The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

JIM LEHRER: Good evening. I'm Jim Lehrer. On the NewsHour tonight, campaign speeches by Governor Bush and Vice President Gore; a "one on one" about Bush versus Gore between Rob Reiner and Ben Stein; a Kwame Holman report on a big House race in California; a conversation with the foreign minister of Israel; and a Betty Ann Bowser celebration of the White House's 200th birthday. It all follows our summary of the news this Wednesday.

NEWS SUMMARY

JIM LEHRER: The Senate today agreed to put off the budget battle until after the election. It passed a temporary spending bill to keep the government running until November 14. Congress would return then for a rare lame-duck session. But the House decided to stay at Washington at least until Friday. President Clinton and congressional Republicans remain at odds over tax cuts, Medicare, immigration, and other matters. In the Presidential race today, with six days to go, Vice President Gore was back in Florida. At a stop outside Orlando, he again attacked Governor Bush's plan to partially privatize Social Security. He said it would jeopardize the program. Bush campaigned in Minnesota, and accused Gore of scaring seniors. He also told a rally in Minneapolis Gore would greatly expand the federal government, and not provide tax relief for all. We'll have excerpts from both speeches right after this News Summary. In the Middle East today, Israeli troops and Palestinians fought a series of gun battles. One broke out near Bethlehem, on the West Bank. Two Israeli soldiers; two Palestinians were killed. A third soldier was shot dead near Jericho. In Gaza, more than 20,000 Palestinians joined a funeral for four people killed yesterday at a crossing into Israel. Three more Palestinians were killed there today. We'll have a conversation with the foreign minister of Israel later in the program tonight. Investigators today recovered two flight recorders from the wreckage of a Singapore airlines jet in Taiwan. It crashed on takeoff yesterday. Airline officials said it may have struck something on the runway. But they defended the pilot's decision to take off in heavy wind and rain. They said the weather was within acceptable limits. 79 people died in the crash, at least 23 of them Americans. And that's it for the News Summary tonight. Now it's on to Bush and Gore speeches, a "one on one" about Bush-Gore, a California House race, the Israeli position, and a birthday at the White House.

FOCUS - ON THE STUMP

JIM LEHRER: We begin with campaign speeches by the two leading Presidential candidates: First, Vice President Gore, speaking about Social Security this morning in Kissimmee, Florida.

VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE: So often, too many people think of Social Security as a budget program or a program that's only for seniors, when actually Social Security is so much more than that. It embodies our values as a people. It links each American generation to the next with commitments of love and caring. Social Security is how we care for our mothers and fathers. It's how we give younger workers a bedrock of retirement savings that they can build on no matter what. It is a compact. It is a sacred trust. (Cheers and applause) And it truly is a compact that makes all our families stronger and undergirds the financial security of each generation in every family. My opponent talks about a commitment to today's retirees, but let's be clear on this. Soothing words don't pay the rent, much less buy prescription medicine. And even... (cheers and applause) even the sharpest campaign sound bite cannot bring into focus fuzzy conclusions that flow from fuzzy math. (Cheers and applause) I'm going to tell it like it is. He... Governor Bush is promising to take a trillion dollars out of Social Security, and he's promising it to younger workers for investments in private accounts. And to many, that sounds pretty good, but the problem is, that's the same money that he's promising to seniors to pay their current benefits. The "Wall Street Journal" looked at his plan and concluded that he couldn't possibly keep both promises. So which promise is he going to break? Who gets left out or left behind? The American Academy of Actuaries looked at his plan and concluded that it would lead to catastrophic results in these financial matters. He said that he... I heard him last night. He said he rejects their premise. Well, which premise, addition or subtraction? ( Cheers and applause ) Eight Nobel-prizewinning economists looked at his plan and said the numbers just do not add up. When he was asked to clarify how he could possibly make his numbers add up, Governor Bush refused and said that he would provide additional details after the election. That's fine; we're going to win Florida and it won't matter. (Cheers and applause ) With your help, we are going to win Florida. You know, you might say that on Tuesday, six days from now, Social Security itself is on the ballot. You will vote and you will choose, and I ask you to save Social Security when you vote on Tuesday. It is very much on the ballot. Governor Bush often says you should support him because he'd get along with people in Washington. And that's all well and good. We need less partisanship in Washington. But the real question is, who is it that he wants to get along with? (Cheers and applause) The special interests? The special interests who don't need Social Security and are perfectly happy to see it drained away? The HMO's, the insurance industry, the oil companies, the drug companies? Sometimes a President has to stand up and say "no" so that our families can have a better life. ( Cheers and applause )

JIM LEHRER: A correction -- that town in Florida where the Vice President spoke is pronounced Kiss-im-ee: Now, Governor Bush, speaking at a rally in Minneapolis this afternoon.

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: I want to talk about a tax family that is with us today. The O'Keefe family. They're right down here in front. Dan and Laurie O'Keefe. They have got four wonderful children: Andrew, Oliver, Isaac, and little Anthony. They're here for a reason. I want to explain loud and clear what my vision for America does for people who are working hard to get ahead, the different points of view. This good family now pays $3,343 of federal income taxes -- $3,343. Under our vision, it says if you pay taxes, everybody gets relief, they will save $2,600 in taxes. (Cheers and applause) That's $2,600 more in their pocket. But this isn't any great gift. It's their money to begin with. (Cheers and applause) The surplus is not the government's money. The surplus is the people's money. It belongs to people like the O'Keefes. It's their money; it's your money. I know you've heardthe rhetoric of this campaign about somehow we all stand on the side of the rich, that it's the rich and the powerful versus everybody else. We're going to reject that kind of class warfare in the year 2000. That kind of angry warfare has got to go. But I want to remind you who stands on the side of the people. Under the Vice President's plan, the O'Keefe family, the hard-working O'Keefe family, receives a whopping $100 in tax relief. (Crowd booing) Think about that. Look at the difference. We've set our priorities. We've funded the priorities, but we believe that government should be limited. It should do a few things and do them well. And, instead of spending that $2600 on bigger bureaucracies, we want them to spend it on their own families. We trust them with their own money. We trust the O'Keefes and we trust you. That's exactly the difference in this campaign. Our campaign believes the American dream is available for every willing heart. Our campaign understands that you change hearts and souls one person and one conscience at a time, that government can hand out money but what it cannot do is put hope in a person's heart or friendship in a person's life. Government can't make people love one another. The great strength of America lies in the fact that our nation is full of compassionate people, loving people. My job will not only be to bring a legislative agenda-- it's the people's business-- to Washington D.C., my job will also be to call upon responsible behavior by our citizens, responsible behavior by our government, to lift this nation's spirits but to understand where it starts. I understand that it begins, that should I be the one when I put my hand on the Bible that day, should I be the one that after all your hard work I earn the confidence of the great American people, I swear to not only uphold the laws of the land but to answer the calls of the hundreds who have come to our rallies and held up pictures of their children so they can look me in a eye and say, "Governor, I'm here to tell you, never again, never let us down again to hear those voices, to call upon the best of America. I will also swear to uphold the honor and the integrity of the office to which I have been elected so help me God. Thank you all for coming. (Cheers and applause ) God bless.

SERIES - ONE ON ONE

JIM LEHRER: And to a "one on one," our last-week debates about who should be the next President of the United States, and to Margaret Warner.

MARGARET WARNER: Joining me tonight are two leading figures in the entertainment industry figures: Rob Reiner, an actor, writer, and director whose films include "Stand by Me," "When Harry met Sally," and "The American President." He supports Al Gore, and has raised money and campaigned publicly on his behalf. And Ben Stein, a lawyer, former Nixon speechwriter, and actor whose films include "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." He's now host of Comedy Central's Emmy-winning quiz show, "Win Ben Stein's Money." He's backing Governor Bush.

Welcome, gentlemen. Okay, Rob Reiner, what makes you believe that Al Gore would be a better President?

ROB REINER: Well, I think we can argue about the issues and who is on the right side of the issues and so on. But I think ultimately what it comes down to is who is more qualified and who has the experience. This is the single most difficult job on the planet: Being the President of the United States. Al Gore, if you look at his experience and his background, he spent eight years in Congress, eight years in the Senate, and eight years as Vice President and has had extensive foreign policy experience. If you look at Governor Bush, you see somebody who is basically been in government for six years and been Governor of a state who has a very weak Governorship. The legislature only meets once every other year, and the lieutenant Governor is the one who sets the budget agenda. So you've got two vastly different experiences. And I think the most important thing that you have to think about-- and I think the most important quality necessary for a President is intellectual curiosity. When it comes down to difficult situations and foreign crisis and so on, you better have done your homework and be understanding of the issues to be able to make an informed decision. And I don't see in Governor Bush that kind of intellectual curiosity. He almost disdains the interest in details, in wanting to read about certain situations. And I think that is... that can ultimately be deadly. I mean that in a literal sense of the word -- in a foreign policy situation. So that to me is the crux of this, and that's why I'm supporting Al Gore.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. And, Ben Stein, what makes you believe that George Bush will be a better President?

BEN STEIN: I think it comes down to several things. One is character. It is vitally important that we have a President of good character, a President who knows who he is, who is not pretending ton one thing one day and another thing another day, a President who is relaxed and confident in his own skin. I think that's George W. Bush. Now, it is true, I suspect, that there have been Presidents who have had more national office experience than George W. Bush. In fact, I know there have been. But if you take some of our greatest Presidents, for example, Abraham Lincoln, FDR, these were people without much national government experience, in FDR's case no elective national government experience, but they had very good characters, and they could rely on extremely smart people to advise them. I keep thinking people say, well, George W. Bush doesn't have much experience, but he does have enough experience so that he's Governor of the second biggest state in America for six years and nobody has laid an ethical glove on him. He has enough intelligence so that Henry Kissinger supports him and Henry Kissinger is there to advise him, to be able to advise him; Milton Friedman, hands down, the leading living economist, supports him. He is a man of very good character, smart enough to know where to get the good advice he needs to make the right decisions.

MARGARET WARNER: Okay. Rob Reiner, does it make you feel any better about Governor Bush that he has all these advisors?

ROB REINER: No, because in a tough situation, you're going to get advice from very bright people that are going to be diametrically opposed to each other. I mean, if you look at the Cuban Missile Crisis and what Kennedy had to go through, he got advice from William Fullbright who was a brilliant foreign policy thinker. His advice was to go into Cuba and take those missiles out. He got obviously advice in other directions, but it is up to the President to make the final decision. And that decision has to be an informed one. It's not enough to have good advisors around you because you're going to get opposite, opposing viewpoints. You have to study. You have to read. You have to steep yourself in the details of all these situations, whether it be foreign policy or domestic policy, to really understand it. I will give you one example that was kind of very disturbing to me in the first debate. Governor Bush talked about his prescription drug plan, and he indicated that people making $25,000 a year would receive a prescription drug benefit under his plan. Well, that's just not true, and it took the Vice President to explain to him that that was not his own position. Now, to me, it's one thing to have advisors creating position papers for you, and that is often done. But I think at a minimum you should at least know your own positions and be able to articulate your own positions. It showed to me a lack of studiousness in really examining his own positions to be able to articulate it.

MARGARET WARNER: What do you say to that, Mr. Stein?

BEN STEIN: I would say that the last person in the world I would trust about whether George Bush knew his own positions would be Al Gore. He is a guy who came with no statewide experience to be one of the most widely liked and successful Governors in Texas. He knew exactly what to do. He has good character and good background in terms of knowing what is the common sense, smart approach. I have worked at the White House. Mr. Reiner has gigantically more experience in Hollywood than I do, but I have spent some time at the White House. And I have seen that every situation is new. Every situation has new details that you couldn't learn even at Yale and Harvard from which Mr. Bush has degrees. You have to study up on them at the last minute. You have to sort of cram for them. You have to let your good, common sense, honesty and decency carry you through them. In that regard it seems to me we are talking about a man with a great deal of experience but some kind of questionable ethical burdens that he's carrying versus a man of less, much less national experience but with a sterling character. Here's a guy nobody has even touched him with an ethical allegation that will stand up, and he's been Governor of a very, very vicious state in terms of politics. That's very impressive.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Well, Mr. Stein, what are you driving at? There was another quote, when you talk about character, another time you said he scares me to death, you were talking about Gore. You said he's a horrible, cynical person and he scares me to death.

BEN STEIN: I don't think I said he's horrible, cynical person. He certainly scares me to death. Here's why he scares me to death: He walked around the stage at the second debate, sorry, the third debate, looking like he was either going to kiss Mr. Bush or hit him. That doesn't seem to me to show a person who is emotionally ready to take on a giant challenge. As you would say about a small child, he does not play well with others. What scares me even more is this. He is a man who, when he doesn't like someone, as he said about drug companies or HMO's, he says, I'm going to call them into my office and I'm going to say to them, look, I'm the President, you better do what I like. He didn't say I'm going to say the law is X, Y, and Z, obey the law. He says by the brute force of my office and personality I'm going to push you around. I want a person who respects the Constitution, not who is a tough guy -- love of the Constitution. That's everything. I which we see that in Mr. Bush.

MARGARET WARNER: Mr. Reiner, what do you say to that?

ROB REINER: Well, I think, first of all, Al Gore was correct when he corrected George Bush about his prescription drug plan. So let's be clear on that. Secondly, you know, Ben has spent some time in the White House, but I have been running a $700 million program here in California. I was appointed by Governor Davis to oversee the implementation of a $700 million a year program for young children, prenatal to 5. I'm the chairman of the California Children and Families Commission. I can tell you based on only my only two years of experience-- because I've been in the government job now exclusively for two years. I haven't been doing my things in show business. And I can tell you based on my experience of two years, you better know about policy. You better know about the specifics and the details of what goes in to policy because you are not going to be able to make good decisions when it comes to allocating funds and things of that nature. This is something that I, you know, talk about being frightened -- I am frightened about Governor Bush who has shown a complete disdain for anything intellectual. And I am very frightened of that when it comes to overseeing policy.

MARGARET WARNER: Ben Stein, do you think that Governor Bush has either a disdain for things intellectual or, as Rob Reiner said earlier, at least a lack of intellectual curiosity?

BEN STEIN: Not at all. Here's a guy who has a degree from Yale and a degree from Harvard Business School, has had all different jobs, made a small fortune, at least by Hollywood standards, and one of the jobs -- he has undertaken a job that requires intellectual curiosity every day about what to do in a whole variety of government questions for the second biggest state in America. He's a guy who has enough intellectual curiosity to have briefed himself very well by asking people who know a heck of a lot more than he does about what to do. You know, there's a famous saying by an extremely famous English philosopher named Isaiah Berlin, which is that the advisors know many things, the king knows one great thing. It also has to do with the fox and the hedgehog. But anyway - and the idea is that the king knows one great thing, and that is great common sense and great decency. Bush, it's true, Bush is not Madison. He's not Thurow. He's not Jefferson. He is an honest, decent man with extremely good instincts, surrounded by very, very capable people. Most of all he has respect for law.

MARGARET WARNER: Last question to both of you: Rob Reiner if your candidate is so great, why is the race this close?

ROB REINER: I think it's close for a number of reasons. I think that we as a nation have become a little bit complacent. We've had a great economy now for eight years. And I think that quite frankly we don't think that there really is that big a deal and there's not much of a difference and what does it matter? But the fact of the matter is there is a big difference between these two candidates: On choice, on the environment, on, you know, a woman's right to choose, on campaign finance reform, on health care, on prescription drugs, there is a huge choice and I urge people to really look at this and notice this choice because this is an important election. There's the Supreme Court that is at stake here. It's going to affect our lives for 30 or 40 years.

MARGARET WARNER: Okay. Let me get Ben Stein on this last question. If George Bush is so great, why do you think the race is so close?

BEN STEIN: Well, any Republican has to run against a democrat and against the media. He has to run against liberal shibboleths and sacred cows like a woman's right to choose. With all due respect to my learned colleague, a woman's right to choose in reality means an abortionist's right to kill an innocent child. I think it's a sign of the greatness of Mr. Bush's character that he is able and willing to stand up to this liberal sacred cow and say if he is President he's going tobe solidly pro-life, he is going to take care of the most innocent and weakest among us, the unborn and the aged. That to me is a sign of great character, but he's taking on the liberal establishment by saying it.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Ben Stein and Rob Reiner, thanks both very much.

JIM LEHRER: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight, a high-energy congressional race; a Middle East conversation; and happy birthday, White House.

FOCUS - IMPEACHMENTS ECHO

JIM LEHRER: Kwame Holman, reporting from California, has our congressional story.

KWAME HOLMAN: By this point in the election year, Republican Congressman James Rogan hoped to be back in his southern California district, campaigning full-time for a third term.

REP. JAMES ROGAN: We'll be here on... For votes Tuesday and Wednesday, so we're just going to have to redo the schedule.

KWAME HOLMAN: Instead, Rogan and all the other members of Congress were stuck in Washington, trying to get agreement with the White House on spending bills for the new fiscal year that's already a month old.

REP. JAMES ROGAN: I'm keeping my fingers crossed that at the end of the day, my constituents will appreciate the fact that I'm sacrificing campaign time to be back here doing the job that they sent me to do.

KWAME HOLMAN: Unlike the vast majority of his House colleagues, Rogan actually is in a tough fight for reelection. But it's a position he's used to. The Republican barely squeaked by in his last two races in a district that's become more and more Democratic. Its population includes growing numbers of African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans who are moving into the cities of Pasadena, Burbank, and Glendale, north of Los Angeles.

REP. JAMES ROGAN: I've won in a heavily minority-populated district because African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans in my district, Armenian Americans, all know that I care about the issues that are affecting their community because I come from a community like that. I was a kid that grew up in a welfare and food stamp house raised by a single mom on welfare and food stamps in the mission district of San Francisco.

KWAME HOLMAN: Still, Democrats are targeting Rogan again, in a year when they need only a handful of new Democratic seats to recapture control of the House of Representatives.

SPOKESPERSON: Thank you very much.

KWAME HOLMAN: Rogan's opponent, Democrat Adam Schiff, has been campaigning full time. As a state senator, Schiff represents in the California legislature the same constituents Rogan does in Congress.

ADAM SCHIFF: I work in a bipartisan way in the state legislature. There is a great desire for that kind of leadership in Congress, and I think people in the community really want someone who is much more reflective of the priorities and the values of this district than what we've had in Congress so far.

SPOKESPERSON: You've got our vote.

KWAME HOLMAN: Though Schiff won't mention it unless asked, an undercurrent in this campaign is what Rogan was involved in for a good part of his second term in office.

SPOKESMAN: Mr. Chief justice...

KWAME HOLMAN: Rogan's role as one of 13 prosecutors in the impeachment trial of President Clinton made him a national figure. His campaign donor list grew from 3,000 to more than 50,000 people from 46 states. It is estimated Rogan will have raised and spent more than $6 million by election day. Nonetheless, the race for this congressional seat has been sharply contested for the last year and a half.

SPOKESPERSON: How are you?

WOMAN: Oh, I've been working for you.

KWAMEHOLMAN: That's in part because Adam Schiff also is well financed. He has strong backing from the entertainment industry, and from people around the country who opposed President Clinton's impeachment. Together, it's estimated the Schiff and Rogan campaigns will surpass the $12 million, making it the most expensive House race in history. And with money to spend, the campaigns have saturated the expensive Los Angeles media market with television ads.

SPOKESMAN: Adam Schiff voted to raise your car taxes by $850 million.

SPOKESMAN: Rogan voted against banning assault weapons and against banning Saturday night specials.

SPOKESPERSON: What we can do is put this around here.

KWAME HOLMAN: As a result, the two candidates are well-known among residents of this congressional district. At the YWCA Street Fair in Pasadena a week and a half ago, voters we talked to said Rogan's impeachment role would be a factor in their choice. Alberta McBride is a retired schoolteacher.

ALBERT McBRIDE: I guess one of the things that turned me off of him was the impeachment, and his role. I felt he was a little unnecessarily vindictive.

KWAME HOLMAN: Roger Milton is a former police officer.

ROGER MILTON: I was very impressed with his talks about the impeachment hearings that I watched on TV quite a bit, and the thing that most impressed me was his take on the moral issues and the legal issues involved with politicians.

KWAME HOLMAN: But Democrat Schiff says Rogan has problems beyond his impeachment role.

ADAM SCHIFF: Even before the impeachment, Jim Rogan was in trouble in this district. He's never gotten more than 50% of the vote, and I think he has ignored the most important premise there is: That this job of representation is a job of bringing service to one's community, working in a bipartisan way to confront the national priorities, and he's lost sight of that.

KWAME HOLMAN: Chuck Sambar's family normally would be considered likely Rogan supporters. He's a lifelong Republican and Glendale school board member. But the family had a costly dispute with their HMO, and now its five members are unhappy about Rogan's opposition to a bipartisan HMO reform bill. Rogan supported a Republican version of the so-called Patients' Bill of Rights that limited a patient's right to sue an HMO.

CHUCK SAMBAR: His lack of support for that bill was a key in my change in position. I felt he could have lent his support to that bipartisan bill, and he did not.

KWAME HOLMAN: But former Glendale Mayor Larry Zarian, a longtime friend of Rogan's, says the Congressman has addressed other issues important to his constituents.

MAYOR LARRY ZARIAN: Education is of utmost importance to him. When we talk about the lockbox for Social Security, he is a champion of that, and philosophically conservative, making sure that we don't overspend our bounds. And he believes truly that the citizens ought to have the right to make a lot of the decisions locally, rather than Washington deciding for the people in this area or across the country.

KWAME HOLMAN: Zarian says Rogan is a victim of a multimillion- dollar ad campaign funded by Schiff and the National Democratic Party.

MAYOR LARRY ZARIAN: I must tell you, for all of the people that are pouring money to defeat Jim Rogan, they don't want this district. They don't want the 27th Congressional District. They are interested in Jim Rogan. They want him out of Congress because he has a bright future, he is a fighter, a person that can speak, a person that stands for what is right in this country, and a person that is there to protect the constitution. That's why I'm supporting him.

KWAME HOLMAN: But Rogan is getting outside help as well. The Republican Party has paid for Rogan ads. So have issue advocacy groups such as Citizens for Better Medicare.

AD SPOKESMAN: Congressman Jim Rogan is working to strengthen Medicare and provide a prescription drug benefit so all seniors can get the medicines they need.

SPOKESMAN: There has been a...just a blizzard of independent expenditures in the last few weeks. The pharmaceutical industry, for example, has embarked on what looks like a multimillion-dollar campaign on Mr. Rogan's behalf because he voted against prescription drug benefits for seniors under Medicare. And people are being hit with this, and I do think it's having a negative effect, in that people are kind of bewildered. Where is all this money coming from? Who are these people masquerading as citizens for better Medicare?

KWAME HOLMAN: Chuck Sambar agrees.

CHUCK SAMBAR: I think that the electorate here are being whipsawed by every extremist group coming in here telling us how to vote. I am not interested in that, and that should not happen in a congressional election.

KWAME HOLMAN: Both campaigns say internal polls show a very tight race. And so it surprised no one that Rogan, stuck in Washington, exercised his legislative prerogative and tried to strike a blow for a large bloc of his constituency. The City of Glendale is home to the largest Armenian American population in the country. They make up nearly 15% of the electorate in Glendale.

SPOKESMAN: Mr. Speaker, good morning. How are you?

KWAME HOLMAN: From his office on Capitol Hill 12 days ago, Rogan pushed for a non-binding resolution that would have recognized as genocide the killing of hundreds of thousands of Armenians that took place under the rule of the Turkish Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923. But under heavy protest from the Turkish government, President Clinton intervened to derail the resolution. Turkey, a NATO ally, allows the United States to use its bases to fly patrols over Iraq. Ultimately succumbing to President Clinton's plea, House Speaker Dennis Hastert backed off his original support for the genocide resolution and pulled it from consideration.

SPOKESMAN: You and my mom would get along.

WOMAN: Oh, I'm sure. ( Laughs )

KWAME HOLMAN: Two days later, when Rogan finally got back home to campaign briefly, he still was unhappy about the upending of his resolution.

REP. JAMES ROGAN: I don't appreciate-- and many colleagues on both sides don't appreciate that fact that the current government of Turkey was using blackmail and threats against their friend and ally to keep this from coming to the floor. And the most unfortunate thing of all is that the President of the United States was a willing pawn in that blackmail.

KWAME HOLMAN: But Adam Schiff insists Rogan's support for the Armenian resolution was purely political.

ADAM SCHIFF: I think that everyone has acknowledged, both Republicans and Democrats in Congress, that but for Mr. Rogan being behind in the polls, he would not be pushing this, and I think that's caused a lot of chagrin in the Armenian community in this district. Rogan's been there four years. Why didn't he bring up the resolution the first year or the second year or the third year? Why only now, a few weeks before the election?

KWAME HOLMAN: As Rogan comes into the final days of his campaign cut short by events in Washington, he understands his impeachment role will work against him with some of his constituents. But he's hoping most voters willjudge him on his entire record in Congress.

REP. JAMES ROGAN: I'm an old DA; I'm an old trial lawyer. I learned after you argue your case to the jury, you've got to hand it to the jury, and it doesn't belong to you any more. It belongs to them. At 8:00 on November 7, I'm handing this case to the jury, and they own it then.

KWAME HOLMAN: This is one of a handful of too-close-to-call races in California that could end up determining which party controls the next House of Representatives. The races are so close, the winners might not be known until the early morning hours after election day.

CONVERSATION - TROUBLED LAND

JIM LEHRER: Now, another of our conversations about the situation in the Middle East. Last night, Ray Suarez talked with Palestinian Leader Hanan Ashrawi. Earlier today he spoke with an Israeli official.

RAY SUAREZ: And joining me now is Shlomo Ben-Ami, Israel's foreign minister. Welcome to the program.

SHLOMO BEN-AMI: Good evening.

RAY SUAREZ: In the last few months we were told that Israel had made some of its most far reaching offers for a comprehensive peace to the Palestinian people, and just the these few weeks and months and later we're seeing some of the worst turmoil in this part of the world that we've seen in years. How did this happen?

SHLOMO BEN-AMI: Well, many of us are at a loss in trying to understand how and why the response to such far reaching, indeed, proposals should have been countered by such a wave of violence. My understanding is this: that Arafat felt that he was being portrayed by President Clinton, indeed by international opinion, in the wake of the Camp David summit as a peace rejectionist. And he saw how Israel was gaining ground thanks to its peace policy in the international arena. He felt his international legitimacy was being seriously undermined by Israel's peace proposals, proposals which he thought he could not accept for whatever reason. And in a way these waves of violence, he used it, continues to use it, in order to sort of navigate through it, on it, to improve his international standing and sort of corner Israel and put Israel under pressure, internationalize the conflict, that is undermine the centrality of the American role. He doesn't want to see America leading the process, being the honest broker, and he wants to internationalize it, to bring in the Russians, the Europeans, the UN on the understanding that if such an internationalization is brought about, he will have the kind of deal that we he wants, because in such an international following forum, Israel will be isolated. This is the strategy of Arafat. And this is why, indeed, he's, in fact, trading with the blood of his people in order to reach this political objective, which I just described.

RAY SUAREZ: The months following Camp David had been tense, but you didn't see that sudden spasm of violence that you saw after the visit of General Sharon to the Temple Mount. Was this a crystallizing moment? Did the confrontation turn a corner at this time?

SHLOMO BEN-AMI: Not at that precise time, because... You may remember that the visit of Ariel Sharon to Temple Mount went peacefully. Nothing happened. During that day nothing at all happened. I myself-- I was in Washington then in peace talks, incidentally-- and I happened to exchange a few words over the telephone with one of the chief security personnel guys in the Palestinian system. And he told me, if Ariel Sharon doesn't go into the mosques but just visits the surface, nothing will happen. So that day, that precise day was of no special significance.What happened was that a day or a couple of days later, groups of people were organized to come on the mount and stage these outbursts of violence. So I think that the whole thing was prepared in advance.

RAY SUAREZ: In your previous answer you appeared to question chairman Arafat's commitment to peace with Israel. Is he still a partner that you can continue to do business with? Can there be a peace process with Yasser Arafat?

SHLOMO BEN-AMI: Well, you see, Arafat... the answer needs to be elaborated not in terms of yes or no. You see, what happened here is this: In 1993, through the Oslo Agreement, Arafat got a series of advantages. He got a quasi-Palestinian state-- Palestinian Authority is a quasi-Palestinian state-- a government, a parliament, an enormous amount of international aide. He got money from the European Union, from this country, and a military sort of establishment. He has his own kind of military power. And all this was supposed to lead gradually to negotiations on the final status, but negotiations, which... whose result is not known in advance, because this is an open ended negotiation. Now what we see that the moment Arafat doesn't reach the exact and precise result of the negotiations that he wants, he breaks the rules of the game. He got international aide. He got a dramatic shift in his strategic position, thanks to the Oslo Agreement. Seven years ago he could not get a visa to America. Now he's a frequent flier to the White House, only thanks to Oslo. Now, he breaks the rules of the game just because he did not get the deal he thinks he should get, which means that Israel should accept all his terms. And once he doesn't get it he breaks the rules of the game. So the question of whether or not he is a partner needs to be answered in terms of whether or not he is ready to accept the open negotiations leading to a reasonable deal. Camp David was a reasonable deal. Two days after the visit of Ariel Sharon-- two, three days, maybe even a week-- we were supposed to come to America once again to discuss an American peace package, which the Palestinians knew was about to be presented. We knew it was about to be presented. So my suspicion is that Arafat orchestrated these waves of violence, rather surfed on it, because he wanted to avoid the American peace package and be exposed by the President once again as a peace rejectionist. And this is why you see now aspiring, driving, the whole process, the whole situation, to internationalization so that he can get a deal, in his view, better than the deal that he presumed was inherent in the package that the Americans were about to put a week after the visit of Sharon.

RAY SUAREZ: Has, in your view, the action on the ground in Israel proper, in the occupied territory, gone so far that now it's difficult to discuss an ongoing peace process, one that really exists?

SHLOMO BEN-AMI: Well, it is indeed very difficult in such a state of affairs to move immediately and abruptly to peace talks. This is why we went to Sharm el-Sheikh, and President Clinton came there, and the Europeans, and the UN, and we subscribed to a memorandum that those who should know, namely the Americans, the Egyptians, those who should know, know very well that Arafat does not abide by the understandings of Sharm el-Sheikh. So what we need now is to impress upon Arafat, because he has humiliated all those who were witnesses to the memorandum-- the Americans, the Europeans, the UN, the Egyptians-- to impress upon him the necessity to abide by the memorandum, bring an end to violence. And then after a short period of healing, we need to sort of understand, where do we stand now after seven years of peace process, because to some of us it means the collects of the work of a lifetime. The peace camp in Israel is shattered to pieces. Those who believe that generosity, flexibility, the creation of a Palestinian state, what is due to the Palestinians -- because the Arab world, when they occupied this territory, they never gave to the Palestinians any rights, let alone self determination. Israel is ready for the creation of a Palestinian state-- friendly to Israel, not hostile. And now we feel that the work of our life is under question. So we say bring an end to violence, abide by the Sharm el-Sheikh agreement, and then we can proceed to the resumption of peace talks, because we Israelis know very well, and I hope this is the case with the Palestinians also, that there is no alternative to the peace process. We do not want to conceive a military solution to the problem, because we don't believe there is a military solution. We believe only in a political solution. At the end of the day we need to go back to the table of negotiations. It is very, very sad that we should go back to the table of negotiations only after having crossed rivers of blood. That is totally unnecessary.

RAY SUAREZ: Can Israel disengage at this point so that, for its part, the fighting and the dying can slow down, can stop?

SHLOMO BEN-AMI: Can stop now, immediately. In an hour it can stop if Arafat gives to his people clear-cut instructions. And to tell you truth, I don't really know if he is unwilling to give instructions, or if he is unable to control the situation. In either case, we have a problem with his partnership in the peace process. What will be the future if we strike a peace deal with him? What guarantees do we have that he can fulfill, meet his commitments, if he's unable to control the situation of armed militias, that by the way, the Tanzim, the armed militia of the Tanzim, which is the main military force in the West Bank operating against Israel today, and in the last three, four days they assassinated four or five citizens in the streets of Jerusalem. These people are armed contrary to their agreement of Oslo.

RAY SUAREZ: Minister Shlomo Ben-Ai, thanks for being with us.

SHLOMO BEN-AMI: You are welcome.

FINALLY - THIS OLD HOUSE

JIM LEHRER: Finally tonight, the 200th Anniversary of the White House. Betty Ann Bowser reports.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: There was great fanfare today as the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the White House kicked off, but 200 years ago when John Adams became the first President to take up residence, things weren't so polished. Adams was portrayed in a reenactment where historian David McCullough described what it was like at the White House back then.

DAVID McCULLOUGH: The first President to move into what was then known as the President's House, John Adams of Quincy, Massachusetts, arrived here at this entrance at mid-day, Saturday, November 1, 1800, at just about this time. Very little looked as we now see it. The new federal city of Washington was no city at all. The Capitol was only half finished. Except for a few nondescript stores and hotels in the vicinity of the Capitol, the rest was mostly tree stumps and swamp. The House itself was still quite unfinished. Fires had to be kept burning in all the fireplaces to help dry out the wet plaster. Only a few rooms were ready.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Conditions in the House were so primitive that the First Lady, Abigail Adams, had to use the East Room to hang and dry laundry.

DAVID McCULLOUGH: There were men and women in that day and their time who would have refused to live in the White House in the condition it was in. But they made do without complaint.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: But future Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison made the White House more comfortable. An indoor cooking stove was added, rooms were finished, furniture was laid out. Then, during the war of 1812, British troops invaded and burned most of downtown Washington, as President Madison and his family fled to the countryside of Virginia, leaving dinner behind on a table. White House historian William Seale:

WILLIAM SEALE: And the officers sat down in the dining room and ate the dinner that had been prepared that no one ate. And they were allowed to take trifling souvenirs. Of course, the commander said he took a pillow so he could-- from her chair, so he could remember Mrs. Madison's seat. The newspapers thought that was the worst thing anyone had ever said. The House was burned. It wasn't an act of vandalism. They didn't kick it around and throw matches on the floor. They broke out the windows and they piled the furniture up in the room and mattresses and poured lamp oil on all of it and stood around the House with flaming javelins and a pistol was fired and they threw the javelins in through the open windows and the House blew up all at once.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: By the next morning, all that was left of the White House was a shell. But First Lady Dolly Madison had saved one important item, this Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington. Today it hangs in the East Room at the White House as the oldest artifact. It took three years to rebuild the White House after the fire. In 1824, President James Monroe had the south portico constructed. Six years later, President Andrew Jackson built the north portico. In 1902, President Teddy Roosevelt ordered extensive renovations. The executive office building, later known as the West Wing, was added. A few years later it was doubled in size and the Oval Office was constructed. But by the 1940's, the interior structure of the White House had become dangerously obsolete, so President Harry Truman ordered a complete reconstruction, including a second-floor porch on the south side of the building that some purists didn't like.

WILLIAM SEALE: It was an old House at that time, over a hundred years old, with a lot of problems of an old House, with a lot of wood in it, and the danger from security and fire and all that. President Truman boiled the problems of the White House down to two things, and he came up with this: One, that the President should stay there, because its an old and symbolic place; and number two, it has to have the credibility of being a real relic. So he preserved the stone walls that George Washington had ordered built and he simply emptied the vessel.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Throughout the years, the White House has remained the only official residence of a head of state open to the public free of charge. Each year a million and a half people come through, along with every important foreign dignitary who arrives in the United States. In 1979, one of the most famous handshakes in history took place at the House. Presidential children have become husbands and wives in the White House, and a first lady made the White House come alive in American living rooms. One President resigned inside its walls.

PRESIDENT NIXON: Therefore, I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow. Vice President Ford will be sworn in at President at that hour in this office.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: And on more than one occasion, the nation has mourned a fallen leader inside the White House. But historian Seale says most important is what the White House symbolizes for Americans today.

WILLIAM SEALE: Well, the symbol, the symbolic continuity of the system, to me, is the most important thing of all; the fact that that House has been there and has experienced or reflected everything practically in American history, and the greatest people through history, and it's still there, and it will have a tomorrow, and it will new people in there. And it will change and yet stay the same, reflecting that continuity. To me, that is the most important single thing about the White House.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: The White House birthday celebration will run through the month of November.

RECAP

JIM LEHRER: And, again, the major stories of this Wednesday. The Senate voted to put off the budget battle until a lame-duck session after the election. House leaders decided to remain in session at least until Friday. And Vice President Gore campaigned in Florida, attacking Governor Bush's Social Security plan. Bush was in Minnesota, where he accused Gore of trying to scare seniors. A reminder that we'll be back later this evening on most public television stations with a three-hour voters' guide program called "Time to Choose." It's a joint project of Public Television and National Public Radio. And as usual, we'll see you on line and again here tomorrow evening. I'm Jim Lehrer. Thank and good night.