Edited by Michelle Garner NewsQgest
Monday, January 8, 1996 Page 2
Presidential campaigns escalate
MANCHESTER, N.H. - Republi
can presidential hopeful Steve Forbes
said Sunday he might change his fiat
tax plan to counter criticism from ri
vals that it would benefit millionaires
like Forbes but punish some middle
class Americans.
Also Sunday, former White House
aide Pat Buchanan launched the first
television ads of his campaign, cast
ing himself in the mold of two former
bosses. “Richard Nixon and Ronald
Reagan were not men of compromise
and neither am I,” Buchanan says in
the New Hampshire spot. “... I will
never be afraid to lead.”
Fresh from a Saturday night debate
in South Carolina, the Republican
hopefuls brought their road show to
New Hampshire for a parade of
speeches at a state GOP fund-raiser.
But winter weather hurt attendance:
Forbes, Texas Sen. Phil Gramm and
GOP front-runner Bob Dole had to
speak by telephone, unable to make it
to New Hampshire because of the
snow that paralyzed East Coast air
travel.
One who did make it to New Hamp
shire was former Tennessee Gov.
Lamar Alexander, who said having
Gramm and Dole trapped in Washing
ton fit perfectly with his campaign
theme: that a GOP nominee from
Washington would lose to President
Clinton and imperil the Republican
congressional majorities.
Taking particular aim at Dole,
Alexander said Clinton had no vision
but would fake it and win a race against
“a senator who is too decent to fake a
vision.”
Gramm said Dole was too eager to
compromi se in the budget talks, warn
ing that Republicans had better keep
their promises to balance the budget
and cut taxes. “Ifwc don’t stand up for
what we promised, how arc we any
different from Bill Clinton,” Gramm
said.
Buchanan also took after Dole’s
budget role, saying it was time for “a
leadership that believes in the politics
of confrontation and fighting, not the
politics of the deal.” Buchanan also
promised as president to vigorously
oppose abortion, end affirmative ac
tion, get the federal government out of
the gun control business and end the
congressional pension system.
Dole, barely audible because of a
poor phone hookup, didn’t mention
rivals by name but tried to undermine
their attacks. In the budget talks, he
vowed “we will fight to the end for
fundamental conservative change.”
Disputingsuggestionshecan’t beat
Clinton, Dole cited a new CNN poll
showing him with a narrow - though
statistically insignificant - lead over
the president. “We’re back in the lead,”
Dole said, promising if elected to
“bring about anew conservative era in
American government.”
Earlier on NBC’s“Meet the Press,”
the multimillionaire publisher vigor
ously disputed assertions that a flat
tax would be a boon to the rich - and
him personally - but raise taxes on
middle-income families. Several stud
ies have suggested that, but Forbes
insisted “every American comes out
ahead with a flat tax.”
Still, Forbes said it might become a
“political necessity” to change a pro
vision that would not require indi
viduals to pay taxes on interest, divi
dends and other investment income.
He said that money should not be
taxed twice, but that because of politi
cal attacks he was searching for a
formula to have the tax paid by the
individual instead of the business.
Forbes has vaulted into second
place in most Republican presidential
polling, benefiting from a SI 0 million
barrage of television advertising pro
moting the flat tax and criticizing other
candidates, particularly Dole, as typi
cal Washington politicians.
His support has stymied the efforts
of Gramm, Alexander and Buchanan
to emerge as the principal alternative
to Dole, the Senate majority leader.
Democracy leads in Guatemalan politics
GUATEMALA CITY - A businessman who promised to strengthen
democracy in a country once ruled by military strongmen took an early
lead Sunday night in presidential returns over a lawyer backed by a
former dictator.
The election is Guatemala’s third civilian balloting after a rocky path
to democracy: A 1940s experiment with civilian rule was derailed by a
U.S.-backed right-wing coup in 1954 that ushered in three decades of
military control. Civilian rule began in 1986.
New questions raised
in Whitewater affair
WASHINGTON - The possibility
that Hillary Rodham Clinton will even
tually have to appear before Congress
in the Whitewater and travel office
affairs seemed to rise Sunday, with
Sen. Alfonse D’Amato and Rep. Wil
liam Clinger saying newly produced
documents raise a broad spectrum of
new questions about her role in both
matters.
D’Amato said that billingdocuments
the White House turned over to the
Senate late Friday afternoon show that
Mrs. Clinton has not told the truth about
Whitewater, particularly her activities
relating to a fraudulent Arkansas land
deal known as Castle Grande.
D’Amato stopped short of flatly
accusing the first lady of lying and he
was careful in hewing to his long-held
position that he doesn’t currently plan
to summon Mrs. Clinton before the
Senate Whitewater Committee.
But in an appearance on ABC’s
“This Week With David Brinkley,”
D’Amato, R-N.Y., said the committee
is growing increasingly frustrated with
delays in turning over Whitewater in
formation anddoubtfulofgettingtruth
ful answers from White House aides
on Whitewater.
The billing records show “tremen
dous inconsistencies” with Mrs.
Clinton’s sworn statements to federal
regulators that she performed only
minimal work for her Whitewater
partner’s savings and loan, said
D’Amato.
Mrs. Clinton’s answers arc “not
the truth,” D’Amato added. “We’ve
had this kind of thing over and over
again from her people who have stone
walled us, who feign memory loss.”
Appearing in defense of Mrs.
Clinton were Ann Lewis, Clinton’s
deputy campaign manager, and promi
nent Washington attorney Robert
Bennett.
Bennett said he has represented
clients in Washington scandals for 25
years and has “never” seen “a White
House as cooperative with an investi
gation” as the Clinton administration.
Mrs. Clinton’s billing records of
her work for her Whitewater partner’s
failed savings and loan were first
sought two years ago by prosecutors.
In the absence of the documents, it
was impossible to evaluate Mrs.
Clinton’s position that she had noth
ing to do with the Castle Grande deal
and that her work for Madison Guar
anty S&L was “minimal.”
The billing records show 68 meet
ings and telephone calls on Madison
business, including 14 conversations
with Seth Ward, the Arkansas busi
nessman whoco-owned Castle Grande
with Mrs. Clinton’s Whitewater part
ner, James McDougal. Federal regu
lators have characterized Castle
Grande as a “sham” transaction de
signed to circumvent Arkansas law
restrictingthc amount of fundsan S&L
may invest in real estate. The deal has
cost taxpayers nearly $4 million, ac
cording to a still-unreleased report
prepared for the Resolution Trust
Corp. Ward had no funds at risk in the
deal and his share of the purchase was
financed entirely by the S&L, accord
ing to the RTC.
Lewis said Mrs. Clinton’s early
responses to her doing a “minimal”
amount of work for Madison Guar
anty dealt with the S&L’s effort to get
state regulatory approval for a plan to
issue stock in the institution. At the
time, it was not publicly known that
Mrs. Clinton also had done work on
behalf of the institution in connection
with the fraudulent Castle Grande deal.
TV show aids in finding kidnapped child
NEW YORK - Within three hours after their story was depicted on
TV’s “America’s Most Wanted,” an 8-ycar-old Seattle boy and his
alleged kidnapper were found by FBI agents in a Manhattan hotel early
Sunday. 4.
Jason J. Murphy, 19, who faces charges of kidnapping and child
molestation in Washington’s Snohomish County, was being held on a
federal fugitive warrant.
The boy, Nicholas Sullivan, was taken to an unidentified state
medical facility in New York City, and a preliminary examination
showed him to be in good health, FBI spokesman Joe Valiqucttc said. He
refused to say if the exam indicated the boy had been molested.
Employee error causes flight delays
SEATTLE - A technician won’t be disciplined for an accident that cut
off all power to an air traffic control center and delayed flights through
out the Pacific Northwest, an FAA spokesman said Sunday.
The power outage early Saturday darkened radar screens and si
lenced radios and telephones at the Federal Aviation Administration
center, leaving controllers completely in the dark for at least five
minutes.
At least 50 airborne aircraft were affected and more than 150 flights
delayed by an average of an hour or more, according to the air traffic
controller’s union. There were no reports of aircraft placed in jeopardy.
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Arafat blames
Israel’s Peres
for assassination
DURA, West Bank - Yasser
Arafat on Sunday blamed his
partner in peace, Israeli Prime
Minister Shimon Peres, for the
assassination of an Islamic mili
tant who had masterminded sui
cide attacks against Israel.
Arafat, speaking at a rally,
said the kil 1 ingofYehiya Ayyash
violated the spirit of the peace
process. He accused Israel of
undermining PLO authority by
carrying out the attack in the
Gaza Strip, which is under his
control.^
“This is not what we have
agreed upon. I appeal to Peres,
the prime minister, to stop dam
aging the Palestinian security
inside Palestinian territory,”
Arafat said.
Israel “should not kill and
assassinate on Palestinian land
the struggler, the martyr Yehiya
Ayyash,” Arafat said. The crowd
of4,000 applauded and chanted
“Allahu akbar” - God is great.
Arafat’s laudatory character
ization of Ayyash was a depar
ture from his recent refusal to
praise terrorists. The statement
appeared to be an attempt to
ensure he could not be blamed in
any way for the killing.
Any indication that Arafat had
allowed the killing would aggra
vate tensions between the PLO
and Palestinians opposed to the
peace process and erode sup
port for him ahead of the Jan. 20
elections for the self-rule legis
lature.
Israeli officials, who have
refused to confirm or deny in
volvement in-thc assassination,
would not respond to Arafat’s
comments Sunday.
On Sunday, Israeli newspa
pers reported that the Shin Bet
secret service was responsible
for the slaying, and that Peres
had reaffirmed the orders of the
late Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin to hunt down Ayyash, who
topped Israel’s most-wanted list.
Ayyash, known as “The En
gineer,” had orchestrated a se
ries of suicide bombings - Israel
blamed him for seven attacks
that killed 55 people and
wounded 300. He was a legend
ary figure to many Palestinians,
especially young people.
Ayyash died Friday at his
hideout in the Gaza Strip while
talking on a booby-trapped cel
lular telephone.
Palestinians observed the sec
ond day of a three-day strike to
mourn Ayyash’s death. The
strike was widely observed in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip,
but in Nablus, Palestinian police
forced stores to remain open and
fined 30 shopkeepers who closed
up and fled.
Blizzard wreaks havoc in capital
WASHINGTON - First it was Con
gress. Now, Mother Nature may keep
the federal government shut down.
A blizzard on Sunday snarled the
capital’s streets with more than a foot
of snow, making it likely museum
guards, Education and Transportation
Department workers and passport of
ficials won’t return to work Monday,
just two days afler Congress and Presi
dent Clinton said they could.
“It’s kind of God’s revenge on the
craziness of Washington, I guess,”
said John Sturdivant, head of the
American Federation of Government
Employees.
Officials, watching snow stream
out of the sky, planned to decide by
early Monday whether to keep work
ers home, said Janice Lachance,
spokeswoman for the Office of Per
sonnel Management.
They made the call at 10:30 p.m.,
saying federal workers should stay
home for their own safety.
The National Weather Service is
sued abh'zzard warningthrough Sunday
night, forecasting 20 to 30 inches of
snow and winds 25 to 35 miles an hour.
Depending on conditions, workers
could be told to stay home, come in
late or take voluntary leave if their
commute is particularly snarled. Ei
ther way, most federal law-enforce
ment, hospital and other emergency
workers still will work, Lachance said.
For workers relieved by an end to
weeks of uncertainty, the blizzard
seemed a final irony.
“I think I can safely say everyone is
•ready to get back,” said Kerri Mor
gan, who works for the Education
Department.
President Clinton ended the three
week partial shutdown of federal pro
grams on Saturday when he acceded
to Republican demands and offered a
seven-year balanced budget plan.
