The week's big news, and how's it's being spun.
Oct. 12 1997 3:30 AM

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William Saletan William Saletan

Will Saletan writes about politics, science, technology, and other stuff for Slate. He’s the author of Bearing Right.

The Army announced sexual-misconduct court-martial proceedings against Army Sgt. Maj. Gene McKinney and stripped him of his title. McKinney's lawyer, who has already accused the Army of prosecuting McKinney because he is black, also promised to expose 1) testimony from witnesses "who can't wait to tell us about the accusers" and 2) the Army's alleged protection of generals who have been similarly accused. Reporters are looking forward to a nasty trial full of racial and sexual controversy. The New York Times says there's a good chance McKinney will be replaced as Army sergeant major by his twin brother, James. (10/10)

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Hurricane Pauline slammed into Acapulco with 115-mph winds, killing at least 120 people along the Mexican coast. The hurricane wiped out scores of people in poor neighborhoods, including employees of local tourist resorts, but caused no major injuries to the resorts or the tourists. Officials blamed the hurricane on this year's meteorological whipping boy, El Niño. (10/10)

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Democrats leaked a 1987 tape of President Reagan, at the White House, asking Republican donors for "help." The tape, made by the same White House agency that taped Clinton's coffees (see clips in Jacob Weisberg's "Stalking the Mysterious Potus"), shows Reagan asking big donors to help the GOP keep the presidency and recapture the Senate. Former Reagan aides argued that Reagan's requests for "help," unlike Clinton's, were delivered 1) in the "residence" part of the White House; 2) to less intimate audiences; and 3) without explicit mentions of money, although the donors chipped in $1.3 million afterward. Ex-Reagan aide Lyn Nofziger stressed that Reagan didn't "dial for dollars" and accused Clinton's apologists of failing to see the difference. But the Washington Post called the whole thing "another illustration of the fuzzy line between permissible reward and improper solicitation."(10/10)

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Journalism roundup: Shelby Coffey resigned as editor of the Los Angeles Times in a masthead shake-up widely regarded as a takeover of the paper's editorial side by its business side. Ousted New Republic editor Michael Kelly signed up as a columnist for the National Journal and the Washington Post. Translation of comments by one of Kelly's new bosses: He can bash Al Gore all he wants. Maxwell King announced he will resign as editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Professional obits noted the Inquirer's unpleasant austerity measures during his tenure. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is threatening NBC with hostile legislation or obstruction of its affiliates' license renewals unless NBC adopts the new sex-and-violence ratings system. CBS News is offering up to $1,000 for news tips, but the network says it's OK because only journalists (not "the subjects of stories or anyone connected to them") are eligible. (10/10)

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Campaign-finance news: 1) The Senate deadlocked on McCain-Feingold, and Majority Leader Trent Lott declared campaign reform dead for the year. 2) Senate investigation chairman Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., delivered a long, angry speech demanding that Clinton "step up to the plate" and cut through his aides' stalling and incompetence. 3) Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., agreed with Republicans that the Senate should extend hearings into next year because of the administration's obstruction. 4) Former Clinton aide Harold Ickes testified that Clinton's fund-raising tactics were the same as Reagan's and Bush's. Even left-leaning pundits are grumbling that the administration's incompetence is wearing thin. (See Jacob Weisberg's "Chronicle of a Death Foretold," and his "Senate Campaign-Finance Hearings" dispatches.) (10/8)

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Dr. Stanley Prusiner won a Nobel Prize for discovering prions, a new infectious agent. According to Prusiner, prions are warped proteins that warp other proteins. Then all the warped proteins eat holes in your brain until it looks like a sponge. You lose control of your body, go nuts, and die. P.S. Your immune system doesn't fight prions. Experts regard the award as the Nobel committee's attempt to settle the ongoing dispute over whether prions (which lack the genetic material previously thought necessary for an infectious agent to multiply) really cause brain afflictions, such as mad-cow disease. (Hey, wait a minute: To what does Prusiner owe his Nobel? For one view, see Slate's "Nobel Gas.") (10/8)

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Update on the Paula Jones case: 1) Jones finally gave Clinton's lawyers her affidavit specifying the "distinguishing characteristics" she claims to have seen on his body. 2) Clinton lawyer Bob Bennett said she's wrong about the characteristics. 3) Jones adviser Susan Carpenter-McMillan demanded to know how Bennett knows whether Clinton has the characteristics. 4) Jones' lawyer, evidently shaken by Bennett's denial, conceded that she might have gotten the characteristics wrong because she didn't get a chance to study them for long. 5) Bennett is abiding by his pledge not to dig for dirt in Jones' sex life. Instead, the lawyer for an Arkansas trooper involved in the Jones case will do the digging. Jones' lawyer says Bennett is obviously involved. (See Slate's take on Bennett and Carpenter-McMillan.) (10/8)

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Israel botched an assassination attempt on a Hamas leader. According to various reports, Israel 1) infuriated Jordan by infiltrating that country and staging the attack there; 2) infuriated Canada and other countries by forging Canadian passports for the Israeli agents; 3) bungled the attack, leading to the agents' arrest; 4) was forced to release the founder of Hamas (who was serving a life sentence) and other Hamas prisoners from Israeli jails and to supply an antidote for the lethal nerve toxin used in the attack, in order to assuage Jordan's anger; and 5) aroused such fury at itself and sympathy for Hamas that Yasser Arafat reportedly will have to release the Hamas prisoners he has rounded up and reopen Hamas institutions. Domestic and foreign critics called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a terrorist and a fool and added that the attack was so stupid and potentially calamitous that he's lucky he screwed it up. ("The Gist" examines Mossad, the Israeli agency that made the assassination attempt.) (10/6)

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Hundreds of thousands of men attended the Promise Keepers national assembly in Washington. The assembly called on men to accept Jesus Christ; confess their selfishness and sexual sins; and take leadership in their families, churches, and communities. Critics accused the group of advocating a return to patriarchy. Several members of Congress showed up, and President Clinton applauded the men for promising "to reassume their responsibilities to the families." The media's buildup to the assembly focused on gender controversies--but the assembly focused more on racial reconciliation, the attendees behaved humbly, and the speakers forswore political plans or motives. The press finally acquitted the Promise Keepers of the charge that they are divisive and leveled the more serious charge that they are boring. (See William Saletan's "Frame Game," "Promise Keepers 1, NOW 0." Slate's Tucker Carlson was at the rally--check out his "Dispatch." Also read this "Dialogue" between Time's Ron Stodghill and U.S. News & World Report's Marci McDonald.) (10/6)

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Now they tell us: 1) George Bush's diary tapes (not to be confused with Clinton's White House tapes) show him admitting that he "blew it" when he picked Dan Quayle as his running mate, according to a new book. Bush's spokesman says Bush was referring to how the selection was managed, not to Quayle himself. 2) The same book says that at the 1980 Republican convention, Ronald Reagan told a friend: "I have strong reservations about George Bush. I'm concerned about turning the country over to him." 3) According to another book, Lyndon Johnson's White House tapes (not to be confused with Bill Clinton's White House tapes) indicate he suspected Fidel Castro of complicity in President Kennedy's assassination but feared that a U.S. military response would trigger nuclear war. (To listen to some of the LBJ tapes, click here.) 4) Reagan's doctors told the New York Times that he showed no signs of Alzheimer's disease during his presidency. The alternative explanation for his mental lapses: indifference to detail. 5) At a forum on mental illness this weekend, George McGovern said he shouldn't have dumped Sen. Tom Eagleton from his ticket in 1972. (10/6)

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Algerian atrocity watch: Militants 1) decapitated or cut the throats of 12 children and 26 adults in one village; 2) similarly massacred 22 children and 15 adults in another village; 3) slaughtered 20 teen-agers and young adults at a wedding; and 4) attacked a school bus and killed the driver and 16 children, some of whom were shot through the head. (10/6)