Word: perots
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WHITE HOUSE OFFICIALS ARE UNDER ORDERS TO SPEAK NO ILL of Ross Perot: no point in generating more TV sound bites. But by last week political strategist Paul Begala could no longer contain himself. Perot, said Begala, "will say anything to get attention. He is just one of those folks who, when he goes to a wedding, he wants to be the bride. When he goes to a funeral, he wants to be the corpse...
Which testifies to how deep Perot is getting under the presidential skin. Not just because of the personal nature of his needling either -- although that is getting extreme. Sample insults from his latest round of TV interviews: Clinton is "still doing things the Arkansas way, like trying to give the travel business as a political payoff . . . the President ((is)) . . . trying to flimflam the American people." All this in addition to % Perot's now celebrated crack that he would not hire Clinton for any job above middle management...
Below the waterline, however, Perot's effort to build a national organization of many millions is springing leaks. By the estimate of some dissidents, there are now about 100 small splinter groups of Perot defectors. Loosely organized so far, they keep in touch with one another through a phone- and-fax network. Roger Lindholm, a Phoenix, Arizona, business consultant, now edits one of several newsletters for disgruntled activists...
...prime source of friction is that Perot wants to focus his group's energy on attracting more followers, while the members already on board want to push the Perot agenda by lobbying legislatures and backing local candidates. Now that Perot has built an army, it is itching to fight battles over such issues as taxes and legislative term limits. But Perot won't let them do so, leading disgruntled Perotistas to claim the group has become like a giant pyramid scheme, existing only for the purpose of growing larger. The dispute has produced a sharp discrepancy between Perot's self...
...upheaval in Maine is a vivid example. When Wells complained that the national group was developing "military-industrial organizational procedures," Perot headquarters ignored him, so he attempted to incorporate the Maine chapter independently of Dallas. He also went public with his criticism. Stephen Bost, the Maine coordinator appointed by Dallas, responded by summoning Wells to appear before an "ad hoc committee on grievances." Wells states that the meeting took the form of a tribunal, accusing him of disrupting the membership drive and damaging Perot's image. "If names had been stones," Wells said, "I'd be black and blue...