In the Public Interest

He has been called the “Stealth Strategist” and the “Invisible Adviser” by the press. But his impact as a top outside political consultant, to President Clinton since January has been anything but invisible. Dick Morris is his name and he is a switch-hitter, a mind for hire who has served extremist Republicans like Senators Jesse…

Big Banks in this country have given new meaning to “special privileges” in the past two decades. Citicorp, Bank of America, Nations Bank, Morgan Guaranty and other top dozen megabanks are on an informal government list described as “too big to fail.” That is, if they are mismanaged or speculating themselves toward bankruptcy, you, via…

I went to see Batman Forever last week and felt sorry for Batman. What the Time-Warner company has done to the Batman comic book character of my childhood is make him resemble Robocop in a high tech special effects frenzy of mindless zip-zap. One reviewer called the film “visual delirium in both form and content.”…

Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) has been busy lately throwing his weight around the Senate, the White House and over at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in order to pass what many consumer and investor groups call the “Crooks and Swindlers Protection Act of 1995.” Dodd, whose definition of liberalism is being for child care…

The worlds of Roni Rudolph and Gingrich-Dole are far apart indeed. Those twin destroyers of corporate law and order -­Senator Robert Dole and Rep. Newt Gingrich who lead the Republicans — operate in a world of business dinners, corporate lobbyists and industrial campaign finance slush funds. While Roni Rudolph is tirelessly pressing for better meat…

It has been said that if an earthquake ever struck Washington, D.C., one building would not move — the headquarters of the AFL-CIO labor federation near the White House. The implication of this satiric comment is that the AFL-CIO has been so moribund that nothing could shake it. Well, a shakening is coming from the…

Those Americans who built this country’s large cities decades ago would scarcely believe what their stricken legacies have become today in the hands of contemporary political and business leaders. One third of Detroit’s population of one million live in poverty. The unemployment rate is officially at fifteen percent. While the General Motors’ headquarters building still…

“Why is the Senate Banking Committee rushing to mark up the huge securities fraud bill (S.240) in a one day meeting before the Memorial Day Congressional recess?”, I asked a Senate aide. “Because of Courtney Ward’s departure,” he replied. Courtney Ward, I was informed, is leaving the Committee staff of Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) to…

Hucksters, barkers, hawkers unite. In your relentless quest for new surfaces for your advertisements, could you imagine these places? Air Force One flies all over the world — consider using the side of the president’s plane to advertise Timex watches. How about a billboard on the Washington Monument featuring the newest new detergent? Haven’t we…

With the best-seller, Hot Zone and the current movie Outbreak as background, the real outbreak of the Ebola virus is in Kikwit, a city of 600,000 in Zaire. Already dozens have perished from what physicians describe as tissue failure, organ failure, and suffocation with blood flowing from ears, eyes, mouth and other orifices. This lethal…