The New Hart Show
The papers deliver a quiet, analysis-heavy Sunday, with no overlap among the
front pages. The New York Times
details vast wastefulness at the Veterans Administration. The Los Angeles
Times describes the legal defense of Wen Ho Lee, the suspected Los
Alamos spy. And the Washington Post mulls over the causes of partisan
divisiveness in Congress.
The NYT lead indicts the Veterans Administration for wasting over $1
million a day on maintaining unnecessary and underpopulated facilities. The
number of veterans is shrinking and the popularity of outpatient treatment is
growing, but the VA stubbornly refuses to close its unneeded hospitals-- even
though, according to a GAO report, the money saved could be better spent on
enhanced care for veterans. Veterans' groups view the facilities as "a national
asset that must be preserved" and insist that they "have earned the right to
care."
The LAT offers a sneak preview of Wen Ho Lee's defense against
charges that he committed espionage at the Los Alamos nuclear facility. The
Justice Department will decide in the coming weeks if and on what counts to
prosecute Lee. His lawyers tell the DOJ that when Lee transferred classified
files to an unprotected local area network, he was merely making backups in
case the originals crashed. They also call the potential prosecution a result
of anti-Chinese/Taiwanese xenophobia.
The WP lead reports that despite their recent mergers and
triangulations into each other's ideological territory, Democrats and
Republicans in Congress are unusually adverse to compromise. The Republicans
chose to risk a veto on their tax cut rather than settle for a smaller one, and
the Democrats refused to support light restrictions on gun control when their
stricter package was defeated. Potential causes for the inflexibility include
post-impeachment rancor, pre-2000 election shadowboxing, and the GOP's waning
majority in the House. Even the President, normally an avid deal-cutter, may
prefer to let issues such as Medicare and gun control stall, in the hope that
they will later fuel the election of his wife and his vice president.
A WP front-pager narrates how George W. Bush has already seduced
powerful trade group lobbyists, who usually wait to lavish their money and
support until a party's nominee is chosen. Specifically, Bush has used the
lobbyists as a conduit to their bosses. He has already registered donations
from 1,542 CEO types, as opposed to the 264 who have shelled out for Al Gore.
The piece implies that the Bush campaign is hypocritical: although it "aspires
to outside-the-Beltway populism," it has "eagerly exploited every advantage ...
Washington has to offer."
A NYT front-pager calls Bill Bradley a canny underdog in the contest
for the Democratic presidential nomination. In addition to conserving his
resources, Bradley has consciously avoided the mistakes made by other
once-promising potential giant-killers. "We're Gary Hart but we have money. ...
We're Gary Hart but we know the rules," brags a Bradley aide. The story is the
latest in a spate of NYT pieces to feature a quote embarrassing to the
Gore camp. "The Vice President's office asked me, 'Why are you saying all these
great things about Bradley? Why don't you say things about us?' " relays the
Iowa Democratic chairman.
A WP piece inside the front section attests to why Steve Forbes is a
sharp businessman, if not a savvy candidate. Despite his regular evisceration
of George W. Bush, Forbes rented 6,000 names from his magazine's subscription
list to the Bush camp. "We reach a desirable group," explained a Forbes
magazine representative.
According to the WP , Europeans are being widely cautioned to avoid
staring at the total solar eclipse that will take place Aug. 11. Watching the
sun's emergence from lunar shadow could damage or even eradicate their vision.
But Druids have other reasons for averting their eyes when the sun and the moon
merge. "A god and goddess are making love," said an English moon worshipper.
"We have no right to look upon it."
