■ Bill Clinton’s veto of partial-birth-abortion ban draws instant reaction from both sides. Bill Bennett says, “We now know that there is no abortion to which Bill Clinton objects. None.” In scathing column, liberal Mary McGrory writes that Clinton “gave Catholics the back of his hand.” But Kate Michel man applauds Prez for choosing “compassion and concern for families facing medical tragedies over the cynical, election-year ploy of the politicians advancing this legislation.” . . . Grass Roots Research finds that 45 per cent of Americans support a constitutional ban on most abortions, 25 per cent oppose the ban but also believe abortion is immoral, and 25 per cent believe that abortion is morally acceptable—with almost no difference between men’s and women’s attitudes. . . . Meanwhile, D.C. pro-choice Republican activist Julie Finley writes friends on how “to bring our party back” from “extremely conservative but clearly confused constituents [who] began to organize and move to control” GOP. Noting that Bob Dole employs Nelson Rockefeller Jr., “who inherited his father’s principles of governance,” she writes, “I firmly believe that Bob Dole is the ‘bridge’ candidate to that return. . . . We are not going to make a switch at once from right to left. . . . It takes a few years.” . . . Bloody but unbowed, Alan Keyes forges ahead with campaign for GOP presidential nomination in Indiana, Pennsylvania, North Carolina. Campaign disorganization frustrates fund-raiser Joyce Downey: “To tell you the truth, I’ve been faxing the scheduler for the past two days with big exclamatory letters: ‘I will do some physical hurt to you. I can’t do my job if I don’t know where the candidate is.’” . . . Ralph Nader promises “to make a stand on a no-money campaign,” could hurt Clinton in California. . . . Alma Powell tells Ladies Home Journal, “I don’t want to describe the hate mail we’ve gotten. You think everybody loves Colin Powell. Everybody doesn’t like Colin Powell.”
■ Two D.C teapot-tempests erupt: Bryant Gumbel and Jesse Jackson attack Republicans for showing insufficient sorrow over Ron Brown’s death; Haley Barbour responds that he sent condolences to Brown’s family, and Gingrich spokesman Tony Blankley scores Jackson for politicizing a tragedy. And Mary Matalin, announcing she’ll work for Dole campaign, draws heat for role in ’92 Bush campaign and marriage to Democratic campaign guru James Carville; Andy Rooney and 60 Minutes producer Don Hewitt say keeping her radio show would be unethical. Then Matalin reverses herself, expressing concern that she would distract attention from the candidate, and adds: “And let me say to Andy Rooney and Don Hewitt, there is no less objective show than 60 Minutes. . . . There is always a plan to whatever piece they’re doing and the facts are edited to fit that plan.” . . . Molly Ivins on Texas Democrats’ improbable Senate nominee, high-school teacher Victor Morales: “He’s just a sweetie pie. My concern is if they put him up against Phil Gramm, he’s going to come out minced sweetie pie.” . . . Rep. Richard “Doc” Hastings (R., Wash.), the freshman who most often supported Newt Gingrich in 1995, on being called a “Newtoid”: “I’m guilty of doing what I said I was going to do.” . . . Your tax dollars at work: Capital Research Center discovers that the Sentencing Project—a D.C. think tank advocating fewer prisons and more social programs to combat crime and attacking criminal-justice system as discriminatory —is funded through a “major grant” from the Department of Justice. . . . Rep. Charles Rangel (D., N.Y.) worries that anti-drug message hasn’t been sent since1980s: “I really never thought I’d miss Nancy Reagan, but I do.”
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