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backtop |
| July 14, 1997 |
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(Vol. Ten; No. 14) |
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It's the System's Fault, Not Clinton's"At times it will seem as if an individual, or a presidential
campaign, or a political party is being investigated. That's only partly true.
What's really in the dock beginning today isn't any politician but the system
that politicians built. What's important beginning today isn't what one party
can show about the other, but what the campaign-finance system shows about our
political system....The hearings that begin this morning aren't really about
John Huang and Charlie Trie or Abraham Lincoln's bedroom but about the
political loophole unregulated 'soft-money' contributions to the parties, not
to the candidates that makes them important. Soft money exploded in
1996..." "Mr. Clinton in Europe is moving like a man on a roll. A summit here
where he got almost everything he wanted, an economy back home that is the
best in decades. Even the charges being raised about his party's fundraising
tactics do not seem to stick...On testimony today that Mr. Clinton personally
referred this man, John Huang, the central figure in the Senate investigation,
for a fundraising job in the Democratic Party, the President for the first
time confirmed the story himself. But his demeanor, and especially his answer,
sent a message that it's no big deal to him....The President's aides say that
Mr. Clinton is too busy with diplomacy to pay much attention to the Senate
investigation." Which Way is Huang?Huang had special interest in China, CIA officer testifies CIA Official Briefed 'Very Polite' Huang 30 Times at Commerce Dept. Tax Class Warfare"The working class are going to be eating bologna as a result of this
tax bill because 40 percent of the children aren't going to get anything from
the childcare, the child tax credit because, as Republicans said last week,
'We're not giving out welfare here.' Well, these are the people who catch the
early bus, probably two buses to get to their jobs, may even work two jobs or
making less than $30,000 a year and are paying huge amounts in payroll taxes
and they're going to get no relief from this, while people earning $110,000 a
year are going to." "The secretary has his liberal defenders. They point out that he
opposed Clinton's decision to sign welfare reform a much-criticized compromise
with the GOP as too harsh, and supported some progressive moves like expanding
income-tax credits for the disadvantaged....Rubin insists the Democrats will
continue to vouch for the underclass, even though the administration has been
conspicuously fudgy on issues like the capital-gains-tax cut which in this
booming economy looks to many eyes like a plain giveaway to the rich. The
current budget fight with the GOP, Rubin says, 'is largely about our view that
tax cuts should help those who have not fared as well in this economy.' But
with his reputation secure, the question is, how far will Robert Rubin go to
help them?" "The economy is so strong right now, Americans are making so much more
money than expected, and paying so much more in taxes, that new government
figures show the budget deficit could disappear entirely as early as next
year, even without a budget deal...Some argue the new budget figures show
there is no need to make big changes in Medicare, or to cut taxes for the
well-to-do." "It seemed like a logical idea. Pass a law that says before anyone can
buy a handgun they should first answer a few simple questions...Even gun
dealers today were a bit puzzled by the ruling. Don Davis of Indianapolis said
the background checks had allowed him to turn away dozens of convicted
felons....No matter who does the checking, supporters of the Brady law say one
lesson from this is very clear. If no background check is done anyone can walk
into a gun store and purchase a weapon, including the nearly quarter of a
million felons who tried to and were turned away the four years the Brady law
was in effect." Prosecuting the Investigator"I think Ken Starr is, is bound and determined to make James Carville
look good. James Carville is the President's attack dog who's been after Ken
Starr for so long and every time the, another story surfaces in which it seems
like Ken Starr is being a little bit too aggressive, going after things which
are a little bit seemingly off the point that in, in ways that he can't
necessarily justify, he feeds into that." "I think what Starr is doing here, he's got his prosecutors'
explanations and so on, but what he's really doing is playing with the
long-term credibility of the institution of special prosecutors. I think
people's patience is running out with that. And, you know, there may be a day
in the country's history when we really need a special prosecutor, and I'm not
sure that the currency won't have been spent by then." Conservatism Equals Racism"There is a vacuum of high-level leadership that needs to be filled.
And as weak and periodically demagogic as Mr. Clinton has been, he is a
substantial improvement over the racially poisonous Reagan-Bush era. That
period began with Ronald Reagan brazenly kicking off his 1980 Presidential
campaign in Philadelphia, Miss., where the civil rights workers Michael
Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney had been slain in 1964, and ended
with Clarence Thomas making a mockery of Thurgood Marshall's seat on the
Supreme Court." "Bill An Lee, the Clinton administration's nominee to head the Civil
Rights Division is a tough advocate, several times successfully suing the City
of Los Angeles over discrimination. But L.A. mayor Richard Riordan, a
Republican, says Lee is no ideologue. He calls him an effective pragmatist.
Yet Clint Bolick and other right-wingers oppose Lee. Why? Because he comes out
of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Where do they want to get a civil rights'
chief? The Ku Klux Klan?" Let's Follow Bangladesh"You talk about the United States leading the rest of the world. And
the fact is that the very time we're talking about removing those things that
facilitate the rise of women to some parity in the country, the rest of the
world is actually introducing quotas to ensure India, Bangladesh, a host of
other Third World countries, new democracies are introducing roles that laws
that bring more women into the system....I find the Civil Rights Bill a little
bit offensive." The Real Charles Kuralt: Chucking Conservatives"I think liberalism lives the notion that we don't have to stay where
we are as a society, we have promises to keep, and it is liberalism, whether
people like it or not, which has animated all the years of my life. What on
Earth did conservatism ever accomplish for our country? It was people who
wanted to change things for the better."
L. Brent Bozell III, Publisher
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