The week's big news, and how's it's being spun.
Dec. 7 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 National Basketball Association banned all-star player Latrell Sprewell for a year. The reason: He threatened during practice to kill his coach, choked him, was pulled away, and came back 15 minutes later and attacked the coach again. It is the stiffest penalty for insubordination in sports history. Sprewell's team, Golden State, canceled the remainder of his four-year, $32-million contract, and Converse terminated his shoe-endorsement deal. This comes after Dennis Rodman kicked a courtside cameraman and Allen Iverson pleaded no contest to carrying an illegal gun. Sports pundits applauded heartily. The sunny spin: Finally, lawless superstar athletes are being reined in. The half-cynical spin: The NBA banned Sprewell because otherwise, some spineless team would have signed him. The fully cynical spin: He'll make millions playing in Europe. (12/5)

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The Arlington National Cemetery scandal is back. First, conservative journalists and talk-show hosts put out a story that the White House was selling plots in the cemetery to "fat-cat donors." Army Secretary Togo West replied that only one major donor--Larry Lawrence, a former ambassador to Switzerland--had been granted a plot, and that he had been wounded by a torpedo attack in the Merchant Marine in World War II. The White House excoriated journalists and GOP politicians for buying the story. But now, Republicans and maritime officials say there's no evidence that Lawrence was wounded or that he even served, and Lawrence's former aide thinks he made it up. This comes a month after federal Judge James Ware confessed that he had made up an enduring story about his brother being murdered in the civil-rights movement. (Why would Ware do something like that? See Jodie T. Allen's "This Is [Not Quite] Your Life.") Next question: Should Lawrence be dug up and moved? (12/5)

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Former"corporate wife" Lorna Wendt won a $20-million divorce judgment against her ex-husband, GE Capital Services CEO Gary Wendt. The case attracted national attention because she claimed that her contributions to his career--maintaining their home, entertaining his associates, advising him on personnel--constituted a business partnership entitling her to half his alleged $100-million-plus worth, instead of the lesser percentage usually awarded to ex-wives of multimillionaires. The superficial spin: The even split of many of his assets vindicates her argument and bodes well for corporate wives. The sophisticated spin: His ability to hide the rest in stock options ("the judge gave Mrs. Wendt only partial credit for the doubling of GE's stock price," observed the Wall Street Journal) bodes well for corporate husbands. (12/5)

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Disney CEO Michael Eisner cashed in stock options for $565 million. He made $374 million in gross profits, tripling the previous record--set by him--for a stock-option gain. Critics resumed grumbling that CEOs are overpaid. The Wall Street Journal cited arguments in Eisner's defense: 1) The options represent years of work. 2) He gets a relatively low salary--$750,000--and makes more money only if he increases Disney's value, as he has done. 3) Other moguls, e.g., Bill Gates, make zillions more because they own bigger portions of their companies. Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that nearly 200 partners in Goldman, Sachs will collect at least $4 million in bonuses this month and that a thousand Wall Street executives are expected to get bonuses exceeding $1 million. (12/5)

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Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., celebrated his 95th birthday by announcing that he will relinquish the chairmanship of the Senate Armed Services Committee a year from now. Media reports suggested that 1) he's as spry as ever and 2) Republicans can hardly wait to replace him with a living chairman. (12/5)

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The global-warming conference opened in Kyoto, Japan. The big questions: 1) How far and how fast must countries cut their greenhouse-gas emissions? 2) Should developing countries be exempted, as a kind of affirmative-action gesture? Other countries are criticizing the United States for opposing exemptions and seeking smaller emissions cuts than the Europeans demand. The Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times defended the U.S. proposal as less ambitious, hence more plausible, hence more serious, than the European plan. No one expects the conference to produce a treaty that would pass the U.S. Senate. Aides indicate that Vice President Gore, emulating President Clinton, will show up to prove that he cares and is tough, but won't stick around to work out the substantive questions or take the blame for the outcome. (12/3)

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Attorney General Janet Reno decided not to seek an independent counsel to investigate President Clinton's and Vice President Gore's phone calls. She also declined to seek an independent counsel for former Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary over an alleged cash-for-access deal. Reactions: 1) Ho-Hum. 2) Reno is a fool, a coward, or both. 3) The contrarian view, expressed by the Los Angeles Times: She is brave because she knew everyone would call her a coward for making this decision. 4) The phone-call issue was a diversion from more important issues, particularly soft-money abuse. 5) The real news is that FBI Director Louis Freeh publicly and heroically resisted Reno's decision. 6) Her overruling of Freeh's dissent indicates a more serious offense: obstruction of justice by Justice. 7) Reno will end up seeking an independent counsel for the Babbitt-casino question, which in turn will lead back to an investigation of Clinton and Gore anyway. 8) If Reno won't punish Gore, the voters will. (12/3)

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House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt blistered President Clinton and Vice President Gore while outlining his agenda for the next century. He chose to deride "New Democrats" rather than to mention Clinton or Gore by name, but his aides, seconded by pundits, filled in the blanks. Gephardt charged that they have substituted 1) "a money machine" for "a movement"; 2) economic boasting for attention to inequality; 3) "small ideas" for a real agenda, especially universal health care; and 4) "political strategy" for principle. Clinton adviser Rahm Emanuel accused Gephardt of "flip flops on multiple issues." Pundits gleefully predicted Democratic civil war in the 1998 elections and declared the Gephardt-Gore presidential race officially underway. (12/3)

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The Dow Jones industrial average climbed back above 8,000, recovering almost completely from its 1,000-point plunge in little more than a month. The plunge had been broadcast in panicked headlines everywhere. The recovery drew little attention. (12/3)

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Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev taped an ad for Pizza Hut. In the ad, for which Gorbachev will reportedly earn about $1 million, Russian citizens give Gorbachev a standing ovation after a woman proclaims, "Because of him we have things like Pizza Hut." The New York Times portrayed it as a new frontier in the commercialization of world leaders. Gorbachev's excuses: 1) "It is a people's matter--food." (But the Times notes that he has also appeared in an ad for Apple computers.) 2) He has to earn a living, because "I don't get support from the state," unlike former leaders of the United States, France, and Germany. 3) "I see my colleagues, former presidents, and your presidents, too, taking part in campaigns." The Times cites Bob Dole (Visa, Dunkin' Donuts), Dan Quayle (Frito-Lay), and Geraldine Ferraro (Pepsi) as examples, though none has been president. The punch line: Gorbachev taped the ad in Russia, but it won't run there, because Russians despise him. (12/3)

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The International Monetary Fund and the United States are bailing out South Korea. The cost is reportedly $55 billion--a record--including $20 billion in backup loan guarantees from the United States and Japan, and another $15 billion from the World Bank. This follows bailouts of $17 billion and $40 billion for Thailand and Indonesia, respectively. The United States and the IMF moved quickly because South Korea's situation is worse than was originally thought and because, without the bailout, the crisis might spread to Japan and eventually to the United States. (12/1)

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Israel's Cabinet approved a plan to relinquish more of the West Bank to the Palestinians. Two small problems: The plan doesn't specify how much land would be turned over, or when. Palestinian cynics said the plan couldn't be serious because if it were, the Cabinet wouldn't have approved it so decisively (16-0, with two abstentions). Israeli cynics said that Netanyahu was counting on Palestinian cynics to reject the plan, so that he'd get credit for offering it (thereby appeasing the United States) without having to fulfill it (thereby appeasing Israeli right-wingers). Sure enough, the Palestinians rejected it. Meanwhile, Netanyahu approved more West Bank settlements in defiance of the U.S. plea for a settlement freeze (after having complained that President Clinton "humiliated" Israel by refusing to meet with him). (12/1)

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Public-relations buzzards are cashing in on the Iraq showdown before it disappears. 1) Louis Farrakhan announced he will visit Iraq as part of his world tour and hopes to show that Saddam (who is "more popular with his people than President Clinton is with the American people") is a man we can work with. The U.S. government denounced Farrakhan's trip, thereby helping him promote it. 2) While seeking to limit U.N. access to Saddam Hussein's 63 palaces, Iraq paraded nearly 100 coffins containing what it said were corpses of children killed by cruel U.N. sanctions. 3) Israel bashers renewed their efforts to link the crisis to Israeli intransigence in the Middle East peace process. This enabled Israel apologists to denounce the linkage, thereby diverting attention from Israeli intransigence. (12/1)

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A panel of defense experts and former military leaders accused the Pentagon of gross strategic errors in battle planning and weapons procurement. Among the chief indictments: 1) We're too well prepared for an implausible two-war scenario (Persian Gulf plus Korea) and too poorly prepared for an increasingly plausible terrorist assault on the United States. 2) We're armed for the comfortable fight we'd prefer to wage (Air Force bombing) instead of the messy fight necessary to win wars (urban ground combat). 3) We keep buying fancy technology that can't be supported from low-tech bases in battle zones. Analysts agree that the criticism is largely valid and that it will be ignored. (12/1)