Word: tobacco
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...things are as painful to watch as a presidential candidate who won't take the medicine he needs and can't resist the poison he doesn't. For a moment last week, Bob Dole seized upon a good idea just when he needed it, a way to end the tobacco war with Katie Couric and perhaps win some points with soccer moms who worry about crime when they vote. Best of all, it was something he had wanted to do for months: end his opposition to Congress's 1994 ban on 19 types of so-called assault weapons. As majority...
...thus grab credit for) new policies coming out of his agencies, such as the Agriculture Department's new rules for meat inspection, which were served up amid fireworks and grill smoke on the Fourth of July weekend. Often he relies on simple exhortations--to local government, network executives or tobacco companies--with no particular executive fiat lending them force. "Doesn't matter," says a Clinton adviser with obvious satisfaction. "After a while they all blend together. Bottom line: the President's signing important papers at his desk." So what if the papers merely instruct the Education Secretary to stock...
Even so, there's more than a little hypocrisy to the taunting of Dole. Until recently, Democrats were just as dependent on tobacco money as Republicans. The second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, Wendell Ford of Kentucky, has reaped $76,057 since 1986, while House minority leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri has received $67,258. The industry's contributions to both parties was fairly even until 1992 when, the Center for Responsive Politics reports, Republicans got twice as much soft money from tobacco interests as Democrats: $1.9 million to $900,000. That gap widened in 1994, when Republicans raked...
Strange things were happening in the woods. Last November agent Jose Wall of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in Phoenix got disturbing information from people who had been through nearby Tonto National Forest. A deer hunter said he had been stopped by a group of men dressed in camouflage and armed with guns. They warned him to turn back, saying they were "security" and hinting they were with the government. The hunter didn't believe them. But something about their eyes, not to mention their weapons, made him think arguing would be imprudent. He ran into other people...
...gaining popularity. "Dole is letting himself get bogged down in peripheral issues," says Barrett. "He needs to come out with a positive message on what he wants to do. Dole has never been good at looking at the big picture, and that's hurting his campaign. Take the tobacco issue: Dole doesn't support smoking, but somehow he misspoke himself into a controversy that lasted several days." Despite Dole's recent problems, Barrett says he still has ample time to get in the saddle. The Republican convention is still weeks way, and Dole has yet to name his running mate...