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- NATION, Page 27Grapevine
-
-
- SAM NUNN'S SECRET WEAPON. The controversial FBI report on
- John Tower was not the only evidence against him. Senate Armed
- Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn had a record of his own:
- wavering Senators who visited Nunn's office could read a thick
- manila folder that the Georgia Senator called the "X" file. It
- contained scores of additional allegations, sent to Nunn from
- a variety of sources, about Tower's gamy behavior.
-
- STOP PAYMENTS. Democrats from across the political spectrum
- have made a show of welcoming Ron Brown as the first black
- chairman of the Democratic National Committee. But while arms
- are open, some purses have snapped shut. Dozens of major donors
- and fund raisers are saying that for now they will not be
- writing checks to the D.N.C. They claim to be put off by Brown's
- links to party liberals like Edward Kennedy and Jesse Jackson.
- Says one disgruntled deep pocket: "It's not his race; it's his
- rabbis."
-
- THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY. When the Tower nomination came to a
- vote, Senate Minority Leader Robert Dole managed to corral
- every Republican vote but one, that of his colleague from
- Kansas, Nancy Landon Kassebaum. Alf Landon's daughter, who is
- notoriously resistant to party pressure, was believed to be
- repelled by Tower's ties to national-defense contractors.
-
- Although Dole expected Senator Kassebaum to come around
- when the other Republicans fell into line, he was openly uneasy
- about her the day before the vote. Yet an unwritten rule forbids
- a Senator to lean on a colleague from the same state. That
- practice was certain to be honored in the case of Kassebaum,
- says a Dole aide, "because she's extremely intelligent and very,
- very independent. We can't go near her.
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