The Notebook

"It's the best welcome money can buy. I call the state dinner the 'ultimate coffee.'"
Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Congresswoman from California, on President Jiang Zemin's black-tie evening at the White House, in the New York Times

Campaign Finance Reform: "Portals" Of Influence?

(TIME, November 10) -- The spotlight in the campaign-finance inquiry shifts this week to a $1 million payment that lobbyist and close Al Gore ally PETER KNIGHT received just weeks before he left his firm to manage the Clinton-Gore campaign last year. The source of the payment was Franklin Haney, a Chattanooga developer and longtime Gore supporter, who last year became involved in a controversial Washington building project called the Portals.

The sum, investigators suspect, may be linked to Haney's securing a highly unusual agreement committing the Federal Communications Commission to a long-term lease at the Portals. The deal came after years of squabbling in the courts and Congress. Investigators say Knight, who is a friend of FCC chairman Reed Hundt, billed the $1 million in January 1996, the same month the agreement was signed, though the check came in April. Knight is scheduled to testify this week before the House Commerce Committee about several of his lobbying efforts for clients who also donated to the Democratic Party; Haney gave more than $200,000 to the party in 1996. Knight's attorney said he could not immediately comment on the large fee. Haney confirmed the payment, saying the check was for general legal work on the project.

--By Viveca Novak and Michael Weisskopf/Washington

Trade Talks: Can Diplomat Barbie Be Far Behind?

In the art of diplomacy, the well-timed gesture can make all the difference. During presummit haggling, National Security Adviser SANDY BERGER warned his Chinese counterpart, Liu Hua Qui, that the ballooning trade deficit with China, $44 billion this year, was going to provoke a mega-political backlash. Liu replied that the deficit had many complex causes, including wrongheaded U.S. export controls. During a break, a frustrated Berger told an aide to buy a present for Liu. When the Chinese official unwrapped it, he found, instead of the traditional vase, a spanking-new Barbie--made in China, of course. Berger razzed him, "I want you to put that on your desk and leave it there until the trade deficit comes down." Later, Chinese officials quietly revealed that they planned to cut average tariffs to 10%. Maybe Barbie should get a Foreign Service appointment.

--By J.F.O. McAllister/Washington