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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 4, 1997)
The Battalion embt: arsday • December 4, 1997 nd-raising calls still under investigation ibe continues despite protests against decision not to appoint special counsel ASHINGTON (AP) — The e House breathed easier to day even though Repub licans angrily dissected Attor ney General Janet Reno’s de cision against an independent counsel and her investigators plowed ahead. Republicans in Congress were eager to capitalize er jpublic split with FBI Direc- .ouis J. Freeh over whether to an outside prosecutor to look ■id-raising phone calls by ident Clinton and Vice Presi- :AlGore. Ithpugh Reno and Freeh agreed |, isagree and then traded com- lents Tuesday evening, they i, Id pe explaining their differ- L 3S before a House committee as L r. y as next week. Id tic Reno Taking her decision right to Tues day’s deadline, Reno rejected an inde pendent counsel, arguing that Clinton and Gore had not broken any federal laws by making fund-raising calls from the White House. She defended her move with 69 pages of legal analysis and investiga tive findings and held a news confer ence, which no attorney general ever had done at such a moment. A stern-faced Reno warned that the decision “does not mean that a person has been exonerated or that the work of the campaign finance task force has ended.” Clinton and Gore avoided gloat ing. Clinton’s one-sentence reac tion: “The attorney general made her decision based on a careful re view of the law and the facts, and that’s as it should be.” Gore said Reno “put this issue of the phone calls behind us once and for all.” Responding to Republican criti cism, Gore said today, “It’s obvious there will be continued partisan at tacks with political motivation. But, just remember, when you hear those tom-toms, the people who are behind the drumbeat are the same people who are trying to prevent the passage of campaign finance reform.” White House press secretary Mike McCurry offered a behind- the-scenes anecdote reflecting presidential nonchalance: “What time’s the game?” Clinton asked minutes after hearing of Reno’s rul ing, his attention already turned to the Washington Wizards’ first bas ketball game in their new arena. Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., said he would summon Reno and Freeh to a hearing next Tuesday of the House committee he chairs that is investi gating campaign funding. “I think right now she is trying to protect the president,” Burton said. It was not immediately clear either would be available that day. “It is now public that the director of the FBI shares my view that the conflicts of interest facing the De partment of Justice are so great as to require the appointment of an in dependent counsel,” Senate Judi ciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., wrote Freeh seeking a copy of his memo to Reno that, law enforcement officials said, argued she should seek an in dependent counsel to probe a broad range of allegations on grounds she has a conflict investi gating Clinton. The chairman of the Senate com mittee investigating campaign fi nance, Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., ac cused Reno of “misinterpreting the law.” He called her focus on telephone solicitations too narrow, and said her legal interpretation of the law had “hamstrung” FBI investigators. Reno denied that: “I want to make clear to everyone I am not imposing any constraint on the task force.” The telephone fund-raising in quiry was pushed into the spotlight by Republican demands and timetables set by the independent counsel law. llinton wraps up first year of line-item veto | \ VASHINCTON (AP) — President Clinton has ipletedhis first year of wielding historic line- 1, .1 veto power. The tally: $1.9 billion in five- s t r savings, a few embarrassing blunders and itgof political headaches, rn I think that we struck a balance that was per,” White House spokesman Mike McCur- j a ( aid Tuesday after Clinton vetoed his final pro of the year. Vfter Clinton used the line-item veto to kill $5 lion for Montana State University research on irbnmentally friendly buildings, a look back ■the results have been mixed. Overall, Clinton cast 82 vetoes saving $1.9 bil- i over the next five years. That is real money, f ‘ :h|ily a tiny fraction — about 0.02 percent — 1 he S9 trillion the government will spend dur- amt! that period. That has prompted many conservatives who ght for years to give the president the line-item o power to say Clinton did not use it enough. “I’d like to see far more items line-item vetoed,” i. John McCain, R-Ariz, said. [ Clin ton supported the line-item veto during his 92 election campaign to show he was a moderate srBcrat willing to cut spending. And when he used it for the first time, on Aug. 11, by killing three items in budget-balancing and tax cuts bills, he de clared, “The Washington rules have changed for good, and for the good of the American people.” He then vetoed 38 military construction pro jects in the first annual spending bill for 1998. In response, angry lawmakers voted over whelmingly to restore them and seem likely to complete that process early next year. After that, Clinton used the authority as a scalpel, not a bludgeon. In the 12 remaining 1998 spending bills, a chastened Clinton cast 41 ve toes. He cast no vetoes in four of the spending bills — including the biggest domestic measure controlling $80 billion for health, education, wel fare and labor programs. Critics say Clinton left billions in home-dis trict pork untouched. Tom Schatz, president of the conservative Citizens Against Government Waste, estimates that spending bills carry at least $10 billion annually in such projects. “It seemed they’d have just as soon forget Rep. David Minge, D-Minn., an advocate of the line- item veto, said. As Congress wound toward adjournment last month with a debate over Clinton’s “fast track” trade initiative some House Democrats offered advice to administration officials: Hitting farm- state Democrats with line-item vetoes in the agriculture spending bill would make them less likely to back Clinton on trade. In the end, Clinton made just five line-item vetoes in the agriculture measure — and two af fected Democrats already opposed his trade plan. Administration officials deny any link be tween the vetoes and peripheral issues. “They call up and say they’ve got a project” they want to save, White House budget director Franklin Raines said. “Were they in their own minds making a fast-track link or not? I didn’t get into that.” In one measure of the perception on Capitol Hill, Rep. Mike Parker, R-Miss., said he tele phoned Raines’ deputy, Jack Lew, to advise him that “it’s not a smart thing” to use the line-item veto against projects of lawmakers leaning to ward Clinton’s trade proposal. After the trade fight was over and Congress adjourned for the year, Clinton vetoed $1 million for a dam in Parker’s office. Parker said he be lieves that veto was “kind of a ‘gotcha’ thing” by the administration, but White House budget of fice spokesman Lawrence Haas denied that. .EARN TO NOW, AT UNITED FLIGHT SYSTEMS Je’re now located at College Station Easterwood Airport, jam to fly the Cessna Pilot Center Exclusive Integrated Hight Training System at United Flight Systems, le experienced flight school. ■ Private thru advanced training ■ Aircraft rental, Pilot Shop ■ F.A.A. approved 141 school 'ill ■ essna VA Eligible Benefits United Flight Systems, Inc. Easterwood Airport College Station, TX 409 260-6322 Ladies 0 rBs JL^ 0x9 TUXEDO RENTALS from $ 49.95 FREE SHOES, VEST, & GROOM’S RENTAL (Ask us for details) At the Texas Ave. entrance of A&M Open Weeknights until 7 p.m., Saturday until 5 p.m. 764-8289 Alt Majors! Don’t miss your chance to spen Summer Session I ’98 in ITALV WHAT COURSES WILL I TAKE? You will take a total of two courses (6 hours), consisting of the following course: ARTS 350: Arts and Civilization Prof. Joe Hutchinson or Prof. Paolo Barucchieri AND PSYC 489: Special Topics in History of Psychology: Psychology and the Renaissance Prof. Dave Woehr OR POLS 322: West European Politics and Government Prof. John Robertson For More Information, Contact: Prof. Joe Hutchinson 337 ELAC 845-0584 E-mail: jmhutch@archone.tamu.edu Office hours: MWF 3:00-4:40 Thursday 11:00-12:00 or by appointment Prof. Dave Woehr 209 PSYC 845-2097 E-mail: DWJ@psyc.TAMU.Edu Office hours: Thursday 8:30-9:30 /11:00-12:30 or by appointment Prof. John Robertson 2096 Bush/Academic West Bldg 845-2511 E-mail: jrobertson@tamu.edu Office hours: Tues/Thurs 9:30-10:30 Thurs 2:00-3:00 or by appointment Study Abroad Programs - 161 Bizzell Hall West - 845-0544 Hurry! Spaces are Limited! HEAP & EASY Holiday Gifts On-line Special student discounts on magazine subscriptions! 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English Department - Writing Programs Office 845*9936 http://www.english.tamu.edu/wprograms/credit210.html Supreme Court nears decision in harassment case WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court today appeared ready to rule that sexual harassment can be illegal even when the harass- er and victim are the same sex. Hearing arguments in the case of a Louisiana oil rig worker who says he was sexually pursued and ha rassed by his male supervisor, six of the nine justices openly criticized a ruling that barred him from invok ing a federal law that bans on-the- job discrimination. A federal appeals court ruled that the law, known as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, does not cover same-sex harassment. “I don’t see how we could possibly sustain the ruling ... that (same-sex harassment) never could be” illegally discriminatory, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist said at one point in the spirited 60-minute session. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David H. Souter, John Paul Stevens, Antonin Scalia and Stephen G. Breyer also voiced grave doubts about ruling that the federal law never can apply to same-sex harassment. “A Jew could discriminate against a Jew,” Breyer said. “An African-American against an African-American, an Italian against an Italian. Why isn’t it possi ble that a homosexual... could dis criminate,” Breyer said. The highest court’s decision, ex pected by July, could pack enormous importance for American business. Employers, civil rights and gay rights groups are closely watching Joseph Oncale’s attempt to sue his former employer under Title VII. Baton Rouge, La., lawyer Nicholas Canaday III argued for Oncale that he should have an op portunity to take his allegations be fore a jury. Whether he was the vic tim of federally banned bias “is a question of fact that needs to move to a trier of fact,” he said. Clinton administration lawyer Ed win Kneedler also argued in favor of allowing such lawsuits under Title VII. Houston lawyer Harry Reason- er, arguing for Oncale’s former employer, said Congress never in tended to have the 1964 law ex tend to “relationships between people of the same sex.” “There is no evidence that they intended to federalize the regula tion of conduct between men and men,” Reasoner said. Oncale’s lawsuit stems from his four months of work in 1991 as a roustabout assigned to a Gulf of Mexico oil rig with Sundowner Off shore Services. His lawsuit against Sundowner and three men said he was sexually assaulted, battered, touched and “There is no evidence that they intended to federalize the regulation of conduct between men and men.” HARRY REASONER DEFENSE ATTORNEY threatened with rape by his direct su pervisor, John Lyons, and a second supervisor, Danny Pippen. Another defendant, co-worker Brandon Johnson, was accused of assisting in one of the alleged inci dents. 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