Word: contra
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...hours the House debated a Democratic proposal that would have banned any new U.S. funds to the contras fighting Nicaragua's Sandinista government. Even supporters of such a total ban viewed it as doomed. As soon as it was defeated, they figured, they would offer another measure that would give President Reagan a fraction of the $100 million he wants in contra aid. But as the scoreboard ticked off the tally, Democrats watched in amazement. The measure was winning, mainly because few Republicans were voting. Suddenly, with time running out, the Republicans pushed their vote buttons in a rush...
Across the aisle, the realization slowly dawned on the Democrats that the G.O.P. had outfoxed them. After the House rebuffed contra aid a month ago, Speaker Tip O'Neill had agreed to bring the matter back to the House floor -- but only if it was attached to a supplemental appropriations bill packed with goodies for legislators. He knew that the President was opposed to the pork-barrel bill. He also knew that it would take weeks or months before the House version could be reconciled with a Senate bill and put into a form that Reagan might sign. Thus, attaching...
...week's vote, Republican Leader Bob Michel charged that the Democrats were playing a "variation of the old con game, 'Heads I win; tails you lose.' " Declared Michel: "We refuse to play." Recognizing that he had been outwitted, O'Neill withdrew the measure. But where did that leave the contras? In confused limbo. The Senate has approved the President's aid request; the House has not. Michel announced that he intends to seek a "clean" vote on the funding by rounding up the required signatures of a majority of the House (218 members) to bring a bill directly...
...Harvard graduate, is met with rotten eggs and racuous protest. Thus last spring, a South African diplomat was blockaded at Lowell House, and a sit-in disrupted business at 17 Quincy St. And while students in the Committee on Central America did not themselves disrupt the speech by a Contra rebel this spring, they were hardly critical after it was broken up by other protesters...
Whatever others think of him, there is no denying that Leiken is, as Elliott Abrams, the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, puts it, "an important player." This week the House of Representatives reconsiders the Reagan Administration's contra aid package. If it is passed, the White House will owe a measure of thanks to Leiken. Through his testimony on the Hill and his published arguments, he has played a significant role in developing the compromise bill that was passed three weeks ago by the Senate. The Reagan Administration hopes that this bill will be similarly palatable...