Republican: Newt Gingrich Is 'Road Kill'
Clinton Trades Wheels For Crutches
Nixon Ordered L.A. Times Tax Probes
Republican: Newt Gingrich Is 'Road Kill'
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, March 24) -- With "a public approval rating a few points shy of the Ebola virus," House Speaker Newt Gingrich should step aside, says GOP Rep. Peter King of New York. Gingrich is "road kill on the highway of American politics," King wrote in a piece appearing in the issue of The Weekly Standard out today. It's the hardest public hit Gingrich has taken from his own party so far. King says he's more upset at Gingrich for "running hard toward the center" than he is about the speaker's ethical troubles. There is no comment yet from the speaker himself; he's in Asia for the week. His staff says they'll forward the article to him.
Clinton Trades Wheels For Crutches
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, March 24) -- President Bill Clinton has progressed from wheelchair to crutches in his recovery from a torn knee tendon. He made his first appearance without the wheels at church on Sunday. After services at the Foundry Methodist Church, he hopped back into his wheelchair for the van ride home.
Nixon Ordered L.A. Times Tax Probes
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, March 24) -- President Richard Nixon, angered in 1971 by unfavorable coverage in the Los Angeles Times, ordered immigration and tax probes of the paper and its publishers, according to newly released White House tapes. "I want this whole goddamn bunch gone after," Nixon ordered his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman. "I also want (publisher) Otis Chandler's income tax." He told Attorney General John N. Mitchell to have the Immigration and Naturalization Service raid the newspaper and investigate Chandler's gardener. "I understand he's a wetback," Nixon said. It is not clear whether any of the investigations actually ever took place.
Richardson: Chemical Pact On Track
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, March 24) -- U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson says the treaty to ban chemical weapons is on track for approval, after the Clinton Administration satisfied a condition imposed by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms. Richardson said Sunday he was "very confident that we will get a vote and the vote will be positive." Helms had wanted several foreign policy agencies such as the Agency for International Development, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and the U.S. Information Agency consolidated into the State Department. The administration has put the matter under "intense review," said Vice President Al Gore.
Poll: Pataki Running Even With Cuomo
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, March 24) -- New York GOP Gov. George Pataki is just running even with Mario Cuomo, the Democrat he beat in 1994. A new poll from the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion finds that each of them pulls down 46 percent support. Pataki has a job approval rate around 50 percent, but their 1994 contest was very close; Pataki beat Cuomo by just 175,000 votes out of 5.3 million cast. Cuomo hasn't ruled out another run, but has made no public moves toward launching one.