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AllPolitics E-Wire -- Aug. 4, 1997

http://allpolitics.com

A weekly briefing on U.S. politics:

Clinton's Signature

With Congress on recess, President Bill Clinton will grab center stage Tuesday when he signs the two budget reconciliation measures in a White House ceremony. The signing is set for 11 a.m. EDT. But the big question remains whether Clinton will use his new line-item veto power to pencil out any provisions he finds objectionable.

In all, the White House is looking at 75 questionable provisions; among them, Clinton opposes budget language that would allow tobacco companies to use revenues raised through a new, 10-cent-a-pack cigarette tax as a credit against the cost of their proposed settlement with state attorneys general.

Congressional Quarterly reports that once the White House and the Republican Congress found middle ground on the budget, lawmakers moved so swiftly that they were able to depart a day early for their summer vacation.

"This balanced budget will close a chapter in American history," Clinton declared Friday, "when our people doubted whether government could work for them and questioned whether our nation could set and meet goals."

For live streaming video of Clinton at Tuesday's signing ceremony, go to:

http://allpolitics.com

Congress Gets A Boost

In the wake of the budget agreement, a new CNN-TIME Poll shows that the first time since 1974, more Americans approve of how Congress is handling its job than disapprove. And the big winners may be Republican members of Congress. By a 41-32 percent margin, the public thinks that GOP leaders in Congress deserve more credit for the budget agreement than Bill Clinton does.

For all the results of the poll, go to:

http://allpolitics.com/1997/08/01/poll/

UPS-Teamsters Strike

White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said this morning he sees no possibility of presidential intervention in the UPS strike. McCurry reminded reporters that Harry Truman was the last president to use the Taft-Hartley labor law's powers and order strikers back to work. The president, instead, wants the two sides to resume negotiations. So far, no new talks between UPS and the Teamsters have been scheduled. UPS ships 80 percent of the nation's packages, approximately 12 million each day. In all, 185,000 Teamsters are on strike.

Trouble for Rudy?

This morning's New York Daily News headline screamed it out: "City Hall Soap." According to a report in Vanity Fair, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's 13-year marriage to TV personality Donna Hanover is on the rocks because of an "intimate" relationship with an aide. Giuliani denied the report, and called it "scurrilous."

The magazine's upcoming issue says Giuliani, 53, and his communications director, Cristyne Lategano, 32, began a relationship in 1994 when Giuliani campaigned around the country for other Republicans. Giuliani is seeking a second term in November's mayoral election.

Giuliani said today that voters would base their vote on his job performance, not on "scurrilous cheap rumors."

Quotations of the Week

"It [the federal budget] will be in balance probably now before the year 2002 because of the enormous growth and confidence in the economy since we took over the majority ... We are now moving into an era of the politics of surplus budgets ... Unless we have a configuration of Democrat president and Democrat majority in Congress, I do not expect to see deficits again in my lifetime." -- House Majority Leader Dick Armey, appearing on CNN's "Late Edition," on the prospects for a balanced budget before 2002

"It [the tax bill] gives the bulk of the benefits to the top five percent of taxpayers. Given the history of the last 10 years, when people at the top have done very well, people in the middle and at the bottom are struggling. This tax bill needed to go to people in the middle and people trying to get in the middle. It's a fundamental mistake and I don't care if I'm the only one saying this. I'm going to say what I believe in and what's in my heart." -- Rep. Dick Gephardt, on NBC's "Meet the Press"

"I'm not calling [William] Weld a skunk. But if you get into a certain kind of contest, you get your shoes wet. I'm not going to pick up his challenge. What he would like most in the world is for me to fire back so he could fire back." -- Sen. Jesse Helms, on the fight over the Weld nomination, to the Raleigh, N.C., News and Observer

Tight And Concise

Before Congress raced out of Washington for the August recess last week, Sen. Fred Thompson made some noises about resuming the campaign finance hearings later in the month. But now it looks as though the hearings will resume Sept. 2. Thompson promises a "tighter presentation" when the hearings reconvene. "We've got to be more concise," the Tennessee Republican told reporters. When committee members return, they will race toward a year-end deadline to finish work on the campaign money probe.

When the hearings resume, so will AllPolitics' complete coverage, in our Gavel to Gavel section at:

http://allpolitics.com/1997/gen/resources/gavel/

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AllPolitics E-Wire is produced by the staff of CNN/TIME AllPolitics (http://allpolitics.com) in Washington, D.C., and e-mailed each Monday. We want to make E-Wire informative and useful for you, so let us know how we're doing, via e-mail to editor@AllPolitics.com. Please put "E-Wire" in the subject line.