The Week - political happenings

National Review, June 14, 1999

Janet Reno and the Justice Department announced that they had shattered a Swiss vitamin cartel. After shattering the American nuclear-weapons cartel, it was easy.

The day after the new Star Wars movie (The Phantom Menace) opened, the House called for the adoption of a missile-defense system as soon as technology permits. The Senate had passed its own bill in March. It has taken nuclear progress by Iraq and North Korea, not to mention almost daily revelations of Chinese spying, to force liberals to admit that the nuclear threat is more than a phantom menace.

In a rare legislative victory for colorblindness, Senate Republicans voted to end a federal mandate requiring states to try to make the racial composition of their juvenile inmates match that of the population. States have met this mandate by, for instance, funding after-school programs in minority areas, with the aim of reducing delinquency. But anecdotal evidence suggests that criminal suspects are also being released to rig the numbers. Democratic senators Paul Wellstone and Ted Kennedy fought a rearguard defense of the color-coded legislation, but the Republicans narrowly prevailed. The bill now moves to the House, where the GOP can finish off this form of racial profiling.

In Iowa, Al Gore elaborated on an educational agenda he called "truly revolutionary." Much of this "revolution" would in fact be an expansion of the status quo: more schools, more after-school programs, more pre- school subsidies. His other palliatives-linking every school to the Internet, cutting class size-are nothing but expensive diversions from fundamental reform that have already been tried. Still others are promising but vague. Teachers should indeed be tested on the subject matter they teach, rather than on education theory. But how is a president to ensure this? Back in Washington, education secretary Richard Riley made clear what Gore's agenda would mean in practice. Riley proposed federal oversight of the disciplinary code of every public school in the country. He said that even more funding earmarked for poor children should go instead to the education bureaucracy (in the form of "professional development"). And whatever Gore says on the stump, Washington still insists that teachers master education theory. So Gore's reforms amount to more spending and centralization. Predictably, he also issued a pro forma denunciation of school vouchers while in Iowa. Now those would be truly "truly revolutionary."

Didn't you just love the 1996 election? Bill Clinton and Bob Dole must have, to judge by their meddlesome kibitzing about the campaigns of Al Gore and Elizabeth Dole. In a late-night phone call to Richard Berke of the New York Times, the president said the Gore effort was "in a lot better shape now than it was eight weeks ago" (read: Eight weeks ago, it was on the rocks) and added that "this thing will shake out" (but then again it could fall apart). Bob Dole offered that his wife was "getting there" (sure has a ways to go, though, doesn't she?) and that he might contribute money to one of her rivals, John McCain. He also volunteered that campaigning "is not her whole life," as it clearly is for him and Bill Clinton. Maybe there has been a more envious and self- centered pair in American political history, but we can't think of one offhand.

Speculation about the Senate race in New York has centered on whether Hillary Rodham Clinton will run and, if so, whether she will beat Rudolph Giuliani. That Giuliani is the strongest Republican candidate is taken for granted. And he does indeed bring considerable strengths to the race, not least his astounding rescue of New York City. But this analysis ignores the state's Conservative and Right to Life parties. Last fall, a Right to Life candidate sank the Republican nominee for attorney general. Conservative-party support for Gov. George Pataki provided his margin of victory in 1994. Giuliani is not expected to get the Right to Life endorsement in 2000; nor, for that matter, is his rival, Rep. Rick Lazio. Giuliani, who has run with Liberal-party support in the past, may also have trouble with the Conservatives. The only Republican who would be endorsed by both the Conservative and Right to Life parties is Rep. Peter King, who is considering a run. In a close race, it might take a King to take out the Queen.

Bill Clinton called him the greatest treasury secretary since Alexander Hamilton, overlooking such worthier candidates as Albert Gallatin and Andrew Mellon. Robert Rubin's actual achievement was more modest, and- as is often the case in government-negative: He refused to interfere with the Federal Reserve or to devalue the dollar. This alone was an improvement on the record of some of his Republican predecessors, and it allowed inflation to be tamed. The conquest of inflation has helped the economy in multiple ways, such as reducing interest rates and cutting effective tax rates, all of which have contributed powerfully to the stock-market boom. Against this salutary neglect must be set Rubin's opposition to tax cuts and his fealty to International Monetary Fund orthodoxy. The IMF has cajoled poor countries into adopting Rubin's worst policies (high taxes) while eschewing his best (hard money). Lawrence Summers is to be the new treasury secretary. Let us hope Rubin's successor understands his successes.