Word: draft
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Rafshoon runs his eye, and sometimes his pencil, over the draft of every presidential speech of consequence. He also serves as a booking agent for Cabinet members and White House aides, phoning TV producers, mentioning who is available for interview shows and even suggesting timely topics. Once a booking is made, Rafshoon prepares a briefing paper for the official, setting forth the Administration's line on a number of questions that might be asked. Officials are not supposed to appear on television without being cleared by Rafshoon-something Midge Costanza did not do. Rafshoon abruptly canceled her scheduled appearance...
...observe the permanent SALT delegations at work. His report: For nearly six years, U.S. and Soviet negotiators have been haggling over what is potentially one of the most important pieces of paper in the world. It is also one of the most complicated. The typescript of the Joint Draft Text for a SALT II agreement runs 61 pages-ten times as long as the SALT I agreement Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev signed in 1972. Every page is stamped SECRET, and almost every sentence is the result of months, in some cases years, of bargaining...
...brackets sometimes embrace a single word or number, sometimes a lengthy paragraph, sometimes a semantic fine point, sometimes a major issue on which ratification itself could depend. Slowly and cautiously, following detailed orders from their respective capitals, the negotiators are chipping away at the brackets that prevent the draft from being a finished treaty...
...were inefficiency and ineffectiveness. Said one of her former colleagues: "She lacked the self-confidence to do the job well." Moreover, Costanza clashed repeatedly with Carter on some policies. "I disagreed with him on three major issues," she said. "I was for full amnesty [for Vietnam-era deserters and draft evaders]; I was for gay rights; I was for a stronger [pro] abortion position...
Ahtisaari faces more than psychological roadblocks. By the end of August he is supposed to submit to U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim a plan for a truce between the guerrillas and South African troops, as well as a blueprint for the election of a constituent assembly that will draft a constitution for independent Namibia. Pretoria has warned that it may reject any recommendation Ahtisaari comes up with. Meanwhile both sides have adopted a "you first" attitude that will make a cease-fire difficult to achieve. As guerrillas under his command blew up a vital water line in northern Namibia, SWAPO...