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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: E who wrote (13661)	10/24/2003 12:10:33 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793770

E, as I mentioned to you in my first response on Lynch, we have been round and round on this subject. I really don't want to do it again. Maybe someone else will take up the cause. Meanwhile, back in the Senate: Inside Politics at the Washington Times. ____________________________________________________ Cynical maneuvers "Anyone who thinks a single senator doesn't matter should take a look at [Wednesday´s] failed attempt to limit runaway class-action lawsuits," the Wall Street Journal says. "Fifty-nine senators voted in favor of going to a floor vote on the measure, one vote short of the 60 need to break a filibuster," the newspaper noted in an editorial. "One culprit here is Alabama's Richard Shelby, the only Republican to oppose cloture and for years a wholly owned subsidiary of the plaintiffs' bar. As usual, however, most of the opposition came from Democrats. The bill had easily passed the House earlier this year, 253-170. "So Minority Leader Tom Daschle allowed just enough of his members to vote in favor without the bill succeeding. Our sources say that Jeff Bingaman (New Mexico) and Mary Landrieu (Louisiana) had made private assurances they'd vote in favor only to bend in the end to Mr. Daschle's wishes. "Meanwhile, Arkansas' Blanche Lincoln got one of the Daschle passes and will now be able to tell the Chamber of Commerce and small business folk getting fleeced by abusive class-actions that she did what she could. At the same time, the trial lawyers won't give her too hard a time because the bill failed. As Lily Tomlin once observed, no matter how cynical you get, it's hard to keep up." Clinton backs Rummy Try as they might, aides to former President Bill Clinton couldn't keep their boss from commenting on politics at a news conference in New York yesterday. Reporters were told to stick to questions about AIDS drugs. But when Mr. Clinton was asked about a recent memo by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld — about the difficulties of the war on terror in Afghanistan and Iraq — the Arkansas Democrat didn't duck. "I just thought it was a candid statement of the facts," Mr. Clinton said. "I think this is a big, long-term challenge. Whether you agree or disagree with the policy in Iraq, we are where we are, and I take it that almost a hundred percent of Americans believe we have to pursue the action against al Qaeda and any other terrorist cells that are or may in future plan to attack us in the future here in the homeland, and that we ought to be helping our allies to deal with some of the problems in their countries. In that sense, it was candid." FBI apology Acknowledging for the first time that the FBI hid listening devices in the Philadelphia mayor's office, the bureau's top agent in the city expressed regret that the discovery has created turmoil weeks before a mayoral election. Speaking at an unscheduled news conference Wednesday, Special Agent Jeffrey Lampinski offered an apology, but declined to discuss details of the federal investigation, the Associated Press reports. "No one regrets more so than the investigators on this case that this device was uncovered in the midst of an election," Mr. Lampinski said. The incident prompted accusations by Democrats that the probe was launched by the Justice Department to disrupt Mayor John F. Street's re-election campaign against Republican businessman Sam Katz. This fall's election is a rematch of a 1999 race won narrowly by Mr. Street. Mr. Lampinski denied those charges Wednesday, saying the timing was dictated by "the facts in the case," and was not of the bureau's choosing. • Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or gpierce@washingtontimes.com. washingtontimes.com