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Monday, August 30, 1999 --- New York (APJP) -- More political news you may have missed:
Dateline: WARWICK, Rhode Island -- While George "ShrubYa" Bush has been dancing around the issue of having (actual quote!) "learned from past mistakes I may or may not have made when I was younger," one GOP candidate has come clean.
Lincoln Chafee, the certified baby-boomer-era 46-year-old Mayor of Warwick, Rhode Island, is running for the U. S. Senate next year -- and said it straight up, no chaser: he snorted cocaine when he was a college student in the 1970s.
Now, The Doc went to college in the me-obsessed seventies, when concern for the potential paycheck size replaced political activism as the number one priority of Jane and Joe Student. He can tell you from six years of hands-on college experience that Lincoln Chafee's admission should come as no surprise.
And such an admission will fly in Rhode Island, where the Republicans sound a whole lot more like members of the Democratic Business Council than their southern House caucus counterparts, who come off as best friends of the segregationist Council of Conservative Citizens.
Heck, some of them ARE pals of the CCofC -- Georgia CongressThug Bob Barr and double-dealing exterminator Tom DeLay!
But already I digress.
Besides being Warwick's mayor, Lincoln Chafee is the son of retiring Rhode Island Senator John Chafee, whose seat Lincoln wants to fill. John Chafee is a moderate, sometimes (horrors!) liberal-leaning Republican, who stuck a finger in the eye of thirteen House "Manglers" and ReichsProsecutor Kenneth Winston Starr by voting not guilty on both trumped-up impeachment counts against President Clinton.
And the scuttlebutt The Doc gets from his New Englend contacts is that these un-hard-right sentiments run in the Chafee family.
Dateline: WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Speaking of Congress-Nut Bob Barr, one of me favorite sites, jeffberry.com, is reporting that the House's wackiest member packs a piece!
At a recent board meeting of the National Rifle Association board meeting, Barr said that he carries a handgun with him at all times -- even within the District of Columbia.
What this means, dear reader, is that Barr is an armed scofflaw! Carrying a concealed weapon is against the law in D.C. -- even if you count Charlton Heston as one of your best friends!
Dateline: BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Hate radio superstar Alan Keyes has won the completely insignificant Alabama Straw Poll, pulling 29 percent of the vote. Recording star Orrin Hatch (he's also a Senator from Utah) came in second, with 25 percent of the votes, and failed businessman George W. "Bailout" Bush, Jr., placed third, with 23 percent of the ballots.
And you thought Warren Beatty was the only celebrity being talked about for the White House.
Dateline: TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas -- Speaking of BushBaby, you may have heard a thing or two about "FuneralGate." This juicy little scandal involves allegations that Bush "pulled some strings" for Service Corporation International, the world's largest funeral home corporation which is headquartered in Houston, and had Eliza May, former executive director of the Texas Funeral Service Commission, sacked for blowing the whistle on SCI.
Six months ago, May (who was also the Texas Democratic Party treasurer) filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas and SCI, alleging:
1) that she was canned following her discovery of numerous violations of Texas law committed by SCI's funeral homes, and
2) that state legislators and Governor Bush's office tried to "monkey wrench" her agency's investigation to help their pals (and generous money supporters) at SCI, whose CEO, Robert Waltrip, is a longtime friend of the Bush family.
3) that Bush should be found in contempt of court for lies they claim he made in a sworn affidavit he submitted to the court.
Friday, Travis County District Judge John Dietz struck a major blow against efforts to prevent ShrubYa from taking the witness stand in this lawsuit, ruling that May would not have to give a deposition before a hearing on Monday, when the judge will decide whether Bush himself must testify.
According to a story reported late yesterday in Salon, "Dona Hamilton of the Texas Attorney General's office asked the judge to allow her to take May's deposition Friday so the state can determine what May knows about Bush's interactions with officials from Service Corporation International…. The motion says May should be deposed because she 'has sought to hold him [Bush] in contempt of court, swearing that she has personal knowledge that he has lied and filed a frivolous pleading.'… But Judge Dietz, a Democrat, denied the state's motion and ordered that the motion to question May and the motion to quash the subpoena of the governor be heard Monday. Dietz will also hear a motion asking that Bush be found in
contempt of court."
Hmmmm… maybe Bush should start talking to SCI about future "arrangements" for his hopes of being the next President.
Dateline: WASHINGTON, D.C. -- And speaking of diminutive Congressional nutcases, Bob Barr has agreed to pay more than $28,000 in fines to settle charges arising from a Federal Election Commission audit of his 1994 and 1996 campaigns, according to a press release from the FEC on Friday.
An AP report quoted his attorney -- who turns out to be none other than Ben Ginsberg -- yes, the very same Ben Ginsberg who tried to shut down web sites both critical and supportive of George W. Bush Jr.! Ginsberg represented Barr before the FEC, and characterized Barr's "agreement" to pay the penalties as "one of those business-as-usual deals that cleaned up some things from Mr. Barr's initial races for Congress that had to do with highly technical aspects of federal election law.''
Business as usual. Mm-hmm. Well, thanks for clarifying that for us, Ben. We'll remember that next time you or Bob Barr criticize Al Gore's fundraising.
'Nuff said.
Copyright © 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, American Politics Journal Publications.
