For The Record - brief comments about political and social current events - Brief Article

National Review, June 28, 1999

* Vice President Al Gore: "The purpose of life is to glorify God. I turn to my faith as the bedrock of my approach to any important question in life." . . . Tipper Gore describes her husband on Today show: "Handsome, sexy, a little reserved. Watch out, America!". . . Hillary Clinton, in CBS interview with Dan Rather: "I am very committed to learning about a lot of different issues I've worked on all my life and how they affect people in New York." . . . Dick Morris, on Hillary veering toward campaign announcement: "This is the first candidacy I know of that has to start with a housewarming party." . . . Next Webster Hubbell trial set to begin August 9, with Mrs. Clinton considered a potential witness.

* Pat Buchanan, Texas governor George W. Bush, Elizabeth Dole, and Dan Quayle benefit from name recognition in Pew Research Center poll, but other Republicans are much less well known: Gary Bauer (18 percent), Ohio Rep. John Kasich (21 percent), Arizona Sen. John McCain (32 percent), Lamar Alexander (47 percent), and Steve Forbes (71 percent). . . . In Gallup poll, 40 percent say they are "not at all likely" to vote for Gore, and 15 percent say "not too likely." In 1987, only 19 percent said same about then vice president Bush. . . . Internet surfers flock to anti-George W. Bush website (www.gwbush.com) after governor publicly criticizes creation of 26-year-old Zack Exley for resembling his own page (www.georgewbush.com) too closely: "There ought to be limits to freedom. We're aware of the site and this guy is just a garbage man." Gore parody (www.allgore.com) attracts less attention. . . . In CNN/Time poll, Bush continues to lead Gore in match-up, 54 percent to 41 percent. . . . Alexander and Quayle lay off staff, blame fundraising problems. . . . Sen. Bob Smith (R., N.H.) says GOP is too hostile to conservatives, threatens to run for president as third-party candidate.

* "I'd be proud to vote for tax increases for schools. You bet I would," says House minority leader Dick Gephardt, according to Philadelphia Inquirer. "You've got to have a combination of taking it out of the defense budget and raising revenue." . . . Gloria Matta Tuchman, co-author of California's Prop. 227 banning bilingual education, announces challenge to Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D., Calif.). . . . Oakland mayor Jerry Brown says attempt to unionize teachers in California charter school "violates the whole spirit of charter schools, and it turns the whole idea of a parent-teacher-controlled learning environment upside down. It's absolutely unacceptable, and I intend to fight it with everything at my command." . . . Enactment of American Association of Retired Persons legislative agenda, as described in AARP publication, would add $944 billion in new annual spending to federal budget, according to National Taxpayers Union Foundation. . . .Census Bureau seeks additional $1.7 billion in funding to comply with Supreme Court restrictions on statistical sampling. . . . Proposal to double presidential pay in 2001 faces 2-to-1 opposition in Pew Research survey.

* Portrait of Robert E. Lee removed from Richmond, Va., riverfront development after city-council member compares Confederate general to Nazi leaders. . . . Eight years after Rodney King riots, 89 percent of whites and 82 percent of blacks in Los Angeles say they are satisfied with police, in Department of Justice survey. . . . Sergei Khrushchev, son of Soviet leader Nikita, prepares to take U.S. citizenship exam in Providence, R.I. . . . Senate votes to restore ranks of Husband E. Kimmel and Walter C. Short, commanders at Pearl Harbor demoted after Japanese attack in 1941. . . . Rock star Gary Cherone, lead singer of Van Halen, criticizes popular Pearl Jam crooner Eddie Vedder for pro- abortion views. . . . Montana's state legislature imposes 75-miles-per- hour speed limits on interstate highways, which previously did not have any. . . . Maine's Department of Human Services plans to yank license of Jaricot Foster Home for mentally retarded adults because it bans pornography and sex. . . . "Roughly one-fifth of the non-fundamentalist public hold intensely antagonistic sentiments toward fundamentalists," says Public Opinion Quarterly, with ill will concentrated among the highly educated and secular.

* Tories in United Kingdom signal that they will run a "keep the pound" campaign against adopting the euro in next round of parliamentary elections, due by 2002. . . . Henry Kissinger: The U.S. should withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty if Russia does not agree to change it because "it may have had a limited theoretical sense in a two-power nuclear world, but in a multi-nuclear world, it is reckless." . . . Pakistani information minister Mushahid Hussein: "If we didn't have the bomb, India would have occupied Kashmir by now." . . . Azerbaijan complains about Chinese selling missiles to Armenia, in deal brokered by Moscow. . . . Israeli decision to enlarge Jewish settlement on West Bank effectively cuts any Palestinian state in half. . . . Romania announces it will permit publication of Communist-era secret- service materials and let citizens see their files.