stood between them and enactment of a boldly statist
agenda. If, as expected, they now elect more such
protectors, Clinton may spend the remainder of his term
protecting the country against bad Republican ideas.
How bad are the Republicans' ideas? In purely political
terms, they are quite ingenious. The "Contract With
America" all GOP House candidates have signed confronts
Democrats with the unappetizing prospect of running
against
broad-based tax cuts, term limits, tough welfare
reform, a balanced budget amendment, curbs on lawsuits,
and sundry other proposals that are only slightly less
popular than springtime and hot fudge sundaes.
So far Democrats have been reduced to sputtering that
tax credits do nothing for people who don't pay any
federal taxes, while warning that the Republicans'
Contract is just ``Reaganomics" revisited.
These retorts will doubtless win Democrats the votes of
millions of Democrats. But in the battle for the hearts of
middle-class independents, are Republicans paralyzed with
fright at being re-linked with Reagan? Or is it Democrats
being linked with Clinton who feel like horse thieves being
linked with a noose?
Now, make no mistake: Combining large tax cuts,
increased military spending and a constituional balanced
budget amendment would be foolhardy. Its one virtue would
be that it might make politicians feel better about term
limits.
But the Contract is keep this quiet just politics a
statement of general principle. Voters understand
Republicans don't mean everything
in their proposal, any more than candidate Clinton
meant everything he said.
At all events, Republicans have relearned an essential,
if cyncial, principle: The key to political success is to
let the other party do the governing. No doubt
Republicans, should they gain effective control of
Congress, will be counting on Clinton-induced "gridlock"
to block the most dubious parts of the Contract. The
results may be decent government and excellent Republican
politics for years.
More seriously, a substantial victory for Republicans
this fall would produce a rare and intriguing allocation
of federal political power, unseen in this country for
more than 40 years a liberal president checking the
anti-government instincts of a mostly conservative
Congress.
That might not be a bad partnership, given the central
and unavoidable challenge ahead of controlling federal
spending, especially on runaway entitlement programs,
without too cruelly depriving those in need.
Meanwhile, one trusts that the president remembers he
asked for this job.
XXX
(Doug Tice is an editorial writer for the St. Paul
Pioneer Press, 345 Cedar St., St. Paul, MN, 55101.)
PM-World Trade, 3rd Ld-Writethru, a0559,610
Democrats Agree to Delay in Key Trade Vote
EDs: INSERTS 1 graf after 6th graf, The 123-nation to
UPDATE with Foley saying vote will be this week; picks up
7th graf, Democrats said
By DAVE SKIDMORE= Associated Press Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) Democratic leaders worked to salvage a
huge global trade bill today, delaying a key vote and
agreeing to Republican requests for a hurry-up hearing
about a controversial provision buried in the huge
legislation.
Plans for a late-morning vote in a key procedural
motion were postponed at least until later in the day, and
Majority leader Richard Gephardt said the so-called GATT
bill would likely not be voted on until Thursday at the
earliest.
The delay would give time for a committee hearing on a
provision that Republicans questioned. It would provide
for a discount on federal licensing fees for three
companies developing the next generation of wireless
telephone systems.
Although the White House strongly supports the measure,
Democrats need Republican votes to win its approval. And
late Tuesday, GOP Whip Newt Gingrich wrote House Speaker
Thomas Foley calling for hearings before the measure came
to a vote.
"Since the Senate will not vote on GATT until early
December, there is no excuse for risking defeat by rushing
a vote," Gingrich wrote.
The 123-nation GATT agreement would cut worldwide
tariffs by about $740 billion, reduce other barriers to
trade and extend the rules of world trade to services and
intellectual property such as computer programs and drug
patents.
``The GATT legislation will be enacted (in the House)
this week," Foley predicted to reporters. "We're not
retreating on GATT in any way."
Democrats said they were confident the measure would
ultimately win approval. But they feared losing a
procedural vote that was essential for the bill's passage,
particularly with the GATT accord having become caught up
an election-year struggle that has dominated the final
weeks of the congressional session.
Many Republicans want to deny President Clinton a
victory before the Nov. 8 midterm elections. And some
House Democrats, pressured by unions opposed to GATT, also
want to put off the vote.
In his letter, Gingrich noted that the Senate will
consider GATT at a lame duck session.
"Nothing is lost by taking our time and doing it
right," he wrote Foley in a letter signed, ``Your
Friend."
The administration says GATT would create thousands of
jobs in the United States but concedes some industries,
such as textile manufacturing, will suffer.
A vote on the debating procedures for the GATT bill
promised to be the crucial first test. A `no' vote almost
certainly would force the House to return in November or
December.
Both supporters and opponents said the House procedural
vote would be close. Majority Whip David Bonior, D-Mich.,
who opposes the GATT accord, said he expected Republicans
to provide only 40 to 50 of the 218 votes needed.
The issue that drew Gingrich's attention was designed
to clarify the FCC's ability to levy a licensing fee on
three companies: American Personal Communications, which
is 70 percent owned by the Washington Post Co.; Cox
Enterprises Inc. and Omnipoint Corp. Other companies,
beginning in December, will have to bid for these
licenses.
However, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the
Energy and Commerce Committee, said under the GATT bill
the companies would pay $534 million. Without the
provision, the federal government risks an adverse court
ruling that would mean the companies would get the
licenses free, he said.
Senior administration officials said the broadcast
licensing provisions had been thoroughly considered by
both Democratic and Republican lawmakers advising the
administration on the GATT bill.
"Wouldn't you think last-minute outrage was rather
suspect?" Commerce Secretary Ron Brown asked reporters.
BC-TRADE-GATT-USA 1STLD (SCHEDULED)
House delays vote on GATT bill until Thursday
By Sue Kirchhoff
WASHINGTON, Oct 5 (Reuter) - House of Representatives
Democratic leaders postponed a final vote on a sweeping
GATT trade treaty until Thursday, but vowed to proceed
with a make-or-break procedural vote on the measure.
"We're going forward later (Wednesday)" with the
rule, House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri
told reporters after a closed-door meeting
of?House?Democrats. He said lawmakers would probably vote
on the GATT bill Thursday.
?
? ?House?Republicans, led by Newt Gingrich of Georgia,
have vowed to vote against the rule setting out procedures
for debate on the GATT bill. Defeat of the rule would kill
chances for voting on GATT before Congress's scheduled
October 7 recess.
"We'll win on the rule and we'll overwhelmingly win
on the bill," said acting House Ways and Means Committee
Chairman Sam?Gibbons?of Florida.
In an effort to further reassure nervous lawmakers,
the House Energy and Commerce committee later Wednesday
will hold a hearing on the so-called ``pioneer
preference" provisions of the GATT implementing
legislation, which have been attacked by consumer groups
and Republicans.
In a Tuesday letter to House Speaker Thomas Foley,
Gingrich asked for hearings, calling the pioneer
preference "a controversial, little understood provision
that threatens to bring down the (GATT) agreement."
Tucked away in the massive GATT bill is a provision
that would require The Washington Post Co, Cox Enterprises
and Omnipoint Communications to pay 85 percent of the cost
of special federal licenses to provide state-of-the-art
telecommunications services.
GATT opponents say the provision would result in a
government-provided windfall of up to $2 billion for the
companies.
But Democrats said the companies would have received
the licenses free under Bush adminsitration rules, and
claimed that the provision would raise over $400 million
for the government.
"Some scabby people are opposed to it for their own
corrupt reasons and the taxpayers will lose $500
million," said a clearly angry John Dingell, chair of the
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman, which
regulates communications.
Dingell also accused opponents of ``scummy"
behaviour.
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade pact would
effectively rewrite the rules of world commerce. Its
approval by member governments last December was hailed as
a major economic breakthrough. The Clinton administration
estimates that the agreement would reduce worldwide
tariffs by $750 billion.
The House was expected to approve the measure easily,
but a last-minute combination of Republican jitters and
opposition by nearly 90 House Democrats has clouded its
prospects.
Due to delaying tactics by South Carolina Senator
Ernest Hollings, Senate leaders have been forced to call a
special two-day session in late November solely to vote on
GATT.
Many House lawmakers have complained that they do not
want to be forced to vote on the GATT legislation -- which
is supported by business but opposed by some labour,
environmental and consumer groups -- so close to the
November elections, especially if the Senate is taking a
pass.
REUTER
BC-GATT-Test-Vote-Planned-in-House
GATT Test Vote Planned in House Tonight, Democrats Say
(Updatel)
(Updating with White House reaction; Foley and
Washington Post comments)
Washington, Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- House Democratic
leaders, after a careful count of their support, decided
to go ahead with a test vote later today on the new trade
agreement that is designed to lower trade barriers
worldwide.
Democrats predicted that they would prevail on today's
vote to formally bring the trade bill to the floor.
However, they said a vote on the White House-backed accord
under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade itself
may be delayed until tomorrow. Senate action on the bill
already has been postponed until a rare lame-duck session
on Dec. 1.
As he prepared for the GATT vote, House?Speaker?Tom
Foley (D-Wash.) said he wasn't concerned about
fluctuations in financial markets based on varying reports
about the fate of the bill.
"I'm committed to passing GATT," Foley said. "But if
you tell me
I have to do it by some time (for the markets), that's too
bad. It's going to become law. Those who don't think so
are betting a bad?bet."
?
President Clinton, who considers the trade agreement
his biggest policy aim still?before?Congress, hasn't
started any extraordinary efforts on behalf of the bill,
his spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers said today. "There's no
organized effort to call people," she said.
Still, White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta urged a
meeting of business leaders this morning to contact their
members of Congress. Later, Panetta himself headed off to
Capitol Hill to woo lawmakers.
Democrats were scurrying today to prepare for a hearing
at 12:30 p.m. EDT today aimed at placating Republican
concerns about a revenue measure in the 1,000-page bill
which puts into place trade law changes from the Uruguay
Round accord negotiated under the auspices of the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
Gingrich Raises Issue
House minority whip Newt Gingrich raised the issue
yesterday when he said several lawmakers object to a
revenue measure attached to the bill that could be viewed
as a gift to two of the nation's largest media companies,
the Washington Post Co. and Cox Enterprises Inc.
American Personal Communications, which is 70% owned by
the Post, and Cox were two of three companies originally
given free wireless telephone licenses by the Federal
Communications Commission under what is known as the
pioneer preference program. The third company is Omnipoint
Communications Corp. The FCC later changed its policy and
told the companies they would need to pay for the
licenses, at a cost that could exceed $1 billion.
The GATT bill, which can't be amended under a
fast-track procedure, sought to overrule the FCC order by
setting the price closer to $400 million for the wireless
licenses -- giving what competitors complain would be a
big price break to the Post and Cox. It ended up in the
GATT bill because the Clinton administration was
scrambling to find revenue to offset the expected $12
billion loss in government revenues from lower trade
tariffs.
In an editorial today, The Washington Post defended its
position, saying the company was getting no break. The
Post said the license originally applied for was supposed
to be free but now was costing the company $400 million.
Republican Support Crucial
For his part, Gingrich said he favors the GATT bill.
But he said many Republicans want more time to study it to
see if there are other matters like the wireless measure.
Republican support is viewed as crucial for passage of the
test vote and the GATT bill itself.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Sam Gibbons
(D-Fla.) said after a closed-door Democratic strategy
meeting that his party believes it has the votes to
prevail. "We will win on (the procedural vote to bring the
GATT bill to the floor) and we will win overwhelmingly on
the bill" implementing the accord, he said.
"We've been working on the bill and will continue to
do that and we feel good about it," said House Democratic
Leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri.
Chief of Staff Panetta told reporters yesterday that
the White House believes it has 60 Republican votes and
170 Democratic votes in the House in support of the trade
legislation.
When asked why GATT had suddenly become such a tough
fight when it appeared passable six months ago, Panetta
said, "It's gotten caught up in the general shooting back
and forth that has gone on in these last weeks of this
Congress. No matter how non-controversial the issue might
appear to be, suddenly these issues become controversial
in the last weeks of the session." -Tom Ferraro on
Capitol Hill (202) 434-1897, with Dina Temple-Raston at
the White House (202) 434-1884. /ch/daw/ba
(Story illustration: To graph the U.S.-Japan trade
balance see JNTBUS (Index) GP. For more information on
GATT, NI GATT; on Congress; NI CNG; on trade; NI TRD. For
more on the Washington Post: WPO
Equity> CN; on Cox: 1026Z
Equity> CN.)
11:16 -0- (BBN) Oct/05/94 11:18 EOS (BBN) Oct/05/94
11:18 86
(UPI Spotlight)
Foley says GATT not in trouble
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) House Speaker Thomas Foley,
refusing to set a definite timetable for considering the
GATT trade bill, says (Wednesday) the legislation will
pass the House this week. Asked if the leadership's
decision to delay a vote on the bill until later Wednesday
evening meant the legislation is in danger of defeat,
Foley responded, ``Absolutely not."
(UPI Spotlight)
Late GATT vote on tap in House
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) House Democratic leaders say
they will try in the face of stiff opposition to get the
embattled GATT legislation to the floor for a vote
(Wednesday evening). House Republicans vow they will try
to delay action on the global trade pact by attempting to
defeat a procedural motion and block the legislation from
coming up for
a vote.
(UPI Spotlight)
Hearing to air pioneer preference issue
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) House Democratic leaders,
hoping to attract more Republican support for the GATT
trade legislation, have scheduled a hearing (Wednesday) to
address GOP concerns about a controversial
telecommunications provision. Republican support for the
global trade pact has eroded because of the provision,
which would give discounts to three media giants for their
licenses to deliver new mobile phone service.
BC-SAUDI-BENTSEN
Saudi faces short-term credit problems - Bentsen
By Rich Miller
JEDDAH, Oct 5 (Reuter) - Saudi Arabia is starting to
have some problems paying its debts but its underlying
creditworthiness is sound thanks to its huge oil reserves,
U.S. Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen said on Wednesday.
``They've begun to have credit problems insofar as
meeting maturities on some indebtedness," Bentsen told
reporters prior to a meeting with King Fahd. "It's
obvious they have to do more tightening of the budget."
After building an enormously wealthy economy, the
world's largest oil exporter is facing a cash crunch
brought on by weak oil prices and $55 billion in payments
to help finance the 1990-91 Gulf War.
The government has borrowed around $70-$80 billion in
debt, almost all of it domestic, according to one local
financial source.
Riyadh earlier this year negotiated delays in payments
and delivery of some U.S. military equipment including
fighter planes and tanks.
The country, which will pay the U.S. government $3.3
billion this year under those contracts, faces a payments
bulge of some $8 billion over the next two years on those
deals.
The kingdom, though, is up-to-date on payments on a
$4.5 billion loan it aranged from international banks in
1991.
Bentsen, who arrived on Wednesday for a two-day visit,
made clear that Riyadh's problems were only temporary and
were similar to those faced by the United States before
the Clinton administration took action to reduce the U.S.
budget deficit.
"They have short-term problems," he said. "But the
enormous oil reserves they have show the ultimate
soundness of their indebtedness."
In a speech to Saudi business and government leaders,
Bentsen urged Riyadh to modernise its economy by
tightening its budget belt, opening up its markets, and
giving private companies a bigger role.
Saudi Arabia has targeted a nearly 20 percent cut for
this year. Bentsen, who met Finance Minister Mohammad Ali
Abal-Khail and Oil Minister Hisham Nazer on Wednesday,
praised that action.
But he said he planned to tell King Fahd that the
country needed to go further.
``I am looking forward to seeing the king...and I
intend to tell him how impressed I am with his economic
programme," Bentsen said. ``I will encourage him to
continue on this course and take additional actions to
shrink the fiscal deficit."
That means more spending cuts, elimination of
subsidies and privatisation of state-owned companies,
Bentsen said.
He welcomed Saudi Arabia's plan to join the GATT world
trade body and urged it to accept the stricter standards
of the World Trade Organisation that is due to start up
next year.
Besides calling on Saudi Arabia to tighten its budget
belt and open its markets, Bentsen also made a pitch for
U.S. industry in his meetings with Abal-Khail and Nazer.
Saudia, the state-run airline company, has said it
plans to order new planes from Boeing and McDonnell
Douglas but has so far given few details.
Bentsen said he encouraged Saudi officials to finalise
that deal, which has an estimated value of up to $7
billion.
REUTER
BC-KS-PAN--Farm Bill, Adv08-09,0750
For Release Weekend Editions, Oct. 8-9, and Thereafter.
AP KANSAS PANORAMA
By CURT ANDERSON= Associated Press Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) Pressure for changes in the nation's
agriculture price support and subsidy programs likely will
dominate congressional debate on the 1995 farm bill,
according to a new report.
The programs, which cost an estimated $12 billion
during 1994, are easy targets for lawmakers looking for
ways to trim the federal budget and reduce the deficit.
"Critics are asking why the non-farm community should
transfer an average of $11.4 billion per year over the
past 10 years in commodity support to farmers, and then
only to those producing a few selected commodities,"
Jasper Womach, a Congressional Research Service agriculture
specialist, wrote in an analysis of the farm bill.
Other big questions for the next farm bill is which
sectors should benefit most from federal programs, the
impact of new global trade treaties and whether
environmental concerns will become a bigger factor.
There already have been reductions in direct payments
and export subsidies for some commodities: Congress
appropriated no money this year for honey, and wool and
mohair programs are scheduled to expire at the end of
1995.
But there still are support programs for corn, sorghum,
barley, oats, wheat, rice, cotton, tobacco, milk,
oilseeds, peanuts, sugar cane and beets. Those programs
take up 19 percent of the Department of Agriculture's
budget and just 1 percent of total federal expenditures,
according to the CRS report.
When most of the programs began during the Depression,
farm household income was less than half the national
average. Farmers often lacked electricity and indoor
plumbing, and had poor roads to travel for services in
town.
Now, farms are more modern, roads are excellent and
farm income generally exceeds the national average, the
CRS report found. In fact, 45 percent of today's farm
operators say agriculture isn't their primary occupation.
"Today, it is the rural communities that appear to be
providing jobs and income to many farm households, not
vice versa," Womach wrote.
Attempts to change farm programs likely will center on
freezing yields and cutting acreage base on which payments
are made, or by eliminating benefits for farmers whose
non-agriculture income exceeds a certain level.
Such changes usually have minimal impact on the federal
budget, the report found, because farmers can reorganize
their ownership of land or make tenant arrangements to
qualify for higher payments anyway.
On the global trade front, the report had a favorable
agricultural forecast for the North American Free Trade
Agreement and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
And U.S. subsidies already conform to many international
guidelines established by the treaties.
But the United States likely will have to make changes
in programs where farmers are protected via controls on
imports of peanuts, tobacco, sugar and dairy products. The
treaties eventually will force an end to import quotas in
favor of tariffs on those imported commodities, which then
must be reduced over time.
The report said pressure also will be brought to change
programs that allow cotton and grain growers to idle some
acreage, which reduces supplies and raises market prices.
Some critics believe this raises production costs and
encourages foreign production, thereby hurting U.S.
competitive advantages
Export subsidies also will be scrutinized because GATT
mandates that they be reduced worldwide.
``In a free trade environment, domestic packers and
processors can simply turn to foreign suppliers when
export subsidies move domestic supplies overseas and raise
U.S. prices above world levels," Womach noted.
The biggest environmental issue in the 1995 farm bill
is the future of the Conservation Reserve Program, in
which 36 million acres of highly erodible land are idled
in return for payments of about $50 per year for each
acre. The total cost is about $1.8 billion.
If budget reductions trigger lower commodity payments,
some farmers will opt to put more land in production, the
report said. Environmentalists are concerned that could
mean more land erosion and loss of habitat for wildlife
nationwide.
Two ideas to cut pollution from farming is to finance
green payments" to operators who divert land from
environmentally damaging uses or to allow tax credits to
farmers who adopt environmental plans for their land.
One other topic likely to be debated, Womach said, is
whether to combine all the money used in current price
support, crop insurance and disaster payments into a
``farm revenue insurance" program. This simply would
ensure a constant stream of income for every farmer, even
if prices dropped sharply or a natural disaster wiped out
crops.
The down side is a potentially high cost and the
possibility that the government might have to make
participation mandatory in order for it to succeed.
BC-USA-SMOKING
U.S. House votes smoking ban on foreign flights
WASHINGTON, Oct 5 (Reuter) - The House of
Representatives has voted to ban smoking on all
international flights to and from the United States but
the measure may die in the Senate.
The House passed a bill Tuesday night to ban smoking
on the final leg of flights to the United States and the
first leg of flights from the country by both foreign and
U.S. airlines. Smoking was banned four years ago on all
U.S. domestic flights except those that were six hours or
longer.
The House bill would also extend the smoking ban to
those flights. The bill now goes to the Senate but an aide
said no action was expected this year.
The House and Senate are expected to recess this week
or early next week for the November 8 elections, but the
Senate will return in late November to vote on
ratification of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
treaty.
REUTER
PM-KS--School Prayer, 1st Ld-Writethru,04
Kassebaum, Helms in Tussle Over School Prayer
Eds: SUBS grafs 1-2 to UPDATE with Senate vote to end
debate. Picks up 3rd graf pvs, `Helms
By CURT ANDERSON= Associated Press Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) A Senate vote today settled a
disagreement between Sens. Nancy Kassebaum and Jesse Helms
over how far Congress should go to protect voluntary
prayer in public schools.
The Senate voted 75-24 to force final action on an
education funding bill containing a school prayer
amendment introduced by Kassebaum, R-Kan. At least 60
votes were needed to cut off debate. The overall bill was
expected to pass later today.
Helms, R-N.C., has held up the measure for weeks in an
attempt to build support for his version of the school
prayer amendment, which would cut off federal funds to any
district that prevents voluntary, `constitutionally
protected" prayer.
Kassebaum's language also would cut off federal funds,
but only if the school district were found to willfully
have violated a court order requiring it to permit prayer
in schools.
"The courts will ensure that protected prayer is
permitted in our schools," she said. "If school
administrators willfully violate a student's
constitutional rights, they should be punished."
In 1962, the Supreme Court ruled religious activities
sponsored by public schools are unconstitutional. But
federal courts have issued conflicting rulings about
prayers at graduation ceremonies, leading to uncertainty
over the issue.
It is this very confusion that led Helms to propose his
amendment. During floor debate this summer, Helms said he
wanted Congress to provide clear direction to school
administrators about what was allowed.
"This amendment will tell them, 'you better not
prevent individuals from praying without studying the law,
not popular myths, about what is and is not
constitutional," he said.
But Kassebaum said that was an ``unfair and
unreasonable" burden for administrators not trained in
interpretation of court orders.
``It is unreasonable to expect our school teachers and
administrators to be constitutional scholars," Kassebaum
said.
In addition, she said a funds cutoff would hit poorest
school districts the hardest and could lead administrators
to allow all prayer out of fear they might lose money.
In late July, the Senate approved Kassebaum's amendment
by a 93-7 vote, shortly after it rejected Helms' by a
53-47 vote. The House also decided to accept Kassebaum's
language in a conference committee, but Helms has used
parliamentary maneuvers to prevent a final vote in the
Senate.
PM-Rostenkowski, 1st Ld-Writethru, a0439,560
Rostenkowski Attorneys Press Constitutional Case
EDS: Leads with 6 grafs to update with hearing; picks up
2nd graf pvs, The defense
By TOM STRONG= Associated Press Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) Rep. Dan Rostenkowski's lawyers asked
a federal judge today to dismiss political corruption
charges against the congressman, arguing the government
cannot police violation of internal House rules.
"We're not saying that congressmen are immune from
prosecution," said Dan Webb, chief lawyer for the
influential Chicago Democrat. But the federal government
lacks authority to press charges in this case, he said.
Congress has criminalized rule violations such as
bribery and receipt of illegal campaign contributions, but
not those cited by the government against Rostenkowski, he
told U.S. District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson.
"The rules they plead are rules that have never been
incorporated by Congress into any criminal statute," Webb
said.
Webb said the ``rulemaking" clause of the Constitution
allows the House and Senate to handle violations of their
own rules.
Prosecutors were to make their case later this morning.
The defense argument that only the House can discipline
a member for violating its rules could lead to lengthy
federal appeals, perhaps to the Supreme Court, and could
delay the trial for more than a year.
``It would be a minimum of months and a maximum of
several years," Tom Buchanan, one of Rostenkowski's
lawyers, said Tuesday. ``It depends on how fast it
moves."
Rostenkowski was indicted on 17 felony counts May 31.
He is charged with converting $636,600 in federal funds
and $56,267 in campaign funds to his personal use.
He has pleaded innocent and denied wrongdoing, but
under House rules, he was forced to step aside as chairman
of the Ways and Means Committee until the case is
resolved.
Legal observers did not expect any surprises from
arguments already made in court papers.
"The only thing that may come out new would be a new
way of packaging an old position, a clever analogy, a nice
twist," said E. Lawrence Barcella Jr., a Washington
lawyer and former federal prosecutor.
Constitutional arguments relying on the rulemaking
clause have had little recent success in criminal cases
against members of Congress. But Webb said in legal
motions: "No previous charges ever brought against any
member of the United States Congress have ever gone so far
in violating the separation of powers doctrine."
In response, the government contended the
constitutional provisions and internal rules of Congress
``simply have nothing to say about common thievery.
Certainly, none creates the virtual license to steal that
the congressman has imagined for himself."
The indictment accused the lawmaker of hiring ghost
employees, using his official account to buy personal
gifts from the House Stationery Store, trading stamps for
personal cash at the House Post Office and converting
official vehicles to personal use.
The lengthy pretrial appeals are available because
Rostenkowski is claiming protection under the
Constitution's ``speech or debate" clause. That prevents
members of Congress from being ``questioned" for their
actions in a congressional speech or debate.
PM-Scotus-Kid Porn, 1st Ld-Writethru,610
Freedom of Speech Case Features Films by 15-Year-Old Porn
Star
EDs: LEADS with 11 grafs to UPDATE with arguments; picks
up 7th graf pvs, bgng: That revelation
By LAURIE ASSEO= Associated Press Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) In a case involving the movies of
former porn queen Traci Lords, the Clinton administration
urged the Supreme Court today to reinstate a federal law
against distributing child pornography.
The law meets the Constitution's free-speech standards
by requiring prosecutors to prove a defendant knew the
pornographic material involved a sexual depiction of a
child, Solicitor General Drew S. Days III told the court.
But the lawyer for Rubin Gottesman, a Los Angeles porn
shop owner convicted of selling pornographic movies Lords
made at age 15, argued that the law did not require proof
Gottesman knew Lords was underage. Lords is a native of
Steubenville, Ohio.
``At the very least a person ought to know that he's
committing
a crime," said Gottesman's attorney, Stanley Fleishman.
Fleishman urged the justices to uphold a lower court
ruling that said the law was unconstitutional and threw
out Gottesman's conviction.
"This is a peculiar statute," mused Justice Sandra
Day O'Connor. The Supreme Court clerk might violate the
law if he received a copy of a Traci Lords movie as part
of the case record, O'Connor said, and the justices might
violate the law if they watched it.
Justice Antonin Scalia appeared sympathetic to
Fleishman's argument that Congress did a sloppy job of
writing the child pornography law.
"We have always said we will not distort a statute
from its meaning in order to uphold its
constitutionality," Scalia said.
But Days said that although the law could be considered
unclear, it did not specifically exclude the knowledge
requirement. He said such a requirement usually is
presumed to be part of a criminal law even if it is not
spelled out.
Justice David H. Souter noted that the law `would be a
waste of ink" if Congress meant to exclude its main point
the knowing distribution of child pornography.
The justices are expected to rule by July.
Gottesman, owner of X-Citement Video, was convicted of
selling more than 100 Traci Lords videotapes to an
undercover Los Angeles policeman in 1986 and 1987.
Gottesman was sentenced to a year in prison and his company
was fined $100,000.
Lords already was a well-known porn star when it was
discovered in 1986 that she had made many of her sex films
when she was only 15.
That revelation led many video distributors to pull her
movies from their shelves for fear of child-pornography
prosecutions. The Adult Film and Video Association
estimated the damage to its industry in the millions of
dollars.
In 1982, the Supreme Court created a new exception to
free-speech rights when it ruled the government can ban
the sale and distribution of child pornography even if it
is not legally obscene.
But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned
Gottesman's conviction in 1992. The appeals court said the
federal ban on distributing child pornography violates the
Constitution because it doesn't require proof that a
defendant knew that at least one of the performers was
underage.
The law at issue makes it a crime for anyone to
``knowingly" transport or ship child pornography. The
appeals court said the word ``knowingly" refers only to
transporting or shipping but does not require knowledge
that the material shows minors engaging in sexual activity.
Justice Department lawyers said in court papers that
the 9th Circuit court's ruling did not reflect Congress'
intent when it passed the child pornography law. The court
should have interpreted the law in a way that would have
made it constitutional, government lawyers said.
The case is U.S. VS. X-Citement Video, 93-723.
PM-Mandela-Aristide, 1st Ld-Writethru, a0537,290
Mandela Says He Will Meet with Aristide While in
Washington
EDS: SUBS 4th graf pvs, The meeting, with 2 grafs to
update with meeting unlikely today; picks up 5th graf pvs,
Mandela also
By RITA BEAMISH= Associated Press Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) South African President Nelson Mandela
said today he intended to meet with Haiti's exiled
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide while in Washington.
``I'm looking forward to seeing the president,"
Mandela said during a photo session before a breakfast
meeting with Vice President Gore and several other
members of President Clinton's Cabinet.
U.S. officials, who have staked the Clinton
administration's prestige on restoring Aristide to power,
had encouraged the meeting in light of the similar
challenges faced by Aristide and Mandela to reconcile
polarized societies.
Mandela's success so far in bridging the racial and
class divides of his homeland to create a new democracy
"would be an imporant message for President Aristide as
he faces the challenge that he has ahead of him," one
U.S. official told reporters.
Aides were working to fit the meeting into Mandela's
tight schedule. The meeting was unlikely to occur before
Thursday, an official said. Aristide was returning to
Washington from New York where he had addressed the United
Nations General Assembly on Tuesday evening.
Mandela also said this morning that his mission in
search of U.S. investment dollars to rebuild South
Africa's economy has gone well this week.
``The response has been very positive" in sessions he
has held with U.S. business executives, Mandela said.
Mandela, after a stop in New York, is in Washington
until Saturday for talks aimed largely at winning investor
confidence and U.S. support to provide housing,
electrification, educational parity and other pressing
needs of the black majority population.
Mandela today described Clinton as ``a man who is very
sensitive to the needs of others."
PM-Haiti, 3rd Ld-Writethru, a0541,0877
Military Leaders Attend Funeral for 10 Killed in U.S.
Firefight
Eds: LEADS with eight grafs to UPDATE with Haitian leaders
attend funeral for 10 killed in U.S. firefight. Picks up
7th pvs, `Francois, Cedras...'
With PM-Haiti-Mood, PM-UN-Haiti, PM-Haiti-Glance
By ANDREW SELSKY= Associated Press Writer=
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) Haiti's military leaders
made a public appearance today to attend the funeral of 10
people killed by U.S. Marines in a firefight, the first
casualties of the American intervention in Haiti.
Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, the army commander, and Brig.
Gen. Philippe Biamby stood near the flag-draped coffins in
the courtyard of a military hospital as relatives of the
dead wailed in grief. The 10 were killed in a Sept. 24
shootout with U.S. Marines in Cap-Haitien, Haiti's
second-largest city.
Missing of the three coup leaders who ousted elected
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1991 was
Port-au-Prince police chief Michel Francois. He fled
before daybreak Tuesday to the neighboring Dominican
Republic.
No Americans soldiers were at today's funeral. U.S.
troops were busy patrolling the streets of the Haitian
capital in search of ``attaches," civilian auxiliary
gunmen linked to Haiti's army.
As American helicopter gunships circled overhead, U.S.
Special Forces troops raided the Port-au-Prince suburb of
Petionville, looking for weapons and an attache who
residents said was responsible for several murders.
The latest U.S. military figures say 95 people, many of
them attaches, have been detained and more than 4,000
weapons seized, a military spokesman, Air Force Sgt. David
Smith, said today.
Soldiers have worked with Haitians in recent days to
identify the homes of suspected army auxiliaries who
instilled fear with their harsh crackdown against Aristide
supporters.
The hasty departure of Francois, whose attaches were
responsible for most of the human rights abuses here,
eliminates one of the leaders who might have been an
obstacle to the return of Aristide.
Francois, Cedras and Biamby were to leave power under a
last-minute agreement negotiated with former President
Carter. Cedras, the most visible of the Haitian military
leaders, has vowed not to leave the country.
Aristide supporters applauded Francois' departure, and
urged the other coup leaders to do the same.
``It is an important step toward the re-establishment
of democracy and peace. The others (Cedras and Biamby)
should follow his example," Port-au-Prince Mayor Evans
Paul, an Aristide supporter, said Tuesday.
The U.S. agreement with the Haitian military averted an
invasion but paved the way for the arrival of 20,000 U.S.
troops to ensure the return of Aristide, Haiti's first
democratically elected president.
Aristide told the U.N. General Assembly in a speech
Tuesday that he would return home by Oct. 15.
The Roman Catholic priest, who has been living in exile
in Washington, said he hoped to bring peace to the nation.
We say yes to reconciliation, no to violence, no to
vengeance yes to justice," Aristide said.
In what could be another promising sign for Haiti, a
feared paramilitary leader Tuesday claimed a conversion to
pacifism.
Emmanuel Constant, leader of the paramilitary group the
Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, which has
tortured and killed pro-democracy activists, urged
Haitians ``on every side" to put down their weapons and
renounce violence.
But Constant's sincerity was in doubt: FRAPH is
considered responsible for much of the terror waged in
Haiti over the past year. And violence on Tuesday showed
Aristide's peaceful resumption of power is far from
assured.
U.S. troops found themselves in the delicate position
of protecting Constant, one of Haiti's most notorious
figures, as he addressed reporters outside the
presidential palace.
Constant just days ago was one of Aristide's and
Washington's
most despised enemies.
``No more violence," Constant said. "The future of
our beloved republic is at stake."
It was more than Ira Kurzban, Aristide's
Washington-based lawyer, could stand.
"Constant led and directed murder and terrorism in
this country," Kurzban said disgustedly. ``He should be
arrested and tried."
The 2,000 Haitian onlookers occasionally drowned out
Constant's words with cries of ``Murderer! Murderer!" and
shouts to American troops protecting him to throw him in
jail.
On Monday, U.S. troops stormed the FRAPH headquarters
in downtown Port-au-Prince and detained more than two
dozen members.
But with thousands of weapons still reportedly in the
hands of FRAPH members and other extremists and some
Haitians thirsting for revenge, the potential for violence
remains high.
U.S. soldiers rescued a man identified as a gunman
linked to Haiti's military from a crowd that beat him
bloody on Tuesday.
Francois' departure may help defuse some tensions in
the capital. He left after his brother Evans, already
living in the Dominican Republic, wrote an open letter
urging him to join his family in Santo Domingo.
Francois left behind a resignation letter defending his
actions and crossed the Haiti-Dominican border in a
four-wheel-drive vehicle.
After arriving at his brother's luxurious home in the
Dominican capital, Francois stepped out of his jeep in a
white tropical dress shirt and slacks.
He looked relaxed but refused to talk to reporters.
"Soldiers don't talk, only politicians," he said in a
statement issued through his brother.
Bangladeshi troops head to Haiti
DHAKA, Oct. 5 (UPI) More than 1,000 Bangladeshi army
troops and policemen headed Wednesday for trouble-torn
Haiti to join U.S.-led Operation Uhphold Democracy.
The troops and their equipment left Dhaka for the
Caribbean nation aboard three U.S. Air Force C-141
Starligters and one C-5 Galaxy transport planes.
The departure of the 1,150 troops was originally
scheduled for Tuesday but had to be postponed because of
bad weather over Guam and Hawaii.
Officials said the aircrafts have to take the long
route over the Pacific because India, that does not
support the military intervention in Haiti, refused to
give overflight rights.
The deployment to Haiti brings the number of
Bangladeshi troops currently abroad on U.N. peacekeeping
duties to 4,950, an army official said.
Bangladeshi troops are currently deployed in Rwanda,
Liberia, western Sahara, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kuwait,
Somalia, Mozambique, Georgia and Uganda.
PM-Haiti-Suicide,220
Second Apparent Suicide of U.S. Military Man Reported
WASHINGTON (AP) A Marine deployed on a mission to
Haiti on board the USS Nashville apparently committed
suicide during the night, a Pentagon official said today.
The official said the individual was killed by a
gunshot wound and was found in the ship's berthing area.
If the cause of death is confirmed, it would be the
second individual with the U.S. military to have committed
suicide during the ongoing military operation in Haiti.
No name or unit was immediately available, said the
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Some 1,800 Marines left northern Haiti on Monday aboard
the amphibious ships USS Wasp and Nashville, bound for the
United States.
However, the official said it could not be confirmed
whether the Marine had actually gone ashore with those
forces.
The Nashville is currently in port in Puerto Rico and
the shooting is being investigated, the official said.
Spc. Alejandro Robles of Los Angeles died Sept. 27 of
an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in Haiti. He was
assigned to the 10th Mountain Division based in Fort Drum,
N.Y.
The death occurred at Villa d'Accueil, Haiti's state
guest house that American soldiers were preparing to house
Haitian parliament members.
Second U.S. soldier commits suicide
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) One of the 1,300 U.S. Marines
pulled out of Cap-Haitien this week died of an apparent
suicide early Wednesday, the second suicide among the
troops sent to Haiti, a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday.
The Marine was on standby alert aboard the USS
Nashville in Puerto Rico when he died Wednesday morning
sometime before 1:30 a.m. EDT of what apparently was a
self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Details, such as the name and home city of the Marine,
are being withheld by the Pentagon upon notification of
next of kin.
The 1,300 Marines were part of the initial wave of U.S.
troops sent to Haiti to oversee the ouster of the military
junta and maintain order for the return in mid-October of
the exiled Haitian president. The Marines were sent to a
U.S. military port off the coast of Puerto Rico this week,
where they remain in a ready reserve position to assist
with possible flare-ups in Haiti.
On Sept. 27, a Fort Drum, N.Y., soldier died of an
apparent suicide while on duty in Port-au-Prince. Army
Spec. Alejandro Robles, 20, of Los Angeles, was said to be
despondent over a troubled marriage when he turned his
weapon on himself near the Villa D'Accueil, Haiti's state
guest house that was being readied by soldiers to house
members of Haiti's parliament.
(UPI Spotlight)
Russian urges conventional arms adjustments
MOSCOW, Oct. 5 (UPI) A top Russian military official
warns (Wednesday) that a European defense pact will soon
leave Russia with dangerous weak spots on its borders with
new nations in the Baltic and Caucasus regions. First
Deputy Defense Minister Mikhail Kolesnikov says Moscow
will have to ``exceed the levels" of tanks and other
materiel set by the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty
unless the 1990 agreement is revised.
PM-Yugoslavia, 1st Ld-Writethru, a0530,0551
Belgrade Celebrates Easing of Sanctions, But Is Border
Shut?
Eds: Leads to UPDATE with U.N. representative traveling to
Pale for talks with Bosnia Serbs on Sarajevo airport.
Edits to conform. No pickup
By MARK J. PORUBCANSKY= Associated Press Writer=
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) A U.N. decision to lift some
of the sanctions imposed on Yugoslavia for instigating the
war in Bosnia boosted morale in Belgrade today.
Belgrade's airport reopened to international flights
for the first time in 28 months. The U.N. action also
allows the resumption of sports and cultural contacts.
But the rest of the economic embargo imposed at the
start of the war remains intact despite the headlines in
Belgrade newspapers today.
"The blockade has fallen," proclaimed the Vecernje
Novosti newspaper in bold, black letters across its front
page.
The Politika newspaper declared the U.N. decision ``the
beginning of the end of the blockade against our
country."
The U.N. decision affecting Serbia and Montenegro, the
only states left after Yugoslavia's breakup, follows
Serbia's promise to cut off its ethnic brethern across the
border.
Questions have lingered over whether Serbian President
Slobodan Milosevic has stopped war supplies to Bosnian
Serbs, whom he supported during more than two years of war
in Bosnia.
Brig. Gen. Bo Pellnas, head of a 100-member team
monitoring the Yugoslav-Bosnia border, said his team found
no evidence that Serbia is sending anything but
humanitarian aid to Bosnia.
His report was submitted Tuesday to the U.N. Security
Council, and some sanctions were automatically lifted at
midnight, initially for 100 days.
An official with the Yugoslav foreign ministry, Branko
Brankovic, called the easing of the sanctions "a modest
but important first step in lifting all sanctions."
Brankovic said the full embargo should be lifted to
discourage those who want to continue the war. He repeated
the government's pledge that Yugoslavia will keep its
border with Bosnia closed.
Yet there are suspicions military telephone lines and
radar surveillance are still available to Bosnian Serb
commanders, many of whom reportedly still draw salaries in
Belgrade as officers of the Yugoslav army.
U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry asserted Friday
that Bosnian Serbs are still getting war supplies from
Serbia.
European Union foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg
Tuesday also appeared skeptical. "We feel that the border
could be more effectively sealed," said Germany's foreign
minister, Klaus Kinkel.
Aeroflot, the airline of Serbia's traditional ally,
Russia, said it would fly to Belgrade today. The Yugoslav
national carrier JAT planned a flight to Moscow on
Thursday.
By contrast, in Bosnia's capital the airport remained
closed. Serbs besieging Sarajevo are demanding control of
the airport, which they handed over to U.N. peacekeepers
in July 1992.
Yashusi Akashi, the chief U.N. envoy for Yugoslavia and
its former republics, said the United Nations will be firm
with Bosnian Serbs.
Akashi stopped in Sarajevo today before going to Pale,
the Serb stronghold east of the Bosnian capital, for talks
on reopening the airport and unrestricted convoy
movements.
Twenty-five U.N. convoys carrying aid or supplies for
peacekeepers were denied permission by Serbs to move
across Bosnia Monday. U.N. officials reported nearly two
dozen convoys moving today, but many had restrictions on
what and how much they could carry.
BC-YUGOSLAVIA-CONVOYS
U.N. food convoys reach Gorazde
ZAGREB, Oct 5 (Reuter) - Three United Nations food
convoys reached Gorazde on Wednesday after being delayed
at Serb checkpoints on their tortuous route through
central Bosnia, a U.N. official said.
Nineteen trucks carrying 260 tonnes of flour unloaded
in the eastern Bosnian Moslem enclave.
"All three convoys are safe and sound," said Ken
Harvey of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The UNHCR was denied permission to send a food convoy
to Sarajevo on Wednesday after the Bosnian Serbs said they
did not have enough time to process the paperwork, an
excuse Harvey described as "ridiculous."
The U.N. has been urgently trying to persuade the
Bosnian Serbs to unblock U.N. aid operations as winter
approaches.
Convoys are only just starting to move again after
U.N. efforts to feed more than one million people in
Bosnia were paralysed for 12 days by Serb forces in
revenge for a NATO air strike that destroyed one of their
tanks.
REUTER
BC-BENIN-USA
Benin president leaves for U.S., Canada
COTONOU, Oct 5 (Reuter) - Benin's President Nicephore
Soglo has left for a two-week state visit to the United
States and Canada, a presidential statement said on
Wednesday.
It said that Soglo, who left on Tuesday night, would
meet U.S. administration and congressional officials,
United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and
businessmen.
On Thursday he is due to take part with South African
President Nelson Mandela and U.S. Vice-President Al Gore
in a ceremony handing over funds for African development.
The statement said that in Canada Soglo would discuss
aid and the organisation of the 1995 francophone summit in
Cotonou,
a regular meeting of leaders of French-speaking countries
modelled on the Commonwealth of former British colonies.
REUTER
PM-Factory Orders, 2nd Ld-Writethru, a0551,550
Factory Orders Soar in August
EDs: LEADS with 7 grafs to UPDATE with market and analyst
reax, picks up 6th graf pvs, Manufacturing has
By JAMES H. RUBIN= Associated Press Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) Orders to U.S. factories soared 4.4
percent in August, the biggest gain in nearly two years.
Today's report contributed to fears of inflation and
rising interest rates and helped send financial markets
down sharply.
The Commerce Department said the rise in the indicator
of manufacturing plans the I 1th in the last 13 months
was led by increased demand for automobiles but was
practically across the board.
The recovery for car orders followed a sharp decline in
July when auto makers shut down plants for two weeks to
retool for the 1995 models. Overall, orders fell 2 percent
in July.
While analysts expected factory orders to rebound
sharply in August, the increase easily exceeded
expectations and is just the latest sign of the economy's
staying power.
"It's more evidence that manufacturing is strong. We
can't dismiss it as a fluke," said economist Carl Palash
of MCM Moneywatch in New York City. "The Federal Reserve
is going to have to tighten credit one or two more times
this year."
Bond prices fell sharply on the news as the yield on
the benchmark 30-year Treasury rose to 7.94 percent, its
highest since May 1992. Stock prices followed, with the
Dow Jones industrial average off more than 30 points by
late morning. The dollar also was down against other
currencies.
Manufacturing has been a mainstay of the expansion, now
in its fourth year.
The rise in factory orders was the largest since they
climbed 5.6 percent in December 1992.
Excluding the volatile transportation component,
factory orders rose 2.4 percent in August. Excluding
military orders, orders rose 4.4 percent matching the
overall gain.
Orders for both durable and non-durable goods totaled a
seasonally adjusted $286.5 billion, up from $274.3 billion
in July.
Shipments, a measure of current production, increased
4.5 percent to $287.9 billion in August, the strongest
showing since they rose 4.7 percent in May 1979. Shipments
have risen in 10 of the last 13 months. They fell 1.1
percent in July.
The backlog of unfilled orders declined 0.3 percent in
August to $447.2 billion, matching its decrease in July.
The orders backlog is often seen as a measure of whether
current facilities and manpower are able to keep up with
demand.
Inventories in August edged up 0.1 percent to $387.1
billion, after a 0.9 percent increase in July.
Orders for durable goods, items expected to last more
than three years, were up 6.1 percent to $154.2 billion,
after falling 3.9 percent in July. Just last week, the
Commerce Department estimated durable goods orders rose 6
percent in August.
Orders for non-durable goods such as food and fuel were
up 2.5 percent at $132.3 billion, the 10th straight gain
and the largest since August 1990. All major industries
increased except leather goods.
Orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft
rose 2.2 percent in August after falling 3 percent in
July. These orders often are a barometer of business plans
to expand and modernize.
August factory orders up 4.4 percent
By JEFF BATER= UPI Business Writer=
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) Orders for U.S. manufactured
goods made their largest climb in more than 1 &1/2 years
during August, pushed up by powerful demand for cars and
trucks, the government said Wednesday.
Factory goods orders increased 4.4 percent, or $12.2
billion, to $286.5 billion, chalking up their 11th advance
in 13 months, the Commerce Department said. Shipments,
meanwhile, made their biggest jump in 15 years.
Orders decreased 2 percent in July, revised up from a
previously reported 2.3 percent decline.
The August increase well exceeded the expectations of
economists, and marked the largest since December 1992,
when orders rose 5.6 percent.
While the 4.4-percent advance was broad-based, motor
vehicle orders accounted for nearly half of that gain.
Transportation equipment orders increased 19.3 percent
to $38.5 billion after falling 14.8 percent in July, when
carmakers closed their plants for two weeks as they made
adjustments for the new, 1995 model year.
Excluding transportation orders, all other factory
goods orders advanced 2.4 percent in August, compared to a
0.1 percent rise in July.
Cars and trucks are considered durable goods that is,
expensive items designed to last at least three years.
Orders for durable goods rose 6.1 percent to $154.2
billion after falling 3.9 percent in July.
Durable goods orders by category:
electronic equipment up 1.2 percent to $22.5 billion;
July was unchanged.
industrial machinery up 4.6 percent to $29.8 billion;
July slid 1.2 percent.
instruments and related products down 1.3 percent to
$10.8 billion; July decreased 5.1 percent.
stone, clay and glass up 0.2 percent to $6.8 billion;
July rose 4.7 percent.
primary metals up 4 percent to $13.5 billion; July fell
0.6 percent.
fabricated metals up 3.5 percent to $15.8 billion; July
rose 1.8 percent.
all other durable goods up 1.2 percent to $16.5
billion; July increased 0.6 percent.
Orders for non-durable goods increased 2.5 percent to
$132.3 billion after rising 0.4 percent in July.
Commerce's report also said unfilled orders decreased
0.3 percent a second straight month, falling to $447.2
billion.
Inventories inched up 0.1 percent to $387.1 billion,
the seventh increase of the year, after rising 0.9
percent.
Shipments advanced 4.5 percent to $287.9 billion, the
10th increase in 13 months and the largest climb since May
1979.
RECORD TYPE: PRESIDENTIAL (ALL-IN-1 MAIL)
CREATOR: Kenneth R Chitester (CHITESTER_K) (WHO)
CREATION DATE/TIME: 5-OCT-1994 12:25:42.41
SUBJECT: 12:30 pm wire report
TO: Heather Beckel
(BECKEL_H) (WHO)
READ: 5-OCT-1994 12:26:05.27
TO: Keith O. Boykin
(BOYKIN_K) (WHO)
READ: 5-OCT-1994 12:28:08.40
TO: Steven A. Cohen
(COHEN_SA) (WHO)
READ: 5-OCT-1994 12:39:46.77
TO: Amanda Crumley
(CRUMLEY_A) (WHO)
READ: 5-OCT-1994 12:30:29.53
TO: David Dreyer
(DREYER_D) (WHO)
READ: 5-OCT-1994 14:11:13.33
TO: Jeremy M. Gaines
(GAINES_J) (WHO)
READ:NOT READ
TO: Kukis, Heidi
( Heidi Kukis@EOP_OVP@CCGATE@EOPMRX)
READ:NOT READ
TO: Arthur L. Jones
(JONES_A) (WHO)
READ: 5-OCT-1994 12:56:02.37
TO: Joseph W. Cerrell
( Joseph W. Cerrell@EOP_OVP@CCGATE@EOPMRX).
READ:NOT READ
TO: Payne, Julia M.
(Julia M. Payne@EOP_OVP@CCGATE@EOPMRX)
READ:NOT READ
TO: Joshua A. King
(KING_J) (WHO)
READ: 5-OCT-1994 16:59:15.03
TO: David Leavy
(LEAVY_D) (WHO)
READ:NOT READ
TO: Cara A. Levy
(LEVY_C) (WHO)
READ:NOT READ
TO: Marlene A. MacDonald
(MACDONALD_M) (WHO)
READ:NOT READ
TO: Kathy McKiernan
(MCKIERNAN_K) (WHO)
READ: 5-OCT-1994 12:28:41.03
TO: APRIL K. MELLODY
(MELLODY_A) (WHO)
READ: 5-OCT-1994 15:47:03.41
TO: Dianna A. Pierce
(PIERCE_D) (WHO)
READ:NOT READ
TO: R. Paul Richard
(RICHARD_R) (WHO)
READ: 5-OCT-1994 14:49:17.17
TO: Aman, Sally J.
( Sally J. Aman@EOP_OVP@CCGATE@EOPMRX )
READ:NOT READ
TO: Virginia M. Terzano
(TERZANO_V) (WHO)
READ:NOT READ
TO: Lorraine A. Voles
(VOLES_L) Autoforward to: Remote Addressee
( Lorraine A.
READ:NOT READ
TEXT:
PRINTER FONT 12_POINT_COURIER
WHITE HOUSE WIRE REPORT
12:30 p.m. edition
Wednesday, October 5, 1994
Produced by the Office of News Analysis (OEOB 161, 6
-5694)
Index of wire stories:
Clinton seen revising health strategy to stress costs
(DJ)
Clinton may soon find himself fighting rear
-guard action
against new Congress (KR)
Democrats agree to delay in key trade vote (AP)
House delays vote on GATT bill until Thursday (Reu)
GATT test vote planned in House tonight (BBN)
Foley says GATT is not in trouble (UPI)
Last GATT vote on tap in House (UPI)
GATT hearing to address controversial telecommunications
provision (UPI)
Bentsen: Saudi faces short
-term credit problems (Reu)
Agricultural price support and subsidy reform to
dominate 1994 farm bill debate (AP)
U.S. House votes smoking ban on foreign flights (Reu)
Kassenbaum, Helms in tussle over school prayer (AP)
Rostenkowski attorneys press constitutional case (AP)
Supreme Court freedom of speech case
surrounds the distribution of child pornography (AP)
Mandela says he will meet with Aristide while in
Washington (AP)
Military leaders attend funeral for 10 killed in U.S.
firefight (AP)
1,000 Bangledeshi troops head to Haiti (UPI)
Second apparent suicide of U.S. military man reported
(AP)
Second U.S. soldier commits suicide (UPI)
Russian military official urges conventional arms
adjustments (UPI)
Belgrade celebrates easing of sanctions, but is border
shut? (AP)
U.N. food convoys reach Gorazde (Reu)
Benin president Soglo leaves for U.S., Canada (Reu)
Factory orders soar in August (AP)
August factory orders up 4.4 percent (UPI)
CNN (12 p.m.)
Live coverage of Simpson trial
Hourly News Summary
Around the World, Around the Clock with United Press
International.
-0-
Swiss authorities say they don't know what may have
prompted a possible mass suicide in two separate
locations. The bodies of at least 40 people were
discovered earlier today.
-0-
The Commerce Department says orders for U.S.
manufactured goods made their largest climb in more than a
year
-and
-a
-half during August. Commerce says factory goods
orders increased 4.4 percent.
-0-
The military regime is crumbling in Haiti. The police
chief has left for the Dominican Republic and another
leader has promised to lay down his arms.
-0-
House Democratic leaders say they will try in the face
of stiff opposition to get the embattled GATT legislation
to the floor for a vote this evening.
House Republicans vow they will try to delay action on
the global trade pact by attempting to defeat a procedural
motion and block the legislation from coming up for a
vote.
-0-
A federal judge has ordered California to close its gas
chambers, declaring them to be cruel and unusual
puniishment.
-0-
Joan Kennedy has put off a challenge to her 12
-year
-old
divorce settlement with Massachusetts Democratic Senator
Edward M.Kennedy. She won't bring it up again until after
the November 8 election. Senator Kennedy is in the battle
of his political life.
Although Joan Kennedy refused to explain her decision,
she reportedly may have been promised a more generous
settlement if she delayed the case until after the
election.
-0-
By Shirley Smith (UPI)
REPEAT: Clinton Seen Revising Health Strategy To Stress
Costs
By Carl Johnston
Dow Jones Staff Reporter
WASHINGTON
-DJ- Like General MacArthur and Arnold
Schwarzenegger, health care reform - though defeated for
now - shall return, and President Clinton may begin
hammering out a new strategy as early as December.
However, the White House will likely couch the debate in
different terms next year - stressing the need to change
health care delivery systems to avert disastrous federal
budget deficits at the turn of the century as well as
health costs generally.
In an interview this week, Chief of?Staff?Leon Panetta
said a fresh strategy for passing health care reform will
likely figure into the administration's planning for a
fiscal 1996 budget.
The budget process has already begun with federal
agencies making their final spending requests for the
coming fiscal year. Word around the White House is that
the requests already exceed spending caps set by the 1993
budget law by a substantial sum and will require major
trimming.
Major decisions on new spending won't be made until
spending outlines begin to hit President Clinton's desk in
December - after the heat of mid
-term elections has
passed.
"By December, when we make the budget decisions, we
will clearly decide what our health care strategy will be
as part of that," said Panetta.
"But there's no question a proposal (on health care)
should be tested based on whether or not it's going to
control not only the cost of Medicare, but also health
care costs in this country," Panetta added.
(MORE) DOW JONES NEWS 10
-05
-94
11:49 AM
Clinton - Health Strategy
-2: Universal Coverage Still Goal
Panetta said the administration will likely keep the
focus more on controlling costs and the need to control
government spending. Medicare, the government program
providing health services for people 65 and over, is the
fastest growing segment of the budget and a big reason why
the administration expects the federal deficit to balloon
again around the turn of the century after narrowing in
the early 1990s.
One of the big failures of the unsuccessful bid for
health care reform in 1994 was "to not keep enough of the
focus on the issue of health care costs and the need to
control those costs," said Panetta.
"That issue seemed to be lost in the debate," he said.
But the focus on costs doesn't necessarily mean the
administration will jettison President Clinton's call for
universal coverage.
"Under any scenario, I think we still have to move
toward universal coverage," said Panetta. "My view is we
have a linkage between cost control and universal
coverage."
However, universal coverage could be an overall goal,
rather than the target of one specific bill, according to
one possible strategy the administration might consider.
"Whether you do it (universal coverage) in the context
of one bill, or you try to phase it in, I think those
kinds of decisions are going to be left to the strategy
team (to decide) between now and December," Panetta said.
Losing the health care initiative this year might
actually prove to be a good thing since citizens and
government will be forced to focus on continuing problems
in the health care system, according to Panetta.
"In losing the bill, we are getting greater attention
to the consequences that are taking place now in health
care in the absence of reform," said Panetta. "We're
seeing problems continue in costs and the loss of health
care coverage."
Those problems won't go away next year, and may not ever
go away without government action.
On the other hand, an argument for health reform based
on costs could fail if health cost gains remain restrained
as they have for the past couple of years and the federal
deficit appears to be tame.
Just today, for example, Treasury Secretary Lloyd
Bentsen came up with a statement that seems to undercut
the argument that budget savings are needed.
Bentsen, speaking in Saudi Arabia, said the net effect
of the Clinton administration's efforts to trim the U.S.
budget deficit will total nearly $700 billion in deficit
reduction instead of $500 billion, as originally thought.
(END) DOW JONES NEWS 10
-05
-94
11:51 AM
BC
-TICE op
-ed:SP
Clinton soon may find himself fighting rear
-guard action
against new Congress
By D.J. Tice
Knight
-Ridder Newspapers
Like all mid
-term congressional elections, this fall's
campaign is widely seen as a ``referendum on the
president." As is customary, a decisive vote of no
confidence is confidently anticipated. Bill Clinton has
masterfully implemented the one, sure
-fire strategy for a
drop in presidential popularity.
That is, he got elected and has attempted to govern.
That alone does the trick almost every time.
Yet there is a sense in which support for Clinton has
proven remarkably stable. In the latest polls, 40 percent
of Americans praise the job the president is doing. That
is not meaningfully different from the 43 percent of
voters who elected him in the first place which in turn
was suspiciously like Walter Mondale's 41 percent in 1984
and Michael Dukakis's 44 percent in 1988.
Clinton is merely back where he began supported by the
core liberal, Democrat constituency and by almost nobody
else. The distinctive fact of Clinton's presidency is
that, despite a healthy economy, he has won over so few
Americans mostly because he hasn't much tried to win
anyone over.
One suspects that few Americans wholeheartedly believed
Clinton's 1992 campaign claim of being a "new Democrat."
Many who voted for him secretly hoped, and many who didn't
openly feared, that he was just another big government
liberal in a thin but stylish moderate disguise.
He's mostly proved the skeptics right. Beginning in the
first months of his adminstration, Clinton forcefully
delivered on those campaign promises that had appealed to
the left (favoring a tax hike on the rich, gays in the
military, a stimulus spending program, etc.), while
reneging on the promises with which moderates had been
wooed. The middle class tax cut vanished like a daydream,
replaced with an abortive proposal for a middle class
fuel
-tax increase. Welfare reform was faked, with a
half
-hearted proposal half
-heartedly advanced.
It is true that Clinton pressed hard for NAFTA, has
seemed surprisingly enthused about ``reinventing
government" reforms and has made reasonable appointments
to the Supreme Court. But he also spent the past year
prescribing a health care reform proposal many Americans
perceived as a sweeping and irreversible expansion of
government.
So the sizeable majority of voters who didn't back
Clinton to begin with must be forgiven for feeling that
only congressional Republicans and conservative Democrats
have stood between them and enactment of a boldly statist
agenda. If, as expected, they now elect more such
protectors, Clinton may spend the remainder of his term
protecting the country against bad Republican ideas.
How bad are the Republicans' ideas? In purely political
terms, they are quite ingenious. The "Contract With
America" all GOP House candidates have signed confronts
Democrats with the unappetizing prospect of running
against
broad
-based tax cuts, term limits, tough welfare
reform, a balanced budget amendment, curbs on lawsuits,
and sundry other proposals that are only slightly less
popular than springtime and hot fudge sundaes.
So far Democrats have been reduced to sputtering that
tax credits do nothing for people who don't pay any
federal taxes, while warning that the Republicans'
Contract is just ``Reaganomics" revisited.
These retorts will doubtless win Democrats the votes of
millions of Democrats. But in the battle for the hearts of
middle
-class independents, are Republicans paralyzed with
fright at being re
-linked with Reagan? Or is it Democrats
being linked with Clinton who feel like horse thieves being
linked with a noose?
Now, make no mistake: Combining large tax cuts,
increased military spending and a constituional balanced
budget amendment would be foolhardy. Its one virtue would
be that it might make politicians feel better about term
limits.
But the Contract is keep this quiet just politics a
statement of general principle. Voters understand
Republicans don't mean everything
in their proposal, any more than candidate Clinton
meant everything he said.
At all events, Republicans have relearned an essential,
if cyncial, principle: The key to political success is to
let the other party do the governing. No doubt
Republicans, should they gain effective control of
Congress, will be counting on Clinton
-induced "gridlock"
to block the most dubious parts of the Contract. The
results may be decent government and excellent Republican
politics for years.
More seriously, a substantial victory for Republicans
this fall would produce a rare and intriguing allocation
of federal political power, unseen in this country for
more than 40 years a liberal president checking the
anti
-government instincts of a mostly conservative
Congress.
That might not be a bad partnership, given the central
and unavoidable challenge ahead of controlling federal
spending, especially on runaway entitlement programs,
without too cruelly depriving those in need.
Meanwhile, one trusts that the president remembers he
asked for this job.
XXX
(Doug Tice is an editorial writer for the St. Paul
Pioneer Press, 345 Cedar St., St. Paul, MN, 55101.)
PM
-World Trade, 3rd Ld
-Writethru, a0559,610
Democrats Agree to Delay in Key Trade Vote
EDs: INSERTS 1 graf after 6th graf, The 123
-nation to
UPDATE with Foley saying vote will be this week; picks up
7th graf, Democrats said.
By DAVE SKIDMORE= Associated Press Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) Democratic leaders worked to salvage a
huge global trade bill today, delaying a key vote and
agreeing to Republican requests for a hurry
-up hearing
about a controversial provision buried in the huge
legislation.
Plans for a late
-morning vote in a key procedural
motion were postponed at least until later in the day, and
Majority leader Richard Gephardt said the so
-called GATT
bill would likely not be voted on until Thursday at the
earliest.
The delay would give time for a committee hearing on a
provision that Republicans questioned. It would provide
for a discount on federal licensing fees for three
companies developing the next generation of wireless
telephone systems.
Although the White House strongly supports the measure,
Democrats need Republican votes to win its approval. And
late Tuesday, GOP Whip Newt Gingrich wrote House Speaker
Thomas Foley calling for hearings before the measure came
to a vote.
"Since the Senate will not vote on GATT until early
December, there is no excuse for risking defeat by rushing
a vote," Gingrich wrote.
The 123
-nation GATT agreement would cut worldwide
tariffs by about $740 billion, reduce other barriers to
trade and extend the rules of world trade to services and
intellectual property such as computer programs and drug
patents.
"The GATT legislation will be enacted (in the House)
this week," Foley predicted to reporters. "We're not
retreating on GATT in any way."
Democrats said they were confident the measure would
ultimately win approval. But they feared losing a
procedural vote that was essential for the bill's passage,
particularly with the GATT accord having become caught up
an election
-year struggle that has dominated the final
weeks of the congressional session.
Many Republicans want to deny President Clinton a
victory before the Nov. 8 midterm elections. And some
House Democrats, pressured by unions opposed to GATT, also
want to put off the vote.
In his letter, Gingrich noted that the Senate will
consider GATT at a lame duck session.
"Nothing is lost by taking our time and doing it
right," he wrote Foley in a letter signed, "Your
Friend."
The administration says GATT would create thousands of
jobs in the United States but concedes some industries,
such as textile manufacturing, will suffer.
A vote on the debating procedures for the GATT bill
promised to be the crucial first test. A `no' vote almost
certainly would force the House to return in November or
December.
Both supporters and opponents said the House procedural
vote would be close. Majority Whip David Bonior, D
-Mich.,
who opposes the GATT accord, said he expected Republicans
to provide only 40 to 50 of the 218 votes needed.
The issue that drew Gingrich's attention was designed
to clarify the FCC's ability to levy a licensing fee on
three companies: American Personal Communications, which
is 70 percent owned by the Washington Post Co.; Cox
Enterprises Inc. and Omnipoint Corp. Other companies,
beginning in December, will have to bid for these
licenses.
However, Rep. John Dingell, D
-Mich., chairman of the
Energy and Commerce Committee, said under the GATT bill
the companies would pay $534 million. Without the
provision, the federal government risks an adverse court
ruling that would mean the companies would get the
licenses free, he said.
Senior administration officials said the broadcast
licensing provisions had been thoroughly considered by
both Democratic and Republican lawmakers advising the
administration on the GATT bill.
"Wouldn't you think last
-minute outrage was rather
suspect?" Commerce Secretary Ron Brown asked reporters.
BC
-TRADE
-GATT
-USA ISTLD (SCHEDULED)
House delays vote on GATT bill until Thursday
By Sue Kirchhoff
WASHINGTON, Oct 5 (Reuter) - House of Representatives
Democratic leaders postponed a final vote on a sweeping
GATT trade treaty until Thursday, but vowed to proceed
with a make
-or
-break procedural vote on the measure.
"We're going forward later (Wednesday)" with the
rule, House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri
told reporters after a closed
-door meeting
of?House?Democrats He said lawmakers would probably vote
on the GATT bill Thursday.
?
? ?House?Republicans, led by Newt Gingrich of Georgia,
have vowed to vote against the rule setting out procedures
for debate on the GATT bill. Defeat of the rule would kill
chances for voting on GATT before Congress's scheduled
October 7 recess.
"We'll win on the rule and we'll overwhelmingly win
on the bill," said acting House Ways and Means Committee
Chairman Sam?Gibbons?of Florida.
In an effort to further reassure nervous lawmakers,
the House Energy and Commerce committee later Wednesday
will hold a hearing on the so
-called `pioneer
preference" provisions of the GATT implementing
legislation, which have been attacked by consumer groups
and Republicans.
In a Tuesday letter to House Speaker Thomas Foley,
Gingrich asked for hearings, calling the pioneer
preference "a controversial, little understood provision
that threatens to bring down the (GATT) agreement."
Tucked away in the massive GATT bill is a provision
that would require The Washington Post Co, Cox Enterprises
and Omnipoint Communications to pay 85 percent of the cost
of special federal licenses to provide state
-of
-the
-art
telecommunications services.
GATT opponents say the provision would result in a
government
-provided windfall of up to $2 billion for the
companies.
But Democrats said the companies would have received
the licenses free under Bush adminsitration rules, and
claimed that the provision would raise over $400 million
for the government.
"Some scabby people are opposed to it for their own
corrupt reasons and the taxpayers will lose $500
million," said a clearly angry John Dingell, chair of the
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman, which
regulates communications.
Dingell also accused opponents of ``scummy"
behaviour.
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade pact would
effectively rewrite the rules of world commerce. Its
approval by member governments last December was hailed as
a major economic breakthrough. The Clinton administration
estimates that the agreement would reduce worldwide
tariffs by $750 billion.
The House was expected to approve the measure easily,
but a last
-minute combination of Republican jitters and
opposition by nearly 90 House Democrats has clouded its
prospects.
Due to delaying tactics by South Carolina Senator
Ernest Hollings, Senate leaders have been forced to call a
special two
-day session in late November solely to vote on
GATT.
Many House lawmakers have complained that they do not
want to be forced to vote on the GATT legislation -- which
is supported by business but opposed by some labour,
environmental and consumer groups -- so close to the
November elections, especially if the Senate is taking a
pass.
REUTER
BC
-GATT
-Test
-Vote
-Planned
-in
-House
GATT Test Vote Planned in House Tonight, Democrats Say
(Update1)
(Updating with White House reaction; Foley and
Washington Post comments)
Washington, Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- House Democratic
leaders, after a careful count of their support, decided
to go ahead with a test vote later today on the new trade
agreement that is designed to lower trade barriers
worldwide.
Democrats predicted that they would prevail on today's
vote to formally bring the trade bill to the floor.
However, they said a vote on the White House
-backed accord
under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade itself
may be delayed until tomorrow. Senate action on the bill
already has been postponed until a rare lame
-duck session
on Dec. 1.
As he prepared for the GATT vote, House?Speaker?Tom
Foley (D
-Wash.) said he wasn't concerned about
fluctuations in financial markets based on varying reports
about the fate of the bill.
"I'm committed to passing GATT," Foley said. "But if
you tell me
I have to do it by some time (for the markets), that's too
bad. It's going to become law. Those who don't think so
are betting a bad?bet."
?
President Clinton, who considers the trade agreement
his biggest policy aim still?before?Congress, hasn't
started any extraordinary efforts on behalf of the bill,
his spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers said today. "There's no
organized effort to call people," she said.
Still, White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta urged a
meeting of business leaders this morning to contact their
members of Congress. Later, Panetta himself headed off to
Capitol Hill to woo lawmakers.
Democrats were scurrying today to prepare for a hearing
at 12:30 p.m. EDT today aimed at placating Republican
concerns about a revenue measure in the 1,000
-page bill
which puts into place trade law changes from the Uruguay
Round accord negotiated under the auspices of the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
Gingrich Raises Issue
House minority whip Newt Gingrich raised the issue
yesterday when he said several lawmakers object to a
revenue measure attached to the bill that could be viewed
as a gift to two of the nation's largest media companies,
the Washington Post Co. and Cox Enterprises Inc.
American Personal Communications, which is 70% owned by
the Post, and Cox were two of three companies originally
given free wireless telephone licenses by the Federal
Communications Commission under what is known as the
pioneer preference program. The third company is Omnipoint
Communications Corp. The FCC later changed its policy and
told the companies they would need to pay for the
licenses, at a cost that could exceed $1 billion.
The GATT bill, which can't be amended under a
fast
-track procedure, sought to overrule the FCC order by
setting the price closer to $400 million for the wireless
licenses -- giving what competitors complain would be a
big price break to the Post and Cox. It ended up in the
GATT bill because the Clinton administration was
scrambling to find revenue to offset the expected $12
billion loss in government revenues from lower trade
tariffs.
In an editorial today, The Washington Post defended its
position, saying the company was getting no break. The
Post said the license originally applied for was supposed
to be free but now was costing the company $400 million.
Republican Support Crucial
For his part, Gingrich said he favors the GATT bill.
But he said many Republicans want more time to study it to
see if there are other matters like the wireless measure.
Republican support is viewed as crucial for passage of the
test vote and the GATT bill itself.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Sam Gibbons
(D
-Fla.) said after a closed
-door Democratic strategy
meeting that his party believes it has the votes to
prevail. "We will win on (the procedural vote to bring the
GATT bill to the floor) and we will win overwhelmingly on
the bill" implementing the accord, he said.
"We've been working on the bill and will continue to
do that and we feel good about it," said House Democratic
Leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri.
Chief of Staff Panetta told reporters yesterday that
the White House believes it has 60 Republican votes and
170 Democratic votes in the House in support of the trade
legislation.
When asked why GATT had suddenly become such a tough
fight when it appeared passable six months ago, Panetta
said, "It's gotten caught up in the general shooting back
and forth that has gone on in these last weeks of this
Congress. No matter how non
-controversial the issue might
appear to be, suddenly these issues become controversial
in the last weeks of the session." -
-Tom Ferraro on
Capitol Hill (202) 434
-1897, with Dina Temple
-Raston at
the White House (202) 434
-1884. /ch/daw/ba
(Story illustration: To graph the U.S.
-Japan trade
balance see JNTBUS (Index) GP. For more information on
GATT, NI GATT; on Congress; NI CNG; on trade; NI TRD. For
more on the Washington Post: WPO
Equity> CN; on Cox: 1026Z
Equity> CN.)
11:16
-0- (BBN) Oct/05/94 11:18 EOS (BBN) Oct/05/94
11:18 86
(UPI Spotlight)
Foley says GATT not in trouble
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) House Speaker Thomas Foley,
refusing to set a definite timetable for considering the
GATT trade bill, says (Wednesday) the legislation will
pass the House this week. Asked if the leadership's
decision to delay a vote on the bill until later Wednesday
evening meant the legislation is in danger of defeat,
Foley responded, ``Absolutely not."
(UPI Spotlight)
Late GATT vote on tap in House
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) House Democratic leaders say
they will try in the face of stiff opposition to get the
embattled GATT legislation to the floor for a vote
(Wednesday evening). House Republicans vow they will try
to delay action on the global trade pact by attempting to
defeat a procedural motion and block the legislation from
coming up for
a vote.
(UPI Spotlight)
Hearing to air pioneer preference issue
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) House Democratic leaders,
hoping to attract more Republican support for the GATT
trade legislation, have scheduled a hearing (Wednesday) to
address GOP concerns about a controversial
telecommunications provision. Republican support for the
global trade pact has eroded because of the provision,
which would give discounts to three media giants for their
licenses to deliver new mobile phone service.
BC
-SAUDI
-BENTSEN
Saudi faces short
-term credit problems - Bentsen
By Rich Miller
JEDDAH, Oct 5 (Reuter) - Saudi Arabia is starting to
have some problems paying its debts but its underlying
creditworthiness is sound thanks to its huge oil reserves,
U.S. Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen said on Wednesday.
"They've begun to have credit problems insofar as
meeting maturities on some indebtedness," Bentsen told
reporters prior to a meeting with King Fahd. ``It's
obvious they have to do more tightening of the budget."
After building an enormously wealthy economy, the
world's largest oil exporter is facing a cash crunch
brought on by weak oil prices and $55 billion in payments
to help finance the 1990
-91 Gulf War.
The government has borrowed around $70-$80 billion in
debt, almost all of it domestic, according to one local
financial source.
Riyadh earlier this year negotiated delays in payments
and delivery of some U.S. military equipment including
fighter planes and tanks.
The country, which will pay the U.S. government $3.3
billion this year under those contracts, faces a payments
bulge of some $8 billion over the next two years on those
deals.
The kingdom, though, is up
-to
-date on payments on a
$4.5 billion loan it aranged from international banks in
1991.
Bentsen, who arrived on Wednesday for a two
-day visit,
made clear that Riyadh's problems were only temporary and
were similar to those faced by the United States before
the Clinton administration took action to reduce the U.S.
budget deficit.
``They have short
-term problems," he said. "But the
enormous oil reserves they have show the ultimate
soundness of their indebtedness."
In a speech to Saudi business and government leaders,
Bentsen urged Riyadh to modernise its economy by
tightening its budget belt, opening up its markets, and
giving private companies a bigger role.
Saudi Arabia has targeted a nearly 20 percent cut for
this year. Bentsen, who met Finance Minister Mohammad Ali
Abal
-Khail and Oil Minister Hisham Nazer on Wednesday,
praised that action.
But he said he planned to tell King Fahd that the
country needed to go further.
``I am looking forward to seeing the king...and I
intend to tell him how impressed I am with his economic
programme," Bentsen said. "I will encourage him to
continue on this course and take additional actions to
shrink the fiscal deficit."
That means more spending cuts, elimination of
subsidies and privatisation of state
-owned companies,
Bentsen said.
He welcomed Saudi Arabia's plan to join the GATT world
trade body and urged it to accept the stricter standards
of the World Trade Organisation that is due to start up
next year.
Besides calling on Saudi Arabia to tighten its budget
belt and open its markets, Bentsen also made a pitch for
U.S. industry in his meetings with Abal
-Khail and Nazer.
Saudia, the state
-run airline company, has said it
plans to order new planes from Boeing and McDonnell
Douglas but has so far given few details.
Bentsen said he encouraged Saudi officials to finalise
that deal, which has an estimated value of up to $7
billion.
REUTER
BC
-KS
-PAN-
-Farm Bill, Adv08
-09,0750
For Release Weekend Editions, Oct. 8
-9, and Thereafter.
AP KANSAS PANORAMA
By CURT ANDERSON= Associated Press Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) Pressure for changes in the nation's
agriculture price support and subsidy programs likely will
dominate congressional debate on the 1995 farm bill,
according to a new report.
The programs, which cost an estimated $12 billion
during 1994, are easy targets for lawmakers looking for
ways to trim the federal budget and reduce the deficit.
"Critics are asking why the non
-farm community should
transfer an average of $11.4 billion per year over the
past 10 years in commodity support to farmers, and then
only to those producing a few selected commodities,"
Jasper Womach, a Congressional Research Service agriculture
specialist, wrote in an analysis of the farm bill.
Other big questions for the next farm bill is which
sectors should benefit most from federal programs, the
impact of new global trade treaties and whether
environmental concerns will become a bigger factor.
There already have been reductions in direct payments
and export subsidies for some commodities: Congress
appropriated no money this year for honey, and wool and
mohair programs are scheduled to expire at the end of
1995.
But there still are support programs for corn, sorghum,
barley, oats, wheat, rice, cotton, tobacco, milk,
oilseeds, peanuts, sugar cane and beets. Those programs
take up 19 percent of the Department of Agriculture's
budget and just 1 percent of total federal expenditures,
according to the CRS report.
When most of the programs began during the Depression,
farm household income was less than half the national
average. Farmers often lacked electricity and indoor
plumbing, and had poor roads to travel for services in
town.
Now, farms are more modern, roads are excellent and
farm income generally exceeds the national average, the
CRS report found. In fact, 45 percent of today's farm
operators say agriculture isn't their primary occupation.
"Today, it is the rural communities that appear to be
providing jobs and income to many farm households, not
vice versa," Womach wrote.
Attempts to change farm programs likely will center on
freezing yields and cutting acreage base on which payments
are made, or by eliminating benefits for farmers whose
non
-agriculture income exceeds a certain level.
Such changes usually have minimal impact on the federal
budget, the report found, because farmers can reorganize
their ownership of land or make tenant arrangements to
qualify for higher payments anyway.
On the global trade front, the report had a favorable
agricultural forecast for the North American Free Trade
Agreement and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
And U.S. subsidies already conform to many international
guidelines established by the treaties.
But the United States likely will have to make changes
in programs where farmers are protected via controls on
imports of peanuts, tobacco, sugar and dairy products. The
treaties eventually will force an end to import quotas in
favor of tariffs on those imported commodities, which then
must be reduced over time.
The report said pressure also will be brought to change
programs that allow cotton and grain growers to idle some
acreage, which reduces supplies and raises market prices.
Some critics believe this raises production costs and
encourages foreign production, thereby hurting U.S.
competitive advantages
Export subsidies also will be scrutinized because GATT
mandates that they be reduced worldwide.
``In a free trade environment, domestic packers and
processors can simply turn to foreign suppliers when
export subsidies move domestic supplies overseas and raise
U.S. prices above world levels," Womach noted.
The biggest environmental issue in the 1995 farm bill
is the future of the Conservation Reserve Program, in
which 36 million acres of highly erodible land are idled
in return for payments of about $50 per year for each
acre. The total cost is about $1.8 billion.
If budget reductions trigger lower commodity payments,
some farmers will opt to put more land in production, the
report said. Environmentalists are concerned that could
mean more land erosion and loss of habitat for wildlife
nationwide.
Two ideas to cut pollution from farming is to finance
green payments" to operators who divert land from
environmentally damaging uses or to allow tax credits to
farmers who adopt environmental plans for their land.
One other topic likely to be debated, Womach said, is
whether to combine all the money used in current price
support, crop insurance and disaster payments into a
``farm revenue insurance" program. This simply would
ensure a constant stream of income for every farmer, even
if prices dropped sharply or a natural disaster wiped out
crops.
The down side is a potentially high cost and the
possibility that the government might have to make
participation mandatory in order for it to succeed.
BC
-USA
-SMOKING
U.S. House votes smoking ban on foreign flights
WASHINGTON, Oct 5 (Reuter) - The House of
Representatives has voted to ban smoking on all
international flights to and from the United States but
the measure may die in the Senate.
The House passed a bill Tuesday night to ban smoking
on the final leg of flights to the United States and the
first leg of flights from the country by both foreign and
U.S. airlines. Smoking was banned four years ago on all
U.S. domestic flights except those that were six hours or
longer.
The House bill would also extend the smoking ban to
those flights. The bill now goes to the Senate but an aide
said no action was expected this year.
The House and Senate are expected to recess this week
or early next week for the November 8 elections, but the
Senate will return in late November to vote on
ratification of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
treaty.
REUTER
PM
-KS-
-School Prayer, 1st Ld
-Writethru,0400
Kassebaum, Helms in Tussle Over School Prayer
Eds: SUBS grafs 1
-2 to UPDATE with Senate vote to end
debate. Picks up 3rd graf pvs, `Helms I
By CURT ANDERSON= Associated Press Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) A Senate vote today settled a
disagreement between Sens. Nancy Kassebaum and Jesse Helms
over how far Congress should go to protect voluntary
prayer in public schools.
The Senate voted 75
-24 to force final action on an
education funding bill containing a school prayer
amendment introduced by Kassebaum, R
-Kan. At least 60
votes were needed to cut off debate. The overall bill was
expected to pass later today.
Helms, R
-N.C., has held up the measure for weeks in an
attempt to build support for his version of the school
prayer amendment, which would cut off federal funds to any
district that prevents voluntary, ``constitutionally
protected" prayer.
Kassebaum's language also would cut off federal funds,
but only if the school district were found to willfully
have violated a court order requiring it to permit prayer
in schools.
"The courts will ensure that protected prayer is
permitted in our schools," she said. ``If school
administrators willfully violate a student's
constitutional rights, they should be punished."
In 1962, the Supreme Court ruled religious activities
sponsored by public schools are unconstitutional. But
federal courts have issued conflicting rulings about
prayers at graduation ceremonies, leading to uncertainty
over the issue.
It is this very confusion that led Helms to propose his
amendment. During floor debate this summer, Helms said he
wanted Congress to provide clear direction to school
administrators about what was allowed.
"This amendment will tell them, 'you better not
prevent individuals from praying without studying the law,
not popular myths, about what is and is not
constitutional," he said.
But Kassebaum said that was an "unfair and
unreasonable" burden for administrators not trained in
interpretation of court orders.
``It is unreasonable to expect our school teachers and
administrators to be constitutional scholars," Kassebaum
said.
In addition, she said a funds cutoff would hit poorest
school districts the hardest and could lead administrators
to allow all prayer out of fear they might lose money.
In late July, the Senate approved Kassebaum's amendment
by a 93
-7 vote, shortly after it rejected Helms' by a
53
-47 vote. The House also decided to accept Kassebaum's
language in a conference committee, but Helms has used
parliamentary maneuvers to prevent a final vote in the
Senate.
PM
-Rostenkowski, 1st Ld
-Writethru, a0439,560
Rostenkowski Attorneys Press Constitutional Case
EDS: Leads with 6 grafs to update with hearing; picks up
2nd graf pvs, The defense
By TOM STRONG= Associated Press Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) Rep. Dan Rostenkowski's lawyers asked
a federal judge today to dismiss political corruption
charges against the congressman, arguing the government
cannot police violation of internal House rules.
"We're not saying that congressmen are immune from
prosecution," said Dan Webb, chief lawyer for the
influential Chicago Democrat. But the federal government
lacks authority to press charges in this case, he said.
Congress has criminalized rule violations such as
bribery and receipt of illegal campaign contributions, but
not those cited by the government against Rostenkowski, he
told U.S. District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson.
``The rules they plead are rules that have never been
incorporated by Congress into any criminal statute," Webb
said.
Webb said the ``rulemaking" clause of the Constitution
allows the House and Senate to handle violations of their
own rules.
Prosecutors were to make their case later this morning.
The defense argument that only the House can discipline
a member for violating its rules could lead to lengthy
federal appeals, perhaps to the Supreme Court, and could
delay the trial for more than a year.
``It would be a minimum of months and a maximum of
several years," Tom Buchanan, one of Rostenkowski's
lawyers, said Tuesday. "It depends on how fast it
moves."
Rostenkowski was indicted on 17 felony counts May 31.
He is charged with converting $636,600 in federal funds
and $56,267 in campaign funds to his personal use.
He has pleaded innocent and denied wrongdoing, but
under House rules, he was forced to step aside as chairman
of the Ways and Means Committee until the case is
resolved.
Legal observers did not expect any surprises from
arguments already made in court papers.
"The only thing that may come out new would be a new
way of packaging an old position, a clever analogy, a nice
twist," said E. Lawrence Barcella Jr., a Washington
lawyer and former federal prosecutor.
Constitutional arguments relying on the rulemaking
clause have had little recent success in criminal cases
against members of Congress. But Webb said in legal
motions: ``No previous charges ever brought against any
member of the United States Congress have ever gone so far
in violating the separation of powers doctrine."
In response, the government contended the
constitutional provisions and internal rules of Congress
``simply have nothing to say about common thievery.
Certainly, none creates the virtual license to steal that
the congressman has imagined for himself."
The indictment accused the lawmaker of hiring ghost
employees, using his official account to buy personal
gifts from the House Stationery Store, trading stamps for
personal cash at the House Post Office and converting
official vehicles to personal use.
The lengthy pretrial appeals are available because
Rostenkowski is claiming protection under the
Constitution's ``speech or debate" clause. That prevents
members of Congress from being ``questioned" for their
actions in a congressional speech or debate.
PM
-Scotus
-Kid Porn, 1st Ld
-Writethru,610
Freedom of Speech Case Features Films by 15
-Year
-Old Porn
Star
EDs: LEADS with 11 grafs to UPDATE with arguments; picks
up 7th graf pvs, bgng: That revelation
By LAURIE ASSEO= Associated Press Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) In a case involving the movies of
former porn queen Traci Lords, the Clinton administration
urged the Supreme Court today to reinstate a federal law
against distributing child pornography.
The law meets the Constitution's free
-speech standards
by requiring prosecutors to prove a defendant knew the
pornographic material involved a sexual depiction of a
child, Solicitor General Drew S. Days III told the court.
But the lawyer for Rubin Gottesman, a Los Angeles porn
shop owner convicted of selling pornographic movies Lords
made at age 15, argued that the law did not require proof
Gottesman knew Lords was underage. Lords is a native of
Steubenville, Ohio.
"At the very least a person ought to know that he's
committing
a crime," said Gottesman's attorney, Stanley Fleishman.
Fleishman urged the justices to uphold a lower court
ruling that said the law was unconstitutional and threw
out Gottesman's conviction.
"This is a peculiar statute," mused Justice Sandra
Day O'Connor. The Supreme Court clerk might violate the
law if he received a copy of a Traci Lords movie as part
of the case record, O'Connor said, and the justices might
violate the law if they watched it.
Justice Antonin Scalia appeared sympathetic to
Fleishman's argument that Congress did a sloppy job of
writing the child pornography law.
"We have always said we will not distort a statute
from its meaning in order to uphold its
constitutionality," Scalia said.
But Days said that although the law could be considered
unclear, it did not specifically exclude the knowledge
requirement. He said such a requirement usually is
presumed to be part of a criminal law even if it is not
spelled out.
Justice David H. Souter noted that the law `would be a
waste of ink" if Congress meant to exclude its main point
the knowing distribution of child pornography.
The justices are expected to rule by July.
Gottesman, owner of X
-Citement Video, was convicted of
selling more than 100 Traci Lords videotapes to an
undercover Los Angeles policeman in 1986 and 1987.
Gottesman was sentenced to a year in prison and his company
was fined $100,000.
Lords already was a well
-known porn star when it was
discovered in 1986 that she had made many of her sex films
when she was only 15.
That revelation led many video distributors to pull her
movies from their shelves for fear of child
-pornography
prosecutions. The Adult Film and Video Association
estimated the damage to its industry in the millions of
dollars.
In 1982, the Supreme Court created a new exception to
free
-speech rights when it ruled the government can ban
the sale and distribution of child pornography even if it
is not legally obscene.
But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned
Gottesman's conviction in 1992. The appeals court said the
federal ban on distributing child pornography violates the
Constitution because it doesn't require proof that a
defendant knew that at least one of the performers was
underage.
The law at issue makes it a crime for anyone to
``knowingly" transport or ship child pornography. The
appeals court said the word ``knowingly" refers only to
transporting or shipping but does not require knowledge
that the material shows minors engaging in sexual activity.
Justice Department lawyers said in court papers that
the 9th Circuit court's ruling did not reflect Congress'
intent when it passed the child pornography law. The court
should have interpreted the law in a way that would have
made it constitutional, government lawyers said.
The case is U.S. vs. X
-Citement Video, 93
-723.
PM
-Mandela
-Aristide, 1st Ld
-Writethru, a0537,290
Mandela Says He Will Meet with Aristide While in
Washington
EDS: SUBS 4th graf pvs, The meeting, with 2 grafs to
update with meeting unlikely today; picks up 5th graf pvs,
Mandela also
By RITA BEAMISH= Associated Press Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) South African President Nelson Mandela
said today he intended to meet with Haiti's exiled
President Jean
-Bertrand Aristide while in Washington.
"I'm looking forward to seeing the president,"
Mandela said during a photo session before a breakfast
meeting with Vice President Gore and several other
members of President Clinton's Cabinet.
U.S. officials, who have staked the Clinton
administration's prestige on restoring Aristide to power,
had encouraged the meeting in light of the similar
challenges faced by Aristide and Mandela to reconcile
polarized societies.
Mandela's success so far in bridging the racial and
class divides of his homeland to create a new democracy
"would be an imporant message for President Aristide as
he faces the challenge that he has ahead of him," one
U.S. official told reporters.
Aides were working to fit the meeting into Mandela's
tight schedule. The meeting was unlikely to occur before
Thursday, an official said. Aristide was returning to
Washington from New York where he had addressed the United
Nations General Assembly on Tuesday evening.
Mandela also said this morning that his mission in
search of U.S. investment dollars to rebuild South
Africa's economy has gone well this week.
"The response has been very positive" in sessions he
has held with U.S. business executives, Mandela said.
Mandela, after a stop in New York, is in Washington
until Saturday for talks aimed largely at winning investor
confidence and U.S. support to provide housing,
electrification, educational parity and other pressing
needs of the black majority population.
Mandela today described Clinton as "a man who is very
sensitive to the needs of others."
PM
-Haiti, 3rd Ld
-Writethru, a0541,0877
Military Leaders Attend Funeral for 10 Killed in U.S.
Firefight
Eds: LEADS with eight grafs to UPDATE with Haitian leaders
attend funeral for 10 killed in U.S. firefight. Picks up
7th pvs, Francois, Cedras...'
With PM
-Haiti
-Mood, PM
-UN
-Haiti, PM
-Haiti
-Glance
By ANDREW SELSKY= Associated Press Writer=
PORT
-AU
-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) Haiti's military leaders
made a public appearance today to attend the funeral of 10
people killed by U.S. Marines in a firefight, the first
casualties of the American intervention in Haiti.
Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, the army commander, and Brig.
Gen. Philippe Biamby stood near the flag
-draped coffins in
the courtyard of a military hospital as relatives of the
dead wailed in grief. The 10 were killed in a Sept. 24
shootout with U.S. Marines in Cap
-Haitien, Haiti's
second
-largest city.
Missing of the three coup leaders who ousted elected
President Jean
-Bertrand Aristide in 1991 was
Port
-au
-Prince police chief Michel Francois. He fled
before daybreak Tuesday to the neighboring Dominican
Republic.
No Americans soldiers were at today's funeral. U.S.
troops were busy patrolling the streets of the Haitian
capital in search of ``attaches," civilian auxiliary
gunmen linked to Haiti's army.
As American helicopter gunships circled overhead, U.S.
Special Forces troops raided the Port
-au
-Prince suburb of
Petionville, looking for weapons and an attache who
residents said was responsible for several murders.
The latest U.S. military figures say 95 people, many of
them attaches, have been detained and more than 4,000
weapons seized, a military spokesman, Air Force Sgt. David
Smith, said today.
Soldiers have worked with Haitians in recent days to
identify the homes of suspected army auxiliaries who
instilled fear with their harsh crackdown against Aristide
supporters.
The hasty departure of Francois, whose attaches were
responsible for most of the human rights abuses here,
eliminates one of the leaders who might have been an
obstacle to the return of Aristide.
Francois, Cedras and Biamby were to leave power under a
last
-minute agreement negotiated with former President
Carter. Cedras, the most visible of the Haitian military
leaders, has vowed not to leave the country.
Aristide supporters applauded Francois' departure, and
urged the other coup leaders to do the same.
"It is an important step toward the re
-establishment
of democracy and peace. The others (Cedras and Biamby)
should follow his example," Port
-au
-Prince Mayor Evans
Paul, an Aristide supporter, said Tuesday.
The U.S. agreement with the Haitian military averted an
invasion but paved the way for the arrival of 20,000 U.S.
troops to ensure the return of Aristide, Haiti's first
democratically elected president.
Aristide told the U.N. General Assembly in a speech
Tuesday that he would return home by Oct. 15.
The Roman Catholic priest, who has been living in exile
in Washington, said he hoped to bring peace to the nation.
We say yes to reconciliation, no to violence, no to
vengeance yes to justice," Aristide said.
In what could be another promising sign for Haiti, a
feared paramilitary leader Tuesday claimed a conversion to
pacifism.
Emmanuel Constant, leader of the paramilitary group the
Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, which has
tortured and killed pro
-democracy activists, urged
Haitians ``on every side" to put down their weapons and
renounce violence.
But Constant's sincerity was in doubt: FRAPH is
considered responsible for much of the terror waged in
Haiti over the past year. And violence on Tuesday showed
Aristide's peaceful resumption of power is far from
assured.
U.S. troops found themselves in the delicate position
of protecting Constant, one of Haiti's most notorious
figures, as he addressed reporters outside the
presidential palace.
Constant just days ago was one of Aristide's and
Washington's
most despised enemies.
``No more violence," Constant said. "The future of
our beloved republic is at stake."
It was more than Ira Kurzban, Aristide's
Washington
-based lawyer, could stand.
"Constant led and directed murder and terrorism in
this country," Kurzban said disgustedly. ``He should be
arrested and tried."
The 2,000 Haitian onlookers occasionally drowned out
Constant's words with cries of ``Murderer! Murderer!" and
shouts to American troops protecting him to throw him in
jail.
On Monday, U.S. troops stormed the FRAPH headquarters
in downtown Port
-au
-Prince and detained more than two
dozen members.
But with thousands of weapons still reportedly in the
hands of FRAPH members and other extremists and some
Haitians thirsting for revenge, the potential for violence
remains high.
U.S. soldiers rescued a man identified as a gunman
linked to Haiti's military from a crowd that beat him
bloody on Tuesday.
Francois' departure may help defuse some tensions in
the capital. He left after his brother Evans, already
living in the Dominican Republic, wrote an open letter
urging him to join his family in Santo Domingo.
Francois left behind a resignation letter defending his
actions and crossed the Haiti
-Dominican border in a
four
-wheel
-drive vehicle.
After arriving at his brother's luxurious home in the
Dominican capital, Francois stepped out of his jeep in a
white tropical dress shirt and slacks.
He looked relaxed but refused to talk to reporters.
"Soldiers don't talk, only politicians," he said in a
statement issued through his brother.
Bangladeshi troops head to Haiti
DHAKA, Oct. 5 (UPI) More than 1,000 Bangladeshi army
troops and policemen headed Wednesday for trouble
-torn
Haiti to join U.S.
-led Operation Uhphold Democracy.
The troops and their equipment left Dhaka for the
Caribbean nation aboard three U.S. Air Force C
-141
Starligters and one C
-5 Galaxy transport planes.
The departure of the 1,150 troops was originally
scheduled for Tuesday but had to be postponed because of
bad weather over Guam and Hawaii.
Officials said the aircrafts have to take the long
route over the Pacific because India, that does not
support the military intervention in Haiti, refused to
give overflight rights.
The deployment to Haiti brings the number of
Bangladeshi troops currently abroad on U.N. peacekeeping
duties to 4,950, an army official said.
Bangladeshi troops are currently deployed in Rwanda,
Liberia, western Sahara, Bosnia
-Herzegovina, Kuwait,
Somalia, Mozambique, Georgia and Uganda.
PM
-Haiti
-Suicide,220
Second Apparent Suicide of U.S. Military Man Reported
WASHINGTON (AP) A Marine deployed on a mission to
Haiti on board the USS Nashville apparently committed
suicide during the night, a Pentagon official said today.
The official said the individual was killed by a
gunshot wound and was found in the ship's berthing area.
If the cause of death is confirmed, it would be the
second individual with the U.S. military to have committed
suicide during the ongoing military operation in Haiti.
No name or unit was immediately available, said the
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Some 1,800 Marines left northern Haiti on Monday aboard
the amphibious ships USS Wasp and Nashville, bound for the
United States.
However, the official said it could not be confirmed
whether the Marine had actually gone ashore with those
forces.
The Nashville is currently in port in Puerto Rico and
the shooting is being investigated, the official said.
Spc. Alejandro Robles of Los Angeles died Sept. 27 of
an apparent self
-inflicted gunshot wound in Haiti. He was
assigned to the 10th Mountain Division based in Fort Drum,
N.Y.
The death occurred at Villa d'Accueil, Haiti's state
guest house that American soldiers were preparing to house
Haitian parliament members.
Second U.S. soldier commits suicide
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) One of the 1,300 U.S. Marines
pulled out of Cap
-Haitien this week died of an apparent
suicide early Wednesday, the second suicide among the
troops sent to Haiti, a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday.
The Marine was on standby alert aboard the USS
Nashville in Puerto Rico when he died Wednesday morning
sometime before 1:30 a.m. EDT of what apparently was a
self
-inflicted gunshot wound.
Details, such as the name and home city of the Marine,
are being withheld by the Pentagon upon notification of
next of kin.
The 1,300 Marines were part of the initial wave of U.S.
troops sent to Haiti to oversee the ouster of the military
junta and maintain order for the return in mid
-October of
the exiled Haitian president. The Marines were sent to a
U.S. military port off the coast of Puerto Rico this week,
where they remain in a ready reserve position to assist
with possible flare
-ups in Haiti.
On Sept. 27, a Fort Drum, N.Y., soldier died of an
apparent suicide while on duty in Port
-au
-Prince. Army
Spec. Alejandro Robles, 20, of Los Angeles, was said to be
despondent over a troubled marriage when he turned his
weapon on himself near the Villa D'Accueil, Haiti's state
guest house that was being readied by soldiers to house
members of Haiti's parliament.
(UPI Spotlight)
Russian urges conventional arms adjustments
MOSCOW, Oct. 5 (UPI) A top Russian military official
warns (Wednesday) that a European defense pact will soon
leave Russia with dangerous weak spots on its borders with
new nations in the Baltic and Caucasus regions. First
Deputy Defense Minister Mikhail Kolesnikov says Moscow
will have to ``exceed the levels" of tanks and other
materiel set by the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty
unless the 1990 agreement is revised.
PM
-Yugoslavia, 1st Ld
-Writethru, a0530,0551
Belgrade Celebrates Easing of Sanctions, But Is Border
Shut?
Eds: Leads to UPDATE with U.N. representative traveling to
Pale for talks with Bosnia Serbs on Sarajevo airport.
Edits to conform. No pickup
By MARK J. PORUBCANSKY= Associated Press Writer=
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) A U.N. decision to lift some
of the sanctions imposed on Yugoslavia for instigating the
war in Bosnia boosted morale in Belgrade today.
Belgrade's airport reopened to international flights
for the first time in 28 months. The U.N. action also
allows the resumption of sports and cultural contacts.
But the rest of the economic embargo imposed at the
start of the war remains intact despite the headlines in
Belgrade newspapers today.
``The blockade has fallen," proclaimed the Vecernje
Novosti newspaper in bold, black letters across its front
page.
The Politika newspaper declared the U.N. decision "the
beginning of the end of the blockade against our
country."
The U.N. decision affecting Serbia and Montenegro, the
only states left after Yugoslavia's breakup, follows
Serbia's promise to cut off its ethnic brethern across the
border.
Questions have lingered over whether Serbian President
Slobodan Milosevic has stopped war supplies to Bosnian
Serbs, whom he supported during more than two years of war
in Bosnia.
Brig. Gen. Bo Pellnas, head of a 100
-member team
monitoring the Yugoslav
-Bosnia border, said his team found
no evidence that Serbia is sending anything but
humanitarian aid to Bosnia.
His report was submitted Tuesday to the U.N. Security
Council, and some sanctions were automatically lifted at
midnight, initially for 100 days.
An official with the Yugoslav foreign ministry, Branko
Brankovic, called the easing of the sanctions "a modest
but important first step in lifting all sanctions."
Brankovic said the full embargo should be lifted to
discourage those who want to continue the war. He repeated
the government's pledge that Yugoslavia will keep its
border with Bosnia closed.
Yet there are suspicions military telephone lines and
radar surveillance are still available to Bosnian Serb
commanders, many of whom reportedly still draw salaries in
Belgrade as officers of the Yugoslav army.
U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry asserted Friday
that Bosnian Serbs are still getting war supplies from
Serbia.
European Union foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg
Tuesday also appeared skeptical. "We feel that the border
could be more effectively sealed," said Germany's foreign
minister, Klaus Kinkel.
Aeroflot, the airline of Serbia's traditional ally,
Russia, said it would fly to Belgrade today. The Yugoslav
national carrier JAT planned a flight to Moscow on
Thursday.
By contrast, in Bosnia's capital the airport remained
closed. Serbs besieging Sarajevo are demanding control of
the airport, which they handed over to U.N. peacekeepers
in July 1992.
Yashusi Akashi, the chief U.N. envoy for Yugoslavia and
its former republics, said the United Nations will be firm
with Bosnian Serbs.
Akashi stopped in Sarajevo today before going to Pale,
the Serb stronghold east of the Bosnian capital, for talks
on reopening the airport and unrestricted convoy
movements.
Twenty
-five U.N. convoys carrying aid or supplies for
peacekeepers were denied permission by Serbs to move
across Bosnia Monday. U.N. officials reported nearly two
dozen convoys moving today, but many had restrictions on
what and how much they could carry.
BC
-YUGOSLAVIA
-CONVOYS
U.N. food convoys reach Gorazde
ZAGREB, Oct 5 (Reuter) - Three United Nations food
convoys reached Gorazde on Wednesday after being delayed
at Serb checkpoints on their tortuous route through
central Bosnia, a U.N. official said.
Nineteen trucks carrying 260 tonnes of flour unloaded
in the eastern Bosnian Moslem enclave.
``All three convoys are safe and sound," said Ken
Harvey of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The UNHCR was denied permission to send a food convoy
to Sarajevo on Wednesday after the Bosnian Serbs said they
did not have enough time to process the paperwork, an
excuse Harvey described as ``ridiculous."
The U.N. has been urgently trying to persuade the
Bosnian Serbs to unblock U.N. aid operations as winter
approaches.
Convoys are only just starting to move again after
U.N. efforts to feed more than one million people in
Bosnia were paralysed for 12 days by Serb forces in
revenge for a NATO air strike that destroyed one of their
tanks.
REUTER
BC
-BENIN
-USA
Benin president leaves for U.S., Canada
COTONOU, Oct 5 (Reuter) - Benin's President Nicephore
Soglo has left for a two
-week state visit to the United
States and Canada, a presidential statement said on
Wednesday.
It said that Soglo, who left on Tuesday night, would
meet U.S. administration and congressional officials,
United Nations Secretary
-General Boutros Boutros
-Ghali and
businessmen.
On Thursday he is due to take part with South African
President Nelson Mandela and U.S. Vice
-President Al Gore
in a ceremony handing over funds for African development.
The statement said that in Canada Soglo would discuss
aid and the organisation of the 1995 francophone summit in
Cotonou,
a regular meeting of leaders of French
-speaking countries
modelled on the Commonwealth of former British colonies.
REUTER
PM
-Factory Orders, 2nd Ld
-Writethru, a0551,550
Factory Orders Soar in August
EDs: LEADS with 7 grafs to UPDATE with market and analyst
reax, picks up 6th graf pvs, Manufacturing has
By JAMES H. RUBIN= Associated Press Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) Orders to U.S. factories soared 4.4
percent in August, the biggest gain in nearly two years.
Today's report contributed to fears of inflation and
rising interest rates and helped send financial markets
down sharply.
The Commerce Department said the rise in the indicator
of manufacturing plans the 1 1th in the last 13 months
was led by increased demand for automobiles but was
practically across the board.
The recovery for car orders followed a sharp decline in
July when auto makers shut down plants for two weeks to
retool for the 1995 models. Overall, orders fell 2 percent
in July.
While analysts expected factory orders to rebound
sharply in August, the increase easily exceeded
expectations and is just the latest sign of the economy's
staying power.
"It's more evidence that manufacturing is strong. We
can't dismiss it as a fluke," said economist Carl Palash
of MCM Moneywatch in New York City. "The Federal Reserve
is going to have to tighten credit one or two more times
this year."
Bond prices fell sharply on the news as the yield on
the benchmark 30
-year Treasury rose to 7.94 percent, its
highest since May 1992. Stock prices followed, with the
Dow Jones industrial average off more than 30 points by
late morning. The dollar also was down against other
currencies.
Manufacturing has been a mainstay of the expansion, now
in its fourth year.
The rise in factory orders was the largest since they
climbed 5.6 percent in December 1992.
Excluding the volatile transportation component,
factory orders rose 2.4 percent in August. Excluding
military orders, orders rose 4.4 percent matching the
overall gain.
Orders for both durable and non
-durable goods totaled a
seasonally adjusted $286.5 billion, up from $274.3 billion
in July.
Shipments, a measure of current production, increased
4.5 percent to $287.9 billion in August, the strongest
showing since they rose 4.7 percent in May 1979. Shipments
have risen in 10 of the last 13 months. They fell 1.1
percent in July.
The backlog of unfilled orders declined 0.3 percent in
August to $447.2 billion, matching its decrease in July.
The orders backlog is often seen as a measure of whether
current facilities and manpower are able to keep up with
demand.
Inventories in August edged up 0.1 percent to $387.1
billion, after a 0.9 percent increase in July.
Orders for durable goods, items expected to last more
than three years, were up 6.1 percent to $154.2 billion,
after falling 3.9 percent in July. Just last week, the
Commerce Department estimated durable goods orders rose 6
percent in August.
Orders for non
-durable goods such as food and fuel were
up 2.5 percent at $132.3 billion, the 10th straight gain
and the largest since August 1990. All major industries
increased except leather goods.
Orders for non
-defense capital goods excluding aircraft
rose 2.2 percent in August after falling 3 percent in
July. These orders often are a barometer of business plans
to expand and modernize.
August factory orders up 4.4 percent
By JEFF BATER= UPI Business Writer=
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) Orders for U.S. manufactured
goods made their largest climb in more than I &1/2 years
during August, pushed up by powerful demand for cars and
trucks, the government said Wednesday.
Factory goods orders increased 4.4 percent, or $12.2
billion, to $286.5 billion, chalking up their I 1th advance
in 13 months, the Commerce Department said. Shipments,
meanwhile, made their biggest jump in 15 years.
Orders decreased 2 percent in July, revised up from a
previously reported 2.3 percent decline.
The August increase well exceeded the expectations of
economists, and marked the largest since December 1992,
when orders rose 5.6 percent.
While the 4.4
-percent advance was broad
-based, motor
vehicle orders accounted for nearly half of that gain.
Transportation equipment orders increased 19.3 percent
to $38.5 billion after falling 14.8 percent in July, when
carmakers closed their plants for two weeks as they made
adjustments for the new, 1995 model year.
Excluding transportation orders, all other factory
goods orders advanced 2.4 percent in August, compared to a
0.1 percent rise in July.
Cars and trucks are considered durable goods that is,
expensive items designed to last at least three years.
Orders for durable goods rose 6.1 percent to $154.2
billion after falling 3.9 percent in July.
Durable goods orders by category:
electronic equipment up 1.2 percent to $22.5 billion;
July was unchanged.
industrial machinery up 4.6 percent to $29.8 billion;
July slid 1.2 percent.
instruments and related products down 1.3 percent to
$10.8 billion; July decreased 5.1 percent.
stone, clay and glass up 0.2 percent to $6.8 billion;
July rose 4.7 percent.
primary metals-up 4 percent to $13.5 billion; July fell
0.6 percent.
fabricated metals up 3.5 percent to $15.8 billion; July
rose 1.8 percent.
all other durable goods up 1.2 percent to $16.5
billion; July increased 0.6 percent.
Orders for non
-durable goods increased 2.5 percent to
$132.3 billion after rising 0.4 percent in July.
Commerce's report also said unfilled orders decreased
0.3 percent a second straight month, falling to $447.2
billion.
Inventories inched up 0.1 percent to $387.1 billion,
the seventh increase of the year, after rising 0.9
percent.
Shipments advanced 4.5 percent to $287.9 billion, the
10th increase in 13 months and the largest climb since May
1979.
RECORD TYPE: PRESIDENTIAL (ALL-IN-1 MAIL)
CREATOR: Kenneth R Chitester (CHITESTER_K) (WHO)
CREATION DATE/TIME: 5-OCT-1994 18:13:06.80
SUBJECT: 6:30 pm wire report
TO: Heather Beckel
(BECKEL_H) (WHO)
READ:NOT READ
TO: Keith O. Boykin
(BOYKIN_K) (WHO)
READ: 5-OCT-1994 18:37:10.80
TO: Steven A. Cohen
(COHEN_SA) (WHO)
READ: 5-OCT-1994 18:40:44.74
TO: Amanda Crumley
(CRUMLEY_A) (WHO)
READ:NOT READ
TO: David Dreyer
(DREYER_D) (WHO)
READ: 5-OCT-1994 18:48:12.17
TO: Jeremy M. Gaines
(GAINES_J) (WHO)
READ:NOT READ
TO: Kukis, Heidi
(Heidi Kukis@EOP_OVP@CCGATE@EOPMRX)
READ:NOT READ
TO: Arthur L. Jones
(JONES_A) (WHO)
READ:NOT READ
TO: Joseph W. Cerrell
(Joseph W. Cerrell@EOP_OVP@CCGATE@EOPMRX).
READ:NOT READ
TO: Payne, Julia M.
(Julia M. Payne@EOP_OVP@CCGATE@EOPMRX)
READ:NOT READ
TO: Joshua A. King
(KING_J) (WHO)
READ: 5-OCT-1994 18:16:39.20
TO: David Leavy
(LEAVY_D) (WHO)
READ:NOT READ
TO: Cara A. Levy
(LEVY_C) (WHO)
READ:NOT READ
TO: Marlene A. MacDonald
(MACDONALD_M) (WHO)
READ: 5-OCT-1994 18:18:12.11
TO: Kathy McKiernan
(MCKIERNAN_K) (WHO)
READ: 5-OCT-1994 18:57:01.06
TO: APRIL K. MELLODY
(MELLODY_A) (WHO)
READ: 7-OCT-1994 21:07:12.41
TO: Dianna A. Pierce
(PIERCE_D) (WHO)
READ:NOT READ
TO: R. Paul Richard
(RICHARD_R) (WHO)
READ: 5-OCT-1994 19:14:35.74
TO: Aman, Sally J.
( Sally J. Aman@EOP_OVP@CCGATE@EOPMRX)
READ:NOT READ
TO: Virginia M. Terzano
(TERZANO_V) (WHO)
READ:NOT READ
TO: Lorraine A. Voles
(VOLES_L) Autoforward to: Remote Addressee
(Lorraine A.
READ:NOT READ
TEXT:
PRINTER FONT 12_POINT_COURIER
WHITE HOUSE WIRE REPORT
6:30 p.m. edition
Wednesday, Oct. 5, 1994
Produced by the Office of News Analysis (OEOB 161, 6
-5694)
Index of wire stories:
Page I advisory (AP)
World headlines (UPI)
Clinton promises Mandela US fund to help South Africa
business (AP)
Mandela says Aristide flexible (DJ)
Clinton confident Congress will pass trade pact (Reu)
Probe of GSA chief latest ethical embarrassment for
White House (AP)
Clinton signs $264 billion defense spending bill (AP)
Federal agencies improve under Clinton: study (Reu)
Clinton stumping in 10 states for Democrats (Reu)
Whitewater special counsel names Watergate lawyer (Reu)
Dash named to Whitewater probe (UPI)
Bentsen urges Saudi Arabia to further reduce its fiscal
deficit (BBN)
DOT proposal would protect tiniest tots from airbag
impacts (AP)
Final bell nears for education bill (AP)
Former senator testifies on nomination to head base
closings commission (AP)
Environmental issues roar in '94 elections (AP)
Perot's report card gives few lawmakers passing grade
(GNS)
US will complete Haiti job and leave, Clinton says (AP)
Days in power slipping away, Army strongman weeps at
soldiers' burial (AP)
US, Haitian military come face to face (Reu)
Negotiators restar high
-level talks on nuclear issues
(AP)
Sites for December summit are announced (Reu)
Chinese dissidents win US human rights award (Reu)
Agreement to permit upgrading of US
-Cuban phone service
(AP)
Threat against Americans reported in Karachi (AP)
Adams says peace more real after US trip (Reu)
CNN (6 p.m.)
Live coverage of Simpson trial
AM
-Pagel Advisory,0
For Thursday AMs
AP recommendations for Page I at this hour:
CULT DEATHS: Twenty
-one bodies made a neat circle on
the floor of a red, mirror
-lined chapel hidden beneath the
burning farmhouse. Some were dressed in red, black and
white ceremonial robes. Ten had plastic garbage bags tied
around their necks with cords, and some had their hands
bound. Twenty had bullets in their heads. In three ski
chalets 90 miles away, police discovered more bodies,
badly burned by fires apparently set by remote control. In
all, authorities found 48 bodies on Wednesday, including
several children, and indications of a mass murder
-suicide
by a cult they hadn't known existed. AM
-Cult Deaths. By
Alexander G. Higgins.
AP Photo ZUR104, policemen carry dead bodies from the
farm, by Edi Engeler.
HAITI: His days in power slipping away, Haiti's
military strongman wept Wednesday at a funeral service for
10 of his men killed in a shootout with U.S. Marines.
AM
-Haiti. By Anita Snow.
AP Photo PAP105, Cedras drops a handful of dirt on a
grave, by J. Scott Applewhite.
BAD KNEES: Researchers have found a way to heal
damaged cartilage, a breakthrough that could help hundreds
of thousands of people with bad knees and other balky
joints. The experimental treatment involves growing the
patients' own cartilage cells in test tubes, then injecting
the tissue into the damaged joint. AM
-Bad Knees. By
Science Writer Daniel Q. Haney.
CULTURAL SUPERIORITY: Voters have taken away the
conservative Christian Coalition's control of the Lake
County, Fla., school board, spelling the end of a policy
under which the schools were told to teach that American
culture is second to none. AM
-Cultural Superiority.
BOX: In a rare public statement, a sister of O.J.
Simpson's ex
-wife expressed frustration Wednesday at
Simpson's aggressive efforts to dismiss evidence in his
double
-murder case. AM
-Simpson
-Nicole's Sister.
Refer to AM
-Simpson
-Slayings.
The AP
Hourly News Summary
Around the World, Around the Clock with United Press
International.
-0-
The Pentagon has identified the Marine who died of an
apparent suicide as 21
-year
-old Lance Corporal Maurice
Williams of Detroit. Williams was the second U.S. soldier
involved in the intervention of Haiti to die of a
self
-inflicted gunshot wound.
-0-
During a White House news conference, South African
President Nelson Mandela declined to commit himself to
sending South African troops to join the U.S.
-led military
operation in Haiti. Mandela said he wants to act in
concert with neighboring nations on the question of troop
delployment in Haiti.
Mandela said he would try to explain to exiled Haitian
President Aristede the ``crucial importance of national
reconciliation."
-0-
A jury in Pensacola, Florida is deliberating the
federal case against Paul Hill in the deaths last July of
a doctor and his escort outside an abortion clinic. The
jury received the case after a brief closing argument from
Hill, who represented himself.
-0-
Judge Lance Ito refused to suppress evidence seized
during search of O.J. Simpson's home. Defense attorneys
claimed they have new evidence that Los Angeles police
lied about their reasons for entering the estate.
-0-
Federal prosecutors and the DEA say a wholesale heroin
trafficking ring has been smashed with the arrest of six
suspects, including the organization's kingpin who was
captured in Puerto Rico. Officials say the ring netted
nearly one BILLION dollars during a six
-year period.
-0-
By a three
-to one margin, the Senate voted down a
measure to legalize prayer in schools.
-0-
The Clinton administration will permit five American
telecommunications companies to improve telephone service
between Cuba and the U.S. The joint announcement came from
the State Department and Federal Communications
Commission.
-0-
Stocks closed moderately lower in heavy trading. The
Dow Jones industrial average fell 13 points to
37
-hundred
-87. Volume was around 350 million shares.
-0-
By Larry Webb (UPI)
AM
-Clinton
-Mandela, 4th Ld
-Writethru, a0700,690
Clinton Promises Mandela U.S. Fund to Help South Africa
Business
Eds: UPDATES throughout to clarify numbers, eliminate
redundancy, edit
By RITA BEAMISH= Associated Press Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) Capping two days of celebration with
Nelson Mandela, President Clinton announced a $100 million
fund to help entrepreneurs in southern Africa. Half will
go to South Africa in hopes it will be an economic engine
for the region.
The two countries also will establish a high
-level
commission to boost energy, education and development
projects.
"The new South Africa with Nelson Mandela's wise
leadership has won the fight for freedom. Now it stands at
the crossroads of hope," Clinton said Wednesday with the
South African president at his side.
"The old and deep wounds of apartheid are not small
ones," Clinton said, "but you can be certain that the
United States will continue to do everything in our power
to support the new nation."
The new $100 million Southern Africa Enterprise
Development Fund is in addition to a $600 million, 3
-year
package of assistance that Clinton pledged in May.
Some $212 million of the $600 million already has been
committed. Officials said it includes $150 million in loan
guarantees that are expected to leverage nearly $500
million in financing for new housing construction. In
addition, $50 million in loan guarantees will support
electrification projects in the impoverished black
township areas. Some $30 million is allocated for basic
health care.
Clinton also announced that Peace Corps volunteers next
year will travel for the first time to South Africa to
work on sanitation, agriculture, education and rural
health care.
"You have shown us the way and we look forward, sir,
to walking down the road with you," Clinton told Mandela.
Mandela thanked Clinton for U.S. support and credited
the American president with ``ensuring that Africa does
not become a forgotten continent."
Mandela said he is still considering Clinton's request
to provide police or military support for the U.S.
-led
military action in Haiti. The decision will be made in
consultation with other countries of southern Africa, he
said, adding, "We are keen to answer collectively as a
region."
He also said he would meet with exiled Haitian
President Jean
-Bertrand Aristide while in Washington.
Clinton said he was grateful for that because ``the
Haitian people will see that you can bring a country where
there have been deep, even bloody divisions, together."
The new $100 million enterprise development fund will
be under the chairmanship of a former Atlanta Mayor Andrew
Young.
It is designed to provide equity financing, loans and
guarantees, financial advice and technical help for small
and medium business ventures, officials said. It is
designed for black and other disadvantaged people.
Patterned on similar funds set up for Eastern Europe
and former Soviet states, it will allocate $50 million to
South Africa and the rest to other southern African
states. U.S. officials already are looking to South Africa
as a cornerstone for expanding stability and economic
growth in the region.
"This has been both a summit meeting and a celebration
for so many Americans who have so strongly support South
African democracy
and now we're in the process of working on the future,"
Clinton said before the news conference with Mandela.
Mandela is on a five
-day visit to Washington that
includes an address to a joint meeting of Congress on
Thursday. Clinton hosted
a lunch Wednesday for the South African leader and members
of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Clinton credited the black lawmakers with helping
raise the consciousness of all Americans to the terrible
injustice of apartheid" in South Africa.
In addition to the money pledged by Clinton in support
of South Africa's transition to a post
-apartheid
democracy, the federally supported Overseas Private
Investment Corp. is offering $150 million in new equity
funds to provide capital and risk insurance for
prospective business executives in South Africa.
The World Bank forecasts the economy of sub
-Saharan
Africa, boosted by South African trade, will grow by 3.9
percent a year from 1994
-2003.
BC
-SAFRICA
-MANDELA
-USA 2NDLD
Mandela urges Aristide to embrace reconciliation
(Eds: updates throughout with joint news conference)
By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON, Oct 5 (Reuter) - South African President
Nelson Mandela Wednesday publicly urged Haitian President
Jean
-Bertrand Aristide to lead a movement toward national
reconciliation when he returns to his divided Caribbean
country.
Mandela, at a joint news conference with President
Clinton concluding his two
-day state visit to Washington,
said he would press the message to Aristide at a hastily
scheduled meeting Thursday.
"We sincerely hope they will realise the crucial
importance of national reconciliation and to heal the
wounds of the past by involving all the parties which may
have been at cross purposes with one another," Mandela
said.
It was a powerful message from the 76
-year
-old black
leader who emerged from 27 years in prison to be elected
president of South Africa's first majority government.
Aristide, 41, was ousted in a coup three years ago and
U.S. occupation troops are clearing the way for his return
to Haiti in the next 10 days.
Clinton said he was grateful to Mandela for agreeing
to meet Aristide.
"The Haitian people will see that you can bring a
country where there has been deep, even bloody divisions
together, and work together in a spirit of freedom,
reconciliation, democracy and mutual respect," he said.
Mandela predicted he would make some progress in his
talks with Aristide, saying he had found in two previous
meetings that he "has a very serious weakness that I
intend to exploit: He is man who can think. He is
flexible. He is broad
-minded."
Aristide has said repeatedly he is in favour of
national reconciliation in Haiti once Haitian military
leaders are gone. But Haiti's elite, backers of the
military, fears retribution from Aristide's downtrodden
supporters once he returns to power.
Mandela, asked if South Africa would contribute troops
to the international coalition in Haiti, said it was under
consideration but that he would only do so if other
countries in his region did so as well.
Mandela's weeklong visit to the United States is
intended to drum up private U.S. business investment in
his country and reassure potential investors they need not
fear destabilising conflict.
The United States last May pledged $600 million in
assistance over three years to South Africa, and about
$220 million of that has been spent. Clinton announced no
new aid, but simply outlined details of the next phase.
He said most of the aid would come in the form of loan
guarantees that ``will be used to guarantee nearly a half
billion dollars of new housing in South Africa.
"We will also contribute $50 million to help bring
electricity to the townships and $30 million to support
basic health care," Clinton said.
Clinton also said Vice President Al Gore and South
African first deputy president Thabo Mbeki would head a
joint bi
-national commission to provide a high
-level boost
to projects involving energy, education and development.
Alhough a state visit is often an opportunity for the
United States to grant assistance to give the visiting
leader something to take home, U.S. budget constraints are
keeping the White House from increasing aid.
"You can't always have new money -- because there is
no money in this country," one official said.
To help encourage private U.S. companies to invest in
South Africa, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation
announced projects worth $100 million, bringing its total
commitment to South Africa since last spring to $173
million.
REUTER
Clinton - Haiti, GATT
-2-: Mandela Says Aristide 'Flexible
WASHINGTON
-DJ- President Clinton got a boost from South
African President Nelson Mandela in dealing with Haiti
during a joint press conference Wednesday which ended
Mandela's two
-day state visit to Washington.
Mandela revealed that he met twice with Haiti President
Jean
-Bertrand Aristide during his Washington stay and said
he found Aristide, who hopes to return to Haiti this month
under cover of a U.S. occupation force, to be both
"reasonable" and "flexible."
The South African leader also revealed he was holding
consultations with other southern African nations on
whether to join a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti.
The statement comes after indications that General Raoul
Cedras, who ousted Aristide in a military coup, won't
leave Haiti Oct. 15, as U.S. officials expect. Asked
whether the U.S. will do anything to make Cedras leave,
Clinton responded, "I have left that question to the
Haitians to resolve."
"The important thing for the American people is that
the situation, with great difficulty, has remained calm
overall," Clinton said. He noted parliament has reopened
and is considering amnesty for Cedras and others and
Haitian refugees are leaving a U.S. military base at
Guantanamo.
Asked about differences with Aristide on the U.S.
military mission in Haiti, Clinton said, "We think the
mission is clearly defined in terms of scope and times."
"We are on the same mission that we went there with,"
said Clinton. "I feel the American people will be
comfortable with the definition of the mission as it is."
Mandela said he hoped the new Haitian regime led by
Aristide "will realize the crucial importance of national
reconciliation."
(MORE) DOW JONES NEWS 10
-05
-94
5:02 PM
BC
-TRADE
-GATT
-CLINTON
Clinton confident Congress will pass trade pact
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - President Clinton said Wednesday
he remains confident Congress will approve the GATT world
trade pact despite apparent misgivings that have stalled
action in both houses.
``As we get closer to it (a vote on GATT), I would
expect people who have always supported it to support it,
and there will be majority for it. We will continue to
push it," Clinton said during a joint news conference
with visiting South African President Nelson Mandela.
MORE
BC
-TRADE
-GATT
-CLINTON
-2 WASHINGTON
"There is still time for Congress to act on this, for
the House to act on GATT," Clinton said in response to a
question. "It has always been a bipartisan issue. It's a
huge job
-gainer for America It's the biggest world
tax
-cut in history."
The Senate has deferred a vote on the accord until
after it's election
-year break and will return to deal
with GATT in late November. That tack was required because
of the opposition of Senate Commerce Committee Chairman
Ernest Hollings of South Carolina, a textile
-manufacturing
state where opposition to GATT's liberalized import rules
is strong.
Clinton and other GATT supporters still hope the House
of Representatives will vote on the pact in the next day
or so, before going out on break, but it was not clear at
the time of the news conference whether the House would
agree to do so.
REUTER
AM
-GSA Chief
-Ethics,
Probe of GSA Chief Latest Ethical Embarrassment for White
House
By RICHARD KEIL= Associated Press Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) From first
-class airplane trips to
alleged use of top aides for personal errands, the conduct
of President Clinton's most prominent Republican
appointee has created another ethical headache for the
administration.
Roger Johnson, who heads the General Services
Administration, the government's chief landlord, is under
investigation by his agency's inspector general. He has
been accused of using subordinates to carry out personal
tasks for him, including taking his Mercedes to the car
wash.
In a statement released Wednesday, GAO press officials
described Johnson's troubles as ``inadvertent actions
occurring during his transition from 35 years as a private
sector executive to public service."
``As Mr. Johnson became aware of any actions which were
inappropriate, he took full responsibility for the
infractions and ensured that similar actions did not
recur," the statement added.
GSA officials declined further comment, citing the
investigation. For now, the White House is taking a
similar approach to the controversy.
A White House official said most of the incidents
happened a year ago, Johnson took ``appropriate action"
and the White House "knew about it." The official, who
spoke on condition of anonymity, said the White House was
waiting to see the inspector general's investigation and
would decide then whether any further action is necessary.
The investigation focuses on whether Johnson used GSA
employees for such tasks as waiting at his home for
deliveries and repairmen and handling his personal
correspondence, as well as taking his Mercedes to the car
wash, according to administration officials familiar with
the probe.
Revelations about Johnson's alleged abuses of power
have been dribbling out for weeks. Previous issues include
how Johnson and an aide traveling on government business
secured first
-class upgrades earlier this year, a
situation that led them to pay back $386 each to make up
the difference in ticket prices.
The news on Johnson comes at a bad time, just after
Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy announced Monday that he
would resign to fight the ethics charges that have been
leveled against him.
The Espy and Johnson cases are the latest
embarrassments for an administration that swept into
Washington promising higher, tougher ethical standards.
On Monday, Espy resigned as an independent counsel
continued investigating whether he violated ethics rules
by accepting favors from companies regulated by his
agency.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros
has come under fire in recent weeks as critics question
whether he misled the FBI about payments he has made to a
former mistress.
Roger Altman, a close friend of Clinton's, was forced
to resign his senior Treasury Department post after
offering false and misleading testimony to Congress about
the Whitewater affair.
Josh Steiner, the top aide to Treasury Secretary Lloyd
Bentsen, was forced to disavow his own personal diary
entries about the unfolding Whitewater crisis, telling the
Senate Banking Committee that, in essence, even though he
is a Yale University graduate presumably capable of
factual, accurate writing, his own private musings bear no
relation to reality.
And there is the tangled Whitewater affair, with
independent counsel Ken Starr probing the Clintons'
long
-ago real estate doings with the owner of a failed
Arkansas S&L.
Johnson explained his ethical dilemma this way in an
interview published Wednesday in The Washington Post: ``I
know what's ethical and what's not."
'`It's just (that there are) very different rules here.
I know I didn't understand (every technical
guideline). I wasn't naive, but I didn't understand it. I
do now."
AM
-Clinton
-Defense,270
Clinton Signs $264 Billion Defense Spending Bill
WASHINGTON (AP) President Clinton signed a $263.8
billion defense spending bill Wednesday while making clear
he does not believe its terms limit his flexibility to
deal with events in Bosnia.
The authorization measure, which Clinton said will
provide for a strong national defense, represents a $2.8
billion increase over the 1994 fiscal year which ended
Sept. 30.
Adjusted for inflation, however, that translates into a
defense spending cut of just under 1 percent, the 10th
consecutive real decline in the defense budget. In all, 18
percent of the total federal budget would go for defense
under the new law.
Included in the defense bill for fiscal 1995 is
authorization for another aircraft carrier, three
guided
-missile destroyers and six C
-17 airlifters. It
authorizes development funds for a new attack submarine,
the F
-22 fighter, a Marine Corps V
-22 tilt
-rotor troop
carrier and a new reconnaissance helicopter for the Army.
The bill Clinton signed encourages but does not order
him to lift the international arms embargo over Bosnia.
In a statement issued after the signing, Clinton said
he interprets the legislation as leaving ``flexibility to
calibrate our actions as events develop."
He said he believes he also has additional flexibility
to determine how proposals relating to the arms embargo
should be implemented.
"This flexibility is critical for ensuring that the
United States remains in a position to react to
developments in the manner that best serves our nation's
interests," Clinton's statement said.
BC
-CLINTON
-AGENCIES
Federal agencies improve under Clinton - study
By Laurence McQuillan
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The performance of several
federal agencies improved since President Clinton took
office but his cutbacks in the federal workforce may be
paring "vital brain cells," a study released Wednesday
said.
The study conducted for Financial World magazine found
improvement in the operation of six agencies or
departments, including the Department of Veterans Affairs
and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. No
agency studied received a lower rating.
"On whole, we've seen impressive improvements in the
10 departments" studied, Katherine Barrett, who helped
oversee the management study said through a spokesman.
Basing the grades on each agency's skill and
efficiency in management, the magazine found that compared
to a 1992 survey, when George Bush was president, the VA
went from a grade of C+ to B- and HUD improved from a D to
C- grade.
The Department of Energy went from a D+ to a C-, while
the Department of Education brought its grade of C up to a
C+, the study found.
The Department of Transportation went from a C+ to a
B- and the Health Care Financing Administration, which
administers both Medicaid and Medicare, improved from a C+
to a B-, the study found.
Receiving the same grade as in the previous study was
the Social Security Administration, which was given a B,
the Internal Revenue Service, which had a B+, the
Employment and Training Administration which had a C+, and
the Food and Nutrition Service, which kept its B- grade.
The survey also issued the Department of Agriculture a
C rating. It was not studied in the 1992 review.
Citing improvements stemming from reform efforts led
by Vice President Al Gore, the survey warned that cutbacks
in the ranks of federal workers pose "potentially fatal
flaws."
In an open letter to Clinton, the magazine said the
projected $108 billion in savings predicted under the
administration's ``re
-inventing government" effort may
fall short of its goal, something chalked up to
``traditional Washington oversell."
Clinton's efforts to slash the size of the federal
government was criticized because in some cases too much
of the burden fell on mid
-level managers.
"Cuts are coming heavily from middle management,"
the magazine found. "To be sure, some supervisors should
go. But we fear you're paring away some vital brain
cells."
REUTER
BC
-CLINTON
-CAMPAIGN
Clinton stumping in 10 states for Democrats
WASHINGTON, Oct 5 (Reuter) - President Clinton will
barnstorm at least 11 states in an effort to boost
Democratic candidates before November 8 congressional
elections, the White House said Wednesday.
A spokeswoman, Ginny Terzano, said Clinton's main
message will be "to point out the differences between the
status quo policies that the Republicans are pushing and
the solid efforts by Democrats to keep the country on
sound economic footing."
She said the travel would also serve to reject the
widely held notion that Democratic candidates have been
running away from the president because of his relatively
low popularity ratings.
"You'll see him go to states where the critics have
said it's a tough race out there," she said. "We're
putting him into places where we think we can make a
difference on election day."
The Democrats are trying to limit the damage expected
in the elections for all 435 seats in the House of
Representatives, 35 Senate seats and 36 of the country's
50 state governors.
The party in control of the White House has
traditionally lost seats in Congress in the so
-called
mid
-term elections.
States that Clinton is expected to visit in the weeks
ahead include New Jersey, Michigan, Connecticut, Florida,
New Mexico, New York, California, Ohio, Rhode Island,
Illinois and Washington state.
REUTER
BC WHITEWATER
Whitewater special counsel names Watergate lawyer
WASHINGTON, Oct 5 (Reuter) - Samuel Dash, the attorney
who investigated the Watergate scandal for Congress, has
been appointed ethics counsel for the Whitewater inquiry
involving President Clinton.
Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr, in
naming the new appointee, said in a statement that Dash, a
Democrat best known as chief counsel for the Senate
Watergate Committee in 1973
-74, would provide ``ethical
and professional advice."
Starr, a Republican, was named in August to
investigate any possible violations of criminal law
involving President Clinton or Hillary Rodman Clinton's
dealings with the Whitewater Development Corporation or the
failed Madison savings bank in Little Rock owned by James
McDougal.
McDougal was the Clintons' partner in Whitewater, a
failed real estate venture in Arkansas.
A special three
-judge panel of the U.S. Court of
Appeals named Starr, a conservative Republican lawyer who
worked in the Justice Department in the Reagan and Bush
administrations, to take over the politically sensitive
investigation.
A number of Democrats in Congress criticised the
selection of Starr, who has never prosecuted a criminal
case.
Starr's appointment of Dash, who worked for the
Democrats on the Watergate committee and now a widely
respected Georgetown University law professor, appears to
answer some of the criticism.
Starr described Dash, a former federal prosecutor, as
"a leading lawyer and scholar in the administration of
criminal justice and professional responsibility."
REUTER
Dash named to Whitewater probe
By MICHAEL KIRKLAND=
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) Independent counsel Kenneth
Starr has appointed Samuel Dash, a key lawyer in the 1970s
Watergate investigation, as ethics counsel for the
Whitewater probe, Starr's office announced Wednesday.
The independent counsel is conducting an investigation
stemming from the failed Whitewater land deal involving
President Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Allegations include possible improper transfers of
money from a failed Arkansas thrift, the Madison Guaranty
Savings & Loan, to the Whitewater Land Development Corp.,
which was owned by the Clintons and James McDougal, the
owner of the thrift.
Investigators are also looking into allegations that
some Madison funds may have been improperly funneled to
one of the gubernatorial campaigns of Clinton, a former
governor of Arkansas.
There have been no public allegations so far, however,
that the Clintons knew of any improper conduct.
Dash is best known as chief counsel for the Senate
Watergate Committee in 1973
-74, the Democrat
-dominated
panel that investigated charges against late Republican
President Richard Nixon, who resigned in August 1974 amid
the scandal from a break
-in by Nixon loyalists at the
Democratic National Committee headquarters at Washington's
Watergate complex. Dash currently teaches law at
Georgetown University.
As ethics counsel, Dash "will furnish, as needed,
ethical and professional advice to the independent counsel
and his staff," according to a statement released by
Starr's office.
Starr was appointed Whitewater independent counsel this
summer by a federal three
-judge panel despite a
recommendation from Attorney General Janet Reno that
special counsel Robert Fiske be given the position.
In the absence of an independent counsel law, Reno
appointed Fiske on Jan. 20 as special counsel
investigating the Whitewater matter. The independent
counsel law was re
-enacted by Congress in June.
Starr, solicitor general in the Bush administration and
a contributor to GOP candidates and causes, has been
criticized by Democrats as a partisan Republican.
Democrats, led by Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, also
have questioned the propriety of the process leading up to
Starr's appointment.
The three
-judge panel was chaired by Judge David
Sentelle, a protege of Sen. Jesse Helms, R
-N.C. Sentelle
was appointed to the court by President Ronald Reagan.
Sentelle has acknowleged that he met with Sen. Lauch
Faircloth, R
-N. C., the week before Starr's appointment,
but denies that they talked about replacing Fiske with
Starr.
Faircloth was the Senate's most vociferous critic of
Fiske after the special counsel cleared the administration
of criminal wrongdoing in contacts between the Treasury
Department and the White House on the progress of the
Whitewater investigation.
Fiske also said his investigation found that White
House deputy counsel Vince Foster committed suicide in
July 1993 in a northern Virginia park.
Rep. Dan Burton, R
-Ind., and a few other House
Republicans claim that the circumstances surrounding
Foster's death are suspicious despite investigations by
Fiske and the FBI that concluded otherwise.
Starr has not said so far whether he will reopen the
investigation into the Treasury
-White House contacts or
Foster's death.
BC
-Bentsen
-Urges
-Saudi
-Arabia
-to
-Further
Bentsen Urges Saudi Arabia to Further Reduce Its Fiscal
Deficit
Washington, Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Treasury
Secretary Lloyd Bentsen today urged Saudi Arabia to do
more than cut the nation's budget by 20% in an effort to
reduce its fiscal deficit.
The government of King Fahd is reducing water and power
subsidies as part of its effort to slash the budget by
one
-fifth. ``I will encourage (the king) to continue on
this course and take additional actions to shrink the
fiscal deficit," Bentsen said in a speech prepared for
delivery in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The kingdom can make additional spending cuts, further
eliminate subsidies and diversify its economy to generate
income from additional sources, he said. In addition,
selling state
-run businesses to private investors "will
give a push to the economy and bring in needed revenues,"
Bentsen said.
Separately in the speech, Bentsen touted the Clinton
administration's efforts to cut the U.S. budget deficit.
He repeated estimates that the original projection of
reducing the federal deficit by $500 billion over five
years now has been changed to a projected saving of $700
billion because of the strong growth in the U.S. economy.
The administration has reduced the number of workers in
the government by 80,000 already, and it plans to slash
more than a quarter million by the time the program is
done, Bentsen said.
The Treasury secretary also praised the Saudi
government for lifting some aspects of the Arab nations'
boycott of Israel and its trading partners.
``I look forward to the day when the boycott in all
of its aspects -- is a thing of the past," Bentsen said.
"You recognize, as do we, the importance of open markets
to encouraging economic growth."
Already, the two
-way trade between the U.S. and Saudi
Arabia tops $15 billion. -
-Michelle Fay Cortez (202)
434
-1841/daw
(For more information on Bentsen: NI TRE; on trade: NI
TRD; on Saudi Arabia: NI SAUDI) 15:46
-0- (BBN) Oct/05/94
15:47 EOS (BBN) Oct/05/94 15:47 86
AM
-Babies
-Airbags, 1st Ld
-Writethru, a0630,680
DOT Proposal Would Protect Tiniest Tots From Airbag
Impacts
Eds: INSERTS 4 grafs after 1 1th graf pvs, "Felrice
estimated " to UPDATE with automaker support, consumer
advocate opposition to proposed rule, pick up 12th graf
pvs, NHTSA Administrator
By KIM 1. MILLS= Associated Press Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) The Transportation Department wants to
allow makers of sports cars and light trucks to install a
manual cutoff switch for passenger
-side airbags in an
effort to protect infants riding in car seats that face
backward.
"Our research has concluded that there is a potential
problem with the interaction of rear
-facing child seats
and airbags," Transportation Secretary Federico Pena said
at a news conference Wednesday.
Conceding that he was not aware of any child who has
been injured or killed as a result, Pena issued a proposed
new rule that would apply only to vehicles without rear
seats, such as pickup trucks and sports cars.
"We're not going to wait until we have a potential
problem on our hands," he said.
Pena showed a videotape of a crash test in which an
airbag inflated into a front seat holding a dummy baby
strapped in a rear
-facing car seat. The airbag lopped over
the car seat, forcing the dummy's neck to snap forward and
its head to smash into the passenger seat.
Barry Felrice, DOT's associate administrator for
rule
-making, said such an impact "could lead to serious
injury and possibly death."
Rear
-facing car seats are designed to protect children
who weigh less than 20 pounds.
Under the proposed rule, drivers would have to use the
ignition key to activate the cutoff device. "This would
make the device simple and easy to use but still require
conscious thought and deliberate action on the part of the
user," according to the rule.
The agency is suggesting a requirement that the airbag
be manually reactivated because ``motorists making
stop
-and
-go shopping trips with infants might forget,
after making one of their stops, that the airbag has been
automatically reactivated and needs to be manually
deactivated again."
The National Highway Transportation Safety
Administration is also proposing that manufacturers
install a yellow warning light visible to both driver and
passenger as a reminder to turn the airbag back on when the
vehicle is no longer carrying an infant.
Felrice estimated the added cost of the device at
``somewhere between $5 and $10 per vehicle."
The American Automobile Manufacturers Association
commended the Transportation Department for its proposal.
"The manual shut
-off switch provides a short
-term
answer," the association said in a statement.
``Automakers and their suppliers are working on long
-term
improvements, such as developing technology for an
automatic passenger airbag deactivation."
But Clarence Ditlow, director of the Center for Auto
Safety, said the technology already exists to
automatically reactivate the airbag.
``If they opted for a switch, the one that recycles
(after a period of time) is better," Ditlow said. "The
fact is that a light, or a warning, is always less
effective than an automatic device."
NHTSA Administrator Dr. Ricardo Martinez said the rule
would be in effect for only two years because the agency
believes the automotive industry will have developed other
technological solutions, such as front seat pressure or
infrared sensors.
The proposed rule will be open for comment for 60 days
after it is published in the Federal Register. If adopted,
it would become effective 30 days following publication of
the final rule.
Starting in August, NHTSA began requiring labels on
rear
-facing child safety seats that warn of the danger of
using them in front seats equipped with passenger
-side air
bags. Cars equipped with passenger air bags already were
required to have warning labels on their sun visors.
The vast majority of vehicles without back seats do not
now have air bags.
Federal law requires that all passenger cars have
airbags and safety belts for both driver and right
-front
passenger by the 1998 model year. Light trucks will have
to meet the same standard by model year 1999.
AM
-Education Bill, 2nd Ld
-Writethru, a0692,710
Final Bell Rings for Education Bill
Eds: Top 3 grafs new to update with final passage of bill;
picks up 3rd graf pvs, School prayer
By CAROLE FELDMAN= AP Education Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) Turning back a Republican
-led
filibuster over school prayer, the Senate gave final
approval Wednesday to an education bill providing billions
of dollars to help students in impoverished districts,
train teachers and reduce school violence.
The vote was 77
-20.
The House already has approved the legislation
reauthorizing for five years the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act, which expired Friday. President Clinton has
indicated his support for the bill.
School prayer advocates, led by Sen. Jesse Helms,
R
-N.C., tried to block a final vote on the bill. Helms
thought the prayer language included in the bill was too
weak.
"America is in the midst of an historic struggle
between those who on one hand yearn for a restoration of
traditional values envisioned by our founding fathers and
on the other hand by those who contend that anything
goes," he said.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D
-Mass., countered: "Those who
are voting against ending this filibuster are voting
against education. They are voting against federal aid to
hard
-pressed local schools. They are voting against
teachers and students. They are voting against major
reforms and improvements in the most important federal
assistance for schools in every city, town and village in
America."
The Senate voted 75
-24 to break the filibuster. The
only Democrat voting against cutting off debate was Sen.
Richard Shelby of Alabama.
The legislation protects the right of students to
participate in voluntary, constitutionally protected
prayer and cuts off federal education funds to school
districts found to have "willfully violated" a court
order that they allow the prayer.
Helms argued that involving the courts in the issue
created an impossible hurdle for students and their
parents.
He preferred school prayer language that had been
passed by the House but dropped when Senate and House
negotiators settled differences between their separate
version of the bill.
The legislation authorizes $12.7 billion for fiscal
1995; $11 billion has been appropriated.
The act's biggest program aids impoverished districts.
Even to the end, senators fought bitterly about the
formula for allocating nearly $7 billion in those
so
-called Title I funds.
More than 90 percent of the nation's school districts
receive Title I funds, and the Clinton administration
sought to target limited resources to the children who
needed them the most. Its proposal was rejected in both
the House and Senate by members reluctant to approve a
formula that would cost their own districts money.
House and Senate negotiators approved a compromise
agreement that phases in a redistribution of funds over
five years.
``We refined that program," said Sen. Claiborne Pell,
D
-R.I. ``It is better targeted to children most in need."
Sen. Dan Coats, R
-Ind., argued that 33 states would
lose money under the formula approved by the conference
committee.
But Kennedy said 34 states actually come out ahead.
"His charts are completely wrong," he said.
Coats came back on the Senate floor later to defend his
numbers. ``All this senator did was present the figures
that were presented to him by the Congressional Research
Service," he told his colleagues.
Whoever is right, conferees saw to it that no school
district will lose money during the first two years of the
reauthorization.
After that time, the first $6.6 billion in Title I
funds will be distributed according to the current law.
Anything over that amount will be allocated under a
complicated formula that provides for some targeting.
The bill would:
Require local school districts to adopt a one
-year
expulsion policy for students who take guns to school.
Local officials could modify the punishments on a
case
-by
-case basis.
Authorize $655 million in fiscal 1995 for Safe and
Drug
-Free Schools programs.
Bar the use of federal education money for programs
that promote sexual activity, whether homosexual or
heterosexual, or for distributing condoms in schools.
Expand programs for teachers' professional development
to all subjects, not just math and science.
AM
-World Trade, 1st Ld
-Writethru, a0625,780
Foley Says New World Trade Hurdle Can Be Overcome
Eds: INSERTS 1 graf after 4th pvs, Foley, D
-Wash., to
UPDATE with Clinton quote; ADDS 3 grafs to UPDATE with
Republican quotes from hearing
By DAVE SKIDMORE= Associated Press Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) Struggling to save a huge global trade
agreement, House Speaker Thomas Foley delayed a critical
vote Wednesday but pledged to somehow get the measure
passed this week before Congress goes home.
A bill implementing the accord negotiated under the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade has become caught
up an election
-year struggle that has dominated the final
weeks of the congressional session.
Republicans anxious to deny President Clinton a victory
before the Nov. 8 midterm elections and Democrats wary of
angering union supporters have been pushing to postpone
consideration.
Foley, D
-Wash., put off by a few hours a crucial
procedural vote on approving the rules of debate on the
bill. And that was enough to push the vote on the bill
itself to Thursday at the earliest.
There's still time for Congress to act on this,"
President Clinton told reporters at the White House.
"GATT has always been a bipartisan issue. It's a huge
job gainer for America and it's the biggest world tax
cut in history."
U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor, in a
last
-minute pitch, said the 123
-nation accord, by cutting
worldwide tariffs by $740 billion, will produce an
economic surge in the United States and abroad, creating
300,000 to 700,000 U.S. jobs. The agreement, he said, will
force the rest of the world to play by the fair
-trading
rules Americans believe in.
``Like it or not, change is inevitable. We can't
stop globalization, we've got to make it our friend," he
told the Senate Commerce Committee.
The agreement also reduces other barriers to trade and
extends the rules of world trade to services and
intellectual property such as computer programs and drug
patents.
But opponents, including Sen. Ernest F. Hollings,
D
-S.C., the chairman of the committee, say it will open
American markets to a flood of manufactured goods produced
in low
-wage countries, destroying jobs at companies making
textiles, aircraft, automobiles and other goods.
The Senate already has postponed its GATT decision
until Dec. 1 because Hollings is exercising his right to
hold the bill in his committee for 45 days. But Foley said
he remained determined that the House would act before
going home.
``I don't want anybody to get any misconceptions. We
are not retreating from GATT in any way," the speaker
said. ``I am firmly and absolutely committed to doing
everything I can to enact GATT this week."
He said the House schedule was adjusted Wednesday to
accommodate lawmakers attending the funeral of former Rep.
Claude Harris of Alabama and a reception for South African
President Nelson Mandela.
The delay also allowed time for the House Commerce
Committee to conduct a hurry
-up hearing on an obscure
provision of the GATT bill, which has raised an outcry
among the accord's opponents.
The No. 2 Republican in the House, Rep. Newt Gingrich,
R
-Ga., wrote to Foley on Tuesday saying a hearing was
needed to clear up confusion about the provision granting
a discount on federal licensing fees to three
communications companies developing the next generation of
wireless telephone systems.
Democrats are hoping the hearing, conducted by House
Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, D
-Mich., will
mollify enough Republicans to allow GATT to clear the
procedural hurdle by a narrow margin. House Republican
Leader Bob Michel of Illinois, who is supporting speedy
action on GATT, also recommended the hearing.
The issue that drew Gingrich's attention was designed
to clarify the Federal Communication Commission's ability
to levy a licensing fee on three companies: American
Personal Communications, an affiliate of the Washington
Post Co.; Cox Enterprises Inc. and Omnipoint Corp. Other
companies, beginning in December, will have to bid for
these licenses.
However, Dingell said without the provision in the GATT
bill, the federal government risks an adverse court ruling
that would mean the companies would get the license for
free.
Under the GATT bill, the companies would pay $534
million, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
That's why it's in the bill. It's part of the financing
package to offset the $12 billion in tariffs the United
States is expected to lose in the first five years the
accord is in effect.
The initial reaction from Republicans at the Energy and
Commerce Committee hearing was positive. They supported
the provision and blamed a rival company, Pacific Telesis,
for stirring up the controversy.
"From the get
-go this is a hearing about more for the
taxpayers, not less," said Rep. Michael Oxley R
-Ohio.
"This is not a billion
-dollar giveaway," added Jack
Fields, R
-Texas.
AM
-Export Goals,
Administration Expects Exports To Top $1 Trillion by Year
2000
With AM
-World Trade, Bjt
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER= AP Economics Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) Despite a rising trade deficit, the
Clinton administration said Wednesday it was well on the
way to achieving its goal of boosting U.S. exports above
the $1 trillion mark by the end of the decade.
In its second annual ``National Export Strategy"
report to Congress, the administration said the federal
government would spend $3.29 billion to promote U.S.
exports in 1994 and $3.46 billion in 1995, up from $3.1
billion spent last year.
Those estimates included in the report marked the first
time the executive branch has ever attempted to pull
together a budget for all its export promotion activities,
which are scattered among 19 different federal agencies.
Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, who presented the report
to Congress, said the administration's aggressive
promotion efforts over the past year had helped to win 70
major export contracts for U.S. industry. The contracts
amounted to more than $17 billion in new exports, which
should translate into 275,000 new jobs, he said.
In last year's report, the administration set a goal of
boosting U.S. exports of goods and services from $640
billion in 1993 to over $1 trillion by the year 2000, an
increase that would support 6 million new jobs.
Brown said he believed the administration was "well on
track" to achieve that goal. ``In fact, we believe we
should set an even more ambitious objective of $1.2
trillion," Brown said.
But while U.S. exports have been rising, imports are
rising even faster and America's trade deficit in goods is
projected to top last year's $132.6 billion imbalance. The
administration has said it expects this situation to turn
around once America's major overseas markets resume faster
growth.
In transmitting the report to Congress, President
Clinton said his administration had made substantial
progress in implementing virtually every one of the 60
goals it had established a year ago to enhance exports.
"I was determined to make the expansion of American
sales abroad a cornerstone of our economic policy and our
policy," Clinton said. "We are at the beginning of a new
era of fierce commercial competition in the global
marketplace and I am determined that we as a nation
fulfill our enormous potential."
The administration counted among its successes the
establishment of new trade finance programs by the U.S.
Export
-Import Bank and the elimination of a variety of
Cold War controls on high
-technology exports which had
reduced the value of goods requiring government approval by
more than $32 billion.
Brown said its export goals would be met in part
through a strategy of concentrating on the 10 biggest
emerging markets Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, China, India,
Indonesia, South Korea, Poland, Turkey and South Africa.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Don Riegle, D
-Mich.,
and other committee members praised the administration for
pursuing initiatives that Congress for years had
unsuccessfully tried to get the Reagan and Bush
administrations to support.
But Sen. John Kerrey, D
-Mass., said the administration
needed to do more to reorder the spending priorities for
export promotion. He noted that two
-thirds of federal
dollars were still going to boost agricultural exports,
even though they account for only 10 percent of total U.S.
exports.
"We are under
-funding our manufacturing industries and
we have to reverse this," he said.
AM
-Base Closings,3
Former Senator Testifies On Nomination To Head Base
Closings Commission
By JIM ABRAMS= Associated Press Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) Former Illinois Sen. Alan Dixon
pledged Wednesday to work to protect local communities if
he is confirmed as head of the Defense Base Closure and
Realignment Commission.
Dixon was before the Senate Armed Services Committee,
where he served for nine years, to testify on his
nomination to the delicate job of recommending which bases
will be shut down as part of the Pentagon's spending and
personnel cuts.
Dixon would be responsible for a third round of
closures scheduled for next year. The chairman during the
first two rounds, in 1991 and 1993, former New Jersey
congressman Jim Courter, resigned in June.
Sen. Sam Nunn, D
-Ga., the chairman of the Armed
Services Committee, said he would push for quick
confirmation so Dixon and his new staff would have time to
prepare for next year's round. There has been no
opposition to the nomination, but the Senate is scheduled
to adjourn at the end of this week.
Dixon, who as chairman of the Armed Services
subcommittee on readiness, sustainability and support
helped write the legislation that created the commission
in 1990, said he was concerned about the effects on
communities after bases are closed.
"There's a great deal of dissatisfaction in the local
community about the post
-closure situation," he said.
Nunn said that since the commission was formed, 70
major bases in the United States have been closed and 38
others realigned. He said annual savings from the actions
will reach $4 billion by the end of the decade.
Dixon served in the Senate from 1981 to 1993, when he
was defeated in the Democratic primary by Sen. Carol
Moseley
-Braun. Both Moseley
-Braun and Illinois's other
senator, Paul Simon, were on hand to introduce Dixon to
the committee.
Dixon, who now works at a St. Louis law firm, said he
was aware of the potential for conflict of interest as a
member of the commission. He said he has already recused
himself from representing three clients with connections
to bases.
bc
-pols
-envir
TAKE I OF 2
DECISIONS '94
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
ROAR IN '94 ELECTIONS
Eds: Another in the continuing GNS political series,
Decisions '94. With sidebar, POLS
-WESTWAR.
Graphic: Logo, graphic on GGN.
Photo: On GPN Oct. 5
By KEN MILLER=
Gannett News Service=
WASHINGTON A Phoenix television ad for Arizona GOP
Senate candidate Jon Kyl fills the screen with Bill
Clinton's face as a somber
-sounding narrator reads the
words under the president's picture.
``Washington is waging war on the West and on our
pocketbooks, but Jon Kyl is fighting to change the way
business is done."
In Texas, virtually every state and local politician,
Democrat and Republican alike, have picked over the
Endangered Species Act and lampooned protective measures
for an endangered songbird, the golden
-cheeked warbler, as
a symbol of mutant federal environmental policies.
Eastern environmentalists are wrapping their arms
around GOP Sens. John Chafee of Rhode Island and James
Jeffords of Vermont, long
-time friends of the green
movement and just maybe important allies should
Republicans take the Senate next month.
Whether it is the amorphous property rights"
movement defining many Western races, or the
meat
-and
-potatoes toxics and pollution issues still
playing in the East, environmental causes remain a big part
of politics.
``In our polling, we find just as many people as ever
who say they are environmentalists or are concerned about
environmental issues," said Peter Kelley of the League of
Conservation Voters LCV political arm of the
environmental movement.
Out of dozens of "priority" House and Senate races
this fall, LCV has plucked 14 to target with added cash
through its EarthList campaign. Some were picked to try to
keep old friends around; some to make new ones in open
seats; some to try to stem the arrival of bare
-knuckled
enemies.
LCV expects to steer $1 million in contributions and
personal donations to candidates this cycle.
``They're all crucial in that we're looking at a
potential environmental disaster in the November
elections," said Kelley, adding the green ranks in the
next Congress likely will be thinner.
"But the Democrats are probably going to do worse this
year than the environmentalists," he said. "A lot of the
seats the Democrats are worried about losing are already
held by anti
-environmentalists. Environmentalists will do
better than the Democrats, but we're still looking at a
net loss of seats and a more hostile Congress next year."
It's high time, responded Barbara Grannell, executive
director of People for the West, a 6
-year
-old activist
group created to blunt LCV's clout.
"It's all about accountability," Grannell said of her
group's new scorecard that rates House and Senate
incumbents on a handful of votes on such issues as mining
and rangeland reform; the National Biological Survey,
created by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to inventory
plant and animal species; and a bill to set aside vast
tracts of the California desert as a park.
Grannell said commodities and property rights issues
``will be a deciding factor in every election in the West
in November." She said Babbitt, who spent much of his
first year in office touring the West to win converts for
his stillborn mining and range reform programs, has backed
off out of concerns those programs are killing Democratic
candidates.
In the West, where environmental issues take on added
weight because of the impact on jobs and regional
economies, stakes couldn't be higher.
Many races loom as referenda on the so
-called "New
West," a place populated increasingly by urban emigres,
many from California, who are shifting land use
philosophies away from historic commodity and extractive
industries.
The new environmental politics confront the
administration with painful choices. There are 119
electoral votes in the West a region Clinton won in 1992
but environmental policies will cost him some of those
votes in '96.
``If Bill Clinton and Bruce Babbitt are going to run a
campaign designed to win in Idaho, Utah and Wyoming,
they're going to lose California, Washington and Oregon,"
said LCV President Jim Maddy. He said efforts by Clinton
to mollify a now
-hostile Western interior, where mining and
grazing reforms are most opposed, hurts him in more
environmentally attuned urban states.
Clinton cannot afford to lose California's 54 electoral
votes, but Maddy said environmental policies perceived as
weak
-kneed will cost him support in the Golden State,
where his 1992 successes already are eroding.
MORE
bc
-pols
-envir
TAKE 2 OF 2; bc
-POLS ENVIRONMENT
-1; XXX already are
eroding.
Maddy looks at the prospect of Clinton trying to cling
to no more than 20 electoral votes in the Intermountain
West as opposed to initiating land reforms that will help
win more than three times that in the coastal states: "I
don't need a calculator to figure it out, but that's what's
got him confused."
While Maddy said Clinton seems to confront
environmental issues "like a deer in the headlights,"
green guru and Vice President Al Gore recently completed
a Western campaign swing to boost Democratic fortunes.
Gore helped LCV EarthList candidate Rep. Elizabeth Furse,
D
-Ore., raise $140,000.
Of more immediate concern, the elections will determine
how the 104th Congress deals with the mangled
environmental agenda of the 103rd.
Rep. Billy Tauzin, D
-La., is leading a drive to inject
the ``property rights" issue into as many pieces of
legislation, and as many campaigns, as possible.
The idea of reimbursing landowners for losses stemming
from a government action was used to stall renewal of the
Endangered Species Act, and is one of the nation's hottest
environmental issues. In a "Contract with America" event
Sept. 27, more than 300 GOP House candidates called for a
"takings" provision to reimburse property owners up to
10 percent of losses from government action.
It has permeated the 1994 political season in Arizona,
which also has a state referendum on property rights
``takings."
``It is part of the war on the West," said Scott
Celley of Kyl's campaign, who said the issue ``is part of
every race in Arizona this year; it is a position that
divides candidates for governor, Senate candidates, and
each of the House races that are truly being contested."
A classic Old West
-New West showdown is the Senate
gunfight between first
-term Republican Conrad Burns and
Democratic challenger Jack Mudd in Montana. While Mudd's
environmental credentials are short of what some groups
would like, Burns' strong defense of Montana's commodity
industries embody the Sagebrush Rebellion against federal
intrusion.
"The Marlboro Man is a 1950's image that doesn't go
along with the 1990's reality about the West," the Sierra
Club's Daniel Weiss said of Burns.
Likewise, the Wyoming race between Rep. Craig Thomas, a
staunch property
-rights Republican, and Democratic Gov.
Mike Sullivan, to replace retiring GOP Sen. Malcolm Wallop
is in part a referendum on national land
-use practices.
"Bill Clinton and Bruce Babbitt are pariahs in Wyoming
and there's nothing you can do about it," Maddy said,
adding that Sullivan could have slammed the door on the
race long ago, but allowed Craig to get his foot in.
"Mike Sullivan will either find the fire in his belly
or not," Maddy said. "Democrats are going to lose that
seat if Mike Sullivan doesn't get on the ball. He can take
it or lose it." Thomas is attacking Sullivan as waffling
on the crucial rangeland issue and failing to blast Babbitt
for his land policies.
In the race to succeed retiring Sen. Dennis DeConcini,
D
-Ariz., Kyl and Democratic Rep. Sam Coppersmith have
found Clinton and DeConcini central campaign issues.
While Kyl's ad talks about a "war on the West" by
Clinton, it makes only oblique references to the
considerable environmental differences between the two
candidates.
Spokeswoman Stephanie Cohen said Coppersmith enjoys the
support of the LCV and the Sierra Club's political branch,
thanks to his stand with environmentalists on the
property
-rights ballot measure Proposition 300 and his
risky call for mining and grazing reform.
So far this year, the Sierra Club said, eight of its
Senate candidates in contested races have won, two have
lost. On the House side, 55 Sierra Club
-backed candidates
have won contested primaries, 13 have lost.
In northern California, first
-term Democratic Rep. Dan
Hamburg's district embodies many of the emotional issues
at stake this year. Hamburg faces former Rep. Frank Riggs,
whom he narrowly defeated in 1992. Hamburg defeated former
Rep. Doug Bosco, now a lawyer for a lumber company, in the
primary.
Hamburg, one of LCV's target candidates, was attacked
by Riggs and praised by House Democratic leaders for his
handling of a bill to add thousands of acres of old
-growth
forests owned by Bosco's employer to the Six Rivers
National Forest and to protect yet more redwood acreage as
a wilderness.
``Mr. Riggs is trying to portray the legislation as a
job
-killer that's destroying the economy of the north
coast," said Hamburg spokesman Tom Pier. "He's trying to
get a lot of mileage by portraying Dan as some kind of
extremist."
Environmentalists endorsed Republican Chafee even
though Democratic challenger Linda Kushner scores well on
their issues. The reason: If Chafee loses, and the
Republicans win the Senate, the environmentalists' worst
nightmare Sen. Alan Simpson, R
-Wyo. would take over the
pivotal Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
``Jeffords and Chafee are key races for us," said
Kelley. We need friends on both sides of the aisle."
BC
-WINLOSE national: WA
103rd Congress has its share of both winners and prominent
losers
(ARCHIVE PHOTO; details below)
By Steven Thomma
Knight
-Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON Ask a neighbor, a co
-worker, or even a
politician, what they think of Congress these days and
odds are the answer will be something like What a bunch
of losers."
Indeed, the 103rd Congress has its share of folks who
are ready to go home and lick their wounds. But there also
were some who hit the jackpot. Here's a look at the fate
of some of the winners and losers.
WINNERS
Rep. Newt Gingrich, R
-Ga.
Gingrich is doing what no Republican has been able to
do in 40 years: scaring the heck out of Democrats in the
House. In line to become Republican leader in the House
next year and with a chance to become speaker if
Republicans take control, Gingrich has waged a scorched
earth campaign attacking the Democratic majority as
corrupt, Godless and hopelessly out of touch.
It appears to be working. Gingrich has tapped a deep
vein of angst and anger among voters who hate Washington
and Congress. Even if he does not win a majority and
become top dog in the House, Gingrich is almost certain to
have enough clout to block most Democratic initiatives and
maybe even to pass some of his own.
Willis Gradison
As a little known Republican congressman from
Cincinnati, Gradison had a hard time making his views
heard in the health care wars. He spent many weekends away
from his family, on the road back to his district. And he
had to scrape by on his Congressional salary of about
$130,000 a year.
Then, he won big by quitting. He left the House to
become president of the Health Insurance Association of
America. He got to stay at home more. He increased his
salary by an estimated 200 percent. And, as the man behind
the ``Harry and Louise" ads ridiculing President Clinton's
health care plans, he helped kill them.
Sen. Bob Packwood, R
-Ore.
Reports of his political death were premature. He still
faces hearings before the Senate Ethics Committee on
charges that he sexually harassed women. But Packwood
rebuilt some of his reputation as a knowledgeable and
thoughtful legislator. Once hounded with barrages of
questions about the sexual allegations, Packwood was
mostly being asked about health care reforms at term's
end. He has rebounded at home, as well. A majority in
Oregon once thought he should resign; now a majority feels
he should stay.
Sen. Sam Nunn, D
-Ga.
When his party's president the first in 12 years
needed help in his early, rocky days, Nunn turned a cold
shoulder. Gays serving openly in the military? Fat chance,
said the formidable chairman of the Senate Armed Services
Committee. His stubborn opposition forced the White House
to back down to the watered down, "Don't ask, don't
tell" policy that allowed gays to serve, but not to
display their sexual preference. And what was the
punishment for the party member who broke ranks with his
own president? Nothing. In fact, when Clinton needed help
in Haiti, he turned to Nunn and elevated him to statesman
part of the team led by former President Jimmy Carter that
brokered
a peaceful resolution of the crisis.
Sen. Phil Gramm, R
-Texas
While other Republicans, like Senate Minority Leader
Bob Dole, of Kansas, were constrained to at least appear
to be willing to work with Democrats, Gramm jumped out
early into an entertaining and successful role as an
unrepentant and intensely partisan obstructionist. Back
when there appeared to be wide support for substantial
health care reform, Gramm warned that ``people would be
hunting Democrats with dogs" if it passed. Now, the rest
of the pack appears to have caught up with Gramm. And, as
one of the most visible and quotable Clinton critics,
Gramm is well positioned to tap into conservative,
anti
-Clinton money and wage a formidable run for the White
House himself in '96.
LOSERS
Sen. George Mitchell, D
-Maine, the majority leader
It was one, two, three strikes and you're out. Strike
one: he passed on the opportunity to sit on the Supreme
Court, undoubtedly a dream of the former federal judge.
Rather, he stayed in the Senate to shepherd through the
president's health care reforms. Strike two: health care
died anyway.
Strike three? Mitchell is considered a likely choice as
the next commissioner of baseball. But, with the national
pastime called on account of greed, Mitchell could end up
presiding over
nothing.
House Speaker Tom Foley, D
-Wash.
In an effort to fight back a popular term limits
movement in his state, Foley may have inadvertently
limited his own. Foley filed suit to challenge the
state
-imposed term limits, believing them an
unconstitutional state intrusion on a federal matter. But
that is legal mumbo
-jumbo to the voters who favor the
limits, and they are mad at Foley.
After 30 years in the House, Foley teeters on the edge
of extinction. In a wide
-open primary, only 35 percent of
the voters favored him. The remainder spread their votes
for four Republicans. In the general election, he trails
Republican attorney George Nethercott by a whopping 37
-51
percent. He could be the first speaker to lose his seat
since 1860.
Rep. John Dingell, D
-Mich.
He inherited the dream from his father, but now may
have to pass it on, unfulfilled, to his son. As a New Deal
member of the House, the late John D. Dingell Sr. started
proposing national health insurance in 1943. His son has
proposed a health care bill in every two
-year Congress
since taking his dad's seat in 1955.
Despite his rank as the powerhouse chairman of the
Energy and Commerce Committee, where he bends legislation
to suit his will and the needs of his auto industry
constituents, Dingell could not even move a health reform
bill out of his committee. The family crusade likely will
fall now to Christopher, Dingell's son, who is waiting in
the wings for his dad's retirement.
Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, D
-III.
His rise to power as chairman of the tax
-writing Ways
and Means Committee surprised no one. He was the son of
Chicago machine politics, and the wheeling and dealing
with colleagues and lobbyists over Bombay gin and fat
steaks came naturally.
What did surprise Washington was the extent of the
allegations against him when he was indicted this year on
charges of embezzling more than $600,000. Among the
charges: using taxpayer money to pay people to clean his
house, mow his lawn, even photograph his daughter's
wedding. House rules forced him out of the chairman's
seat.
A conviction could force him out of the House.
Rep. Marjorie Margolies
-Mezvinsky, D
-Pa.
A 1,300
-vote margin swept her into office, making the
former TV reporter the first Democrat since 1916 to win
the grudging support of the conservative, Republican
district in the wealthy suburbs of Philadelphia. Now, a
single vote threatens to carry her into oblivion.
-END
-OF
-AUTOBREAK(1)-
-AUTOBREAK(2)
-FOLLOWS
BC
-WINLOSE
AUTOBREAK (2)
Under intense pressure from the White House and
Democratic party leaders, she abandoned her opposition and
cast the deciding vote for President Clinton's 1993
deficit reduction plan. That vote, which saved the plan's
tax increases along with its spending cuts, hangs like an
albatross around her neck. She trailed Republican John Fox
in recent polls.
XXX
(Archive photos photos that have moved more than a
week ago are available from the KRT Photo Archive through
PressLink dialup via Macintosh computer. For information,
call (800) 435
-7578 or (202) 383
-6099.)
bc
-tn
-scoreca
PEROT'S REPORT CARD GIVES
FEW LAWMAKERS PASSING GRADE
WASHINGTON A scorecard by Ross Perot's "United We
Stand America" gives a few members of Tennessee's
congressional delegation good marks, but no one gets an
"A."
Sen. Jim Sasser, D
-Tenn., and Rep. John Duncan,
R
-Knoxville, each received "B" grades. Other scores
included a "C" for Republican Reps. Don Sundquist,
Memphis, and Jimmy Quillen, Kingsport. Reps. Marilyn Lloyd,
Chattanoga; Jim Cooper, Shelbyville; and Bob Clement,
Nashville all Democrats each received a "D."
Meanwhile, "Fs" were given to Reps. Bart Gordon,
D
-Murfreesboro, John Tanner, D
-Union City, and Harold
Ford, D
-Memphis, as well to Democratic Sen. Harlan
Mathews.
Perot's group ranked members on several issues it
identified as important. Rankings are based on votes cast
on five bills in the Senate and eight bills in the House.
The more members agreed with the Perot group, the
higher their grade. Some issues:
President Clinton's 1993 budget and tax package, which
the group opposed.
A bill that would make Congress apply laws to itself
that it passes for others, which the group supported
The North American Free Trade Agreement, which it
opposed
The lobbying disclosure bill, which it supported
An ``A to Z" spending
-cut proposal, which it
supported
A balanced
-budget amendment and a bid to place that
amendment, term limits and the line
-item veto on the
ballot in every state all of which the group supported.
``If your members of Congress aren't listening, hold
them accountable," Perot said in a letter included with
the report.
``Many members of Congress have served too long. They
ignore their constituents and jump as high as the special
interests tell them.
"Your vote is the only current term limit available.
With your vote, you can demonstrate that you are more
powerful than the special interests and that Congress is
not for sale at any price."
United We Stand America, founded by Perot, serves as
the grass
-roots lobbying group for the Texas billionaire
and 1992 independent presidential candidate.
AM
-US
-Haiti, 1st Ld
-Writethru, a0661,750
U.S. Will Complete Haiti Job and Leave, Clinton Says
Eds: Updates in top 9 grafs with Clinton, Mandela comment,
picking up in 3rd graf pvs, No member; adds 5 grafs at end
with Marine suicide
With: AM
-Haiti
By SUSANNE M. SCHAFER= AP Military Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) President Clinton dismissed concerns
Wednesday that the United States could be dragged into
deeper military involvement in Haiti. He said U.S. troops
would stay with the mission they first embarked upon.
"We're going to complete it, turn it over to the
United Nations and bring our people home," Clinton said
at an afternoon news conference with South African
President Nelson Mandela.
At a separate news conference, Defense Secretary
William Perry expressed surprise that there has not been
more violence in Haiti since U.S. troops entered the
country three weeks ago.
"The surprise is not that there's been some violence,
but that there hasn't been more," Perry told reporters at
the Pentagon.
The situation in Haiti ``is much better than we
anticipated and it continues to improve," the secretary
added. ``It's been a country with a history of violence."
Clinton said there was no cause for worry in the
refusal of exiled Haitian President Jean
-Bertrand Aristide
to sign an agreement covering the rules and procedures for
U.S. forces in Haiti.
``I wouldn't let that concern you too much," he said.
"We think the mission is clearly defined in terms of
scope and time. We always knew there would have to be some
flexibility in the early weeks."
"We are on the same mission that we went there with;
we're going to stay with that mission," he said.
Mandela, for his part, said he was consulting with
other African leaders on Clinton's request that South
Africa provide police or military support for the Haitian
operation. He said the countries of southern Africa were
"keen to answer collectively as a region."
No member of the U.S. military has lost his or her life
in a clash with Haitians, nor have any accidents taken
place during the huge logistical move that paved the way
for the deployment of more than 20,000 troops, Perry said.
There have been, however, two reported suicides among
the U.S. forces deployed to the region.
Perry termed the Haiti operation exceptionally well
executed and said U.S. forces are ``doing what we can" to
get any street violence under control.
By the end of the week squads of U.S. civil
-military
specialists will be in about 20 towns to work with local
authorities preparing for the transition to a democratic
government, the secretary said. These units are already in
about a dozen of the country's larger towns, he said.
The United States is also helping train a Haitian unit
that will be in charge security for deposed President
Jean
-Bertrand Aristide, who has said he intends to return
to Haiti on Oct. 15, the secretary said.
Queried whether he believed enough was being done to
quell street violence in time for Aristide's return, Perry
said, ``I think actions underway by the U.S. military
forces are adequate in that regard."
The defense secretary also said he believed that
Haiti's army commander, Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, should
leave Haiti before or shortly after Aristide's return.
Under a last
-minute agreement negotiated with former
President Carter, Cedras is to step down by Oct. 15. But
he has vowed not to leave the country.
Carter's agreement with the Haitian military averted an
invasion and paved the way for the arrival of U.S. troops
to ensure the return of Aristide, Haiti's first
democratically elected president.
Also Wednesday, the Pentagon reported that Lance Cpl.
Maurice A. Williams, 21, died of an apparently
self
-inflicted gunshot wound earlier in the day while
aboard the USS Nashville.
The ship was in port at Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico,
at the time of the incident.
Williams' home of record was Detroit, Mich., and he was
assigned to a division based in Camp LeJeune, N.C., the
Pentagon said. He was on board one of two vessels with
1,800 Marines on board that had left northern Haiti on
Monday.
Spc. Alejandro Robles of Los Angeles died Sept. 27 of
an apparently self
-inflicted gunshot wound in Haiti. He
was assigned to the 10th Mountain Division based in Fort
Drum, N.Y.
AM
-Haiti,0781
Days in Power Slipping Away, Army Strongman Weeps at
Soldiers' Burial
With AM
-Haiti
-Neighborhood Bully, Bjt, AM
-Haiti
-Amnesty
AP Photos PAP103,105
-106
By ANITA SNOW= Associated Press Writer=
PORT
-AU
-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) His days in power slipping
away, Haiti's military strongman wept Wednesday at a
funeral service for 10 of his men killed in a shootout
with U.S. Marines.
Even as Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras sat ramrod straight at
the service, staring at the caskets draped with the
red
-and
-blue Haitian flag, Haitians speculated on his
imminent departure, along with that of fellow coup leader
Philippe Biamby and the military
-installed government of
Emile Jonassaint.
Another leader of the September 1991 military coup, Lt.
Col. Michel Francois, skipped town Tuesday for a new life
in the neighboring Dominican Republic.
The de facto leaders have until Oct. 15 to quit power
under a U.S.
-Haitian agreement being enforced by 20,000
American troops, including U.S. soldiers surrounding the
white
-domed Presidential Palace and Cedras' two
-story
headquarters across the street.
Cedras has vowed to remain in Haiti but under terms of
the agreement worked out with former President Carter, he
and Biamby will resign after elected President
Jean
-Bertrand Aristide returns to power next week.
As for the provisional president, U.S. Embassy
spokesman Stanley Schrager said: "We have no word on what
Jonassaint's plans are. It's clear he cannot continue
to occupy the palace."
Haitians, meanwhile, helped U.S. soldiers track down
army
-allied gunmen who had terrorized neighborhoods since
the coup ousted Aristide from the presidency only seven
months after Haiti's first freely democratic election.
The gunman, known here as an attache, was forced to
face his victims Wednesday without his weapons. After
Samuel Chery was detained by the U.S. soldiers and led
away from a poor neighborhood in suburban Petionville, his
victims banded together and burned down his house.
Aristide supporters also took control of a police
-band
radio, yelling political slogans to already demoralized
police: 'Where is your father (Francois) now?"
Since the ouster of Aristide, a Roman Catholic priest,
Haitian soldiers had beaten and humiliated Aristide
supporters by saying: ``Where is your Father now?"
One employee of the Francois
-controlled state telephone
company fatally shot himself Wednesday, saying in a note
that Francois' departure left him with no choice but to
commit suicide.
At the funeral Cedras had to face his fellow soldiers,
many of them suspicious that he would sell them out. He
was in an audience of 300, some of them soldiers'
relatives so carried away by grief that they had to be
physically removed.
Cedras repeatedly buried his face in his hand during
the service. Brig. Gen. Biamby stared straight ahead.
Jonassaint clasped his hands together tightly and looked
disturbed as the soldiers' relatives wailed in grief.
Col. Carl Dorelien, chief of army personnel, called for
reconciliation and forgiveness to those who gathered for
the funeral in the courtyard of the capital's military
hospital.
The simple gray caskets were lined next to the stage
where two Roman Catholic priests officiated, each coffin
covered with the Haitian flag and bearing a
black
-and
-white photograph of the person inside.
"I've lost the father of my five children!" a small
unidentified woman in a black veiled hat wailed over and
over again.
"Who do I have now that they have killed my brother?"
cried Manno Francois, a middle
-aged woman whose brother,
Lt. Augustin Valentin, was among those killed.
Several relatives, including a young man who kept
screaming "Woe is me!" had to be carried away on the
shoulders of some of the other mourners when they
disrupted the service. The prayers of the priests were
inaudible above the cries.
The 10 men were killed in the northern town of
Cap
-Haitien a week ago Saturday during a firefight with
U.S. Marines outside a police station. The gunbattle
produced the first casualties since U.S. forces came to
Haiti on Sept. 19.
U.S. troops in Cap
-Haitien initially buried the men in
plain green body bags, without ceremony. At Cedras'
request, the bodies were exhumed by U.S. soldiers and
taken to the capital for a military funeral.
After the service, a military brass band of trombones
and tubas played several dirges, followed by "Taps" by a
lone trumpeteer. Cedras tossed the first shovelful of dirt
on the first casket.
After the ceremony police guards, recently disarmed by
the United States, were unable to find a rifle for the
traditional gun salute.
Cedras, protected by five bodyguards, left in a white
four
-wheel
-drive truck after manuevering through a gantlet
of reporters and photographers. He did not speak to
reporters.
BC
-HAITI
-FORCES (SCHEDULED)
U.S., Haitian military come face to face
By Jane Arraf
CROIX
-DES
-BOUQUET, Haiti (Reuter) - U.S. soldiers
making their first contact with the military in this army
outpost of the capital have broken down more than one
symbolic barrier.
``If the Americans weren't here, we couldn't touch
this fence," said one of a crowd of boisterous Haitians
pressed against the wire Tuesday as the captain of the
special forces team briefed Haitian soldiers on why they
were there.
The Haitians enjoying a momentary reprieve from terror
not only touched the fence, they sang, joked and laughed
-- mostly about Joseph Michel Francois, the feared police
captain who fled to the Dominican Republic Tuesday.
Inside, Major James Nelson told a ring of Haitian
soldiers in tan uniforms gathered under a tree that the
U.S. army wanted to help them rebuild their country and
responded to complaints that the Haitian military was not
being treated with respect.
"What we are trying to get across to them what
exactly is the role of the military in a democracy and how
they are subservient to the civilian population," he
later told reporters.
"I haven't heard any arguments but there was a lot of
headshaking," he said.
Inside the stone building, which a plaque says was
inaugerated in 1969 by "Dr Francois Duvalier", the
country doctor
-turned dictator, clerks filled in
hand
-written records while a few townspeople sat on benches
waiting for an audience.
The special forces team, out of Fort Bragg, North
Carolina, planned to start what they describe as public
relations patrols this week in Crois
-de
-Bouquets, an
outpost on the road to the Dominican border about an hour
from the capital.
Nelson, whose team acts as an advance party for other
troops, said the Haitian soldiers were worried about their
future under a plan to dramatically reduce the size of the
army after deposed President Jean Bertrand Aristide
returns.
"I tell them it's just like U.S. soldiers after the
Gulf War -- we went down from 750,000 to 450,000 and an
awful lot of people were given pink slips and told to go
out and find jobs and that may be the same case here."
Nelson's comments were met by skepticism by some of
the Haitian soldiers, who in a space of days have seen the
military regime that has ruled Haiti with an iron fist
crumble.
"The Haitian army does not need to be
professionalize. It was already professional. The only
thing wrong is that we need more equipment," said one
officer who was considering resigning.
The officer, who did not want to give his name, blamed
the Haitian military's reputation for brutality on
agitators who were mobilizing easily led illiterate masses
against them and insisted that the army was welcomed by
townspeople.
"It's very different here than in Port
-au
-Prince. We
don't have any problems with the population," he said.
The population beyond the fence disagreed.
`One of my friends was brought here and beat up last
night," said one of the women, who saw the man arrested
after he fought with a soldier dressed in civilian clothes
at a party.
She said she saw the man, a jeweler, being beaten to
the ground with sticks and later beaten again by soldiers
from the military headquarters.
Haitian officers, asked about the arrested man by name
and another man brought bloodied into the military
headquarters just before the U.S. soldiers arrived, said
they had no information on the cases.
The local people said feared paramilitary gunmen known
as "attaches" had been subdued by the American troops'
presence, but not eliminated.
"We are still sleeping in the cane fields to hide
from the attaches," said one woman. "The ones who are
still here are angry because the U.S. soldiers are here."
``If they catch us alone without the Americans they
will hurt us," said a 22
-year
-old builder in the crowd.
Townspeople said FRAPH, the main paramilitary
organization being dismantled by the Americans, had shut
down its official office in Croix
-des
-Bouqets several
months ago because of infighting.
"But they still come every morning to raise the
flag," said one woman.
REUTER
AM
-NKorea
-US
-Talks, 1st Ld
-Writethru, a0693,0449
Negotiators Restart High
-Level Talks on Nuclear Issues
Eds: LEADS with 10 grafs to UPDATE with North Korean
official saying negotiations are between U.S. and North
Korea only and telling South Korea to stay out. Pickup 8th
graf pvs, `After last
By ELIZABETH OLSON= Associated Press Writer=
GENEVA (AP) North Korean and U.S. negotiators resumed
high
-level talks Wednesday in a bid to break the deadlock
over opening the communist country's nuclear program to
outside inspection.
U.S. delegation leader Robert L. Gallucci met for one
hour with his North Korean counterpart, Vice Foreign
Minister Kang Sok Ju, at the Koreans' lakeside mission.
"They discussed the agenda for tomorrow's full
plenary," said U.S. spokesman Larry Taylor. He said the
latest round of negotiations was expected to last several
days.
Among the sticking points in the talks is Washington's
demand that Pyongyang give international inspectors access
to two suspected nuclear waste sites. That would help
determine if North Korea was diverting any weapons
-grade
plutonium from its nuclear reactors to build a bomb.
North Korea maintains the sites are unrelated to
nuclear weapons and may not be inspected because they
contain military secrets.
The demand by the U.N. International Atomic Energy
Agency to inspect the two sites 18 months ago touched off
the current round of tension on the Korean peninsula.
South Korean President Kim Young
-sam said Wednesday
that tensions would not be defused until those two sites
are inspected.
At the United Nations, North Korean Deputy Foreign
Minister Choi Su Hon said that only the United States and
North Korea can resolve the nuclear dispute and told South
Korea to stay out.
"The nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula is an issue
to be resolved by the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea and the United States and no other party is entitled
to intervene in this bilateral process," Choi told the
U.N. General Assembly.
He said that the U.S.
-North Korean agreement to hold
talks "shows that if the two sides work together to
resolve the issue with trust, impartiality and equality,
they will bring about a good, fruitful outcome."
After last week's talks deadlocked, Gallucci returned
to the United States last Friday to consult with Secretary
of State Warren Christopher. During Gallucci's absence,
talks on the technical level continued with no signs of a
breakthrough.
Other important issues being discussed are disposal of
spent fuel rods that could be used to extract plutonium
and replacing North Korea's reactors with more modern
equipment that is less suitable to production of
plutonium.
The North has refused South Korean reactors, apparently
to avoid losing face before its capitalist rival.
BC
-USA
-LATAM
Sites for December summit are announced
CORAL GABLES, Fla (Reuter) - Organizers of December's
Summit of the Americas announced Wednesday that the event
will take place at several sites and include at least two
addresses by President Clinton.
Thomas "Mack" McLarty, senior counselor to the
president, told a news conference Clinton will give a
public address on the significance of the summit to Miami
residents and to the American people Friday, December 9,
at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables.
Later Friday, Clinton will host the 33 heads of state
attending the summit at a private dinner.
Clinton will meet Saturday, December 10, with the
heads of state at the Viscaya Museum and Gardens in Miami.
The following day -- at the James L. Knight Center in
Downtown Miami -- Clinton will summarize the results of
the summit and discuss plans for the future, McLarty said.
The Summit of the Americas will mark the first time
all the democratically elected leaders of the Western
Hemisphere will meet.
At Clinton's invitation, the leaders will gather in
Miami to discuss the stimulation of economic growth,
strengthening of democracy and promotion of sustainable
development.
REUTER
BC
-CHINA
-USA
-AWARD
Chinese dissidents win U.S. human rights award
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Chinese dissidents Wei Jingsheng
and Ren Wanding Wednesday were named to receive the Robert
F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for their role in advancing
human rights and democracy in China.
But Wei, first paroled in September 1993 after a long
prison term, has not been seen in public since April 1,
when he was detained after meeting a senior U.S. diplomat.
And Ren, jailed since 1989, is seriously ill after
being detained for his role in the Tiananmen Square
pro
-democracy movement.
The award foundation, named after the former U.S.
attorney general and champion of human rights, said in a
statement: "Some day, when the Chinese people control
their government, Wei Jingsheng and Ren Wanding will be
recognized as national heroes."
"These men stand as leading symbols of the thousands
of Chinese citizens who are unjustly imprisoned, cruelly
tortured or charged with treason, simply for speaking
their minds."
The first parole of Wei came at the height of
Beijing's unsuccessful bid to host the 2000 Olympics,
sparking speculation that he was freed to improve both
Beijing's human rights record and its standing in the
Olympic bid derby.
Wei served 14&1/2 years of a 15
-year prison term
stemming from his criticism of the communist government
during China's tumultuous Democracy Wall period in the
late 1970s.
In his six months of freedom, Wei openly criticized
the government and said he had no regrets about taking a
public stand.
Ren was first detained in April 1979 after denouncing
the government's arrest of Wei and spent the next four
years in prison. During the 1989 pro
-democracy fight he
railed against human rights abuses and urged freedom for
political prisoners.
As a result, he is currently serving a seven
-year
sentence for what Chinese authorities describe as
``counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement," the
statement said.
The two will share the $30,000 prize at a ceremony
November 15 in Washington.
REUTER
AM
-US
-Cuba,340
Agreement to Permit Upgrading of U.S.
-Cuban Phone Service
By GEORGE GEDDA= Associated Press Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) The Clinton administration approved
plans Wednesday for the first upgrading of telephone
service between the United States and Cuba in more than 30
years.
Acting on a recommendation by the State Department, the
Federal Communications Commission approved proposals
worked out between Cuba's national telephone company and
five U.S. telecommunications companies.
The breakthrough occurred when Cuban officials dropped
a demand made earlier this year for a $4.85 surcharge for
collect calls made to the United States. The
administration rejected that amount as too high but
accepted a subsequent Cuban proposal for a $1 surcharge.
An FCC statement said the new proposal was more in line
with the 60
-cent average surcharge in the region. The
Clinton administration and much of the Cuban exile
community had contended the $4.85 proposed surcharge would
have netted huge earnings for Cuba's dollar
-starved
economy.
The FCC said the antiquated system now in place permits
less than I per cent of the more than 60 million calls
from the United States to Cuba to get through.
Until 1992, the U.S. embargo against Cuba precluded any
upgrading of telecommunications services between the two
countries. But the Cuba Democracy Act, which took effect
that year, authorizes such improvements as a means of
enhancing people
-to
-people contacts across the Straits of
Florida.
The companies involved in the negotiations are Wiltel
International, Inc.; MCI Telecommunications Corp.; LDDS
Communications, Inc.; Sprint Communications Company; and
IDB WorldCom Services, Inc.
Approval of the applications will also permit AT&T to
improve its capability to serve Cuba because a new service
agreement with the Cuban national firm becomes effective
on the conclusion of negotiations with the five firms.
Another outgrowth of the embargo is that Cuba for more
than 30 years has been denied access to its share of fees
resulting from U.S.
-Cuba telephone traffic more than $85
million.
The status of those funds remains unchanged.
AM
-US
-Pakistan, 100
Threat Against Americans Reported In Karachi
WASHINGTON (AP) A threat to harm U.S. citizens
prompted the State Department to warn Americans in
Karachi, Pakistan, to be careful and vary their schedules.
The U.S. consulate has received ``uncorroborated
information" of the threat, but there is no additional
information, the department said in an announcement
Wednesday.
In the meantime, all U.S. citizens in Karachi should
``exercise prudence and caution, vary their schedules as
much as possible and report any unusual occurrence to the
police and
-or the U.S. consulate," the statement said.
BC
-IRISH
-USA
-ADAMS 2NDLD (SCHEDULED)
Adams says peace more real after U.S. trip
(Eds: Adds Adams luncheon speech quotes paras 11
-14)
By Patrick Worsnip
WASHINGTON, Oct 5 (Reuter) - Irish republican leader
Gerry Adams met members of Congress Wednesday to complete
a Washington visit that he said had made hopes for peace
in Northern Ireland ``more of a reality."
Adams, head of Sinn Fein, political wing of the Irish
Republican Army, added a Capitol Hill stop to his
three
-day Washington visit before rounding out his
two
-week, nine
-city tour with visits to San Francisco and
Los Angeles.
"The number of days we have spent here have in their
own way been quite historic," he told a news conference.
He met Tuesday for the first time with U.S. officials
after President Clinton lifted a ban on such contact.
"We have made the hope (for peace) more of a reality
today on the fifth of October than it was two and a half
days ago," Adams said. "We have taken an enormous move
forward for peace and for justice and reconciliation in
Ireland."
Tuesday's meeting with U.S. officials represented a
clear success for Sinn Fein, which is trying to persuade
the British government to let it join Northern Ireland
peace talks. But it fell short of Adams' desire to see
Clinton at the White House.
Instead, he met John Kornblum, assistant secretary of
state for European affairs; Leon Furth, Vice President Al
Gore's national security adviser; and Nancy Soderberg of
the National Security Council.
Adams told reporters Wednesday that ``the decision by
President Clinton to lift the visa ban on me has been a
very pro
-active commitment (to Irish peace) by the
administration."
He said his first meeting with U.S. officials "was a
constructive, positive, businesslike first step in
formulating an engagement between Sinn Fein and the
administration here, and
I think it bodes very well for the future."
Clinton authorised the meeting as a result of what the
White House called the IRA's historic decision on August
31 to declare
a ceasefire in its 25
-year
-old guerrilla war against
British rule in Northern Ireland.
British officials insist they are not overly bothered
by the augmented contacts between Adams and the U.S.
administration, while making it clear that London -- not
Washington -- is in charge of negotiating a permanent
peace.
In a luncheon speech Wednesday, Adams urged the
British government to ``stop fumbling with the ball" and
seize the opportunity for peace by immediately opening
talks that included Sinn Fein along with other Northern
Irish parties.
"The British government must embrace this process,"
he told the Council on Foreign Relations. ``It must stop
fumbling with the ball -- (Prime Minister John) Major
needs to grasp this momentous opportunity and run with it
-- keeping his eye at all times on the big prize -- peace.
``Mr Major has said that he expects to be in
discussions with Sinn Fein before Christmas -- why delay,
why not now?" Adams asked, adding that the United States
could help the British government appreciate the chance
that existed.
Britain says it will only invite Sinn Fein to talks
when it is convinced the IRA ceasefire is permanent.
In speeches to supporters across the United States,
Adams has stressed that it is time to forget the past,
move the peace process forward and bring Catholics and
Protestants together to work out a future for Northern
Ireland.
He tried to put the same message across on a
television talk
-show Tuesday night to Ken Maginnis, an
Ulster Unionist Party member of the British parliament,
but was rebuffed by Maginnis, who said: ``I most certainly
do not trust Gerry."
Adams sidestepped questions by Maginnis and CNN talk
show host Larry King on whether the IRA ceasefire was
permanent. "I want to see a permanent peace," he said.
REUTER
RECORD TYPE: PRESIDENTIAL (ALL-IN-1 MAIL)
CREATOR: Dianna A. Pierce (PIERCE_D) (WHO)
CREATION DATE/TIME: 7-OCT-1994 09:40:03.89
SUBJECT: White House Wire Report
TO: FAX (9-647-5573,rebecca)
(TLXA1MAIL_\F:9-647-5573\C:rebecca)
READ:NOT READ
TEXT:
PRINTER FONT 12_POINT_COURIER
WHITE HOUSE WIRE REPORT
9 a.m. edition
Friday, Oct. 7, 1994
Produced by the Office of News Analysis (OEOB 161, 6-5694)
Index of wire stories:
World headlines (AP)
Clinton: US-Philippine ties have strengthened since
World War II (AP)
In nation's midsection, Clinton in political trouble
over character issue, dashed expectations (Chicago
Tribune)
Negative feelings about first lady appear to be rising
(Chicago Tribune)
September unemployment rate at four-year low (AP)
September jobless rate falls to 5.9 percent (Reu)
Jobless rate down to 5.9 percent (UPI)
Jobless rates for past year (UPI)
Jobless rates by category (UPI)
Volcker says disturbing signs on economic growth masked
(DJ)
Polls: Ted, Mitt in dead heat in Mass. (UPI)
The South rises again, as a growing Republican force
(Orlando Sentinel)
Opposition says Iraq amassing troops near Kuwait again
(AP)
China detonates nuclear test (AP)
China flexes nuclear muscles with new test (Reu)
China confirms 41st nuclear test (UPI)
Taiwan complains of US over-tolerance of China (Reu)
Hourly News Summary
Around the World, Around the Clock with United Press
International.
-0-
The rich get richer, but the poor get more numerous.
The latest annual pverty report from the Census Bureau
finds 15 percent of the entire U.S. population lives below
the official poverty level.
This is the same percentage as in the previous annual
report, which means a net increase in the number of poor.
The poverty boundary: when a family of four lives on less
than 15-thousand dollars a year.
-0-
Hundreds of Haitians have returned to their country
from the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay. The State
Department says many more are now willing to return now
that international peacekeepers are there.
Both houses of Congress have passed resolutions urging
President Clinton to withdraw troops from Haiti as fast
as possible. In the Senate there were only eight votes
against.
Some congressmen said President Aristide didn't deserve
saving. Others said President Aristide was elected with
more than 67 percent of the vote in an election with
better turnout than most U.S. elections.
-0-
The Senate race in Massacusetts is still a dead heat. A
Boston Herald poll finds Republican Mitt Romney still
LEADS Ted Kennedy by two points. The number of undecideds
has fallen but is still significant one in 10.
Senate leader George Mitchell has hinted to reporters
that there is a chance this year that Republicans will
regain control of the Senate. Mitchell openly predicts
losing several Democratic Senate seats.
-0-
Evidence seized from O.J. Simpson's Ford Bronco CAN be
used against him. Judge Lance Ito ruled that the search of
the truck, while not expressly covered in the warrant, WAS
warranted.
-0-
Health officials in India meet today to discuss their
deadliest health crisis and it's NOT the black plague.
In the same three weeks that saw 51 plague deaths,
34-thousand people died in India from tuberculosis.
-0-
U.S. health official report the highest level of
childhood innoculations ever, 67 percent of all children
in America. But this means millions still do NOT get their
innoculations against tuberculosis, measles and other
diseases.
-0-
Many people are encouraging more trade with Mexico, but
that's LEGAL trade. The recording industry has issued a
report which says Mexico has become the world's
second-biggest market for pirate recordings. China is
first.
-0-
By Howard Dicus (UPI)
-0-
BC-Philippines-Clinton tttttt
Clinton: U.S.-Philippine Ties Have Strengthened Since Worl
War II
AP Photo Available
MANILA, Philippines (AP) President Clinton said
relations between the United States and the Philippines, a
former American colony, has ``grown stronger" since both
countries fought Japan in World War II.
Clinton's statement was contained in a message
inscribed on a bronze plate attached to a granite slab
that was presented Friday by U.S. Ambassador John
Negroponte to Tourism Undersecretary Mina Gabor.
The granite slab will form part of a rock garden that
would be unveiled on Oct. 20 to commemorate the 50th
anniversary of the 1944 landing of Allied forces at Palo
town on Leyte Island during the war.
The Leyte Landing, which followed the Battle of Leyte
Gulf, the biggest naval battle in history, paved the way
for the liberation of the Philippines from the Japanese.
"The bonds between Filipinos and Americans, forged in
the fires of World War II, have grown stronger through the
years," Clinton said. ``May the future be one of peace
and prosperity that Filipinos and Americans, together,
fought so har to ensure."
Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Canada, India, and
Thailand, have sent similar "rock messages" and 11
others have promised to do the same.
Clinton will not be present at the anniversary rites
but he will visit the Philippines Nov. 12 on his way to
the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Jakarta.
U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry will lead the
American delegation at the Leyte rites.
teves
BC-BILL national:TB
In nation's midsection, Clinton in political trouble over
character issue, dashed expectations
(HAS TRIM)
By William R. Neikirk
Chicago Tribune
SAVOY, III. At the Old Orchard Bowling Lanes on a
recent Tuesday night in this village south of Champaign,
NLCI shut out NLC2, 8-0, in league play.
Afterward, team members, representing National Letter
Carriers union locals, joined forces over beer to shut out
Bill Clinton, 4-0, in a traditional form of non-league
play known as political chatter.
"Clinton's got a real P.R. problem. He's Billy Slick.
He's got to overcome that, but I don't think he will be
able to do it," said Kent Nash, a letter carrier who
voted for Clinton, but won't again unless the Republicans
put up Dan Quayle.
In the nation's midsection, which helped provide
Clinton with his margin of victory in 1992, there is
simmering political discontent borne of concerns about
Clinton's character and dashed expectations over his
presidency. Elected with only 43 percent of the popular
vote nationwide, Clinton won Illinois, Ohio and Missouri,
but lost in Indiana and Kansas.
A 1,000-mile drive through the center of the Midwest,
from Kansas City to Columbus, yielded ample evidence that
Clinton is in political trouble here, much as he is
nationally, despite an improved economy and a handful of
legislative victories.
Many said they had believed Clinton when he said he
would change the way Washington works, when he promised
higher standards, declared war on special interests and
offered new investment to provide higher-wage jobs in the
future. Now they feel betrayed, angered by a blur of
Whitewater-Paula
Jones-scandal-resignation-gridlock-business-as-usul.
Many also say they do not share what they perceive to
be Clinton's values. And much of the general
anti-Washington anger gets vented specifically at the
president.
But all is not grim for Clinton. While 6 in 10 of those
interviewed had a negative opinion, many admire his
intelligence and willingness to take on major issues such
as health care and free trade.
Interviews indicate that the president still could win
over some Americans who think less of him, if the
Republicans put up a candidate they dislike in 1996.
`He's had the guts and intestinal fortitude to take on
issues that will raise the ire of certain segments, such
as doctors and insurance companies," said Charles Young,
a lawyer in Effingham, III., who voted for Ross Perot.
"These are people with a lot of clout."
Interviews with more than six dozen people in five
states found a public angry and cynical about the conduct
of government in Washington. The modest record of
Clinton's 20-month presidency appears to have deflated the
high perhaps unrealistic hopes that he could bring about
fundamental change.
In some important respects, Clinton's relatively low
popularity should come as no surprise. Nearly 6 in 10
voters chose someone else in 1992's three-way race, and
opinion surveys now show Clinton's approval rating at
roughly 4 in 10. Moreover, presidents typically suffer
their lowest ebbs at the midpoint of their first term.
But the disaffection expressed about Clinton often
involves lingering questions about character and integrity
more than the results of specific policies, an indication
that it may be more difficult for him to rebuild his
popularity than it was for other presidents.
"Clinton came in as the new guy in town," said
another letter carrier, Rich Frazier, over the clatter of
falling bowling pins. "As stories of his personal life
and administration scandals came out, people became
disillusioned. Then there were foreign-policy mishaps, and
failure of the health-care bill."
The bill of particulars against Clinton in the Midwest
covers many concerns, but appears to stem from an
underlying belief that the president broke a mystical bond
with voters that he would be a ``new Democrat" able to
carry out a cleanup agenda when he arrived in Washington.
Now, the "new Democrat" theme appears to have lost
its political magic with many voters, and some local party
officials.
"His liberal views betray him on abortion, the gay
issue, on everything," said Mike Altgilbers, who runs a
cabinet shop in Effingham. ``He changes his mind more
often than the weather."
Paul Quirk, a political science professor at the
University of Illinois, said Clinton's decision to admit
gays to the military was one of several decisions
unpopular among Midwesterners. Then, he said, the
Whitewater land-development affair and reports of
womanizing worked to erode the trust people once had in
him.
"Any president who had more personal trust would have
been able to withstand these unpopular political decisions
better," said Quirk, who believes that presidents are
increasingly prisoners of public opinion.
Any decision that requires the less-trusted Clinton to
depart significantly from public opinion such as his
decision to intervene in Haiti is greeted skeptically by
a less-forgiving public, he said.
(EDITORS: NEXT 7 GRAFS OPTIONAL)
Then there's the character issue, which cuts both ways
with many people in the Midwest.
"He's a draft-dodging, pot-smoking womanizer," said
Matt Roberts, an Indianapolis maintenance supervisor of
apartments who voted for George Bush in 1992.
But many others say Clinton's personal life isn't
important to them. ``I'm disappointed in the way he's
being treated," said Don Wittenbrink of Dix, III., who
works for Illinois Power.
Still, the range of complaints against Clinton is wide.
In Effingham, sporting goods store manager John Taylor
complained about gun control. Eric Althhoff, the coroner
and vice chairman of the county's Democratic Party, said
he did not agree with Clinton's support of abortion rights
and his appointment of Joycelyn Elders as surgeon general.
Several people said that, despite Clinton's efforts to
get in touch with people through town meetings, he and his
government are as out of touch as any they have seen.
Barbara Payne, executive director of the American Red
Cross' Illini Prairie Chapter in Urbana, said she would
like to see Clinton and his top officials spend a day or
two working in social services.
``It would help if they saw what the real world is
like," she said.
(END OPTIONAL TRIM)
Perhaps most astonishing is that a better economy has
done little to improve Clinton's popularity. Hubert
Sturgill, a retired trucker and Teamsters Union member in
Dayton, said Clinton brags about new jobs, but many of
them are minimum-wage jobs.
``I voted for Clinton the last time," Sturgill said
with some anger. "That's the last time I will vote for a
Democrat."
Back at the bowling alley, letter carrier Kent Nash
said that Clinton's health-care proposal would have taxed
him too heavily. "The Democratic Party has gotten too far
into my pocketbook," he said.
-END-OF-AUTOBREAK(1)-
-AUTOBREAK(2)-FOLLOWS
BC-HILLARY-w-BILL national:TB
Negative feelings about first lady appear to be rising
(HAS TRIMS)
By William R. Neikirk
Chicago Tribune
ST. LOUIS Painting her nails at a table in the
fast-food area of Union Station, Doris Seay spoke
admiringly of President Clinton and unfavorably of his
critics.
But then, without prompting, the 55-year-old food
service worker said: "Do you think his wife is the strong
person in the family? Sometimes her strength is
overwhelming. She should tone it down a bit She's
trying to take over her husband's job. I wonder if she's
always been like that."
Just north of the city, Victoria Carver, 25, a student
at St. Louis Community College, also supported the
president but found the first lady overly aggressive.
``I think she needs to chill out," said Carver, from
Pacific, Mo. ``They should dose her with some Valium."
Throughout the Midwest, if not the whole country,
negative feelings about Hillary Rodham Clinton appear to
be rising. Since coming to the White House on Jan. 20,
1993, hailed as the embodiment of the modern professional
woman, she has become a controversial, divisive figure with
much of the public.
Of the more than six dozen people interviewed at random
in a driving trip of nearly 1,000 miles through the
Midwest, nearly 6 in 10 found fault with the highly public
role she has taken. Though unscientific, this survey
parallels a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released last
week that showed that only 39 percent of Americans had a
positive feeling toward the first lady, down 7 points from
July.
Widely respected by many professional women for her
pioneering role as an activist first lady, she also
arouses deep distrust, even derision, among many others in
a region with a reputation for traditional values and
considered vital to her husband's chances for a second
term.
Even those who dislike her acknowledge that she is
destined, as a capable woman who openly dispenses policy
advice, to leave an indelible mark on the presidency. The
intense feeling about her, pro and con, reverberates
through the cities and rural areas of the Midwest and can
be found among young and old, among the well-to-do and the
working classes.
When the Clintons took office, she tapped a reservoir
of goodwill as a strong, modern woman who had built a
solid career as a lawyer and breadwinner. When the
president put her in charge of health-care reform, 64
percent of Americans approved of the appointment,
according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll.
But support for Hillary Clinton eroded as she played a
rugged political game. She pushed a plan for universal
health coverage long after it was clearly dead. And she
labeled as politically motivated the criticism of her
controversial investments and her role in the Whitewater
land-development case.
With the fading of that original goodwill and her
continued outspokenness against critics, Clinton has
increasingly been subjected to personal attacks and
talk-show insinuations that she is, in essence, running
the country.
(EDITORS: NEXT 4 GRAFS OPTIONAL)
The closest parallel is the sharp criticism Eleanor
Roosevelt received when she assumed a highly public role
as first lady.
In the Midwest, Clinton's efforts to make the
unofficial office of first lady a more powerful position
appear to be running into strong resistance and making
many people uneasy.
Americans historically have been ambivalent about
strong, assertive women. But their current unease seems to
have more to do with concern about whether the presidency
should be shared than with old-fashioned notions about the
role of women.
Throughout the American presidency, first ladies have
always played
a powerful role in politics and policy, but their actions
were often cloaked from public view and few engendered the
antipathy that Clinton does.
(END OPTIONAL TRIM)
``We didn't elect her," said Earl Finder of Urbana, a
Republican.
Don Amann of Belleville, III., who voted for Ross Perot
for president, added, ``I don't believe she should be in
politics."
``I don't think he's running the show," said John
Cleveland, a Detroit truck driver. "She's the one behind
it all."
Candy King, a secretary from Overland Park, Kan., who
sings country music on the side, said during a break at
Kansas City's City Market that, while she supports the
president, ``I think he'd do better if she stepped out of
the spotlight."
"The smartest thing they did after Hillary failed on
health care is that they shut her up," said Linda Sparks
of Indianapolis, president of a company that trains
workers. Sparks, who said she voted Republican, added,
"I'd hide her for a while."
(EDITORS: NEXT GRAF OPTIONAL)
Even some supporters say she is hurting the president
politically and urge a lower profile.
(END OPTIONAL TRIM)
But Susie Mattingly, owner of a cafe and chocolate shop
in Greenfield, Ind., and her co-worker, Ruth Huckaby, say
they greatly respect Clinton and understand the difficulty
of her role.
``I think she's done a good job, and I bet it's been an
uphill battle all the way," said Mattingly. ``Nobody
wants her there doing anything but saying, `Hello, how are
you? So nice seeing you today. Enjoy yourself. Have a cup
of tea."
(EDITORS: NEXT 2 GRAFS OPTIONAL)
Often Clinton's critics imply he is weak by suggesting
she is strong.
``Is it President Bill or is it President Hillary?"
asked Mike Geyer, of Springfield, Ind., a maintenance
supervisor at an apartment complex.
(END OPTIONAL TRiM)
Nancy Hall, a Prairie Village, Kan., publications
consultant, said she understands the arguments of those
who say that the country elected only one president.
"At the same time, there is plenty of work for
everyone. It is a huge job to run this country," she
said, noting that the first lady or the presidential
spouse, if the nation ever elects a woman should, and
will, play a powerful role in the future. "The times are
changing. This was inevitable. The person who is first
bears the brunt of the criticism."
Leah Blase, a St. Louis representative of a yearbook
publishing firm, said she didn't agree with many of
Hillary Clinton's ideas, and ``maybe she's a little bit
too aggressive," but she said she respected her and
recognized her as an important model for women in the
workplace.
``People blame the breakdown of the family on people
like Hillary," said Blase, who voted for former President
Bush. "It's not true. It's no longer an 'Ozzie and
Harriet' world. I get more strength from people like
her."
(EDITORS: STORY CAN TRIM HERE)
Without regard to the larger questions of a
presidential spouse's legitimate role in modern America,
many women who work and have power in their own right
still feel a bit uneasy about the Clinton's style.
-END-OF-AUTOBREAK(1)-
-AUTOBREAK(2)-FOLLOWS
PM-Economy, 1st Ld, a0428,1
URGENT
September Unemployment Rate At Four-Year Low
EDs: LEADS with report
By ROBERT NAYLOR JR.= AP Labor Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) The unemployment rate slid to 5.9
percent in September, the lowest rate in four years, the
government reported today. The news was certain to upset
already jittery financial markets.
The Labor Department said 239,000 new jobs were added
to the nation's non-farm payrolls, less than most
economists were predicting, but still a strong showing in
an economy that has added nearly 2.5 million jobs this
year. Economists had predicted an increase of about
250,000.
The rate dropped from 6.1 percent in August.
Positive economic news this week has spooked already
nervous financial markets with renewed worries about
inflation, and Wall Street worried about a strong
employment report.
Investors worry that strong economic news, like a
sizable increase in the number of new workers, will fuel
inflation, lowering the value of their holdings.
MORE
PM-Economy, 1st Ld-1st Add, a0528,1
WASHN: their holdings.
The 5.9 percent rate was the lowest since October 1990,
when a 5.8 percent rate was recorded. The government
changed its survey methods this year to a system that
picks up some people who had previously been overlooked.
Labor Department officials could not say what the 5.9
percent rate would have been under the old system, buy the
new system tends to slightly increase the number.
Many economists have said a strong employment report
would put more pressure on the Federal Reserve to push up
short-term interest rates for a sixth time this year.
Earlier this week, stock and bond prices fell when the
index of leading economic indicators, the government's
primary gauge of future economic activity, showed its
biggest increase since March. Another report that showed
factory orders increasing more rapidly in August than in
nearly two years also sent Wall Street reeling.
MORE
PM-Economy, 1st Ld-2nd Add, a0528-529,1
WASHN: Street reeling.
Investors look for any signs of inflation in the report
and were certain to be concerned, as well, about a 3-cent
increase in the average hourly wage, which was higher than
most economists expected.
Last month, the markets initially rallied after the
report showed payroll growth substantially lower than
predictions. But stock and bond prices dropped after
investors noticed a 2-cent increase in average hourly
wages.
"You take every bit of information you've got, you
plow everything together and you take into account
momentum and the seasonal factors. Ultimately you dig down
and you see this economy is growing at a fairly decent
clip,' said James Annable, chief domestic economist with
First National Bank of Chicago.
Analysts said investors would use a
stronger-than-expected report to pressure Federal Reserve
Chairman Alan Greenspan to push up interest rates before
the November meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee,
which decides the increases.
MORE
PM-Economy, 1st Ld-3rd Add, a0528-529-531,1
WASHN: the increases.
As expected, hiring gains were biggest in
service-related industries, including 65,000 new hires by
federal, state and local government agencies. Bureau of
Labor Statistics Commissioner Katherine D. Abraham said
many of the new government hires were college and
university professors added by schools dealing with
swelling enrollments.
Construction was up a moderate 19,000 after falling
3,000 last month. Construction gains were greatest in the
Spring, but tapered off after interest rates began rising.
Manufacturing payrolls declined 3,000, a showing worse
than most economists predicted, although they expected
that sector to be weak. Manufacturing was up by 39,000 the
previous month. Retail establishments added 40,000 jobs.
The average work week was up a tenth of an hour to 34.6
hours, while manufacturing workers averaged 42 hours and
4.6 hours of overtime. The average work week has remained
at or near record levels for most of the year.
MORE
PM-Economy, 1st Ld-4th Add, a0528-529-531-533,140
WASHN: the year.
The Labor Department said 7.7 million Americans were
out of work, with the number of people looking for jobs
dropping by 308,000 in September. Since January, the
number of people seeking employment has dropped about I
million and the unemployment rate has dropped eight tenths
of a percent.
The number of people with jobs increased 462,000 in
September, bringing the year-to-date total to 1.7 million.
The Labor Department said 521,000 people have given up
looking for jobs and are categorized as ``discouraged"
workers."
Hiring gains were greatest among adult men. Black job
seekers were most likely to be unsuccessful finding work.
The black unemployment rate was 10.7 percent, compared to
10.2 percent for Hispanics and 5.1 percent for whites.
No Pickup
BC-USA-ECONOMY-JOBS URGENT
September jobless rate falls to 5.9 percent, job growth
strong
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The U.S. unemployment rate fell
to 5.9 percent in September, the lowest in four years, the
Labor Department said Friday, as the surging economy added
239,000 new jobs outside the farm sector.
The department also revised upward the number of new
jobs created in August, to 246,000 from the previously
reported 179,000.
The September jobless rate, down from 6.1 percent in
August, was the lowest since the 5.8 percent level of
October 1990.
REUTER
Jobless rate down to 5.9 percent
By JEFF BATER= UPI Business Writer=
WASHINGTON, Oct. 7 (UPI) The nation's unemployment
rate sank to its lowest level in nearly four years during
September, while non-farm business payrolls increased by a
strong 239,000 jobs, the Labor Department said Friday.
Labor also reported worker earnings accelerated, while
the work week grew a little longer.
The jobless rate dropped 0.2 percentage points last
month to 5.9 percent from August's 6.1 percent. It was the
lowest level since October 1990's 5.8 percent; Labor used
a different system back then, however, to calculate the
unemployment rate.
Paced by increased hiring by business services in
September, business payrolls grew by 239,000 jobs after
climbing in August by 246,000 jobs,
a figure revised sharply up from a previously estimated
179,000-job increase.
The latest increase in payrolls was roughly on target
with estimates by most analysts, who were expecting an
advance of about 250,000 jobs.
"The labor market continued to improve in September,"
said Katharine Abraham, commissioner of the Bureau of
Labor Statistics.
To gauge payrolls, Labor surveys U.S. businesses. It
found that in September, manufacturing jobs fell by 3,000
and construction jobs increased by 19,000. Other
goods-producing industries shed 1,000 jobs.
The U.S. service sector created 224,000 jobs, including
40,000 in retail and 65,000 in government as Election Day
nears, requiring temporary workers to man voting
precincts.
Other services industries adding jobs included
transportation and utilities, personnel supply and
moviehouses.
The work week for private sector employees in September
lengthened by six minutes to 34.6 hours. The factory work
week was unchanged at 42 hours, while overtime for
manufacturing workers held steady at 4.6 hours.
Hourly earnings for private sector workers climbed 3
cents a bit higher than past increases to an average
$11.16.
Weekly wages averaged $386.14, up $2.15 from August's
$383.99.
To gauge the jobless rate, the Labor Department surveys
U.S. households. It found that in September, the civilian
labor force expanded by 154,000 people to 131,343,000.
The number of employed among that total increased by
462,000 to 123, 628,000, while the number of unemployed
decreased by 308,000 jobs to 7, 715,000.
Jobless rate for past year
WASHINGTON, Oct. 7 (UPI) Civilian unemployment rates
for the past year, revised and adjusted for seasonal
factors, as reported Friday by the Labor Department.
Month
Percent
September 1993
6.7
October
6.7
November
6.5
December
6.4
January 1994
6.7
February
6.5
March
6.5
April
6.4
May
6.0
June
6.0
July
6.1
August
6.1
September
5.9
Jobless rates by category
WASHINGTON, Oct. 7 (UPI) Unemployment rates by
category, seasonally adjusted, as reported Friday by the
Labor Department.
Category
Sept
Aug
July
Sept 93
Civilian
5.9
6.1
6.1
6.7
Adult men
5.1
5.4
5.6
6.3
Adult women
5.3
5.4
5.3
5.8
Teenagers
17.0
17.5
17.7
17.9
White
5.1
5.3
5.4
5.8
Black
10.7
11.5
11.2
12.5
Hispanic
10.2
10.2
10.1
10.0
Jobless rate by industry
WASHINGTON, Oct. 7 (UPI) Industry unemployment rates,
seasonally adjusted, as reported Friday by the Labor
Department.
Industry
Sept
Aug
July
Sept 93
Mining
5.5
5.1
6.1
7.5
Construction
10.7
10.5
10.9
14.1
Manufacturing
5.4
5.4
5.8
7.2
Transport & Util.
4.5
4.9
5.3
5.3
Whsl & rtl trade
6.9
7.5
7.5
7.5
Finance
4.5
3.8
3.7
4.0
Government
3.1
3.7
3.4
2.8
Agriculture
10.9
11.1
12.6
10.4
Volcker Says Disturbing Signs On Economic Growth Masked
NEW YORK -DJ- A "feel-good" attitude by Americans
toward the economy masks disturbing signs about future
growth, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker
warns.
The underlying problems of a large budget deficit, a low
U.S. savings rate and a low rate of industrial expansion
eventually will hurt growth, said Volcker, an economist
known for his victorious war on inflation in the 1980s.
Asked for his prediction on interest rates - his own
best weapon against inflation in eight years at the Fed's
helm - he said, "I suggest that in this economic climate,
don't be surprised if interest rates go up."
Volcker said President Clinton's successful efforts at
cutting the deficit were leading to complacency.
"Whatever we think about the near-term economy, and
it's been doing obviously very well, we're not in anything
like an optimistic position for the future. Far from it,
investment's too low to support growth, productivity is
below potential and the dollar is vulnerable," he said.
Volcker also said U.S. dependence on borrowing abroad
will grow more painful as other countries pull out of
recession and raise their interest rates. He said
investment money will pursue the highest interest rates in
whatever country.
(END) DOW JONES NEWS 10-07-94
8:24 AM
Polls: Ted, Mitt in dead heat in Mass.
BOSTON, Oct. 7 (UPI) Incumbent Democrat Edward M.
Kennedy remains locked in a statistical dead heat with
Republican challenger Mitt Romney in the Massachusetts
Senate race, according to two new polls published Friday.
A Boston Herald-WCVB-TV poll had Romney leading Kennedy
46-44 percent, with 12 percent undecided with just a month
to go before the Nov. 8 general election. Two weeks ago a
similar poll had Romney on top 44-42 percent.
A Boston Globe-WBZ-TV poll had Kennedy ahead 49-44
percent with the rest undecided, a slight change from two
weeks ago when a similar poll had Kennedy leading 48-46.
Pollsters said both new surveys were within the margin
of error, making the race a statistical dead heat.
The Globe poll suggested that a barrage of negative ads
by Kennedy has apparently taken the steam out of Romney's
momentum and raised questions about the millionaire
businessman, who is making his first run for public
office.
The poll also suggested that there is strong voter
sentiment to send someone new to Washington instead of
Kennedy, who has been in office for 32 years.
Globe Pollster Gerry Chervinsky said Kennedy ``has
stopped Romney's momentum" and that ``doubt has been
raised in people's minds about whether Romney really is on
the side of the working person."
The Herald poll also indicated Kennedy's ad campaign
has had an impact.
``People are more likely to be turned off when they
hear about Romney's business record," said Herald
pollster R. Kelly Myers.
Myers also found some good news for Kennedy. He said if
there is any movement among independents, a critical
voting group in this race, ``it looks as if it's going in
Kennedy's direction."
In the gubernatorial race, both polls indicated
incumbent Republican William Weld had increased his huge
lead over Democratic challenger Mark Roosevelt.
BC-SOUTHVOTE national: WA
The South rises again, as a growing Republican force
(HAS TRIMS)
(PHOTO; details below)
By Craig Crawford
Orlando Sentinel
ATLANTA In a rust-stained wooden cabin at Pickett's
Mill Historic Site on Highway 92 the Sons of the
Confederacy meet the Republican challenge.
It was on this same patch of red clay and pines 130
years ago that their ancestors fought Union soldiers
commanded by a GOP president, delaying by a few days the
burning of Atlanta.
But on this day the grandsons, great-grandsons and one
real son of Rebel Democrats throw horseshoes and eat from
boxes of Kentucky Fried Chicken, nodding approval at a
Republican office-seeker.
`Conservative Democrats have been betrayed by their
party leaders in Washington," GOP congressional candidate
Bob Barr tells Darren Wheeler, whose great-uncle John F.
Davis was killed at the Civil War battle of
Chancellorsville, Va., in 1863.
Wheeler and Barr were sharing their hostility toward
gun control provisions in the crime bill that President
Clinton had just signed. But in a way they were really
talking about something larger, a political and cultural
whirlwind transforming the South.
In politics, it means that Republicans could officially
shatter what Democrats once called their Solid South,
picking up the 15 congressional seats needed for a
majority of the region's delegation. Nationally, the GOP
hopes to win at least two dozen once-Democratic seats,
with more than half the largest bloc coming from the
South.
(EDITORS: NEXT GRAF OPTIONAL)
Culturally, the South has shifted from a rural farm
life of modest hardware stores and Saturday night barn
dances to a suburban sprawl spilling into Wal-Mart super
stores and multiplex cinemas. You see more fast-talking
entrepreneurs barking orders on portable phones and fewer
folks in overalls sitting on the front porch chewing wads
of tobacco.
(END OPTIONAL TRIM)
Republicans, once the scourge of voters here, have gone
from holding 10 percent of the region's seats in Congress
30 years ago to a chance at dominating the South's ranks
of Capitol Hill lawmakers.
"We're swapping sides," says Wheeler, 33, wearing a
T-shirt depicting Fort Sumter, S.C., where the first shot
was fired in what Confederate sympathizers still call
``the war of Northern aggression."
(EDITORS: NEXT 2 GRAFS OPTIONAL)
Two more states Georgia and North Carolina are poised
to join Florida in November as the South's majority
Republican congressional delegations. Party leaders now
see the region as their emerging national base.
Republicans last ran the South with rifles and cannons.
During reconstruction in the 1870s it took the Union army
to force the region to accept GOP officeholders.
(END OPTIONAL TRIM)
Older Southerners, like Bill Myers, 86, can't shake
their Democratic tradition. He remembers his father,
Joshua, a Confederate drummer boy for Gen. Stonewall
Jackson, telling stories about federal troops after the
war forcing voters to accept Republican "carpetbaggers"
for Congress and other offices.
"I've never voted for anything but a Democrat, so I
guess I won't be changing any time soon," says Myers,
whose son and grandson are registered Republicans.
Many Southerners are flocking toward Republicans, weary
of "`liberalism" and furious at Clinton's policies
favoring gays in the military, higher taxes and bigger
government.
With more than a dozen Dixie Democrats in Congress
retiring this year, Republicans could win seats their
party hasn't held since the Civil War era.
Richard Petty knows. The legendary race car driver,
wearing his trademark sunglasses, urges GOP enthusiasts in
his home state of North Carolina to persuade their
neighbors to break Old South tradition and vote
Republican.
(EDITORS: NEXT 2 GRAFS OPTIONAL)
"If you talk to those people, you'll find they're
conservative," Petty tells a rally for GOP congressional
candidate Richard Burr in Winston-Salem. "They've just
voted Democrat-so long they don't know better."
Later, sitting at a table handing out autographs you
must swear you're a Republican to get one Petty stresses
that all conservatives should be voting for his party. He
waves unconverted autograph seekers to a nearby
registration table, where they can join the GOP and become
worthy of his signature.
(END OPTIONAL TRIM)
``As long as you're conservative, you can vote
Republican," says Petty, who describes himself as to the
right of Sen. Jesse Helms, North Carolina's conservative
icon.
It's not difficult to find signs of today's GOP march
on the South.
(EDITORS: NEXT 2 GRAFS OPTIONAL)
Just look at the bumper stickers and billboards along
the highways through the motherlode of Southern
republicanism Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia and Florida.
Only Republicans seem to identify their party
affiliation on campaign materials, usually in letters at
least as large as the candidates' names.
(END OPTIONAL TRIM)
But for a knockout dose of what drives many Southern
voters, turn on the radio. On Interstate 20 near Aiken,
S.C., punch the scan button on the AM dial. Be patient.
Watch it spin through the channels, searching for a
station.
And when it finally lands, you hear the unofficial
Voice of Republicans, the mound of sound himself, live
from New York City, the unforgettable RUSH LIMBAUGH:
"Day 602 today of the Raw Deal," Limbaugh shouts,
reciting his daily countdown of the Clinton presidency's
first term. ``860 days of America's longest running
hostage crisis remain. Only 56 days until the November
elections."
If anything, Limbaugh is sure of himself.
``As you people know, when I say something about
anything, there generally is nothing left to be said,"
Limbaugh reminds listeners. "Because my analysis is so
keen, my insight so profound, my ability to articulate so
unparalleled."
And Limbaugh, whose afternoon show is the highest-rated
radio program in nearly every Southern media market
including Orlando, passionately believes that Bill Clinton
and his Democratic friends are the enemy.
(EDITORS: NEXT 3 GRAFS OPTIONAL)
On this day he chides the president for getting tough
on Cuba just to help Florida's embattled Democratic Gov.
Lawton Chiles.
"Our Cuban policy is as much about protecting the
governorship of Florida as anything else," Limbaugh
explains during a plug for GOP candidate Jeb Bush, son of
Limbaugh's friend, former President George Bush. "Once
Lawton Chiles started screaming about those Cuban exiles,
that's when Clinton moved. The whole Cuban mess is all
about domestic policy."
Talk radio, dominated by political conservatives, seems
to be reaching the hearts and minds of voters in ways that
the nation's elected leaders cannot fathom.
-END-OF-AUTOBREAK(1)-
-AUTOBREAK(2)-FOLLOWS
BC-SOUTHVOTE
AUTOBREAK (2)
(END OPTIONAL TRIM)
On Interstate 95 in southern Georgia, a newcomer to the
radio scene, Chuck Harder, broadcasting from White
Springs, Fla., promotes a Chinese idea for dealing with
death-row prisoners.
"Why shouldn't we just rip their organs out?" Harder
asks listeners. "Our tax dollars fed them in prison. So
their guts belong to us. Plenty of folks needing livers,
or whatever, wouldn't mind a fresh one from some scumbag
behind bars."
Less than an hour later at JB's Steakhouse in
Fitzgerald, Ga. the idea comes up at the noon meeting of
the Kiwanis Club. While listening to Democratic
congressional candidate Craig Mathis promote more prisons
to stop crime, someone in the back of the room says, "How
about forced organ donation?"
As the crowd knowingly laughs, several raise their
mason jars of sweetened tea to approve.
Mathis, who brags to voters that he won't be
``Clinton's water boy," tells Fitzgerald's Kiwanis
members that he'll defy his party leaders if he goes to
Washington.
``Enough is enough," the Albany lawyer says. ``The
liberals have thrown our money into government giveaways
for too long. All able-bodied people on welfare should go
to work."
When the applause subsides, Fitzgerald City Council
member Tim Raynor, a registered Democrat, poses a question
that underlies the partisan shift in Southern politics.
"That all sounds good, but why should I vote for you
instead of a Republican?" Raynor asks. "It's getting to
the point that there's not much difference between the
campaign talk of Democrats and Republicans. But it seems
like Republicans stay conservative when they get in office,
while Democrats line up behind liberal party leaders so
they can move up in seniority."
(EDITORS: NEXT 3 GRAFS OPTIONAL)
Mathis gives an answer about how he would be different,
but Raynor's point sticks in the mind long after the
candidate's rhetoric fades.
In November, Southern Democrats could finally face a
political contradiction they have long avoided. Years ago
the party lost the region for presidential races, winning
the South in only one national race Jimmy Carter's 1976
campaign since Lyndon B. Johnson abandoned the White House
in 1968.
But throughout those years Democrats in the South kept
their grip on state offices and congressional delegations,
mainly by running as hard as Republicans against their
party's liberal national leaders.
(END OPTIONAL TRIM)
Democrats are now in danger of becoming what
Republicans were more than a century ago: a party of
blacks shunned by conservative whites. In some states,
such as Florida, dwindling ranks of Democrats in Congress
are dominated by blacks representing majority black
districts.
In the 1992 presidential campaign only 34 percent of
the South's whites voted for Clinton, while 83 percent of
the blacks supported him.
Rep. Sam Gibbons, D-Fla., who has watched the political
sea change during his three decades in Congress, says
Republicans gained their foothold in the South when
Democrats embraced blacks.
"The fundamental basis of the Republican Party in
Florida began in the 1930's when Roosevelt began to treat
blacks more like human beings and individuals," Gibbons
says. ``It began there, and it has escalated on up. There
is that race difference and the Republicans have been able
to capitalize on it, creating what is, in effect, an
all-white party."
Racially tinged debates rage across the South as
fervently as ever. Lately, it has been a battle over the
NAACP's crusade to remove Confederate symbols from
Southern state flags.
At the Holiday Inn in Atlanta the all-white Southern
Heritage Preservation Society gathers at dawn with
homemade signs to protest. They're angry that the company
refuses to fly the Georgia state flag at its hotels.
``Holiday Inn has sided with people who compare our
flag to Nazi symbols, which is just ridiculous," says
SHPS member Bill Rockwell, wearing a T-shirt that reads,
``If you don't like our flag then you can just leave our
state."
(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)
Anyone who doubts the power of Confederate memories
here should watch the Atlanta police bomb squad detonate
still-live shells from Union General William T. Sherman's
cannon pounding of the city.
"That was a good blast," says city worker Carlos
Serrano, after exploding one of the corroded but deadly
lead shells, shaped like an oversized bullet.
Every year some of the artillery fodder, called the
``Atlanta express" by Sherman's thankful troops, turn up
in the churned earth of Atlanta's relentless construction
projects.
"Sooner or later somebody is going to set one off and
kill themselves," says Serrano, who found the latest
shell at a school playground. ``I guess you could say that
Sherman fella is still blowing up the place."
XXX
(Photo available from KRT Photo Service; call
202-383-6099. Photos move on KRT Photo Service and are
posted to the "KRT Daily Photos" icon in category folder
on PressLink the day the story moves. One week after
transmission, photos are available via keyword search in
the KRT Photo Archive on PressLink; call (800) 435-7578 or
(202) 383-6099.)
PM-Iraq-Kuwait, 1st Ld Writethru, a0505,0469
Opposition Says Iraq Amassing Troops Near Kuwait Again
Eds: LEADS throughout to UPDATE with quote from
opposition, alleged troop movement affecting stock
markets. Minor editing. No pickup.
By JEROME SOCOLOVSKY= Associated Press Writer=
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) Iraqi opposition groups say
Saddam Hussein has again mobilized troops along the border
with Kuwait while threatening to mount "a new
confrontation against the outside world."
But a U.N. observer mission that patrols the
Iraq-Kuwait border said all appeared quiet on both sides.
We don't have any information about massing troops at
the border," said U.N. spokesman Besselin Kostov.
Iraq's August 1990 invasion and occupation of Kuwait
triggered the Persian Gulf War, in which a U.S.-led
coalition defeated Iraq and drove Saddam's forces from the
small emirate.
The opposition Iraqi National Congress, based in Iraq's
semi-automous northern Kurdish area, said in a statement
Thursday that Iraqi Republican Guard divisions encamped in
the north have been ``rapidly moving toward the cities of
Basra and Amara" near the southern border with Kuwait.
"Saddam has always been capable of doing anything, as
long as he can keep his power, his grip," Latif Rachid,
vice president of the congress's Executive Council, said
in a telephone interview from London.
The opposition claim comes at a delicate time in
international efforts to restrain Iraq from further
aggression in the Gulf.
Baghdad warned Thursday it would prevent U.N.
monitoring of its military facilities unless the Security
Council eased its 4-year-ban on the sale of Iraqi oil.
The council convenes next week to discuss whether Iraq
has complied with U.N. conditions to lift the embargo,
which has devastated its economy by depriving the country
of its main source of revenue.
After Saddam met Thursday with his Revolutionary
Command Council, the state-run Iraqi News Agency said Iraq
must prepare for a new position that would put things in
order to deliver the Iraqi people out of this tragic
suffering."
Kuwait, in an official statement published today in the
Al-Watan newspaper, called the Iraqi pronouncements ``an
open threat to the security and stability of the State of
Kuwait and a blatant violation" of Security Council
resolutions.
The reported troop movements affected stock markets in
Asia and Australia, combining with speculation over higher
U.S. interest rates to strengthen the dollar against the
yen, traders said. Trading also affected prices on markets
in Australia and Thailand.
The Iraqi National Congress statement said Iraq's
alleged mobilization "comes in the wake of several
threats by the Iraqi regime to launch a new confrontation
against the outside world."
"For the past week Iraqi regime officials and the
state-controlled media have issued warnings that Saddam
may lash out in anger at the U.N. sanctions, which are
eroding his power base," the statement said.
PM-China-Nuclear, 1st Ld Writethru, a0499,0404
URGENT
China Detonates Nuclear Test
Eds: LEADS throughout to UPDATE with background. No
pickup.
By CHARLENE L. FU= Associated Press Writer=
BEIJING (AP) China conducted its second nuclear test
this year today, defying pressure to join an international
moratorium on such blasts.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement
confirming that an underground nuclear test had been
conducted, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
The test explosion was China's third in just over a
year.
The first news of the test, which had been expected for
weeks, came from Australia. Acting Foreign Minister Gordon
Bilney said the blast in northern China was detected by
the Australian Seismological Center in Canberra at 11:25
p.m. EST Thursday.
It had an estimated yield equivalent to between 40 and
150 kilotons of TNT, Bilney said.
China also conducted tests in October 1993 and June
1994.
The Chinese statement did not say where today's test
was conducted or give its strength. Previous tests have
been at China's Lop Nor testing site in the far-western
region of Xinjiang.
Unlike other major nuclear powers, including the United
States, China has refused to join an international
moratorium on nuclear tests.
But it maintains that its tests have been limited in
scope and says its nuclear weapons are solely for
defensive purposes.
``Among all the nuclear states, China has conducted the
least nuclear tests," Xinhua quoted an unidentified
ministry spokesman as saying. ``It has always exercised
great restraint on the question of nuclear tests and will
continue to do so in the future."
Bilney condemned China for being "out of step" with
negotiations for a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty by 1996
and international moves toward nuclear disarmament.
But the Chinese statement said China was ``actively
participating in the negotiations" on a test ban.
`China will put an end to its nuclear test once the
treaty comes into effect," the statement said.
China is believed to have the smallest arsenal of the
declared nuclear powers, with about 250 to 300 warheads.
The 38-nation Conference on Disarmament began
negotiations in January on a comprehensive test ban
treaty. China is among the participants.
The United States, the former Soviet Union and Britain
agreed on
a partial test ban in 1963 covering tests in the
atmosphere, outer space and underwater. Underground tests
were not covered in that treaty.
BC-NUCLEAR-CHINA (SCHEDLUED)
China flexes nuclear muscles with new test
By David Schlesinger
BEIJING, Oct 7 (Reuter) - China flexed its muscles as
a member of the world's nuclear-weapons club by setting
off its second test blast in four months on Friday.
China's Foreign Ministry spokesman, in a statement
released on the official Xinhua news agency, announced the
test nearly six hours after it was detected by Australian
seismologists.
The official announcement gave no details of the
explosion, which follows a similar one in June.
It repeated China's assertion that it exercised great
restraint in testing and reaffirmed support for
international efforts to ban nuclear weapons.
"The spokesman said in a statement that China
possesses a small amount of nuclear weapons solely for the
purpose of self-defense, and maintains that the
nuclear-weapon states should agree to the complete
destruction of all nuclear weapons at an early date,"
Xinhua said.
Early indications of the size of the explosion came
from an Australian seismological centre, which said it had
recorded data consistent with a medium-to-large nuclear
explosion at China's underground nuclear testing facility
of Lop Nor, in the western region of Xinjiang.
The Australian Seismological Centre in Canberra said
an explosion of between 40 to 150 kilotonnes occured at
0325 GMT. It said the blast registered between 6.1 and 6.3
on the open-ended Richter scale.
China's statement pointed out that its testing
programme is tiny compared to other powers.
``Among all the nuclear states, China has conducted
the least nuclear tests," the Foreign Ministry spokesman
said.
``It has always exercised great restraint on the
question of nuclear tests and will continue to do so in
the future."
Western analysts believe China has conducted 41 tests,
compared to 1,000 by the United States.
Other nuclear powers, including the United States,
France and Britain, have agreed to a moratorium on nuclear
testing, however, and negotiations started for a
Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty earlier this year.
China repeated its commitment to negotiate such a
treaty.
``China is actively participating in the negotiations
on a comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty held in Geneva
and hopes to see the conclusion of the said treaty at the
earliest possible date or no later than 1996," the
Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
"China will put an end to its nuclear tests once the
treaty comes into effect."
An Asian diplomat in Beijing said he believed China,
which became a nuclear power in 1964, was planning at
least two more tests as part of a programme that will take
it up to the 1996 date.
China has come under strong international criticism
for its continued nuclear testing.
After the June explosion, Japan angrily protested to
Beijing, threatening to review plans to extend massive aid
to China in 1996 if it continued to conduct tests. The
United States stressed its deep regret.
Australia immediately condemned China for the
explosion on Friday, saying it was deeply disappointed
that it had again shown disregard for international
opposition to nuclear testing.
'We have been urging China to join other nuclear
weapon states in declaring a moratorium on its testing
programme," acting foreign minister Gordon Bilney said in
a statement.
"China must come to terms with the imminent fact of a
ban on nuclear testing for all time and in all
environments," Bilney said, adding that he had instructed
the Australian embassy in Beijing to protest against the
explosion.
REUTER
China confirms 41st nuclear test
BEIJING, Oct. 7 (UPI) China confirmed it exploded its
41st nuclear device Friday at a test site in the remote
west of the country, despite an agreed ban on further
testing by the rest of the world's declared nuclear
powers.
Australian scientists detected the test early Friday,
and estimated its yield to have been between 40 and 150
kilotons of TNT.
The test was detected at 1:25 p.m. local time (0325
GMT) by seismologists at the National Seismology Center in
the Australian capital, Canberra. The detonation occured
at at Lop Nor, in northern China's Xingjiang Province.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed the
test, but defended Beijing's violation of the unofficial
testing moratorium by saying China has carried out far
fewer tests than the United States, Britain, France or
Russia.
"China conducted an underground nuclear test today
(Friday)," he said.
Once the Australian Seismology Center detected the
test, the Australian government was quick to react.
Australia's acting Foreign Affairs Minister Gordon
Bilney condemned the test, saying it was disappointing
that China had once again shown disregard for
international opposition to such tests.
Bilney said he had instructed Australia's ambassador in
Beijing to convey Australia's concerns about the test to
the Chinese authorities.
``Australia, along with many other countries, protested
against nuclear tests carried out by China in October,
1993, and June, 1994," Bilney said in a statement. "We
have been urging China to join other nuclear weapons
states in declaring a moratorium on its testing program."
"China's continued testing is out of step with the
positive atmosphere of these negotiations, as well as with
China's own support for nuclear disarmament and its
commitment to negotiation of a Comprehensive Test Ban
Treaty by 1996.
`China must come to terms with the imminent fact of a
ban on nuclear testing for all time and for all
environment," Bilney said.
China, however, justified the test by saying it only
keeps a nuclear arsenal for defensive purposes.
``Among all the nuclear states, China has conducted the
least nuclear tests. (China) possesses a small amount of
nuclear weapons solely for the purpose of self-defense,"
the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
The spokesman said China would continue to strive for a
complete ban on nuclear testing by 1996, despite being the
only declared nuclear state to continue controlled
explosions of hydrogen bombs.
"China is actively participating in the negotiations
on a comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty, and will put
an end to its nuclear tests once the treaty comes into
effect," he said.
China's Lop Nor test site is located 165 miles (265 km)
from the provincial capital of Urumqi. The country's last
nuclear explosion was conducted June 10, and provoked
statements of concern from the United States, Britain and
Japan.
(material provided by Ruth Youngblood in Beijing and Bill
Perry in Sydney. edited by lan McCaleb in Washington)
BC-TAIWAN-USA
Taiwan complains of US ``over-tolerance" of China
By James Clarke
TAIPEI, Taiwan (Reuter) - Taiwan President Lee
Teng-hui, in
a rare burst of criticism, has complained of American
``over-tolerance" of China and called U.S. policy
adjustments toward the island ``negligible."
"We have no intention of interfering in U.S.-mainland
Chinese relations, but the United States' deliberate
oversight of Taiwan's burgeoning democratic system and
market economy is due evidently to the United States'
over-tolerance of the Chinese Communists," Lee said in a
speech Thursday evening.
The speech was delivered to delegates to Business Week
magazine's Asia Chief Executive Forum in Taipei and made
available by Lee's office on Friday.
U.S. policy toward China diminishes its reputation as
one of the world's leading democracies and impedes the
movement of the Asia-Pacific region towards peace and
prosperity, Lee told the delegates.
Washington accorded official recognition to Beijing
after switching ties from Taipei in 1979 and allows only
unofficial contact with the island.
Taiwan and China have been rivals since the
Nationalists fled to the island at the end of the Chinese
civil war in 1949. Beijing has sought to isolate the
government on Taiwan and blocked it from participating in
international activities.
In the last year Taiwan has tried to break out of its
isolation, with Lee making unofficial ``vacation" trips
to visit southeast Asian leaders and vigorously but
unsuccessfully defending his right to take up an
invitation to attend the opening of the Asian Games in
Hiroshima, Japan.
Last month China blocked a renewed bid by Taiwan to
join the United Nations. Beijing resumed Taipei's seat in
1971.
Taiwan has said it wants its president to attend next
month's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC)
summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, but pressure from China made
it virtually impossible for Lee to attend the summit,
local media said.
APEC, a potentially powerful trade body, groups 15
Pacific Rim countries including the United States, Taiwan,
China, Australia and southeast Asian nations.
President Clinton, aiming to strengthen economic and
commercial ties with the island, approved last month the
first adjustments in U.S. policy toward Taipei in 15 years
and allowed more high-level visits.
REUTER