Word: contra
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Robert Dole called it a "man-to-man" talk, but it looked and sounded more like a tirade. During a lull in the Senate contra-aid debate, the Republican leader angrily strode up to the rostrum where George Bush was presiding, pounded on the desk and waved a Bush campaign press release in the Vice President's face. For five minutes he took his rival for the Republican presidential nomination to task for practicing what he called "low-down, nasty, mean politics...
Dole demanded an apology to his wife, but Bush refused to disavow the written statement. Political analysts suspect that paper was meant to put Dole on the defensive, shift attention away from the Vice President's still foggy Iran-contra role and goad the Kansas Senator into a display of his well-known temper. If so, it was at least partly a success...
...last week's roll call drew near, Congress's exasperation with the whole issue was palpable. Since December 1982, lawmakers have voted on the contras 15 times. Whether the immediate question was the mining of Nicaraguan harbors or the many permutations of the Boland amendment, which blocked military aid to the contras, each vote sparked ugly, divisive battles. Last year's Iran- contra scandal has only added to the bitterness. In the past, Reagan was able to win over key swing votes in White House arm-twisting sessions. Last week, however, many undecided Congressmen refused even to meet with...
...Contra supporters read this as an ominous sign that the Sandinistas have no intention of moving toward democracy. Elliott Abrams, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs and Reagan's embattled point man on the contra issue, has warned that without pressure from the rebels, "Nicaragua will become another Cuba, and the chances of the survival of democracy in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are enormously diminished...
After the House vote, the President began searching for other means to support the contras, but his options were limited at best. The Administration was quick to point out that it will not be involved in private efforts to sustain the rebels. Moreover, the Administration wants no part of the clandestine contra schemes of yesteryear. "There ain't going to be an Ollie North on this watch," said a senior White House aide grimly...