SCRAPBOOK
THOSEWACKY REPUBLICANS What an interesting reaction was elicited by the Republican decision last week finally to air some anti-Clinton ads. THE SCRAPBOOK has always hewed to the view—call it...
...Solomon, perhaps alone, seems to understand this...
...To know the actual story” of Oliver’s experience was helpful...
...And in a “low turnout” situation (which many analysts predict) Republicans led by a striking 51 percent to 41 percent...
...Seth Gitell, national editor of the Forward, wandered in and called up THE SCRAPBOOK to relate the experience...
...The moderator cut off audience questions about the journalistic integrity of Oliver’s treatment of Tailwind, saying, “Tonight, on the merits of the report, I’d really like it if you can keep it limited to your dream job,” and adding, with surreal irrelevance, that Oliver “is a mother of a very young child right now...
...The writing’s on the wall, but maybe the unions are having a hard time reading it...
...The marquee speaker, it turns out, was none other than April Oliver, the TV producer fired by CNN earlier this year for the “Tailwind” report—aired on June 7 and retracted on July 2—which claimed falsely that U.S...
...It has been eight months, too, since the Pentagon’s inspector general promised a report on the matter...
...It’s an age-old tactic when reporters screw up a story: Blame anything and everything but their own poor judgment...
...HELPWANTED Contributing editor David Frum is looking for a research assistant for a four-month stint beginning immediately...
...Peterson also found that the scholarship kids do not get all the breaks...
...First to speak were a public-relations man, a magazine reporter, and a producer for a broadcast wire service...
...Next thing you know, those dangerous right-wing theocrats will be insisting that Congress have a chaplain and begin its sessions with a prayer...
...According to the front-page story accompanying the polling data, the Democrats were all over the Republicans “like ugly on ape,” as George Bush (not the Texas governor with all the good press) used to say...
...VOUCHERSWORK...
...We have no ax to grind...
...We implemented the study and collected and analyzed the data,” says project director David Myers...
...NEWS FLASH The perfidy of the Religious Right apparently knows no bounds...
...I really did think I had a dream job in Washington,” she said of her work at CNN...
...At the New York Times, on the other hand, the GOP decision to air the ads was instead a decision “to inject the scandal into the closing debate...
...After Oliver finished, the panel’s moderator observed, “We can all face this situation at some time...
...I was the wrong sex...
...Now we need to get to work making smaller classes a reality, especially for our poorest children...
...The nerve of those Republicans, trying to change the subject away from “consequential issues” like health care to frivolous ones, like the third impeachment inquiry in the history of the nation...
...President Clinton did the right thing in making smaller classes for public school students the centerpiece of his education program...
...We are still waiting...
...Then Oliver—who warned that she had to choose her words carefully because of pending litigation—took the floor to read prepared remarks...
...He said that he was “extremely concerned” that Clinton officials had committed crimes, adding that he was “troubled by the actions taken by the Office of the Inspector General...
...THE SCRAPBOOK has always hewed to the view—call it eccentric—that if you think the president of the United States may be unfit to hold his high office, and if impeachment hearings in the House are imminent, and if congressmen might have to vote on this question rather soon— then it is not inappropriate to take the occasion of a national election to make mention of the fact...
...The dirty trick played by the “most ethical administration in history” on a government employee, Tripp, should not go down the memory hole...
...Although voucher advocate Paul Peterson claims that he’s offering evidence that vouchers work,” the union whined, “what he really seems to have discovered is that small class size works...
...THE PENTAGON PAPERS, CONT’D...
...Nice try at changing the subject...
...I was the wrong age...
...Once she started researching the Tailwind story, though, she encountered nothing but obstacles...
...It reneged, citing “external factors”—probably an allusion to Kenneth Starr’s look at the matter and indictments that may ensue from it...
...Now that’s a real dream job...
...I felt my job was one of the few places in journalism where we didn’t feel ratings pressure...
...He collaborated with Mathematica Policy Research, a nonpartisan organization that also does research for the Department of Education...
...That office promised Congress a report in July...
...According to a story on the Reuters wire last week, a new report from a pro-choice group in New York known as the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy has uncovered a shocking fact about the National Right to Life Committee: “Religious conviction pervades its work...
...Doors slammed in her face...
...And what was it, incidentally, that was being debated before the untimely injection...
...The American Federation of Teachers freaked out last week at the good news that low-income children in New York City who attend private schools under a scholarship program have improved their performance and outpaced their public-school peers in reading and math...
...Please send a r?sum?, references, and salary requirements to: David Frum, 1101 17th Street, NW, Suite 608, Washington DC 20036...
...Army Special Forces employed nerve gas on a mission to eliminate defectors during the Vietnam War...
...You had to hunt for it in a chart printed at the bottom left of page 24...
...Oh yes, the “host of consequential issues” on which the New York Times/CBS News voter survey, conducted a week before Election Day, showed the Democrats running ahead...
...And God forbid that our elections might be sullied by partisanship...
...But the data themselves told a different story: Republicans led Democrats in a “usual turnout” situation 48 percent to 43 percent...
...And speaking of judgment, where was the press club’s...
...THE RETURN OF APRIL OLIVER The Young Members Committee of the National Press Club hosted a panel discussion the other week on “Getting and Keeping Your Dream Job...
...I even received a death threat,” she said...
...Discussion of executive-branch malfeasance is apparently, according to the Times, a risky topic for public consumption...
...It has now been eight months since Clinton appointees at the Defense Department leaked confidential information from Linda Tripp’s security file in an effort to embarrass her—and possibly get her fired...
...Pro-life political activity was previously thought to be a bastion of secularism...
...In a letter to Dennis Hastert, chairman of a House subcommittee on national security, Solomon sought to ensure that Congress would keep an eye on the Tripp case...
...Yeah, right...
...And class sizes are a red herring with no clear correlation with achievement...
...But you didn’t see that on the first page...
...They succeeded in spite of the fact that the private schools they attend are less likely to offer facilities like a library, cafeteria, nurse’s office, counselors, and special programs for non-English speakers or students with learning disabilities...
...One congressman who is particularly exercised about the department’s dereliction is Gerald Solomon, the chairman of the Rules Committee who is retiring this year...
...All told straightforward tales of professional advancement and offered their young listeners standard encouragement...
...Some aspects of the “actual story,” however, were ruled out of bounds...
...But Peterson, a Harvard professor who says vouchers are promising but need more research, was no hired gun...
...Parental choice, small surprise, can improve student achievement...
...It’s an age-old tactic of warfare: Kill the messenger...
Vol. 4 • November 1998 • No. 9
