THE WALNUT OVERTURE

THE TEAMSTERS WERE COOLING ON CLINTON, SO A CASH-HUNGRY WHITE HOUSE WENT TO WORK

No challenge is more inviting to Bill Clinton than a voting bloc on the verge of slipping away. Take the Teamsters: Clinton had broken the union's long-standing alliance with Republicans, but by early 1995 its enthusiasm had "died down," an Administration memo says. So Clinton's team went to work. Harold Ickes, then the deputy chief of staff, and Mickey Kantor, the U.S. Trade Representative, took pains to help Teamster president Ron Carey deal with a bitter California strike, according to interviews and documents obtained by TIME. While the White House overture failed to win concessions for the Teamsters, it apparently helped...

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