NATION
Let's Make a GATT Deal
The GATT world-trade pact got a big boost when Republican Senate leader Bob Dole and the White House came to terms on changes to the treaty. To garner Dole's support and assuage his concerns about American sovereignty under the pact, the Administration agreed to create a review panel that would monitor the fairness of trade-dispute decisions, which will be adjudicated by a newly created body called the World Trade Organization. If the American review panel feels the U.S. is regularly getting a raw deal, it could formally recommend withdrawal from the treaty. The efforts of Dole and some Republican strategists to link approval of GATT to a cut in the capital-gains tax -- a perennial on the G.O.P.'s wish list -- came to naught. Legislation putting GATT into effect will be voted on this week at a special lame-duck session of Congress.
New Whitewater Indictments
The Los Angeles Times reported that Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr will bring indictments before the end of December. Among the most likely targets, said the Times: James McDougal and his wife Susan, who were the Clintons' partners in the ill-fated Whitewater Development Corp.; former Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell; and Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker.
Helms Trips over His Tongue
Never one to mince words, Senator Jesse Helms, the ultra-conservative Republican slated to head the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expanded on his Nov. 18 remark that President Clinton is not up to the job of Commander in Chief. The North Carolinian followed up by telling a Raleigh newspaper that Clinton was so unpopular with the military that he had "better watch out" and "have a bodyguard" if he visits Helms' state. Though the Senator later conceded his remark was a "mistake," the incendiary statement provoked anger from congressional Democrats, solemn disapproval from the President and verbal minuets from Republican leaders seeking to distance themselves -- but not too far -- from Helms.
G.O.P. Govs: We're Here Too
Their ranks swelling to 30 come January, the nation's Republican Governors proclaimed their political independence at their annual convention in Williamsburg, Virginia. The Governors made plain their advice to the new Republican Congress: stick to the economy, stay away from social issues like school prayer, and don't cut the federal budget at the states' expense.
Friendly-Fire Decision
An Air Force investigator probing the April mishap in which two U.S. Army helicopters were downed by friendly fire over Iraq recommended that no charges be brought against the only pilot facing judicial action (two F-15s were responsible for the shooting). If senior commanders accept the recommendation, only one person -- the senior officer on board the AWACS plane monitoring the area's air traffic -- could face a court-martial for the accident in which 26 people perished.
Gays and the Military
Breaking with other federal courts that have ruled for gays in similar cases, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the dismissal from the Naval Academy of a top-ranked, openly gay midshipman. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected at some point to settle the constitutionality of dismissing military personnel who don't hide their homosexuality.