After crime-bill tangle and healthcare setback, Bill Clinton’s newest worry: talk of possible primary declaration next year by Sen. Bob Kerrey (D., Neb.). “Certainly, the Kerrey talk is everywhere,” said former presidential candidate Paul Tsongas. In widely circulated AP dispatch, Kerrey acknowledged “there is a break” with Clinton and “we’re not close” but said he didn’t see himself making run. Then added: “But I have learned never to say never.”… Less surprising are now-constant Jesse Jackson threats of primary or even independent run…. Clinton’s August vacation turned out to be no day at the beach. Martha’s Vineyard tangles included attempts by summer White House to deal with Boston Globe suggestions Al Gore is distancing himself from Prez, TV pictures of Hillary being burned in effigy by angry Kentucky crowd (over tobacco tax), and more newsmaking by Administration’s social-issues disaster area, Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders. Elders’s statements that son’s drug offenses (10-year sentence) weren’t a crime brought headlines and bitter criticism from anti-drug groups. Final irritant was controversy over presidential golf cart. White House got angry calls saying that nightly TV shots of Bill-buddy Vernon Jordan driving Clinton on links made black leader Jordan look like chauffeur in movie Driving Miss Daisy. A few days of that and Prez was driving Jordan…. Real vacation spoiler, though, was uproar over UN’s Cairo population conference. Democrats’ point man on November congressional races, former Rep. Tony Coelho (D., Calif.), frantically warned White House that public dispute with Pope could cost Democrats Catholic swing votes. (Loss of ethnic Catholics in industrial states—the Reagan Democrats—cost George Bush ‘92 race.) After Vatican spokesmen directly refuted VP Gore’s claim that UN documents didn’t call for abortion rights, Bishop John McHugh told NBC’s Meet the Press that American Catholics may “walk away from the Democratic Party as well as the Clinton Administration.” Black eye worsened with arrival in Cairo of U.S. delegation members and fem-extremists Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D., Colo.), Bella Abzug, and, yes, Jane Fonda.
August crime-bill fight may pay November dividends for GOP: Harris poll shows voters believe, by 54 to 42 per cent, legislation had too much pork and won’t fight crime. Justice Dept. also forced to admit that language in Democrats’ original bill would have released 40,000 drug offenders…. Washington Times editorial suggested that—just as House Dems who helped Reagan in Eighties were called “Boll Weevils”—appropriate term for moderate GOPers who gave Clinton crimebill victory is “Cockroach Republicans.” One such Clinton-helper, Rep. Fred Upton (R., Mich.), was “visibly shaken” after being booed off stage at GOP state convention in Grand Rapids. Another crime-bill defector, John Kasich (R., Ohio), may also pay price. Conservative stalwart Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R., Calif.) says Rep. Christopher Cox (R., Calif.) should replace Kasich as head of GOP budget caucus…. Crime-bill fallout is heating up chances that GOP senators will make fight of Clinton nomination of lenient-on-crime Judge H. Lee Sarokin to Court of Appeals. “The most liberal member of the federal bench,” says New Jersey Law Journal…. GOP may also make issue of two constitutional amendments. Naturalized Americans are calling for amendment to protect flag from desecration, and some GOP insiders see “values” wedge by combining flag and prayer-in-school issues. House GOP Whip Newt Gingrich being urged to include both amendments, immensely popular in polls but opposed by House Democrats, as part of Republican “Contract with America” during Sept. 27 ceremony on U.S. Capitol steps.
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