Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 13, 1994 TAG: 9408150052
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Boston Globe
DATELINE: MINNEAPOLIS NOTE: LEDE LENGTH: Medium
``It's the same old Washington game - just stick it to ordinary Americans, because special interests can keep you in Congress forever,'' Clinton told an audience of the National Association of Police Organizations here as he launched a risky attempt to get the bill passed.
White House aides said Clinton was angered but ``liberated'' by Thursday night's vote in the House, where a coalition of Republicans and rural Democrats, lobbied hard by the National Rifle Association, and some members of the Congressional Black Caucus, blocked consideration of the legislation. The president's hastily scheduled speech in Minnesota was the first step in a public campaign by the White House to pressure the House to reverse itself quickly on the crime bill.
If Clinton's barnstorming is successful, Democratic leaders in Congress could push for a new vote on the bill as early as next week. As a back-up strategy, they could remove the ban on 19 types of semiautomatic assault weapons from the bill and try to pass it as separate legislation; as such, it has already passed the House.
The crime bill would fund, over six years, 100,000 new police officers, new prisons and crime prevention programs; increase the use of the death penalty; enact a federal ``three strikes, you're out'' provision; and place new controls on assault weapons and teen-age use of guns.
Armed with the popular anti-crime cause, and freed by the solid GOP opposition to the bill to slash back at his Republican antagonists in Congress, Clinton is expected to use the issue to illustrate to Americans how partisan and special interests act to frustrate his agenda of change.
If Clinton wins the fight on crime, his aides say, he could boost the flagging momentum for health care reform by proving that his dismal poll standings conceal a still potent political bite.
Republican leaders fought back Friday, claiming the billions of dollars for crime prevention programs were just pork barrel spending and insisting that, though only 11 of the 178 House Republicans voted for the bill, it was Clinton who was acting as a partisan.
``We are prepared to sit down in good faith,'' said Rep. Newt Gingrich of Georgia, the House Republican whip. ``Alternately, the president can follow the advice of his more liberal supporters and decide to run a vicious partisan effort.''
There were signs that Clinton's strategy could work. The GOP leaders, apparently having second thoughts about the president's ability to command the national stage, faxed a letter to Air Force One, asking Democrats to return to the bargaining table. The Republicans listed conditions for their cooperation, however, and were initially rebuffed.
``The very spirit of bipartisanship you wrote about today was torn asunder'' on Thursday night, wrote White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta.
by CNB