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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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110689
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p28
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1990-09-22
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NATION, Page 28Everybody's Pal
New York's Republican Senator Alfonse D'Amato may be
considered a light weight on serious affairs of state, but when it
comes to taking care of constituents, he is in a class by himself.
After narrowly capturing the seat of the highly respected but
terminally ill Senator Jacob Javits in 1980, the "Pothole Senator"
easily won re-election in 1986 as a first-rate fixer who answers
phone calls and delivers goodies to the home front. Said an
admiring colleague: "He works harder than any Congressman."
Perhaps too hard. In the varied scandals involving improper
political influence that have beset the capital, one name keeps
popping up: Alfonse D'Amato. Last week D'Amato even became
entangled in New York City's increasingly nasty mayoralty contest
between Republican Rudolph Giuliani, the Mob-busting former U.S.
Attorney, and Democrat David Dinkins. D'Amato conceded that he had
telephoned Giuliani in 1984 and 1985 to pass along pleas for a
review of charges or reduced prison sentences for Mobsters Paul
Castellano and Mario Gigante. Giuliani refused to intercede.
In July, Joseph Monticciolo, the former New York regional
administrator for the Department of Housing and Urban Development,
contended that D'Amato had repeatedly pressured him to approve
housing projects. Many of them, HUD documents show, were in Puerto
Rico, which the regional office administered. Last week HUD
Secretary Jack Kemp decided to move Puerto Rico operations out of
the New York region, which would put them beyond D'Amato's reach.
D'Amato also helped gain HUD financing for work in his hometown on
Long Island, where his brother Armand, a lawyer, profited from the
closings on house sales. Armand D'Amato also represented a company
that won a HUD contract for a luxury resort rather than housing for
the poor.
Executives of Unisys Corp., some of whom have pleaded guilty
to various conspiracy and bribery charges in the Pentagon
procurement scandal, pressured others to make illegal contributions
to D'Amato's 1986 campaign and then seek reimbursement from the
Defense Department.
D'Amato complains that he is the victim of "tremendous
distortions" by the press involving a few incidents among the
hundreds of thousands of inquiries he has made on behalf of his
constituents. "A Congressman and Senator is supposed to do exactly
what I do," he insists. "Abuse is getting people preferential
treatment when they're not entitled to it. Getting them something
they're entitled to, fighting for it, that's me, all the way."