House Republicans interrogated Attorney General Janet Reno and FBI Director Louis Freeh about the campaign-finance scandal. Reno and Freeh refused to criticize each other or to discuss the memo in which Freeh had advised Reno to seek an independent counsel. Pundits expressed disappointment but no surprise at the lack of bloodshed. The spins: 1) Reno wins again. 2) The hearing was a distraction from newly released notes suggesting that White House officials counted on the Federal Election Commission's inability to enforce campaign-finance laws. 3) The phone-call issue was a distraction from the soft-money-abuse and conflict-of-interest issues that truly demand an independent counsel. 4) The independent-counsel question is a distraction from the question of whether Justice and the FBI will continue to pursue Clinton and Gore. 5) The whole investigation of Clinton's means of winning re-election is a distraction from the real scandal: that he intends to do nothing with the job. (12/10) Update on the Arlington National Cemetery scandal: 1) The widow of former U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland Larry Lawrence, who evidently had lied about his military record, asked President Clinton to dig up Lawrence and move him elsewhere in order to lay the controversy to rest. 2) Republicans and editorialists want further investigation to determine how Lawrence got in and what the rules are. 3) A former aide to Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., who had expressed outrage over Lawrence, says Burton got a similar burial waiver for a former aide who had never served in the military. The old spin: Did Lawrence get a break in the vetting process because he was a big political donor? The new spin: Politicians are exploiting the scandal for partisan advantage rather than facing up to bipartisan abuse of military privileges. (12/10) It's open season on the United States in the Middle East. 1) Moderate Arab countries that boycotted a U.S.-sponsored conference last month are attending a global Islamic conference hosted by Iran, whose supreme cleric opened the meeting with a denunciation of the United States and its military presence in the Persian Gulf. Optimists focused on the more pluralistic, pro-Western speech by Iran's president. 2) Louis Farrakhan opened his world "friendship" tour by visiting Iraq in defiance of the U.S. government's objections. 3) In response to U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's expressions of impatience with Israel's alleged failure to fulfill the Oslo accords, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that "no external pressures" will make Israel budge. (12/10) Oracle's stock plummeted 29 percent, breaking NASDAQ's official single-company daily trading volume record. CEO Larry Ellison lost more than $2 billion on paper. The reason: a disappointing earnings report. Oracle blamed Asia's woes and U.S. market saturation. Analysts debated whether this bodes ill for the whole technology sector. Contrarians called it a buying opportunity. The spins: 1) Tech stocks have climbed too far, too fast, and are due for a fall. 2) Tech stocks climb and fall too fast because their investors are too emotional. 3) Many analysts regard Oracle's wager on network computers (an alternative to PCs) as a wasteful distraction. (12/10) The American Medical Association proposed to legalize doctor-patient discussion of the possible benefits of medical marijuana . The AMA also urged the government to facilitate grant applications for studies on medical marijuana, including access to marijuana supplies. The story was overshadowed by the AMA's messy divorce from Sunbeam and its foreswearing of all product endorsements. (12/10) President Clinton changed the mission of U.S. nuclear-weapons policy . The old mission: waging nuclear war against a superpower. The new mission: deterring nuclear, biological, or chemical warfare by lesser powers (formalizing President Bush's implicit warning to Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War). One consequence is that the United States needs fewer land-based nukes since it is no longer planning all-out war with Russia. Meanwhile, Russia is debating whether to cut its conventional forces and authorize first use of its nukes as a substitute deterrent (as the United States will still do). (12/8) Miscellaneous: Businesses and many calling-card users are now being charged 28 cents for each pay-phone call to an 800 number . Consumer advocates call it a betrayal of the "toll-free" promise. Others respond that deregulation is properly making users bear the cost of these calls. Former federal drug czar Lee Brown was elected mayor of Houston. The national media touted him as the city's first nonwhite mayor but conceded that he will change almost nothing. The latest uproar against President Clinton's racial-dialogue project concerns a meeting in Dallas, moderated by Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater, to which only blacks were invited. The White House said it was a boo-boo and "won't be repeated." (12/8) Disney CEO Michael Eisner cashed in stock options for $565 million. He made $374 million in gross profits, tripling the previous record--set by him--for a stock-option gain. Critics resumed grumbling that CEOs are overpaid. The Wall Street Journal cited arguments in Eisner's defense: 1) The options represent years of work. 2) He gets a relatively low salary--$750,000--and makes more money only if he increases Disney's value, as he has done. 3) Other moguls, e.g., Bill Gates, make zillions more because they own bigger portions of their companies. Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that nearly 200 partners in Goldman, Sachs will collect at least $4 million in bonuses this month and that a thousand Wall Street executives are expected to get bonuses exceeding $1 million. (12/5) The National Basketball Association banned all-star player Latrell Sprewell for a year. The reason: He threatened during practice to kill his coach, choked him, was pulled away, and came back 15 minutes later and attacked the coach again. It is the stiffest penalty for insubordination in sports history. Sprewell's team, Golden State, canceled the remainder of his four-year, $32-million contract, and Converse terminated his shoe-endorsement deal. This comes after Dennis Rodman kicked a courtside cameraman and Allen Iverson pleaded no contest to carrying an illegal gun. Sports pundits applauded heartily. The sunny spin: Finally, lawless superstar athletes are being reined in. The half-cynical spin: The NBA banned Sprewell because otherwise, some spineless team would have signed him. The fully cynical spin: He'll make millions playing in Europe. (12/5) Sen. Strom Thurmond , R-S.C., celebrated his 95 th birthday by announcing that he will relinquish the chairmanship of the Senate Armed Services Committee a year from now. Media reports suggested that 1) he's as spry as ever and 2) Republicans can hardly wait to replace him with a living chairman. (12/5) Former "corporate wife" Lorna Wendt won a $20-million divorce judgment against her ex-husband, GE Capital Services CEO Gary Wendt. The case attracted national attention because she claimed that her contributions to his career--maintaining their home, entertaining his associates, advising him on personnel--constituted a business partnership entitling her to half his alleged $100-million-plus worth, instead of the lesser percentage usually awarded to ex-wives of multimillionaires. The superficial spin: The even split of many of his assets vindicates her argument and bodes well for corporate wives. The sophisticated spin: His ability to hide the rest in stock options ("the judge gave Mrs. Wendt only partial credit for the doubling of GE's stock price," observed the Wall Street Journal ) bodes well for corporate husbands. (12/5)