NEWS FROM WASHINGTON NEVER CEASES TO AMAZE

A Clinton Promise-A Warning to Us

In little noticed comments to a union audience recently, Bill Clinton disclosed that he has a plan to implement his socialized medicine plan "step by step." He hopes to accomplish through stealth action what he was roundly defeated on in 1994! This must be a key issue for conservatives in the months ahead. The president says, "the era of big government is over," but if he succeeds in furthering Washington's control of health care, government will be bigger and more powerful than you can imagine.

More Disturbing Testimony

The Senate hearings on fund-raising scandals heard astonishing testimony recently. Karl Jackson, a former career civil servant, told senators that he was invited to a White House meeting (apparently by mistake) with the president and foreign businessmen. To his surprise, top officials of the Democratic National Committee also were at the meeting and made a direct pitch for money to support Clinton's re-election. An internal DNC memo was entered into the Senate hearing record showing that a fundraising goal of $400,000 was set for the June 18, 1996 "coffee."

This is extraordinarily disturbing for obvious reasons. These foreign business leaders were lobbying Clinton to be "soft" on China and Hong Kong. At the same time, the president's political operatives are saying, "Pay up". Not surprisingly the business leaders did pay up. One participant contributed $85,000 and her business partner gave another $50,000!

This is exactly why political fund-raising is not permitted on government property. The clear implication of the meeting was that U.S. policy on a sensitive matter was for sale to the highest bidder. Don't ever underestimate the growing power of these governments as I recently reviewed in the book of the Pacific Rim Countries "ASIA MEGATRENDS" by John Naisbitt.

Now I've Heard Everthing!

A United Nations human rights expert, with our government's permission, will spend two weeks touring the United States to investigate whether international human rights law has been violated by our use of the death penalty. Unbelievable. The U.N. has in its membership the biggest thugs on the planet. By what authority do they sit in judgement of the greatest republic in the history of the world? To some this may seem like a minor thing, but I believe it is one more indication that there are many in Washington who do not care if American sovereignty is slowly whittled away.

They Want Your Money, Too

Every day another "international organization" demands more from American families and taxpayers. For example, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is demanding another $14.5 billion from the U.S., a 45 percent increase, and our pushover Department of the Treasury has agreed! The money is for future bail-outs of third world countries that keep dabbling in socialism and government control of their economies. Enough is enough. This Congress should make sure these funds are not transferred to the IMF.

Gay Hiring Quotas?

The Clinton administration has repeatedly defended the ideal of racial set-asides and quotas--now they have taken the concept a step further. Believe it or not, Mr. Clinton has reportedly promsied to set aside five top White House posts for homosexuals. In other words, if you are a normal heterosexual liberal who wants to work for a liberal president, you have no chance to compete for these jobs. The president took the first step to keep this promise this week when he named Virginia Apuzzo, a former nun who is now a lesbian activist, to take over White House operations. The bisexual and transvestite "communities" should be outraged--don't they deserve set-asides for their people, too? This whole thing is truly absurd. Set-asides are wrong no matter what group is benefiting--but even more ludicrous is the idea that people deserve jobs based on what oddities they engage in while in their bedrooms.

Angry Liberal Closes Senate

Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle (S.D.) shut down most of the committee work in the U.S. Senate recently by utilizing an arcane parliamentary rule. Daschle and his liberal colleagues don't like some of the conservative ideas, like IRS reform, that are advancing in the Senate--so this was his way to protest. Meanwhile, the people's business didn't get done. Not surprisingly, the press virtually ignored this "tantrum." The Washington papers reported it, but the evening news by and large blacked it out. There were no cries of "minority rule" or protests about undermining democracy--the sort of thing that greets a Jesse Helms or other conservative senators. I know I am not telling you anything you don't already know, but it is useful to remind even ourselves how much of a double standard there is in American public policy and debate.

The Little Rock Nine

Forty years ago nine brave black Americans entered Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. For Americans not yet born in 1957, that this was a momentous event must be hard to believe. But momentous it was, with federal troops, dispatched by President Eisenhower, on hand to ensure that school desegregation would proceed. President Clinton and Gov. Mike Huckabee went to Central High to pay tribute to those nine individuals as they returned to mark the anniversary of a tense turning point in the American saga.

Those tributes were wholly appropriate and a welcome reminder that the price of liberty and justice under God for all has been steep. Unfortunately, the president did use this occasion, however, to make another pitch for affirmative action. Liberals have been pushing this failed notion for years. But racial quotas and set-asides are more than mere failures; they are actually the exact opposite of what Dr. King spoke about when he asked that our children be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. Affirmative action by the typical means forces all of us to focus precisely on attributes of race, sex, and ethnic origin. They divide Americans rather than bring us together. They are unjust and unnecessary. The most unifying way of ensuring racial reconciliation in America--or anywhere--is not through quotas but by recognizing that we are all God's children.

Washington Update

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Smithsonian Retreats:

Smithsonian Institution Secretary Micharl Heyman, after urging from conservative senators, has decided to reverse the institution's practice of denying groups that believe in God from cosponsoring events on Smithsonian property. In a letter of apology sent to Sen. Bill Frist (R.-Tenn.), Heyman explained that cosponsorship by "all groups, including religious groups," is "consistent with the mission and tradition of the Smithsonian."

Two exclusive articles in Human Events (August 15 and August 29) tipped off a number of members of Congress, that the Smithsonian had refused to allow the Boy Scouts to use the National Zoo's Auditorium for a Court of Honor Ceremony because the scouts bar atheists from their ranks.

Human Events

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Read for Success?

A new survey in Chief Executive Magazine finds the most influential business books of the 20th century are: "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," by Stephen R. Covey, and "In Search of Excellence," by Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman. The Bible comes in fourth. Other nominees include Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" and "Oh, The Places You'll Go," by Dr. Seuss.

Wall Street Journal

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This is the big Homecoming Weekend at Southeast Missouri State University. Also, if all went well we closed on the 6 newspaper properties yesterday (Tuesday). Thus, I've been quite out of pocket. Back next week with some original comments.