■ To be, or not to be, in California? That is the question dividing Dole campaign, New York Times reports. Jack Kemp and Newt Gingrich (and NR) want money to be spent there, while pollster Tony Fabrizio and political director Jill Hanson urge pullout. One official says, “Every dollar we spend there is too much. We’re putting states like New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut at risk.” Official adds that Kemp’s counsel reflects his interest in running for President in 2000. . . . Leftwing New York Observer endorses Bob Dole: “There have been Administrations worse than Mr. Clinton’s, but rarely, if ever, has there been one that so often inspires shame. . . . Given a choice between a man who has displayed nothing but contempt for the traditions of his office and a man who so clearly reveres his country’s institutions and is humbled by his service to them, we will choose honor over expediency.” . . . Latest Census Bureau data indicate that median household income has dropped in 21 states—including N.H., Vt., Wash., Calif., N.Y., Ark.—during Clinton Administration; Va. heads list with 12.7 per cent fall. . . . Clinton asks Palestinians, “Please, please give us a chance to make this thing work in the days ahead.” Did he succeed? Tom Brokaw says, “All the President’s power and all the President’s men couldn’t put the peace process back together again,” and National Public Radio’s Mara Liasson says summit “was about as close to [an utter failure] as you could get.” But Peter Jennings declares, “Under the guidance of President Clinton, there is progress.” (Is he cutting ads for Clinton?) . . . David Letterman’s Top Ten lists repeatedly ridicule Dole 15 per cent tax cut. . . . Quoth Kemp: “Clinton is trying to run out the clock in the third quarter.”
■ Colorado likely to pass Parental Rights Amendment. . . . While Phil Gramm’s Senate seat is now secure, he’s still pounding Democrat Victor Morales over “quotas.” . . . Sens. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.), Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.), and Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R., Colo.) at first voted to keep partial-birth abortion legal, but changed minds during veto-override fight. … In tight race against incumbent Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.), Gov. William Weld faces continued erosion on the Right to Conservative Susan Gallagher. Weld’s latest offense: appointing Harvard University general counsel Margaret Marshall, a death-penalty opponent and wife of New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis, to Supreme Judicial Court. . . . Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah), chairman of Senate Judiciary Committee, blasts Administration’s “coddle a convict program”: Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Deval Patrick wants hardened criminals to get “one hour of out- of-cell time daily,” “a clean clothes and linen exchange at least three times per week,” and “sporting/recreation equipment to afford prisoners the opportunity to participate in large muscular activity” outdoors. And “loss of meals must never be used as a punitive measure”— which, notes Sen. Hatch, will be news to plenty of parents. . . . Bill Bennett and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D., Conn.) call for suspension of Baltimore Orioles’ spitting second baseman Roberto Alomar for duration of playoffs: “Justice, as well as the integrity of the game, demands it.”
Comments