The Presidency: The Curse Of The Good Times
Washington vs. Utah: The Environmental Divide
Franklin Raines: The New Cutting Edge Budget Chief
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Notebook: The Odd Couple
(TIME, February 10) -- During the State of the Union speech this week, television viewers will see a familiar Capitol Hill tableau: a sober-faced Newt Gingrich sitting behind Bill Clinton. But the more intriguing and unfamiliar pairing will be up in the balcony, where Gingrich's wife Marianne will be sitting with country star Travis Tritt, Joan Shalikashvili, wife of the general, and...Jesse Jackson. Last week Newt extended an invitation to his ideological opposite to sit in the Gingrich family box in the Speaker's gallery, and it was accepted. The unlikely twosome have been communing since Gingrich's opening-day speech to the House, where the Speaker addressed the need for racial equality, ways to combat drug use and help for the District of Columbia--all issues dear to Jesse's heart. The Rev. Jackson then invited Gingrich onto his talk show, Both Sides, and the two have spoken a few times by telephone. Jackson shrugs off his unorthodox seating plan. "I don't read much into it," he says. "It's just another way of reaching out. We must build relationships."
--By Tamala M. Edwards/Washington
By The Book
To the growing list of popular "how to" manuals, add this release from the CIA, recently made public under a Freedom of Information request from the Baltimore Sun. The agency says it no longer follows the rules of the 124-page 1983 "human-resource" handbook, used to train security forces in Latin American countries, which includes passages on mental torture:
A threat is basically a means for establishing a bargaining position by inducing fear in the subject. A threat should never be made unless it is part of the plan and the "questioner" has the approval to carry out the threat. When a threat is used, it should always be implied that the subject himself is to blame by using words such as, " You leave me no other choice but to... " He should never be told to comply "or else!"
The threat of coercion usually weakens or destroys resistance more effectively than coercion itself. For example, the threat to inflict pain can trigger fears more damaging than the immediate sensation of pain. In fact, most people underestimate their capacity to withstand pain. In general, direct physical brutality creates only resentment, hostility, and further defiance.
Historical Wit
President Clinton tried out some new material on Jan. 25 at the Alfalfa Club's private dinner--an annual opportunity for Washington power brokers to wine, dine and be deliciously unkind. Some off-the-record excerpts:
"We decided we were going to be more proactive about managing our place in history. This week at the White House we operationalized the Posterity War Room... I haven't seen Ira Magaziner this pumped in years. We will take our case to the media... Mike McCurry is going on A&E Biography. Erskine Bowles will be on the History Channel... My media team is busy putting together spots that will go negative on James Buchanan and Warren Harding... And James Carville has announced that he is making a full-scale assault on the scholars at the Heritage Foundation.... The Posterity War Room has already put together a comparative fact sheet... I want to share some of it with you: 'Bill Clinton added 1.5 million acres of land to our national parks. By his own admission, George Washington was personally responsible for the deforestation of cherry trees. Bill Clinton reduced crime on our streets; Thomas Jefferson's Vice President shot a guy! Bill Clinton has signed more nuclear disarmament than James Madison, Andrew Jackson, and James K. Polk combined.'"
By Melissa August, Janice M. Horowitz, Nadya Labi, Lina Lofaro, Jamie Malanowski, Emilt Mitchell and Alain L. Sanders