The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour

yes well the pins b he's good evening i'm robert mcneill in new york and i'm margaret warner and washington have personally been used this friday we focus first on the asian

summit meeting in seattle and what's at stake for the us then confronts his critics on capitol hill next political commentator linda chavez joins our regular analyst mark shields to wrap up the political week and finally a richard rodriguez essay about the california fires new york life is proud to provide funding for the macneil lehrer newshour yet another example of new york lives wise investment philosophy funding set to the world and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by the annual financial support from viewers like you president clinton today told china's leader the

normal relations between the two countries would depend on improvements in china's human rights record he also said beijing must show progress on its trade imbalance with the us and sales of weapons technology there's continued for normal trade relations would depend on such progress he met with president jiang zemin had their seventeen nation asian pacific economic conference in seattle it was the highest level contact in their countries since the tiananmen square massacre in nineteen eighty nine mr clinton said the two had agreed on the need to solve their differences through dialogue and negotiation but he said he was specifically frank and forthright on the issue of human rights commission in particular the need for prison access the icrc the question of releasing political prisoners especially those who are sick the critically mention the case of wong john paul i asked for a dialogue on tibet within the lawnmowers representatives

and i discuss the question of prison labor in the lead for customs officials to visit other facilities has already called for in a memorandum of understanding earlier the president trained his trade sides on asia and europe steele by his victory on nafta mr dutton told the conference he would insist on more open asian markets to reverse a deepening us trade deficit he also warned europe that in the wider got talks on freeing world trade he would not accept a flawed agreement that agreement has been stalled by french demands to renegotiate a deal slashing european farm subsidies the administration today flatly rejected reopen that deal all this came as the government rewarded the us merchandise trade deficit grew by nearly eleven billion dollars in september we'll have more on the asia pacific conference right after the news summary travelers booked an american airlines struggle with more delays and confusion today as a strike by flight attendants continued the walkout has disrupted about half the carriers flights throughout the

country the twenty one thousand member union which began the strike yesterday vowed to stay out eleven days straight through the busy thanksgiving travel period the pilots union announced this evening that it will not join in a sympathy strike the carolina said the flight attendants won't have jobs after the strike the company has already started recruiting and training replacements contract talks collapsed wednesday over pay and work through issues the senate today passed a twenty two billion dollar anti crime bill the vote was ninety five to four the measure includes a ban on nineteen types of assault weapons and money to hire a hundred thousand new police officers it expands the use of the death penalty increases prison terms for certain offenses and finances new presence it must now be reconciled with the scaled down version passed by the house ed rollins who was a campaign manager for new jersey governor elect christie whitman answered more questions today about whether the campaign made passed a suppressed black voter turnout rollins made that assertion a week

after the november second election but later retracted it saying he had exaggerated whitman who's a republican denied any money was paid rollins took questions behind closed doors in washington this morning from lawyers for the national democratic party yesterday he appeared before a grand jury in newark new jersey embattled pentagon nominee morton halperin confronted his critics at his senate confirmation hearing today ever since president clinton nominated him as assistant secretary of defense for democracy and peace keeping halpern has been under fire from conservatives they say his liberal background and dovish views make you unsuitable for the defense post wants a national security aide to henry kissinger opera resigned in protest over the nixon administration is bombing of cambodia he went on to head the american civil liberties union's washington office hears an excerpt from today's exchange in the senate armed services committee the curator weight of his long record was waved me and

many others including some in his own party is a man of deep apologetic he has a distorted view other major conflict in international affairs and as jane eyre if bravo positioned well outside the mainstream of the vast a number of charges have been made about my beliefs and activities which are simply fools they are in some cases may have hoped or not these they resulted from wrenching sentences out of contact and building tales around we'll have more on the hearing later in the program the military commanders in the central african nation of nigeria began consolidating power a day after scrapping all democratic institutions army officers moved into government buildings in several cities including the capital lagos dozens of students were arrested during demonstrations against the crackdown the clinton administration said it was considering efforts to end the military takeover the house of representatives today voted to lift all remaining economic sanctions on

south africa the measure passed on a voice vote with strong bipartisan support and now goes to the senate it would also pave the way for future us economic aid to help south africa's transition to a multi racial democracy on tuesday negotiators in johannesburg signed an historic accord ending three hundred and fifty years of white rule in south africa's that's it for the news summary now it's sunday trading asia an embattled pentagon nominee our weekly political rap and richard rodriguez essay first up tonight president clinton's new focus on asia days after these nafta victory expanded trade with mexico president has set his sights on the east the summit meeting being held this weekend seattle brings together representatives from seventeen asian and pacific rim nations all members of an economic forum known as apec the asian pacific it manana cooperation

forum is four years old in addition to the united states includes canada mexico china hong kong japan south korea taiwan the philippines brunei malaysia indonesia up going again a new zealand australia singapore and thailand chile will be added next year in a moment we'll discuss how and why the clinton administration wants to improve economic relations with the apec nations after this background or by greg your power of public station casey ts in seattle's last year one seven billion dollars worth of goods flow between the one in seattle and asian countries portable growing economic interdependence between the united states and the entire pacific region by foreclosures he says now the fastest growing region in the well established producers and a huge potential market of consumers according to the world bank are

we now in the year two thousand the show alone will account for half the growth in world trade president clinton stressed the new realities in the us the organizers of the asian pacific economic cooperation forum or apec this morning in seattle what has happened in asia in the past half century is amazing an unprecedented just three decades ago asia had only eight percent of the world gdp today it exceeds twenty five percent of these economies are going in three cows or at least there was industrial nations in the short term any of these economies of gone from being dominoes that the animals from rhino powers writes about or more at much of what it needs to continue on its growth there are goods and services in which we are stronger aircraft financial services telecommunications infrastructure and others on radiation is our largest waiting for exports account for two and a half

million jobs here in america at increasing our share of that market by one percent would add three hundred thousand jobs for the american economy even though we can begin to imagine wanting to serve the community might look like by the end of this decade and that's not very far away a maximum asia pacific region which robust and open economic competition is a source of jobs and opportunity without becoming a source of hostility and instability the sense of resentment around firms imagine a region which the diversity of our economy from either source of dynamism and richmond just as the mercy of our own people in america make our nation more violent and was in a mountainous region in which a newly emerging economic freedoms are matched by greater individual freedoms political freedoms and human rights and the region in which all nations all nations enjoy those human rights and free elections

for leaders in seattle the agenda is threefold first is what to do with effect itself on anyone like to see the organization normalizing with fruit fruit flavored love all the relief of foreign accents among the leaders in seattle is malaysia's prime minister was criticizing says that influenced by the us invasion and there's a second issue is regional security along with economic growth has come growth in the arms trade the us has traditionally guarantee the security of the region but with the end of the cold war many asians are concerned that this protection despite us assurances may not be continued finally there is human rights particularly in china chinese president johnson and then smiled the seat to or boeing's plan thursday and with good reason china has become polling second largest foreign customer but us officials have continued to tie further trade between the two nations to china's human rights

policies in seattle secretary of state warren christopher was offering four fifth year of tennis there are human rights unless there is significant overall progress the president will not be able to renew china's most favored nation status when it comes up for reconsideration next spring we are encouraged by beijing's recent offer to open its prisons and the international red cross we hope that this step is a harbinger of sustained progress on human rights in china argo i emphasize our goal is to build a comprehensive relationship that permits the resolution of these differences that sometimes arrive between great nations that set the stage for this afternoon's meeting between president clinton john of course that this novel since the massacre at tiananmen square we're joined from seattle by fred bergsten who is an american advisor to apec he chairs the eminent

persians person's group created to advise member governments about future directions for pacific basin economic relations also in seattle out michael gender is it the washington representative of asia watchers human rights advocacy group and it's our one a member of the singapore delegation whitney in new york ie oakland boy is the editor of the daily japan digest a newsletter on japanese affairs for bernstein in seattle you're drafted the statement of a new vision for a pack and their brief president clinton on it and presented it to their circumference can you summarize what that vision is the vision is based on pre confronting a pack into a meaningful economic organization that will advance the cause of open trade and investment in the asia pacific region we suggested combining a bank into a true asia pacific economic community a group of like minded nations try to advance their economic interest together

we suggested adoption of a long term goal of free trade in the asia pacific and the commencement of a work program a new investment quote dispute settlement mechanism is setting standards in telecommunications and other areas to begin the process of cooperation start moving toward the realization of a long term goal of freeing up trade among all countries in the region so to put it in terms we recently come to understand with nafta and the european community is this attempt to recreate another free trade area as those are it's different from both the european community or that there's some misunderstanding about the term community is we used that we're definitely not suggesting a deeply integrated community as is happening in europe were not suggesting a common currency were not suggesting even the customs union and thought we're not even suggesting a free trade area we are suggesting free trade in the region achieve as much as possible through reduction of multilateral trade barriers through to get global process we want the apec to be a

building block for global liberalization we do you think at the apec countries on a spur that process by moving ahead to regional liberalization were issues cannot yet be agreed at the global level and where the eighty eight that countries can anticipate issues they're not yet right for global discussion but we think that whatever the regional agreements are brought to bare they should then be brought back to the global level open to other countries to join them if they would accept the qualifications that's the concept of open regional ism that we think the apec should pursue and was there some agreement among members at this conference to our son track outs i'm for trade among themselves there was a separate agreement to reduce barriers on a global basis in uruguay round of the gap there was no agreement here nor did we suggest one here to reduce bear the regional level but the apec countries strongly supported open global system i think they took a quite meaningful step today in making further

offer him to get around to try to bring all to get countries into a successful conclusion of uruguay around by the december fifteenth deadline dr leave from our singapore some asian countries attending this conference don't quite agree with the vision that's been put forward by mr bergsten and by the united states why don't they like it or what don't they like in it well i think a simple when there were communities mention you think immediately of the european community and you think of the bureaucratic structures involved american community and a loss perhaps of some sense of national sovereignty and i think that because of that the media tv actor adversely to that word but i think what fred is trying very hard i think to put across is the fact that community is not community with a capital c the committee that small c so again maintaining a group of countries that's what it adding that the idea that we want to put a cross do think the well i know because i've read

about them at least some asian countries feel that the united states is his big footing if you're putting too much pressure on to make his organization moved too quickly do you share that or do you understand that your complaint i understand that complaint i think green singapore because we in many ways are free trading nation we also want to see progress towards that but more important than that i think that we in asia don't want to see the us continue to be engaged in asia both in economics and a slow as in security terms that is the most important item on the agenda for us ms joy how that how i'll ask you separately how does japan react to this vision for a pick and and then i'll ask you how some other is what you think of the asian reaction generally well it appears that position comes sir are partly from that or mostly from its perception of what asians at thinking about their work

what their apex future should be and yeah i mean i am speaking mostly by from reading a japanese press in a japanese official statements that sat on a japanese attack by having me into the notion that that there is a difference in airport about trade and about human rights and about many issues ukraine the united states and asian countries and on their physician that japan has come up recently is that japan wants to be a bridge between the us and asia and there there is a question as to where the us wants a bridge needs a bridge where their age i will accept japan as a bridge but ah i guess those that plan does not want to offend anybody and they didn't think their various defense now between us a major and among asian countries and it

doesn't want to offend anybody and they sell it they're odd and they're most neutral provision that they could come up so far is to be a bridge <unk> all of the stress the american rhetoric in the last few days has been how all this is going to make jobs in the united states do you find that your asian partners there are sympathetic to that ideas all american officials i mean is that what this is all for to create jobs in the united states now it's a lot broader than that has already mentioned the idea is to avoid a fissure down the middle of the pacific to make sure that their institutional ties that link the united states and asia together it's crucially important to the asian one third of their exports go to the us maintaining that market is critical for the us involvement insecurity or a fifth of the pacific is absolutely central to their interest as a face an uncertain future from the us standpoint it's jobs and economic opportunity more broadly this is the most

dynamic part of the world economy exactly the same issues one day after a debate are you even more strongly institutionalizing ties in the asia pacific that's where the economic action is going to be for the next two or three decades as president clinton said today the us is only going to prosper dome asked the glee if we engaged internationally with this key part of the world economy dr leon i don't about singapore that other countries in the region are going to resist this and say we don't want to move at that speed and we we're we want to take it more slowly what what is what is the reaction of other countries like malaysia or for example like indonesia like really i closer to your part of the world today at the conference well i think if it moves by a consensus approach anything that is well accepted within a pack it is true that there are some countries that investigations it is true that for example monet show would want to see

the east asia economic caucus coming to some sort of formalization but i think they have actually reached some sort of conclusion at this ministerial meeting by somebody's cutting the pew report on the state of the ministers actually won the wellcome reports broadcast interaction it's just that right now we there is great need i think two to flesh out what it means to move towards free trade that it's not at all clear let me ask you on another question dr lee was also a renovation concern is the us pressure on human rights which some countries in the region malaysia's one singapore's one i believe certainly china is one perhaps others resent and resist would you explain their position as you understand it well what my understanding of it is that the asians do not want to see a human rights linked to other economic issues especially trade they cause number

one second i think that they also view that there are many ways to to think of human rights for example to safety is a basic human right that has hasn't pointed out i can walk in the streets of singapore safely at night i can't do that in new york even though that's all the human light as well that some basics without human rights like for example the basic right that killing is wrong apart from that i think that there are other issues as well when we were concerned about now is that the us uses human rights as an issue to actually to actually price open markets in east asia went actually i think the economic issues should be left on the economic stage and they're alone and not be mixed up with human rights at mr dinges if you were don't agree with that position you think the us showed up not only link it but insist on human rights performance is that correct that's right there are international norms of behavior that govern states actions not only regarding trey but also their treatment of their own

citizens and it the governments are involved in flagrantly violating those rights they will be held accountable in the international system and in the case of united states is president clinton said this morning the vision of the new pacific community is predicated on prosperity as well as on the human rights and security and human rights must be an essential ingredient of the world bank and its recent studies on sustained evolving has come to the conclusion that the rule of law accountability of governance and transparency are key ingredients to last long term sustained involvement so in a country like indonesia now you've had rapid economic development and more more indonesians now advocating for political change to accompany that economic development this is led asia watching a labor rights organization over year and half ago to file a complaint i'll asking that and it uses generalized system of preferences g s p trade benefits be reviewed since the trade act requires that those receiving these benefits must respect international worker rights in fact worker rights are widely violating and in asia

and ambassador cantor has in foreign invasion government that unless there's a substantial progress towards improving labor rights just pee will be lost or in tunisia by next february ms torian japan which enjoys human rights very much as americans understand the freedom of the press and freedom sweet and so on yet does not push this issue as much as the united states does it seems you explain that a japanese position i think a japanese as many asians have a very dear friend to our concept of how to achieve human rights on for example and human rights as an issue in china connected to our most favored nation status in the united states are in the lead western way or american way is to say if you don't include human rights they're going to take away the trading rights armed japanese happen to think that their best way to accomplish human rights

progress is to stay in touch on do not flaunt sanctions and things like that and antagonize the chinese but that talk to then patiently aimed their time and and try to accomplish that goal also on japanese and many asians i think think that that i'm human rights is closely links to economic development if you look at that are south korea for example as its economy grew and became prosperous the human rights issue that democratize asian issue a human rights issue i'm gradually disappear dollars and disappearing into one of the reasons this is so i think there's a very different at fort about that competition that other differences <unk> the differences are real human rights approach is going to create real strains of music so we have to distinguish between object is and procedures for pursuing those objectives

everybody agrees with human rights objectives as they were enunciated earlier the question is what's the most effective way to pursue those objectives and it's a difference of view on that there's a sharp difference between what has been us policy and the general view in asia there's only difference is the way you attack the human rights questions directly when you do it indirectly to promote economic growth and hoping that over time as the record has shown you reduce the risk of human rights violations of what we have in a person's group report suggests is that the apec the asia pacific economic community as we open becomes focus on economic issues tried to improve trade investment economic relations within the region we don't think it should be used for political purposes we do think that economic cooperation and increased cause of that type will strengthen security guys and will strengthen the political systems around the region in charge improving human rights environmental protection

and a whole range of values that we hold so dearly mr ginger is it were you sega dr lee's argument which is that the us that wants to use human rights to pries open markets in asia that it's using it as a as an economic weapon was part of the ad and they add to that some nations that our economy has fallen behind our growth is faltering they are the dynamo and we're trying to catch up by using human rights as a weapon what businesses robin however is the fact that non governmental organizations those engaged in development work at the grassroots meeting this past margin bangkok just prior to the vienna human rights conference affirmed the need to democratize the development process to press for greater protection of civil and political rights so those involved in those countries in development work i can have some greater say over the direction that their country's taken this regard i think united states role is a careful one but a very important one that should not be imposing its own values or its own economic news operations rather should be

supporting those efforts already underway within asia often against the wishes of the repressive asian governments to bring about change our internally the new pacific community if it involved up in japan and korea both of whom have enunciated human rights diplomacy and japan has even said that one condition of his own wrists official deval made a would be a consideration human rights if japan and korea were to take that substantial economic and political clout and use it to enhance the prospects for democratization rights throughout asia working together with united states i think this kind of multilateral approach could yield the best results of a long term let's turn finally to china there's a report iran nervous clinton's meeting with the chinese president jiang and the league is huge old jiang that china must improve its human rights record to have normal constructive relations with the united states' echoing what secretary christopher said the other day at the same time today the us announced it was selling this supercomputer to china

do you think they weren't what you think of the clinton performance on human rights these are the china mr genders when the administration is trying to come up with a nuance approach of using carrots and sticks in the right combination to entice the chinese to improve their human rights performance i think they're very worried that after dunn jumping is gone from the scene it will be much much more difficult to our get any significant concessions on human rights or other issues that the us concern because of the succession struggle that will be going on therefore they're trying to speed up the process by enticing the chinese to bring about improvements the problem with this is they risk at the same time undermining the wrong threats that most favored nation trading status would be withdrawn next may or june if as secretary christopher said certain rights improvements don't take place i think the chinese hope that by engaging in another trade and investment here in united states they would undercut any real prospect of congress go along with the revocation of an fm so it's very important

how president clinton appear to the chinese today if he appears a paper tiger one who's threats would not be considered credible i think this will also affect his image in the rest of asia where many asians here privately want the united states to stand up to the chinese there's broad broad concern about china's growing economic and military power in asia generally do you think president obama looked like a paper tiger in beijing i hope not and i don't think you know i was the basic reason i think the basic reason for our citizen southeast asia is that we are concerned that china it will actually not take part in the international community as much as you want china to let's face up to it china is going to be a superpower in this world in the next ten twenty years the way it's going now and because of that we do want to see china become very much a part of the international community and the last thing people want right now is to see china withdrawal simply because of threats but why does that energetic cannot afford to

withdraw its economic reform program is more dependent than ever on foreign trade and investment and it is only that economic reform program that is keeping the communist party in control that is light enough and offend leverage is so important the chinese government cannot close the doors and the longer they must keep china opened but if they're to do so they have to abide by international human rights norms in the treatment of their own citizens at this debate is really all about gentlemen thank you all very much on the newshour a bitter confirmation fight our weekly political analysis and essayist richard rodriguez next tonight the battle over president clinton's nominee to become the assistant secretary of defense for democracy and peace keeping the nominee as morton halperin he worked for henry kissinger's national security council staff during the nixon administration then quit in protest over the invasion of cambodia he went

on to head the washington office of the american civil liberties union and by his views on foreign policy issues conservatives mounted a fierce campaign to deny him the pentagon post today halpern used his confirmation hearing before the senate armed services committee to refute their charges coming home reports although not confirmed for the position of assistant secretary of defense morton halperin has been functioning in that role for several months as the hearing got underway this morning armed services chairman sam nunn acknowledged the history of allegations against how current allegations that include getting bad advice to the pentagon during the somali operation dating and the disclosure of names of cia agents and leaking that secret pentagon papers on the vietnam war in the nineteen seventies there are lots of non invited helper and to take his time responding to the charges and hopper and did so methodically i've been accused of advising the secretary of defense not the san juan river some aren't that useful

as i had no knowledge of any such request though i read about it in the newspaper after the fact i have been accused of ordering a regional command it to terminate an actual that it falls i telephoned job helen only to obtain information not to intrude in the chain of command i have been accused of believing the united states should be subordinate its interest the united nations never using force without its consent and putting american forces at its disposal that it's fall i've never advocated those positions i've been accused of believing that government officials have the right to disclose classified information that is for i have consistently stated the government has the right to fire anyone who dies and to impose criminal penalties for the disclosure of such information i've been accused of opposing or counterintelligence operation that is for i have supported

effective counter intelligence measure designed to protect sensitive information i've been accused of aiding daniel ellsberg and the disclosure of the pentagon papers that is for i did not assist him and had no knowledge of this disclosure of the pentagon papers i've been accused of aiding philip agee in the disclosure of the advantages of intelligence agencies and advocating the disclosure of such advantages that in school i never existed philip agee in these efforts and i have condemned such action by him and others i did testify a deportation hearing the request of my employer the american civil liberties union bad and that i would be collected discuss and i'm sure we will be discussing today chairman done hasn't said whether he will support helper and confirmation when strom thurmond the ranking republican on the committee has said he's outraged that the clinton administration would even consider halperin for a job in the pentagon

let's have an a custom eight at to fame jockey insistent and no public statements inaction lives you better way that america inserted a group called nation and we cannot be trusted to act unilaterally oregon of the word and they've us your narration is by definition on just all mr this is old graeme america's and roll second you also get away in a us medicare by one of ponce must remain a demand bass of our name them tired and nhl but a backup bag of these ideas is a ten year as they are all say and miller kara powell all in the imagination if you would commit to a lot of o o would commit the interstate then amina

brought in the service of a un objective in situations where the nation might not be threatened at the same time it were bought from innovating your ballet in places like them all grenada where american interaction lab of thread for our series about westerns during which hauser and was instructed her only yes or no did not give the nominee a chance to respond richard shelby of alabama however did it help or in an opportunity have you had any time in the writing speeches utterances ever stay at the un the us should be subordinate the union this one i'm actually puzzle out there is no state of mind everywhere suggesting that we should support made ourselves to view and fight when they tell us to or anything of whistle in a article written in nineteen ninety eight and nineteen ninety three you said when the joint chiefs chairman

general colin powell switched positions and agree to use military force in somalia which also made the mistake of accepting a condition laid down by the military the us general command all american forces and be in full control of the operation as result the somali intervention is not a true you in operation and that will make it harder for us to get out there is a difference between the question of whether the un should be able to order us to give them forces to use in an operation which i have been accused of and have never written there's a second question of whether an appropriate circumstances us forces should be placed on the operational command to you in command that is a question that has been on the dayton and also discussion within the administration has done to some degree in somalia that is all par with different question and the one that i'm addressing because i'm accused of saying that the secretary general called up and says hit me in american britney we salute and say yes sir is the american brigade i've

never advocated that i've never proposed that and i have been accused of that and that is the charge on that because of the upcoming holiday recess the committee is not expected to vote on the help her nomination until january you're feeling i o mat honan next it's friday and that means time for some end of the week political analysis will talk with our regular analyst syndicated columnist mark shields is joined tonight by linda chavez a fellow at the manhattan institute welcome melinda mark well what do you make of what's going on in seattle market <unk> president clinton who as a candidate clinton accused bush of coddling the chinese leadership counties re sell a super computer do you think there's going to be any a remake of this well it's it gets exciting and seattle and you wanted to be sitting on the edges of the seat and i honestly vote on how to measure

success in seattle meeting i don't know what our objectives were going in the other than to have a great mecca for it he left the vote but it is it is quite frankly that one those time for the president carter reminded of campaign statements again i ended it just seems that the united states is more interested in asia as asia is less interested in the united states and it i think the president is going to have to insist his firm's most favored nation status is concerned on nursing we'll change improvement in an overhaul and as far as the chinese human rights i don't think he can survive politically the criticism of how do you agree it's going in june of course i think he's gonna have a lot of trouble with both democrats and republicans on most favored nation status for china china has not done anything to significantly improve its human rights record and now we're selling them super computers we're

up essentially ignoring the fact that we impose sanctions on them because they're busy selling little parts to to pakistan i think the system have repercussions in this can cause problems for the president i thought i'd turn now to an issue that was collected behind the senator in this week while the house was looking at nafta which is an issue that got that most americans crime and the president started the week with an interesting speech on saturday in memphis what did you make of the speech that he gave at a church of course that martin luther king had delivered his lesser was it was a speech that obviously boiled up from from the internal passions of bill clinton's was not something program that wasn't a preview and it wasn't nobody in the press was flag on it goes and make this big speech it can make a speech but dad know a new direction and definition of and i think that the president is obviously a reflecting is the conviction those of mrs clinton as well that crime makes americans prisoners that robs americans near future runs a religious sense of community i think the militias

are public life that it's a tragedy crystallize and i think he i mean we recognize that this is a and was willing he owes that the presidency is a boy public as an issue in on which are a president i think truly can lead i think the interesting thing is that while washington has been focused on things like nafta and health care the american people had been focused on crime because it's the thing that hits them in their homes people are in fact prisoners in their homes they're frightened of going out there is the perception that america's a much more dangerous place but one of the good things about this speech was that you know you talk about law in order it used to be thought that if you talk about lawn order somehow that was anti black they were raising a racial issue bill clinton rightly talked about this issue with the black community blacks are disproportionately the victims of crime in america you know there's three times were likely to be robbed they're eight times more likely to be the victims of homicide and i think that both it took a lot of guts for bill clinton do it but i also think that he's going to have a good response and particularly in the black dude rehab the

politics of the crime issue changed where i think they have changed and i think for the longest time the party stood and it's it's it's a pet solution and it's a panacea for arms for them for the conservatives and republicans in general it was a cattle punished double parking for the syllables with gun control i and that was it and i think we learned to some degree in the politics of nineteen eighty three in particular the case of mary sue carried in virginia was the gun control by itself the democratic attorney general who didn't win a gun control by itself it with a nemesis and a villain like the national rifle association run against was not a plausible credible a compelling anti crime proposal and i think what we're seeing is that as the so the emerging now that there is more needed in those in the senate's action i think the most significant at rhino this week but to me the most significant was putting hundred the pleas court which addresses is a great story of a citizen success animal

linsky twenty five years ago as a young lawyer working for robert kennedy since then he's indoors while reagan for president nineteen eighty nine and he's been obsessed with the issue of urban crime and he's been pushing wadi forceful effectively persuasively writing about it and this data senators include hundred thousand prisoners and this you agree that a young american for four years of service the pleas court would so he's forced to have a local police force would get in turn four years of college loans and i just think that it's great that there's a real response rates real except that it depends on where you put those policemen do and i think you know one of the problems is that a lot of the voter sentiment a lot of what we saw coming out of the last election was was on this very issue of locking people up and getting more police on the streets but those police do need to be put into the high crime areas and those do not tend to be the white areas where most of the tax basis so it's gonna be interesting to see if white

taxpayers are willing to put their dollars where their emotion is and find those policemen for the high crime areas levin how he explained that today in the senate after they passed this crime billy crystal the brady bill mandating no time waiting period for buying a handgun would explain that they are they couldn't break publicly filibuster well they're going to vote on it but i think part of the problem is there are a lot of people who don't believe that simply passing a waiting period for purchasing handguns from stores is going to have any impact whatsoever in terms of lowering crime i think in some ways it would be good if this bill was passed because they will finally have a test and they're you know it if it passes and you still don't see any drop in crime than maybe other folks had been arguing that that controlling the ability of law abiding citizens to buy guns is not the answer to the crime problem in the us but i think the nra is pushing certain amendments to the senate a brady bill on do you think mark the nra has lost its cloud of all

i think i think the they're part of the problem here is that they are the tough sentences for drug kings and the trust of any crime provisions very few of those groups have their own political action committees i like the third election commission appointed see a drug dealer has a pac making contributions that the nra is it is it is a pope and political force and they've been a major player and they see and i think they're wrong they spacey the year that any erosion of the second amendment any service circumscribed the absolutist position as a weakening their dead there's fear the specter they hold out is that everybody's vision firearms this point to whatever ultimate the ultimate barbara i think this is a case where the president and the administration because they were so absorb consumed and totally caught up in after they really have been major players on the hill i'm on the crime bill and i don't think the i don't think the case has been made compellingly enough to buy the president were i must say though that bill

clinton did an interview with rolling stone magazine which is about to come out in the next couple of weeks in which he hinted that he have the brady bill type legislation doesn't hurt that he might be in favor of an overall than on guns or maybe the nra has reason to be worried about this way into the door of this at one of this thing coming down in the next two or three days in on the hill <unk> penny case thick veil which of course would cut another hundred billion dollars out of the deficit whether the budget over the next five years what it's prospects well the house today the reading it was that it was going to pass that the votes are going to be a vote on monday and raised those kids was of program tonight and bad that the leadership in the house and the administration did not think they have the votes to stop that that the momentum this is all on the side of the budget cuts john case it's a republican from out from columbus ohio tim penny democratic fiscal conservative from minnesota who is not running for reelection and both of them joined forces and it i think they've got momentum with amending

the big majority of the people who supported nafta with did the president promise passage of alaska to build that he would go for these that that's right in fact that's how he got in pennies vote on the budget deal with iran is that there'd be a vote on on deeper cuts and i think he's in a real bind now and clearly the politics are on the side of deeper cuts although it's not clear what sometimes those cuts be a part of my this was to be paying for this crime bill apparently has already been and now three times over so it's hard to know when when they do vote for these cuts one another and turned out to be real but i think the president would actually veto this effect to that i don't know a big part of the problem is that that very cuts in medicare that they're talking about in that is it and they have that they have an appeal in a certain populist appeal as saying that the wealthy get medicare i pay higher deductibles i personally that that's part of it gave the case a penny approach on is if in fact the administration's plan is for those cuts in medicare and then chile to finance national health so that's what they're

quite nervous about and that i don't allow the president would go so far as to the work of theo is that it certainly does put him in a difficult position really have a few seconds left but let me just as you that thats why report that just came out that ed rollins went to testify today and apparently according to a couple lawyers there said that in fact he totally lied he telling me the story about trying to buy off black ministers in the majors including the toy always does this component to their whole fjord if it if it's not been a pudding into it i do think it may put an internet wrong his career i mean unfortunately demand has behaved almost suicidal in recent years and this is a case about his talking too much and is willing to fight he might be hearing that feeds them there i would say that two things quickly first of all that he is not alone in having said that this was done to me in the campaign in its own brother dead as was the press secretary said the weapons depots that turnout the thing that bothered me most about it from washington was people keep saying why

did say he did not want to sit down and if it was then again once now finally tonight yes it's richard rodriguez of the pacific news service were some comments about equality and the recent fire storms in southern california we are quite frankly accustomed to seeing the poor suffer when there are natural calamities we expect a tornado of a hurricane to do its worst debt and trade accord respect earthquakes to level iraqi side of town california's fires don't proceed from a different band the houses that were destroyed in the recent southern california fire storms are mostly the houses of the upper middle class enough of being in thousand oaks calif here there were swimming pools here expensive cars melted

here people who build their dream house we californians are probably rivaled only by new yorkers in our preoccupation with her press clippings recently i've heard californians mumble about the quote unquote california bashing by the east coast media the golden dream is tarnished their race riots in los angeles the bloom is off the rose middle class is about in the state of the immigrant poor keep pouring in engineers are standing in the unemployment lines in the silicon valley and now this dream house called southern california the most populated part of the state is an unnatural construction houses are constructed on the desert and with them come swimming pools and golf courses the rewards a plentiful water or in boston under a cloudless sky two years ago after the even more devastating fire in the

open hills environmentalists thought they shouldn't be building houses of those cans but they expect it is impractical to live in canyons where mudslides in january and the threat of wildfire in late october when the santa ana winds blow in from the ominous assist local going over italy one can pluck at the misfortune of the rich the rich have choices after all know he would dare clock of the hillsides of california were crowded with shantytowns but they aren't in california if you can afford it you build up if his self in the hollywood hills is a northern california orange county in new york christie's attaches to the skyscraper you hear a glamour attaches to the view of the middle class valley below the flat landscape part of the appeal is the wilderness of the kenyan their record in the kenyan interior and snakes and coyote natural lives alongside history the glass house on stilts

but lately in the canyons there has been a new kind of wildness charles manson found his victims in the canyons and actually several of the recent fires in southern california were officials guest started by arsonists intent on mayhem the rich we'd like the rest of us the big house may be insured but how sure that what you know will be replaced there was less a special poignancy we felt watching people who had so much so totally reduced here was the american success story with a twist no one expect people who live in these kenyans were quoted on television saying they would rebuild the dream house would be rebuilt perhaps even bigger and certainly isn't practical as much else in california isn't practical whatever it was it brought people to these dry hills at the end of the continent whenever it was it can tell them to go swimming pools where there was so little water that audacity that terrible and wonderful addition has not melted away and richard

rodriguez ouch again the major stories of this friday president clinton told china's president the normal relations between the us and china will depend on improvements in china's human rights record us merchandise trade deficit widened by nearly eleven billion dollars in september and it was announced this evening that pilot for american airlines have voted not to join the two day old strike by flight attendants and that rather than emigrate and that's the newshour tonight and we'll see you again on monday night i'm robert mcneil a major funding for the macneil lehrer newshour has been provided by archer daniels midland at a supermarket to the world

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