Word: almost
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Bush also displays a sense of fairness that one adviser described as "an almost procedural due process." In February he reopened the complicated question of whether the U.S. should provide sensitive technology to Japan for that country's FSX aircraft after learning that the Reagan White House had ignored Commerce Department doubts about the deal. During Cabinet meetings, when political considerations are paramount, Bush often asks, half-seriously, "What should we do in case we just want to do the right thing...
...things but providing few dollars for the tasks. He has called himself "the education President" but budgeted little more for schools than did Reagan. His proposals to cut violent crime by doubling federal prison cells sounded commendable, but even top aides acknowledge that the construction program will have almost no effect on the problem. This bait-and-switch game is considered clever in Washington but not in many other places. Democrats are sure to seize on the rhetoric-reality gap in next year's congressional elections...
...Hill or White City will not bring a fond smile to folkies who prefer their music mild, like a cup of chamomile, or foursquare, like a sermon on a six-string. MacGowan sing-snarls like a saloon rowdy. His mouth, missing several prominent teeth, has attracted almost as much press attention as his voice, perhaps because they make such a perfect match. There is nothing pretty about a MacGowan vocal; the beauty comes later, after he has given the ear a good boxing, and the lyrics settle -- very gently, really -- on the heart...
...Sartre.) There are no direct references to Iran-contra, no arms-for- hostages deals and no Ollie Norths; Clancy is too accomplished a craftsman for such overt gambits. The closest parallel comes in the fictional National Security Adviser, Vice Admiral James Cutter, who is reminiscent of John Poindexter. Almost from the moment the admiral is introduced, readers can sense Clancy's scorn: "Cutter was the sort of sailor for whom the sea was a means to an end. More than half of his career had been spent in the Pentagon, and that . . . was no place for a proper sailor...
...Vice President Dan Quayle. Although Clancy is still negotiating the wording of the standard nondisclosure agreement so it does not impede future novels, his eagerness to serve is palpable. "They wouldn't have asked me in if they didn't think I'd be useful," he says, the hope almost audible in his voice. But the novelist can also sound like Ryan when he declares, "Somebody in my position has the unique ability to look an official in the eye and say, 'What you just said is garbage.' " But the Bush team has other ideas. "What we had in mind...