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- GRAPEVINE, Page 17
-
-
- By JANICE CASTRO
-
- Not So Fast, Rookies!
-
- So far, 170 Congressional candidates have accepted
- California Republican hopeful TOM HUENING's invitation for new
- members of Congress to meet in Omaha on Nov. 23 to fashion a
- House reform agenda. Even though Huening may not win, both
- parties are rattled by the notion. House aides deny any
- connection with the Huening summit, but Speaker Tom Foley will
- effectively pre-empt the powwow by traveling next weekend to Los
- Angeles, Atlanta and Chicago to meet with all Democratic
- winners. His agenda: new committee assignments and
- (coincidentally?) reforms.
-
- Hanging On for Dear Life
-
- CIA Director Robert Gates is determined to hold on to his
- job, even if Bill Clinton prevails. Gates has told friends that
- he's been staying out of town -- on trips to Eastern Europe and
- Russia -- to avoid the Iraqgate controversy. He also reminded
- them that, after all, predecessor Richard Helms served both
- Presidents Johnson and Nixon. Forget it, Bob. Clinton insiders
- say Gates will not be forgiven his agency's role in withholding
- from Congress and the Department of Justice information that
- showed the scope of the scandal.
-
- Some of His Best Friends
-
- If Bill Clinton moves to the White House next January,
- some established black leaders will lose influence. Clinton's
- strongest ties in the black community are with younger elected
- officials from the South, like Congressmen JOHN LEWIS of Georgia
- and MIKE ESPY of Mississippi, with whom he shares the experience
- of building black-white coalitions. Many Northern black leaders
- represent urban districts with far fewer whites. Observes a
- black friend of Clinton: "They don't have to win white votes,
- so they're more suspicious of Bill, particularly when he courts
- white Southerners."
-
- Take Your Mitts Off My Carrier
-
- During a visit last week to Beijing, Ukrainian President
- Leonid Kravchuk was trying to peddle the 67,000-ton aircraft
- carrier Varyag, nearing completion in the Ukrainian port of
- Nikolayev. Selling the carrier may be difficult, though. The
- Russians, not the Ukrainians, paid for construction of the
- 922-ft.-long vessel, and can be expected to assert ownership.
-
- Equal Opportunity War
-
- Everybody knows that Vietnam was a class war, whose burden
- was borne disproportionately by the inner-city and rural poor
- and minorities. Well, it seems that everybody is wrong. A new
- study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, co-funded
- by the U.S. Army, shows that the 58,000 Americans who died in
- the war represented a good cross section of the nation. By
- analyzing the family income of those servicemen, the M.I.T. team
- found that 26% of the casualties were from families earning in
- the highest third of the income range, vs. 30% of casualties
- from the lowest third. The most prosperous servicemen, in fact,
- died at a slightly higher rate, mostly because they were more
- likely to be pilots or infantry captains and lieutenants.
-
- CAMPAIGN QUIZ
-
- Q
-
- Two of the three major presidential candidates (Bill
- Clinton and Ross Perot) changed their names early in life. Which
- of the following U.S. Presidents changed their names?
-
-
- A Ulysses S. Grant
-
- B Grover Cleveland
-
- C Woodrow Wilson
-
- D Calvin Coolidge
-
- E Dwight Eisenhower
-
- F Gerald Ford
-
-
- A
-
- All of them. Previous names:
-
- A Hiram Ulysses Grant
-
- B Stephen Grover Cleveland
-
- C Thomas Woodrow Wilson
-
- D John Calvin Coolidge
-
- E David Dwight Eisenhower
-
- F Leslie Lynch King
-
-
-
-