SCRAPBOOK

...Circuit Court of Appeals “that judge...

...If Clinton had an innocent explanation for his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, McCurry once noted, we’d have heard it...

...Thus it’s no coincidence that in the past few weeks GOP leaders in the House and Senate have blessed health-care reform plans...

...In the end, the real story isn’t that a do-nothing commission on weapons proliferation has lapsed, but that the Clinton administration has been recklessly irresponsible in continuing to allow the sale of sensitive products, like high-performance supercomputers, to “allies” like China...

...McCurry wants to set up shop in Washington, give speeches for dough, consult with a corporation or two, teach a college course somewhere, and generally kick back...

...The next morning Clinton spluttered in his almostreference to that judge: “I mean, that—the judge should— can have a right to his legal opinion about what the Treasury Department and the Justice Department said, but I have told you that this case is about their professional judgment about what’s necessary to do their job...

...The day before, Silberman had delivered his memorable spanking to the administration for its attempts to invent a “protective function” privilege that would prevent Secret Service agents from testifying to Kenneth Starr’s grand jury...

...These products can contribute to nuclear capabilities, and China has a long record of sharing these products with nuclear states like Pakistan...

...So what will Republicans do...

...As the Little Rock journalist Paul Greenberg says, “Beware the Clinton Clause,” which means the telltale phrase whereby Clinton leaves himself the room to wiggle out of a lie...

...Indeed, asked whether they’d rather give patients the right to sue or a 10- day appeals process, the latter option was favored by a 62- 31 margin Not to say that the process is entirely poll-driven, but don’t expect to see intrusive HMO regulation—much less a patient’s right to sue—emerge from this Congress...

...Clinton himself seems to be aware of his propensity for telling whoppers—and of the fact that others know about it...

...Oh...

...The commission was supposed to complete its work in 18 months, but the administration dawdled for 14 months before naming its appointees, highlighting once again the low priority this administration gives to nuclear proliferation...

...THAT JUDGE Is it just THE SCRAPBOOK’s imagination, or did President Clinton (echoing his reference to “that woman, Miss Lewinsky”) almost trip over his tongue last Friday morning and call Laurence Silberman of the D.C...

...No firm date yet, but he wants his successor to have at least two years on the job, which means McCurry should be gone by the end of the year...

...Also problematic was that one of the appointees to the commission, Robert Gallucci, was simultaneously serving as a special U.S...

...THE SCRAPBOOK is referring, of course, to White House press secretary Mike McCurry...

...HMOPHOBIA Of all the issues congressional Democrats will try to exploit for political gain this fall, there’s only one that has Republicans worried: health care...

...Maybe congressional pressure will...

...All in all, Silberman delivered himself of a sophisticated sermon on the separation of powers, which because it also included some good soundbites like “constitutional absurdity” seems to have sailed over the heads of quite a few people, including the most famous former professor of constitutional law in America, Bill Clinton, Yale Law, 1973...

...But the good news is that giving patients the right to sue their health plans—a centerpiece of Democrat proposals, and something strongly favored by plaintiffs’ attorneys—is cited by just 1 percent of those asked about the reforms they support...

...His truest statement, though, wasn’t spin...

...Some minutes later, an Indian participant complained about the paleface use of “coded” language: “Usually, what they’ll do to me is come up and tell me they’re Cherokee...

...And a couple of weeks ago, he came out with another startling piece of news: At a ceremony marking the 200th anniversary of the Marine Band (“The President’s Own”), Clinton boasted, “I won prizes in conducting all the way through junior and senior high...

...According to the independent-counsel statute, Silberman went on, it is up to Starr—“the surrogate Attorney General in this matter—to decide whether the ‘privilege’ asserted by the Secret Service as a government entity should be recognized...

...It’s been a heavy burden defending the republic from Ken Starr...

...A couple of months ago, visiting an exhibition of Mark Rothko’s paintings in Washington, the president told reporters that he and Hillary had spent their first date looking at a Rothko exhibition at Yale: “And that’s a true story,” he added...

...NEWT GINGRICH, WARMONGER That sure was an ominous headline in the July 13 New York Times: “Gingrich Helped End Panel on the Spread of Nuclear Arms...

...The bad news is that 61 percent of those surveyed said “legislation is needed to protect consumers from being unfairly treated by HMOs...

...Then, at his televised forum on race a few days later, Clinton informed the audience that he was— inevitably, really—part-Cherokee...

...And who can blame him...

...Indeed...

...Not become a TV pundit...

...Were there junior or senior high schools anywhere in America offering prizes for conducting back then (aside from, say, the Curtis Institute of Music...

...One clue comes from internal Republican National Committee polling, which was presented to Republican leaders last week...

...A few years ago, he told a group of farmers that he was “the only president who knew something about agriculture when I got [to the White House],” forgetting, just to begin with, Washington and Jefferson, not to mention a living Democratic expresident from Plains...

...envoy on proliferation, thus compromising his ability to say anything critical of administration policy...

...And while these plans are nowhere near as regulatory as Ted Kennedy’s, they will still lead to increased regulation of the health-care market...

...Nonetheless, “on the first page of the brief [Reno] purports to represent the United States...

...A right to his legal opinion...

...No commission is going to correct that...

...What’ll he do...

...Ouch...

...McCurry has expanded the role of press secretary, using the podium in the press room to respond to Republican jibes, take shots of his own, and spin...

...Silberman acidly noted that the independent counsel “stands in place of the Attorney General and represents the United States in any proceeding within his or her jurisdiction” and that, therefore, Janet Reno had no “standing,” as the lawyers like to say, to represent the Secret Service agents...

...BYE-BYE, MCCURRY Good news for Republicans: The man in the Clinton administration who’s zinged them more effectively and relentlessly than even the president himself is leaving...

...The article implicitly chastised Gingrich for not allowing a federal commission on nuclear proliferation to be renewed, while downplaying all of the commission’s shortcomings The real problem wasn’t Gingrich, but the White House...

...The president may in fact be a former bemedaled prince of the podium, the Toscanini of the Ozarks, but THE SCRAPBOOK is dubious...

...Maybe it’s time to proclaim a corollary to the Clinton Clause: Unless he says, “And that’s a true story,” it probably isn’t...

...Now, Clinton may well have Injun blood coursing through his veins, but, again, one never knows...

...Sounds like he’s been watching too much Greta Van Susteren...