The Week

■ Considering the rate at which women are popping up to eliminate candidates, the 1992 Democratic nominee could be a dark horse: Barney Frank.

■ Man Bites Dog Department. On the same day President Bush went before the nation to announce more spending initiatives, Representative Dick Armey went before the legislative appropriations subcommittee to argue against a $264,000 budget increase for his own committee. This is the same Texas congressman who led the GOP revolt against the Darman tax package in 1990, and who has used his position on the Joint Economic Committee to expose the partisan assumptions behind supposedly objective congressional economic reports whose conclusions invariably reflect the Democrats’ tax-and-spend priorities. With the House Republican leadership unwilling to take on the Administration, the Reaganite mantle has fallen squarely on Armey’s shoulders. When Sam Skinner was telling Hill Republicans about Darman’s wonderful new recovery plan, Armey rose to say that “the only thing that will give me confidence that President Bush knows what needs to be done with the economy is if he fires Dick Darman”—all the while looking Darman straight in the eye. Want to guess who blinked?

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William F. Buckley Jr.

■ Considering the rate at which women are popping up to eliminate candidates, the 1992 Democratic nominee could be a dark horse: Barney Frank.

■ Man Bites Dog Department. On the same day President Bush went before the nation to announce more spending initiatives, Representative Dick Armey went before the legislative appropriations subcommittee to argue against a $264,000 budget increase for his own committee. This is the same Texas congressman who led the GOP revolt against the Darman tax package in 1990, and who has used his position on the Joint Economic Committee to expose the partisan assumptions behind supposedly objective congressional economic reports whose conclusions invariably reflect the Democrats’ tax-and-spend priorities. With the House Republican leadership unwilling to take on the Administration, the Reaganite mantle has fallen squarely on Armey’s shoulders. When Sam Skinner was telling Hill Republicans about Darman’s wonderful new recovery plan, Armey rose to say that “the only thing that will give me confidence that President Bush knows what needs to be done with the economy is if he fires Dick Darman”—all the while looking Darman straight in the eye. Want to guess who blinked?