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- NATION, Page 25Grapevine
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- TIPSY TYRANT? U.S. efforts to topple him have come a
- cropper, but that has not stopped the State Department from
- leaking unsubstantiated stories about Panamanian strongman
- Manuel Noriega. The latest one claims that Noriega goes on
- drinking binges, during which he supposedly orders the arrest
- of political foes or the murder of "gringos." When he sobers up,
- Noriega is said to be "very grateful" to learn that his commands
- were not obeyed.
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- PICKY, PICKY. George Bush seems to have something in common
- with former President Jimmy Carter -- an obsession with minor
- logistic details. He insists on approving the passenger
- manifests on his official flights. One VIP came close to getting
- bumped from a flight to Miami last month when Bush belatedly
- spotted his name and asked, "What's this guy doing here?"
-
- SOUTHERN STRATEGY. A conservative Southerner often occupies
- a post in the Democratic congressional leadership. That changed
- in the Jim Wright shakeout: Georgia's Ed Jenkins lost his bid
- for majority leader, and Beryl Anthony of Arkansas was whipped
- in the race for party whip. Mindful of his need for conservative
- support, Speaker Tom Foley plans to create a new leadership slot
- and quietly maneuver a Southerner into the job. But neither
- Anthony nor Jenkins need bother to apply. The party leadership
- is miffed that both broke ranks by voting for a capital-gains
- tax cut backed by George Bush.
-
- STOP THE BULLDOZERS. The city council in rural Moultrie,
- Ga., thought it had won a small battle in the war against
- narcotics last May when the state awarded a $700,000 grant to
- rehabilitate "Rat Row," a squalid three-block stretch of housing
- now occupied by drug dealers. But many of the buildings
- scheduled for razing are over 50 years old and meet federal
- standards for historic preservation. So Moultrie must now spend
- more than $10,000 on a study outlining how it will preserve the
- character of the area during renovation. Meanwhile, the crack
- sales continue.
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