Word: babbittism
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...BRUCE BABBITT...
...early last week it was clear that Clinton had reduced the field to Arnold, Babbitt and Breyer. Each had drawbacks. For Arnold, it was his health. He is under treatment for lymphoma, a form of cancer. He had also raised the suspicions of some women's groups with two of his opinions on the bench, one that upheld a parental-consent statute regarding teen abortions and another that permitted the Jaycees to exclude women. With Whitewater still an unresolved issue, there were also rumblings in the Senate about the propriety of the President bringing to Washington another of his friends...
...Babbitt nomination that raised the most worrisome prospect, a real confirmation battle. Last year the Interior Secretary angered Senators from Western states by trying to raise fees for grazing, mining and water rights on federal lands. As Babbitt pulled out in front of the other choices last week, Utah's Hatch, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, predicted a fight. Though minority leader Robert Dole told the President privately that Babbitt could still be confirmed, probably by a vote of 80 to 20, the White House remained concerned about the possibility of a revolt spreading among Senate Democrats...
...didn't seem to occur to the disgruntled Senators that they should have been pleased by the prospect of getting Babbitt onto the court and away from land-use policy. "This isn't about logic," said a White House aide. "This is about personalities and personal relationships." By Thursday night it was looking like no for the Secretary. "They trial-ballooned the Babbitt thing," said an aide to a Western Senator. "It definitely popped...
...after deciding that the questions hanging over Arnold's health were serious enough to disqualify him, Clinton was ready at last to give Breyer his O.K. He called the judge, their first contact since their uncomfortable meeting last year, then got on the phone to the two losing candidates. Babbitt was able soon after to joke with friends about his experience. "I knew I had been cut," he told them, "when George Stephanopoulos referred to me as 'Secretary Bobbitt...