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Inside Politics
News and political dispatches from
around the nation
By Greg Pierce
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Final protest
After years of heading the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power, or ACT UP, Steve Michael, 45, died last week, but his passing didn't snuff out his uncanny ability to stage unusual protests.
Today, acting on his final wishes, Mr. Michael's co-director, Wayne Turner, and more than 100 ACT UP members from Washington, New York and Philadelphia will march the activist's body down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, where they plan to protest President Clinton's AIDS policies.
"If I die, take my body to the White House. Show the world that Bill Clinton has lied to and betrayed people with AIDS," Mr. Michael instructed Mr. Turner shortly before his longtime companion unhooked the life support mechanisms that kept the activist alive for three weeks.
Mr. Michael's mother, Barbara, will join in leading the funeral parade from Freedom Plaza to the White House at noon. "If this had happened to Clinton's kid, he'd be doing something," she said.
Mr. Michael ignored the large AIDS lobby groups to pressure Mr. Clinton to keep his 1992 campaign promises to find a cure for the disease and make health care universally accessible to victims of the disease -- pledges ACT UP says the president has yet to make.
Eventually, the larger lobbying groups joined in protesting Mr. Clinton's AIDS policies, although they still supported the Democrat's re-election. Mr. Michael, however, took another path by running against the president in some early Democratic primaries in 1996.
Since Mr. Clinton's re-election, AIDS activists have expressed concern that the president has abandoned them. They note that it has been more than a year since he addressed the issue in any major way or even discussed his pledge to seek an AIDS vaccine.
Mr. Turner said it has been difficult winning the proper permits to parade Mr. Michael's coffin in front of the White House. But the White House said it is not trying to interfere with the protest.Role reversal
In the race for Illinois governor, gun control has become an issue. Only this time it is the Republican rebuking the Democrat for being pro-gun.
George Ryan, the Republican secretary of state, was an opponent of gun control, but changed his mind in 1989. U.S. Rep. Glenn Poshard, the Democratic candidate, now says he favors a ban on some high-powered assault weapons.
"Ryan, however, is trying to make it seem that Poshard never switched, contending that a past voting record overshadows any promises of change in the future," the Chicago Tribune reports.
Reporters Ray Long and Christi Parsons added: "Last week, Ryan unveiled a series of gun-related proposals aimed at tweaking Poshard over his voting record in the legislature and in Congress --which includes votes against the Brady Bill and for a repeal of the federal assault-weapons ban."Lungren's attributes
Gubernatorial candidate Dan Lungren "personifies, in one 52-year-old body, the entire modern line of California's leading Republicans," writes David M. Shribman of the Boston Globe.
"Lungren has the relentless ambition of Richard Nixon, who served in the House, Senate, vice presidency, and the White House itself. He has the bland efficiency of George Deukmejian, another lion of Long Beach, who served two terms as governor in Sacramento. He has the steely determination of Pete Wilson, who served at every level of government in California before winning two terms as governors. And he has the infectious optimism of Ronald Reagan, still the most revered Republican in the shorelines, mountains, valleys, and deserts of California," Mr. Shribman said.Goodbye, liberals
While former President Gerald Ford complains that his Republican Party has swung too far to the right, the campaign arm of House Democrats has eagerly embraced a number of conservative candidates while discouraging liberals from running.
"Indeed, some of these new New Democrats sound so much like Republicans that it's not very clear why they aren't Republicans in the first place," Dana Milbank writes in the New Republic.
"In the Oklahoma seat being abandoned by party-switching Republican Wes Watkins, some Democrats, noting that the Republicans haven't fielded a credible candidate, fear that the Democratic candidates are conspiring to switch after they get elected," Mr. Milbank said.
"Even moderate Democrats harbor apprehensions. One New Democrat in the House sees a disturbing new strain of conservative Democrats -- Democrats who are socially conservative and economic populists -- who won't fit in the New Democrat Coalition or even in the Blue Dogs, both of which favor business-friendly policies."
The best explanation for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's strategy "may simply be that the country has gotten more conservative," Mr. Milbank said.Suicide wish
"Sometimes we wonder if Republicans don't have a secret suicide wish. That's the only way to explain why this GOP Congress seems eager to hand the nation's trial lawyers two epic political victories," the Wall Street Journal says.
"Senator John McCain's tobacco-tax bill promises to turn a passel of plaintiffs' lawyers into billionaires. As if that's not enough, House Republicans Greg Ganske and Charlie Norwood are proposing to open up previously exempt parts of the health care economy to liability suits. If a Democratic Congress tried to do anything at all like this, Republicans would be rending their garments on the Capitol steps," the newspaper said in an editorial.Where's Gore?
"President Clinton has attended a dozen fund-raisers and brought in $12 million to help elect Democrats to the Senate in November," Newsweek magazine notes.
"By comparison, Vice President Gore has done 'next to nothing,' complains a key Democrat. Why? Some Dems speculate that Gore is 'gun-shy' about fund-raising because of the spotlight on Democratic fund-raising abuses. Other pols suggest he doesn't want to do any favors for Sen. Bob Kerrey, co-chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and a rival for the 2000 presidential nomination."
The magazine added: "A Gore aide calls criticism of the veep 'primary politics.' Gore, who's done three DSCC fund-raisers so far, is concentrating on events separate from the DSCC. Before it's over, says his chief of staff, Ron Klain, 'he'll wind up doing an event for every single Democratic senator who's up for re-election.'"Free air time
"The California Channel, the cable network that provides live coverage of the state legislature, will be offering candidates for statewide office free air time for this November's election," reports State Legislatures magazine.
"The program, to be produced together with the League of Women Voters of California and the California Voter Foundation, will offer all qualified candidates a five-minute, one-on-one interview that will be shown together with others for the same office. (Legislative candidates will not be included.)"
The channel reaches almost 5 million homes on 186 cable systems and is on the air weekdays from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., noted the magazine, which is published by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or via e-mail at Pierce@twtmail.com.
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