-Caveat Lector- ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date sent: Mon, 27 Sep 1999 12:13:31 -0500 From: "Jeff Taylor" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Reason Express List Member <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Reason-Express: REx39, v2 Welcome to Reason Express, the weekly e-newsletter from Reason magazine. Reason Express is written by Washington-based journalist Jeff A. Taylor and draws on the ideas and resources of the Reason editorial staff. For more information on Reason, visit our Web site at www.reason.com. Send your comments about Reason Express to Jeff A. Taylor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) and Virginia Postrel ([EMAIL PROTECTED]). REASON Express September 27, 1999 Vol. 2 No. 39 1) GOP Executes Group Drop-Kick on Buchanan 2) Dialing for a Downpayment with the Clintons 3) Feds Take a Swing at the Tobacco Pinata 4) Class-Action Suits: It's a Federal Thing 5) Scrubbing the Economy Clean of Dirty Money 6) Quick Hits - - In the Crossfire - - Sleepy-headed Republicans awoke last week to find that some guy who has run for their presidential nod twice before is a bit of a loon. Funny, Pat Buchanan was never a closeted xenophobe; he wore his Anglo-Saxon heart on his sleeve. Funnier still is what has landed Mr. B in the fire this time: sophomoric what-ifs offered up in his latest book. In "A Republic, Not an Empire," Buchanan engages in a rather pointless bit of extended second-guessing in which his hindsight is always 20-20. It reveals that if the U.S. had stayed out of WWI, WWII would've never come along, and even if it had, someone other than a meddling blue-blood like FDR could have kept the U.S. out of it while Hitler and Stalin had at each other. Maybe if Buchanan had carried his analysis back to argue it was a mistake for the Pilgrims to land at Plymouth, we'd have something new here, but as it stands he is merely tromping over the 100-miles-per-gallon-carburetor territory of the perpetually cranky. Buchanan makes the most sense when he says that attacks from his fellow Republicans are motivated by electoral politics, not principle. Eight years locked outside the White House with the sweaty tourists has GOPers of all stripes panting to get back in. Consider the fact that Republicans think they already have a winner in George W. Bush and his $75 million (or vice versa), and Buchanan becomes the crazy friend who is going to queer the deal. Better to strangle any nascent Buchanan Reform Party bid in the crib before $12 million in federal funding makes it too strong. Some good could come out of the dust up if all candidates--Democrat, Republican, Reform, Silly, and Slightly-Silly--would take the time to explain exactly which principles would guide their respective foreign policies. Then we can move on to the big stuff, like what if Davy Crockett had had an M60 at the Alamo? http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-09/24/100l-092499-idx. html Virginia Postrel explored the appeal of Buchananism way back in 1996 at http://www.reason.com/9605/Dept.Edit.VIP.html ************************************************************* - - Home Alone - - It appears the Clintons are having second thoughts about allowing a Democratic fund-raiser to underwrite the purchase of their $1.7 million New York address. The Clintons are exploring ways to apply for a new loan that wouldn't need Terry McAuliffe's $1.3 million guarantee. Word is that legal henchmen and White House public employees Cheryl Mills and Bruce Lindsey are hard at work trying to make it happen. This change in direction comes after the McAuliffe deal has been shown to be more valuable to the Clintons that previously imagined. He stepped up to the plate after three multi-millionaire former administration men--Erskine Bowles, Mack McLarty, and Robert Rubin--turned the Clintons down. "This is a President who has never had any compunction about going around with a tin cup. Most people would have a very, very difficult time asking someone to write a check for $1.3 million," observed Charles Lewis, the executive director of the Center for Public Integrity. Also, under both Federal Election Commission and IRS rules, the Clintons would have a lot of explaining to do. First, how McAuliffe's guarantee doesn't violate limits on campaign giving, and second, how it doesn't qualify as a taxable gift. Then there is also the likelihood that a Sen. Hillary would be violating Senate rules with such an arrangement. http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-09/25/119l-092599-idx. html http://search.nytimes.com/search/daily/bin/fastweb?getdoc+site+site+11270+ 0+wA AA+Rubin%7Eand%7EBowles ************************************************************* - - Smoke Signs - - As if she didn't have enough on her plate, Attorney General Janet Reno announced that the Justice Department would file a $25 billion lawsuit against tobacco companies. The government contends that if tobacco companies had only told everybody that cigarettes were dangerous, then the federal government wouldn't have had to spend so much on health care costs. There are at least two big problems with this little gambit. First, the feds may have saved money thanks to smokers who were killed off before they could cash in various government entitlements. But that isn't the kind of argument tobacco is likely to make. Instead, it will probably point out that at least since 1964--when various health warnings came with every pack--the feds themselves had to know that cigarettes were not exactly a health tonic. That makes it very hard to claim that ruthless businessmen somehow duped Washington. Tobacco is promising to fight the suit to the end, which suggests many years of legal wrangling. http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-09/22/095l-092299-idx. html http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-09/23/156l-092399-idx. html For more on the tobacco war, check out the Reason Online compendium at http://www.reason.com/tobsuit.html ************************************************************* - - Courting Change - - What if the only way to curb out-of-control class-action suits is to expand federal power? Is that a good trade-off or the kind of thing which can backfire? That is the question the House of Representatives wrestled with last week. It narrowly sided with more federal power in approving legislation which would kick large class-action lawsuits up to federal courts. In the past, state courts have been notorious for returning huge judgments against out-of-state defendants and de facto setting national policy in the process. Plantiff lawyers sometimes engage in venue shopping across several states until they think they have a favorable combination of case, judge, and jury. Most Republicans and some Democrats thought this was a practice that needed to be stopped. But enough conservative Republicans worried about creating a new federal role crossed over to vote with Democrats that the measure only passed 222 to 207. The Senate will likely take up similar legislation, but the White House is promising a veto, saying that consumers will suffer unless state courts bludgeon corporations. http://search.nytimes.com/search/daily/bin/fastweb?getdoc+site+site+13098+ 8+wA AA+%22ron%7Epaul%22 Walter Olson wondered about the logic of interstate class-action suits at http://www.reason.com/9905/co.wo.reasonable.html ************************************************************* - - Uncle Sam's Clean Sweep - - The Clinton administration has rolled out yet another new plan to fight money laundering. This one would extend reporting requirements to brokerage houses, casinos, and check-cashers. The new rules would also increase international cooperation in investigations of criminals who seek to run their money through legitimate businesses. As always, the war on drugs is the driving force behind the crackdown. The idea is that if drug dealers cannot be stopped from amassing millions, at least they can be stopped from spending them. Also included is an interesting little distinction of "rogue jurisdiction" for any country which refuses to go along with the controls on currency flows. The U.S. would seek to punish such states by making it harder for them to get bank loans and otherwise mucking with its finances until it plays ball. Sounds like supra-national racketeering, but there is no law against that. http://cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/09/24/money.laundering/index.html http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-09/24/052l-092499-idx. html ************************************************************* QUICK HITS - - Quote of the Week - - "I've committed plenty of crimes. I just don't get caught. ... I would remember. I have an awesome memory for someone who smokes so much pot," Asheville (North Carolina) City Council candidate Ukiah Morrison explaining his familiarity with the criminal justice system. Morrison, a male stripper, was later charged with assaulting two patrons at a local pizza restaurant. http://www.citizen-times.com/cgi-bin/story.cgi?19990921_n6.txt&n http://www.citizen-times.com/cgi-bin/story.cgi?19990922_n7.txt&n - - Quote of the Week, Wait 'Til Mom Finds Out - - "What surplus? There isn't going to be any surplus because it's all being spent,'' Rep. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) on what Congress has been up to. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/09/ 23/M N42462.DTL - - Menthol Block - - A federal judge in Philadelphia tossed out a lawsuit that claimed that the tobacco industry violated the civil rights of blacks by selling them menthol cigarettes. The suit argued that as menthol cigarettes are both marketed towards blacks and contain additional toxic compounds, it amounts to a violation of the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1870. http://www.trib.com/HOMENEWS/WASH/BlacksCigarettes.html - - Adventures in Moving - - Residents of Great Harbour Deep, Newfoundland--population 140--want out and want the provincial government to help. Some 83 percent of residents want to be resettled to some place bigger. Government officials say once that view is unanimous, they'll have to act. http://www.nationalpost.com/news.asp?s2=national&s3=westtoeast&f=990925/We stto East.html - - Don't Booze, You Lose - - Researchers in Finland and the U.S. found that moderate alcohol consumption can both reduce the incidence of kidney stones and help prevent heart disease in diabetics. http://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arc99/9_18_99/food.htm - - eSpliff - - eBay yanked an auction for 500 pounds of marijuana from its site last week. The lot--which may or may not have been for real--was described as ''the best marijuana Holland has to offer.'' The offer later popped up on another site, AuctionWatch.com, and bids up to $10 million were made before that auction was also closed down. http://www.boston.com/dailynews/266/technology/eBay_Pulls_Marijuana_Auctio n_:. shtml ############################################################## REASON NEWS The Reason Foundation is proud to announce that it will feature Lady Thatcher as keynote speaker at a gala banquet in her honor, to be held Wednesday, October 27 in Los Angeles. Co-hosted with the National Tax Limitation Foundation, the banquet will allow Lady Thatcher to reflect on her achievements and provide her thoughts on the changes we face as the millennium approaches. Please contact Erica Mannard, director of special events for the Reason Foundation, at [EMAIL PROTECTED], or visit http://www.reason.org/events.html for more details. ############################################################## Reason Express is made possible by a grant from The DBT Group (http://www.dbtgroup.com), manufacturers of affordable, high-performance mainframe systems and productivity software. Current Circulation: 3965 We encourage you to forward Reason Express. If you received this issue from a forward, please subscribe. 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