Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Headline Article Date: Sun, 15 Nov 92 16:56:27 EST Message-ID: \SE A;NATION;INSIDE POLITICS \BY FROM WIRE DISPATCHES AND STAFF REPORTS NO WESTERN WHITE HOUSE Close friends of President-elect Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, have purchased a coastal estate in California for use by the couple as a Western retreat. The Los Angeles Times said the French-style country house in Summerland, about 80 miles northwest of Los Angeles, was purchased by TV producers Harry Thomason and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, who are responsible for such hit shows as "Designing Women." Mr. Thomason stressed that while he and his wife expected the Clintons to make frequent use of the retreat, it would not become a "Western White House." "I categorically deny that," he said. He added that the Clintons had used his house in Laguna Niguel, on the coast between Los Angeles and San Diego, during breaks in the campaign. The Clintons do not own a house. They have lived in the Arkansas Governor's Mansion for 12 of the past 14 years. THE CLINTON CHORUS As Mr. Clinton emerged from the Arkansas Governor's Mansion yesterday morning, about 30 people standing across the street behind a barricade began to sing a song written especially for him by Sri Chinmoy. For those unfamiliar with him, Sri Chinmoy is the father of a meditation philosophy who has authored more than 800 books, lectures at the United Nations and has long sought Mr. Clinton for one of his meditation seminars. The singers traveled to Little Rock from as far away as Seattle to serenade the president-elect. All wore handmade Clinton buttons. At the sight of the president-elect in his navy-blue shorts, T-shirt and baseball cap, they broke into a song that brooks no understatement. It is named "President Clinton: Compassion-Tears, Dynamism-Smiles": "President Clinton, President Clinton, Bill! "Your victory-bliss, divinity's thrill. "Compassion-tears, dynamism-smiles you are. "You will smash the pride of giant problems near and far. "President Clinton, American heart's fulfilled dream, "The Golden Shore you will show, O pilot supreme." Sri Chinmoy also set to music three Clinton quotations. "Give us a chance," "This is America. There is no 'them,' there is only 'us,' " and "I still believe in a place called Hope. God bless America." They didn't get a handshake, though. Not from America's No. 1 handshake maniac. Instead, he waved with a white-gloved hand, gave them his own thumbs-up signal and bounced off for a 15-minute jog. THE WEEK'S QUOTES Jerry Falwell: "Being a Christian and a believer in the Bible, I fear that America, if in fact our new president does do all the things he's talking about, particularly attempting to normalize homosexuality and to give open game on the unborn . . . I fear the judgment of God on our land." AEI's Irwin Stelzer observed that the election symbolized less the last chapter of the Reagan era than the end of "the tradition of the great benevolent New England patricians - the Lodges, Cabots, Saltonstalls and Bushes. . . . It was a great, exclusive WASP party while it lasted, but it is no more." Ed Meese on how to deal with people who contributed to the campaign but are not qualified for White House jobs: "A part of it is just treating the people well and courteously, not just turning them off, but letting them know what the situation is and not letting them build up false expectations early on." NEW PRESIDENTIAL ENGLISH Mr. Clinton won rave reviews last week for his use of the English language at his first news conference. He's no John Kennedy, but he's no George Bush either. He talks in complete sentences. The New York Times ran a glowing review as its lead editorial, saying the era of presidents mangling the language has come to an abrupt halt. "For 12 years, presidential news conferences have often driven English teachers to slap their heads in despair. Yesterday Mr. Clinton not only spoke cogently and in complete sentences: he became a teacher. "The bully pulpit has become a pulpit again," the editorial said. Teddy Roosevelt called the presidency the bully pulpit. At the New Republic magazine in Washington, Deputy Editor Jacob Weisberg said that based on the news conference's coherence, there was worry that Mr. Clinton may prove to be "too lucid, comprehensible and articulate" to parody. As Mr. Weisberg noted, referring to Mr. Clinton's frequent voice problems during the campaign, "This time we have a president who can speak but can't talk." Reuters pointed out, however, that it is only a question of time before people long for a president who, when asked about a mass murder in Texas, says, as Mr. Bush did: "Obviously, when you see somebody go berserk and get a weapon and go in and murder people, of course it troubles me." IF AT FIRST . . . Congressional Quarterly reports that practice is little help in congressional campaigns. Candidates who tried but failed to oust House incumbents in 1990 had no better luck the second time around. Incumbents prevailed in all 33 contests this year that involved rematches with their 1990 foes. Still, losers may not want to quit. In the outgoing Congress, 73 House members were elected after losing at least once. TSONGAS SAYS NO Former U.S. Sen. Paul Tsongas has ruled out running against Massachusetts GOP Gov. William F. Weld in 1994 and has told the governor so. "I called Bill Weld and told him under no circumstances would I run against him," Mr. Tsongas said. "There's ultimately no way I would run." Mr. Tsongas said he called Mr. Weld because of the speculation. "I even heard it when I was in Washington," he said, "and I think it serves no purpose. If I am hearing it, he is, too." Mr. Tsongas is said to respect Gov. Weld's fiscal policies and to credit him with restoring fiscal and political stability to the state. BOND MOVES ON After a few tough election lessons, Republican National Chairman Rich Bond may be hitting the books to study the government his party will relinquish control of in January. Mr. Bond previously announced he will step down Feb. 1 after one year as party chairman. His successor is due to be picked in late January. Gary Koops, a party spokesman, said Mr. Bond planned to return to his Washington political consulting firm, Bond, Donatelli Inc., and had also applied to enter the graduate studies program at Georgetown University. "I think he's looking to get a master's degree in American government," Mr. Koops said. Mr. Bond, 41, was vacationing and unavailable for comment. Despite rumors the GOP was headed into debt, Mr. Bond managed to keep the party in the black with cost-cutting measures and a fund-raising surge in the last two months of the campaign, Mr. Koops said. SHUT UP, GET OUT California Democrat Dianne Feinstein wasted no time getting to Capitol Hill. A day after she defeated appointed GOP Sen. John Seymour, someone from the Senate Rules Committee called his office and told the staff to vacate it - pronto. "They threw us out. It was disgraceful," a Seymour aide told Scripps Howard News Service. Although Mrs. Feinstein wasn't sworn into the Senate until Tuesday, a week after the election, Senate officials told her staff that she was considered the senator as soon as the special election results were clear. By law, Mr. Seymour's last day on the payroll was Nov. 3. By Nov. 9, a sign outside the office had Mrs. Feinstein's name on it, and her staffers answered the phone while they worked in half of the suite and Mr. Seymour's staff packed frantically in the other half. ****BOX YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK? The Bureau of Indian Affairs approved up to $88 million for the construction of 10 new schools even though studies indicate that existing schools have "the space available to accommodate an additional 2,600 students" - "twice as many students as the proposed new schools." Source: Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of the Interior. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. 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