Update
on the campaign-finance scandal hearings : 1) Sen. Arlen Specter,
R-Penn., disclosed that the $50,000 check that scandal figure Johnny Chung
handed to Hillary Clinton's chief of staff in the White House was funded by a
transfer from the Bank of China. NBC called the news "an apparent direct hit."
2) Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., summarized John Huang's compensation package at
the DNC as "No raise money, no get bonus." Brownback used no accent and
immediately said that he had meant "no slight." The DNC called Brownback's
remark "completely racist." 3) Committee Chairman Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn.,
announced that he had evidence of a Chinese plot to infiltrate the United
States, but couldn't say more because the evidence is top secret. 4) The
committee is considering John Huang's offer to testify in exchange for partial
immunity. The Washington Post pronounced the hearings "a cultural bust."
The New York Times agreed: "Partisan Fencing Draws No Blood." For
Slate's take, see Jacob Weisberg's "Dispatch." (7/11)
NATO
troops arrested a Bosnian Serb war criminal and killed another who resisted
arrest. British and U.S. officials said more arrests will follow. Analysts
speculated that NATO wants to gauge the Bosnian Serbs' reaction (e.g., possible
assaults against NATO troops) before deciding whether a full-scale roundup
of war criminals is worth the risk. Media coverage was generally
enthusiastic, with several commentators celebrating the bust as an overdue
outburst of courage. President Clinton managed to get credit for it without
risking a single American soldier, since the United States provided logistical
support. Skeptics argued that NATO is only picking at the little fish because
more senior war criminals are too well guarded. (7/11)
NASA
landed a robot on Mars and began exploring the surface. Scientists are
steering the 2-foot-long, 23-pound robot by remote control (from 119 million
miles away) and downloading the video and geological data it collects. Evidence
of ancient flood water (which might now be frozen at the poles or beneath the
planet's surface) and signs of repeated melting and crystallization of the
planet's crust indicate that Mars is much more like Earth than was previously
thought. Newt Gingrich's reaction: "It's going to be a bummer if Mars turns out
to be like us." (7/11)
Best
story from the NATO summit : In a chat with fellow prime ministers, an
open mike caught Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien ragging on President
Clinton and U.S. politicians. Chrétien said: 1) Clinton's NATO policies are
motivated by domestic politics, not statesmanship (specifically, pushing to
include the Baltic states in order to win ethnic votes in Chicago). 2) Chrétien
has a "policy" of defying Clinton. He boasted that this is great domestic
politics in Canada. Specifically, he said he enjoyed defying Clinton's policy
against commerce with Cuba. 3) When Chrétien helped resolve the U.S.-France
dispute over NATO expansion this week, Clinton confided, "Jean, you saved my
bacon." 4) If Canadian or Belgian lawmakers emulated their American
counterparts, "all the politicians would be in prison, because they sell their
votes." White House aides said Clinton found the remarks "funny," but the
leader of a Canadian opposition party demanded that Chrétien apologize to the
United States. (7/11)
Miscellany: The government confirmed the first known case of HIV
transmission
through French kissing . The report explained that
although saliva is a poor carrier of the virus, in this case both partners had
gum disease, which evidently allowed blood-to-blood transmission. The House
voted to dismantle the National Endowment for the Arts , but 1) the
margin was a single vote, 2) the NEA has more support in the Senate, and 3)
Clinton will veto the bill if necessary. Clinton also rejected a clause in the
big tobacco settlement that would restrict the Food and Drug Administration's
authority to regulate cigarettes . Pundits wondered whether this will
kill the deal. Betty Shabazz's grandson pleaded guilty to deliberately
setting the fire that burned her to death. Since he's just 12 years old, the
maximum sentence is 18 months in detention. ValuJet is escaping its past by
marrying another airline and changing its name to AirTran. Apple CEO
Gil Amelio resigned , prompting several newspapers to ask whether the
company is headed for extinction. (7/11)
Cambodia 's second prime minister staged a successful coup against
the country's first prime minister. The victors began looting, and hunting down
the new leader's political rivals, two of whom have already been executed.
Analysts foresee two possible outcomes: brutal tyranny (the optimistic
scenario) or bloody civil war. This follows Cambodia's history of: 1) massive
genocide; 2) a decade-long civil war; and 3) billions of dollars in foreign aid
to restore democracy, which now seem to have been wasted. (7/9)
Mexico's ruling party lost control of the national assembly for the
first time in 68 years. It was the longest-reigning political party in the
world. Reasons for the defeat: 1) Voters were sick of the country's lousy
economy; 2) they were sick of the ruling party's tradition of rigging
elections; and 3) this time, the ruling party neglected to rig the election.
President Ernesto Zedillo executed one of history's most impressive
post-election spin jobs, portraying his party's defeat as proof of the climate
of freedom and democracy he has fostered. Now that the party has lost its grip,
analysts foresee a wave of opportunistic defections by politicians, as happened
to Southern Democrats in the United States. (7/9)
Boxing
regulators revoked Mike Tyson's license to fight and fined him $3
million for biting off part of Evander Holyfield's ear. Tyson can apply for
reinstatement in a year. Optimists called the penalty stiff and predicted that
it would restore some standard of decency to the sport. Pessimists pointed out
that Tyson gets to keep $27 million he earned from the fight and can take his
services overseas. Fans rated the bite the most disgusting offense in the
history of sports. (7/9)
Sports
news: Cleveland Indians catcher Sandy Alomar Jr. won baseball's All-Star
Game for the American League with a two-run, seventh-inning home run in his
team's ballpark. Martina Hingis and Pete Sampras won the women's and men's
tennis championships at Wimbledon . Sportswriters lionized Hingis as a
Wunderkind (she's 16, the youngest Wimbledon champ in a century) and
Sampras as arguably the greatest player ever (he's on track to shatter the
record for men's grand slam titles). Women's runner-up Jana Novotna choked away
a third-set lead in the finals for the second time but managed (unlike last
time) not to cry on the shoulder of the Duchess of Kent. (7/9)
Doctors
reported that fenfluramine and phentermine, a popular diet pill
combination, may cause severe heart-valve disease . The story is all over
front pages and the TV news because the pills are prescribed about 20 million
times a year. The Food and Drug Administration is sending warnings to thousands
of doctors. The news cycle on drug scares has become so fast that the backlash
(accusing the new report of over-hyping the heart-disease link and ignoring the
benefits of reduced obesity) is already underway. (7/9)
The
British finally relinquished Hong Kong to China. Pundits agreed that
capitalism will continue to flourish there even if democracy doesn't: The
New York Times ' Tom Friedman noted that replicas of the "Goddess of
Democracy" (erected in 1989 by protesters in Tiananmen Square), which were
being peddled by Hong Kong demonstrators, were "Made in China." The first bad
omen: On July 10, Hong Kong's new Chinese-run government said textbooks must
remain neutral in their descriptions of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
(7/7)
More
Miscellany: NATO formally admitted Poland, Hungary, and the Czech
Republic . The United States successfully pressured its allies to postpone a
similar decision on Romania and Slovenia until 1999. The investigation of
Michael Kennedy's alleged affair with his kids' teen-age baby sitter is being
dropped because the baby sitter won't cooperate. Hawaiian legislators decided
to give domestic-partnership benefits to gay couples instead of letting
them marry. Lockheed Martin announced its purchase of Northrop Grumman,
completing the defense industry's consolidation into two camps ( Lockheed vs.
Boeing ). The British company that recently won fame for cloning a sheep is
reportedly on the verge of deriving human blood plasma from sheep and cows. A
new scientific report claims that puberty begins as early as the age of 6. A
woman in North Carolina was charged with murdering her son by whacking him with
a computer keyboard. (7/9)
Jimmy Stewart,
Robert Mitchum , and Charles Kuralt died. Hollywood pundits
contrasted Stewart (the idealistic gentleman) with Mitchum (the hard-living
rogue) and juxtaposed both of them--"the last of the giants of Hollywood's
golden era," said the Los Angeles Times-- with today's mediocre movie
stars. Cultural commentators paired Stewart with Kuralt as champions of virtue
and the common man. Television journalists ceaselessly glorified Kuralt's
television journalism. (7/7)
