Word: clouts
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There are several ways to explain last week's popular putsch. The first is that Filipinos are exceedingly impatient. Throughout the Senate trial, it was apparent that Estrada retained enough clout, and popular support, to avoid being removed from office. But instead of allowing him to prevail in these tainted hearings, after which the democratic system could digest the votes of the various Senators and eventually throw them out of office, Filipinos decided to take to the streets. But this argument is flawed: Filipinos in fact are among the most patient people in Asia. The original People Power revolution...
...large airport that can physically accommodate it. Big airlines often try to block these projects in order to keep out competitors. Says Allan McArtor, former head of the FAA and CEO of troubled start-up Legend Airlines: "The biggest deterrent to new airport planning is the resistance and political clout of major carriers. Dominant airlines must stop fighting new airport development if the entire system is going to improve." The FAA is on the right track in attempting to transform nearly two dozen former military airfields like El Toro in California and Homestead A.F.B. in Florida into commercial airports...
This sudden embrace is a matter of practical demographics. With the shrinking of unionized manufacturing, the labor movement has lost members--and political clout. Now focusing on the growing service sector, unions see immigrants, including the estimated 5 million to 6 million undocumented workers, as a rich source of new constituents. The bulk of the illegal ones are Latinos, who are joining unions at twice the rate of Caucasians...
...third most tempting target for interest groups is Gale Norton, the former Colorado attorney general who is Bush's pick for Interior. She is being assailed by environmentalists, who now rival civil rights groups for clout on Capitol Hill. Norton, says Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope, "would be a natural disaster as Interior Secretary. Norton is the oil, mining and timber industry's choice." Pope's group is worried that she will move quickly to open more federal land to mining and oil exploration. During a stint as Reagan's associate solicitor for conservation and wildlife, where...
...less-than-sure-shots: Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson, zealous welfare reformer and pro-life advocate, is up for the top job at Health and Human Services. Many left-of-center Dems are likely to cringe at aspects of his record, but moderates from both parties recognize Thompson's clout - and stand frankly in awe of his groundbreaking work in welfare reform. He may field a few tough questions, but Thompson will be fine...