Word: shakedowns
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...Which is all something of a yawn ? except that on Nov. 20, Reno can enlarge the preliminary investigation of O'Leary into a large-scale shakedown of Democratic abuses. This would allow Republicans to hear the magic words "independent counsel" ? all the while keeping O'Leary as the probe's nominal target. That, as TIME's Washington correspondent Michael Weisskopf points out, would be the attorney general's perfect compromise: mollifying opponents of the Clinton-Gore machine without giving her White House bosses a pair of black eyes...
That doesn't mean the process is pretty to watch, which helps account for Gore's extraordinary performance last week. His suggestion that he wasn't pressuring donors for soft money struck other fund raisers as ludicrous. Given his position, they allege, the call itself is a form of shakedown. When a Vice President phones potential donors, the White House operator comes on the line and says, "Hold for the Vice President," or a steely-toned military aide barks, "Hold for Sawhorse," using Gore's code name. It's not as if they have much choice...
...parents are subjected to a shakedown body search" for weapons or drugs, Clark says. "They hear the door slam. They look at the inmates and see the way the inmates look back at them. We ask the prisoners, 'Was there something that led you to this life?' They say, 'Yes, my parents were not there when I was a kid. There was nothing to do, so I did this or that [crime].' It is frightening. It makes our parents realize: this is where their child is heading." Every three years, Clark puts his pupils through a similar ordeal. "We target...
That machine has perfected the art of the shakedown. Whip Tom DeLay of Texas actually keeps a book in his office listing how much the 400 largest special-interest pacs gave to either party in the past two years and makes sure contributors to the Democrats are marked down in his book as "unfriendly.'' Representative John Boehner of Ohio is in charge of orchestrating how interest-group lobbyists can raise cash to promote the Contract. What do the lobbyists get in return? Awe-inspiring access to the legislative process, including the right to write the bills themselves, like...
...Senators Arlen Specter and Bob Kerrey, who led the Senate inquiry, also faulted CIA Director John Deutch for understating impact of tainted information and have requested a comprehensive review of all CIA sources for the past 10 years. But TIME's Doug Waller says a major CIA shakedown this isn't. "At most, this represents a spanking for an old sin," he says. "Moreover, the allegation that CIA disinformation led to billions in wasteful Pentagon spending -- one of the major charges -- could not be substantiated, when military spending was investigated...