Word: whips
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...dictionary definition of whip (to lash, pull, jerk, snatch) is a fair description of the job to which House Democrats last week elected Michigan's David Bonior. As majority whip, the bearded, low-key Bonior, 46, is now responsible for counting heads prior to key votes and twisting the arms of Democrats who stray from the party fold. The eight-term Congressman also becomes the third-ranking House Democrat, replacing Pennsylvania's William Gray on the House escalator that often leads to the jobs of majority leader and then Speaker. Gray resigned last month to head up the United Negro...
During six terms as a Congressman from Philadelphia, William H. Gray ascended to the most prominent House leadership post ever held by a black: Democratic ! whip. In time, Capitol Hill insiders speculated, he could have become Speaker. Last week Gray flabbergasted both rivals and supporters by resigning from Congress to become head of the United Negro College Fund...
...taken the plunge again. Beast (Random House; 350 pages; $21) features tentacles rather than mandibles. Otherwise it is the familiar mixture: lethal creature, relentless pursuers and vast quantities of saline solution. When waters off Bermuda become the killing grounds of a giant squid, tourism collapses. Whereupon an Ahabian fisherman, Whip Darling, clambers into a submarine and leads the hunt. All the old ingredients are present, from aqua horror ("the creature moved toward the unnatural thing") to Moby Dick denouement (" 'Here!' he shouted, and he drove the saw deep into the yawning beak"). In between are adrenal confrontations and detailed descriptions...
...compromises, as House Democratic leaders scrambled to find the votes they need to override a possible presidential veto. It was a spectacle the Republicans enjoyed. "The Democrats are not going to get the votes they need, and that will finish off civil rights for this year," crowed G.O.P. whip Newt Gingrich. Privately, civil rights lobbyists acknowledged that Gingrich was right...
...President could choose no more experienced man-in-waiting than Dick Cheney. Consider his resume: Secretary of Defense; former White House chief of staff; former Republican whip in the House of Representatives; co-author with wife Lynne, who heads the National Endowment for the Humanities, of a lively book about past leaders of the House. Cheney is a pragmatic conservative who earned the respect of liberal Democrats with his good humor and willingness to hear -- if not heed -- opposing arguments...