For the Record - News Briefs - Brief Article

National Review, June 25, 2001

Party-switching Sen. Jim Jeffords, in Newsweek: "I don't blame the president as much as I do the Senate leadership." . . . Republican Senate leader Trent Lott says there is "something liberating about being in the minority" because Republicans will be "freer to advocate positions and amendments [they] really think should be adopted." . . . Rep. Chris Shays (R., Conn.), in Salon.com: "If I were in the Senate, I would want new leadership." . . . NPR's Nina Totenberg looks at GOP and sees wife beaters: "The modern Republican party and its moderate wing are in a sort of, to use the psychobabble of the era, in an abusive relationship. . . . The conservatives are the abusers."

President Bush declines to issue statement marking June as Gay Pride Month, as Bill Clinton did during his tenure. . . . Bush at Yale commencement: "Everything I know about the spoken word, I learned right here at Yale." . . . In McLaughlin & Associates poll, 68 percent of blacks and 59 percent of whites say it is "unfair" for Congress to impose 40 percent death tax on estates worth $1 billion. . . . Democratic consultants Paul Begala and James Carville offer advice in New York Times: "The Democrats must work to spend and shrink: spend the money and shrink the tax cut." . . . No House Republicans oppose final tax-cut bill, but two Senate GOPers say nay: Lincoln Chafee (R.I.) and John McCain (Ariz.). . . . Chafee, on whether he will "absolutely" remain a Republican, in Associated Press: "I can't say 'absolutely' on anything." . . . McCain, on what GOP colleagues talk about, in USA Today: "You think they talk to me?"

California governor Gray Davis (D.) hires Al Gore's top two campaign spokesmen, Chris Lehane and Mark Fabiani, for $180,000 in taxpayer dollars. When state Republicans object, Democrat Bob Mulholland defends move by telling Washington Times that former GOP governor Pete Wilson "spent similar sums on ruthless campaign operatives of his own." . . . Yvette Lozano, former employee of media company hired by Bush campaign, admits to sending debate-preparation tape to Gore adviser and pleads guilty to mail fraud and perjury. . . . In speech, Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia says high court's reputation is not "some shiny piece of trophy armor." Instead, "it's working armor and meant to be used and sometimes dented in the service of the public." . . . Sen. Ted Kennedy (D., Mass.), on Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon, in 1974: "The culmination of the Watergate cover-up." . . . Kennedy, this year, following Ford's receipt of the Profile in Courage Award, given in honor of JFK: "It took great courage to make that pardon."

Bush picks Indiana University art historian Bruce Cole to head National Endowment for the Humanities. . . . Outgoing Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan (R.) weighs running for governor of California. . . . In Miami Herald poll, Florida governor Jeb Bush (R.) leads potential challenger Janet Reno (D.) by slim margin, 49 percent to 43 percent. . . . American Indian activist Russell Means announces Libertarian party candidacy for governor of New Mexico. . . . Former RNC chairman Haley Barbour becomes finance chairman of Senate GOP campaign efforts. . . . Former Clinton spinner Lanny Davis gets ride on Air Force One, courtesy of Karl Rove.

Capital Research Center reports that "corporate support for big- government liberal advocacy is at an all-time high." Five worst offenders are PNC Bank, Sara Lee, May Department Stores, Target Stores, and Freddie Mac. . . . Among four major professional sports, only in baseball did team owners give more money to Democrats than Republicans in 2000, according to O'Leary Report: Nearly $2.4 million versus less than $1.2 million. . . . "It's fair to say that there are probably more conversations now between labor and Republicans than at any time in history," says service-union chief Andrew Stern, in New York Times. "A lot of labor people are saying that being a wing of the Democratic party doesn't work for our members." . . . After meeting with Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian, New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani calls Taiwan a "country."

Florida police handcuff and remove fifth-grader from elementary school after boy draws pictures of weapons. "The children were in no danger at all," admits principal David Schmitt. . . . Original manuscript for On the Road by Jack Kerouac sells for $2.4 million.

CNN reports Chinese president Jiang Zemin calls Bush "logically unsound, confused and unprincipled, unwise to the extreme" at high level Communist party meeting. . . . Navy EP-3E surveillance plane remains in China two months after emergency landing on Hainan. . . . Belarusian president Alyaksandr Lukashenka says Western countries should stop criticizing his record on individual rights because Belarus helped defeat the Nazis. . . . North Korea threatens to resume missile testing. . . . Alejandro Toledo wins Peruvian presidential election, becoming first freely elected leader of Indian descent. . . . Chilean president Ricardo Lagos promises to put 2 percent of workforce on public payroll amid unemployment concerns.