Word: contra
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...Independence Hall, while not far away some 100 supporters of the National Organization for Women demonstrated for an Equal Rights Amendment, chanting, "Hey! Hey! What do you say! Ratify the ERA!" While speakers redundantly eulogized the Constitution, Senate Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd, alluding to disclosures of the Iran-contra abuses, cautioned against "habits of power that are inherently undemocratic and unconstitutional...
...then the committees complain that America has been captivated by a witness's manner instead of concentrating on his words and deeds. Can't have it both ways. Turn an inquiry into a spectacle and you cannot protest that the audience is insufficiently attentive to the transcript. The Iran-contra committees could have modestly pursued their business off-camera, as did the Tower commission. No secrecy necessary -- the entire record could have been made public at the close of the investigation. Then there would have been no Ollie -- only Colonel North, the slightly disreputable, if not discredited, "switching point" (Poindexter...
Which is why not just those dismayed but also those cheered by Olliemania are missing the point. True, most polls show for the first time contra supporters drawing even with contra opponents. But Olliemania has about as much usable political content as Jazzercise. The contra poll reveals not a surge but a blip. Ollie's popularity, like that of his President, was not built of "issues." Critic David Denby, in a grumpy review of "Ollie North, the Movie" for the New Republic, theorizes that Ollie's wild popularity is attributable to his perfect -- i.e., all-American but ambiguous -- Hollywood face...
...British do not have to worry about their lack of a written constitution. They have in Parliament what is known as a question hour, which acts as a check on executive power. Our history with Watergate and the Iran-contra affair makes me think it might be a good idea for our President to appear monthly before a congressional committee to report what he knows about this or is doing about that. We separate our governmental branches a little too much...
Lieut. Colonel Oliver North spent nearly three years coordinating arms purchases and helping to raise money for the contra rebels fighting in Nicaragua. But none of North's secret activities may prove as vital to the rebels as his testimony before the Iran-contra committees. As millions of Americans watched on television, North pleaded passionately for support of efforts to overthrow Nicaragua's Marxist Sandinista junta. He was even permitted to deliver his patented fund-raising pitch, minus the projection of 57 slides that usually accompany the spiel. Holding a photograph of a makeshift contra grave, North, his voice choking...