The Week

■ Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has agreed to stay in his house and take no part in the upcoming Bosnian elections. Considering how Dole is doing, can we make the same deal with him?

■ The House Republican leadership has ended a year of wavering about the Dole-Canady anti-preference bill with a pre-emptive surrender. Instead of attempting to abolish race and gender preferences in federal programs, employment, and contracting, the GOP will target its attack on the Small Business Administration’s Section 8(a) program. The program is, to be sure, a noxious mix of racial preference, corporate welfare, and administrative inefficiency. The General Accounting Office reports that 1 per cent of certified firms receive a quarter of the business under the program; less than 9 per cent of contracts are awarded competitively; and less than 4 per cent of 8(a) firms become “competitive.” Some Hill Republicans think this program is analogous to partial-birth abortions, as being among the least defensible products of modern liberalism. But the power of the partial-birth-abortion issue was that it brought the abortion debate down from abstraction. When it comes to preferences, the public is already in tune with Republicans on broad principle. The debate should take place there, not at the level of eye-glazing bureaucratic detail. The retreat also opens Republicans to the charge of tolerating reverse discrimination against all Americans except the owners of corporations. Finally, while many liberals voted for the partial-birthabortion ban, they are sure to fight any affirmative-action rollback—especially since they can sense the GOP’s fear. “On this issue the Republican leadership has been spinning around like a weather vane in a hurricane,” says Rep. Charles Canady (R., Fla.), who, along with Susan Molinari (R., N.Y.) and Chris Cox (R., Calif.), has stood on principle. It is ground they share with the American people—if not, alas, with Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey.

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■ Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has agreed to stay in his house and take no part in the upcoming Bosnian elections. Considering how Dole is doing, can we make the same deal with him?

■ The House Republican leadership has ended a year of wavering about the Dole-Canady anti-preference bill with a pre-emptive surrender. Instead of attempting to abolish race and gender preferences in federal programs, employment, and contracting, the GOP will target its attack on the Small Business Administration’s Section 8(a) program. The program is, to be sure, a noxious mix of racial preference, corporate welfare, and administrative inefficiency. The General Accounting Office reports that 1 per cent of certified firms receive a quarter of the business under the program; less than 9 per cent of contracts are awarded competitively; and less than 4 per cent of 8(a) firms become “competitive.” Some Hill Republicans think this program is analogous to partial-birth abortions, as being among the least defensible products of modern liberalism. But the power of the partial-birth-abortion issue was that it brought the abortion debate down from abstraction. When it comes to preferences, the public is already in tune with Republicans on broad principle. The debate should take place there, not at the level of eye-glazing bureaucratic detail. The retreat also opens Republicans to the charge of tolerating reverse discrimination against all Americans except the owners of corporations. Finally, while many liberals voted for the partial-birthabortion ban, they are sure to fight any affirmative-action rollback—especially since they can sense the GOP’s fear. “On this issue the Republican leadership has been spinning around like a weather vane in a hurricane,” says Rep. Charles Canady (R., Fla.), who, along with Susan Molinari (R., N.Y.) and Chris Cox (R., Calif.), has stood on principle. It is ground they share with the American people—if not, alas, with Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey.