President Clinton concluded his summit with Russian President Boris
Yeltsin, and nearly everyone declared it a success. 1) The two leaders agreed
to reduce nuclear-missile warheads. 2) Yeltsin acquiesced to NATO expansion to
Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. 3) Clinton accepted an expanded
Russian role in the G-7. The half-cynical view is that Russia hasn't made its
peace with NATO expansion, but is just too weak to stop it. The completely
cynical view is that there is no reason the United States should care about
this distinction. (For a primer on NATO expansion, see Slate's "The Gist.")
(3/24)
Webster Hubbell is back in the spotlight of the Democratic fund-raising
scandal. The New York Times reported that a company owned by James Riady
paid Hubbell about $100,000 within a week of Riady's having spent five days
visiting the White House in 1994. The Washington
Post reported
that Riady had also met with Hubbell during that week. Hubbell supplants last
week's scandal poster boy, Roger Tamraz, a Lebanese-American businessman and
accused embezzler with past ties to BCCI. Tamraz got into four White House
events after the Democratic National Committee enlisted the CIA to try to
dissuade a national-security aide from keeping him out of the White House.
(3/24)
Other
news on the scandal: 1) The New York Times reported that documents
released by Harold Ickes show that the White House set explicit fund-raising
targets for coffees with President Clinton. 2) The Washington
Post reported that Americans of Indian and Pakistani descent waged a
proxy battle over U.S. foreign policy by funneling campaign contributions to
the 1996 South Dakota Senate race between incumbent Larry Pressler,
R-India, and challenger Tim Johnson, D-Pakistan. 3) House Minority Leader
Richard Gephardt is returning $22,000 in campaign donations, mostly from
Lippo-connected contributors. (3/24)
Republican fund-raising hypocrisy watch: 1) A former Washington lobbyist for
Pakistan says Rep. Dan Burton , who is chairing the House investigation
of the Democratic money scandal, threatened to deny him access to Burton's
"friends or colleagues" last year because he failed to satisfy Burton's demand
for $5,000 in campaign money. 2) The Washington
Post reported
that a Republican House committee counsel hit up investment firms for $100,000
contributions to the GOP shortly after working on financial-deregulation
legislation. 3) Democrats released documents indicating that Republicans sold
big political donors meals with the party's leaders in federal buildings
in 1995. (3/19)
Zairian
president Mobutu Sese Seko returned home from France in a last-ditch
attempt to salvage some part of the power he once held. Analysts see no real
future for him: He is gradually dying of prostate cancer and has no leverage
because his troops are getting whipped by rebels, who are expected to roll
through the capital sometime soon. Instead of a military victory, Mobutu now
seems to be angling for some kind of coalition government, playing off his
chief political rival in the capital against the military leader of the rebel
forces. The general consensus is that the rebel leader holds all the aces. (For
a backgrounder on Zaire, see Slate's "The Gist.") (3/24)
Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu charged that Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat "gave a green light for attacks" to the Hamas fundamentalist group.
Hamas took credit for a suicide bomber in Tel Aviv who killed three bystanders
and wounded dozens more. The United States dampened criticism of Netanyahu's
refusal to halt an inflammatory Jewish settlement in Arab East Jerusalem, and
stepped up pressure on Arafat to crack down on Islamic extremists.
(3/24)
The
American Cancer Society recommended annual mammograms for women in their
40s. This contradicts the National Cancer Institute advisory board's recent
recommendation that the benefits to women in their 40s didn't necessarily
justify the cost, and that these women should decide for themselves whether to
undergo the test. The NCI, under heavy political pressure, is expected to
reverse that recommendation this week. The prevailing wisdom now is that the
"decide for yourself" advice was too confusing, and that women need to be told
exactly what to do. (3/24)
The FBI
may soon get its hands on a suspect in the Saudi air-base bombing .
Canadian authorities have detained a Saudi citizen suspected of driving either
the truck or the getaway car used in the bombing, which killed 19 American
soldiers and wounded 500 others. U.S. investigators believe the man, Hani Abdel
Rahim Sayegh, is a Shiite Muslim possibly connected to the Iran-supported
terrorist group Hezbollah, which they suspect is responsible for the bombing.
American officials are trying to get Sayegh deported to the United States for
questioning, thereby circumventing Saudi investigators who have frustrated the
efforts of U.S. law-enforcement agents to investigate the bombing.
(3/24)
Update
from the NCAA basketball tournament : The Final Four are set. Arizona is
the spoiler, having ousted tournament favorite Kansas and the only remaining
dark horse, Providence, which was led by the memorable point guard God
Shammgod. Kentucky, the defending champion, has staggered through despite
injuries that have reduced its roster to eight players. Minnesota is the
outsider, getting its first Final Four berth ever after having been denied an
invitation to the tournament last year. And North Carolina is the comeback
team, redeeming itself after having lost its first three conference games this
season. (3/24)
The
House passed the partial-birth-abortion ban , as expected. The vote was
295-136--better than a two-thirds majority--which means that opponents of the
ban must once again depend on the Senate to sustain a presidential veto.
Despite all the hoopla over a pro-choice advocate's confession that he had lied
about the circumstances under which the procedure is generally used, only five
lawmakers switched their votes from "no" to "yes." (See Slate's "Abortion Apostate" on
the partial-birth abortion debate.) (3/21)
The
tobacco industry suffered a potentially catastrophic defection. The
smallest of the major tobacco companies, the Liggett Group, agreed to a
settlement with attorneys general from 22 states who had sued to recoup money
spent on health care for smokers. The media focused on Liggett's admissions of
the obvious--that cigarettes are addictive and cause cancer and heart
disease--and its agreement to pay the states a quarter of its (relatively
small) pretax profits for the next 25 years. The more important concessions,
however, were 1) Liggett's admission that the industry had consciously marketed
tobacco to minors (which will increase congressional support for stiff
regulation of the industry) and 2) its release--temporarily blocked by a North
Carolina court--of documents from strategy meetings among lawyers for the five
biggest tobacco companies, which industry critics believe will prove a
conspiracy of deceit. Also, the tobacco executives who told Congress they
didn't consider nicotine addictive might now be prosecuted for fraud and
perjury. As for Liggett's motive, industry and financial analysts speculated
that Liggett's CEO hoped to make the marginally profitable company a more
attractive merger partner by eliminating its exposure to possibly huge jury
awards. (3/21)
President Clinton nominated CIA Deputy Director George Tenet to become CIA
director . Tenet replaces the previous nominee, Tony Lake, who withdrew
earlier in the week. Lake's reasons: The Senate's demands for his FBI files,
new questions about the CIA's role in the foreign-money scandal, and further
unpleasant hearings on top of the pounding he's already taken. Lake said
Washington had gone "haywire" and worn out his patience and dignity. Pundits
noted the echoes of Vince Foster's suicide note, but weren't buying the
martyrdom in Lake's case. Their reactions: 1) Lake had shown poor ethical
judgment and would have been lousy at the CIA job anyway. 2) He's a wimp for
succumbing to a couple of right-wing punks (Sens. Richard Shelby and James
Inhofe). 3) His martyr pose is pretentious and self-serving. 4) Nominee-stoning
is what the two-party system and separation of powers are for. 5) The Democrats
are reaping what they sowed (after torturing Robert Bork, John Tower, and
Clarence Thomas). 6) It's Clinton's fault for creating the foreign-money
scandal and thereby bringing suspicion and scrutiny on everything Lake did. 7)
Once again, Clinton failed to "go to the mat" for a nominee in trouble. 8)
Labor Secretary-nominee Alexis Herman, who was closer to the fund-raising mess,
will now be confirmed easily because the Senate is satisfied with having killed
Lake. (3/21)
ABC
News president David Westin is the latest star in the network news soap
opera . USA Today implied that Westin's predecessor, the legendary
Roone Arledge, is being kicked upstairs because ABC is losing the ratings war
to NBC. The rap on Westin is that he's a lawyer and corporate boss who has no
news experience. The counter-arguments are: 1) neither did Arledge (he came
from the sports division) and 2) Arledge will tutor Westin for a while. The
substantive issue at stake is hard news vs. soft news: Each network is accusing
the others of going soft in pursuit of ratings. Westin says he wants ABC to get
back to hard news. Instead, the media are swarming over Westin's alleged
relationship with ABC's PR chief, Sherrie Rollins, who not only was his direct
subordinate but is still married to multiply disgraced political consultant Ed
Rollins. (3/19)
The World Health
Organization announced that a new strategy for treating tuberculosis
could save 10 million lives over the next decade. The treatment, known as DOTS,
consists of four drugs taken daily under meticulous supervision. The
organization's director calls it "the biggest health breakthrough of this
decade." (3/19)
