Balancing Act

PRESIDENT Clinton's State of the Union address won high praise among viewers for eloquence and resolve. But it is also instructive to review the speech as a strategic document.Mr. Clinton's themes offered a delicate balancing act -- between a traditional Democratic blue-collar base and a worried middle class, New Democrats and New Dealers, budget balancers and big spenders. Consider:* Budget Bondage. Mr. Clinton's quandary is excruciating. Though the deficit has come down dramatically, polls show that voters still don't trust the administration on budget discipline.

One of the things I have been proudest of since starting this blog is late 2005 is that I have never written a post about having trouble writing a post. Sooner or later, every columnist or every fiction writer descends to writing about being unable to write. But last week, on days when I had nothing to say, I said nothing. I recommend the practice. I do regret, however, not having brought the word to Wordville that Stephen Fried has publicly apologized in The Atlantic for having invented the word fashionista . We all know words that we find odious, usually for what they signify, and fashionista and fashion-forward are words, and concepts, that I wouldn't touch with a bargepole.

WASHINGTON- George J. Tenet hinted yesterday at one of his secrets of survival as director of central intelligence, when he answered a Georgetown University student asking about the influence of conservative Pentagon analysts who operate outside normal intelligence channels. "I can tell you with certainty that the president of the United States gets his intelligence from one person and one community: me. And he has told me firmly and directly that he's wanted it straight and he's wanted it honest and he's never wanted the facts shaded," Tenet said.

In Baltimore County, like much of Maryland, tax revenues have flat-lined. State aid for such things as road resurfacing is not much better. County workers won't be receiving cost-of-living increases for the fifth year in a row. Yet amid all this austerity, Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz last week proposed a budget that finances new schools and retrofits many others with air conditioning. There are millions of dollars for new school security systems, for a new family resource center on the east side of the county and for new technology for police.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Ahmed Shahin is 28, unshaven and rarely cracks a smile. He keeps an AK-47 assault rifle strapped over his right shoulder. At first glance, he looks every bit a tough militiaman. Shahin is both a militant and a member of the Palestinian security forces. He sees no conflict in these dual roles. It is his job to protect his leaders, and, sometimes, as happened last week, it means standing with other gunmen and exchanging fire with Israeli troops. If U.S. diplomats can produce a cease-fire agreement - and it appeared yesterday that one was close - Shahin would find himself in an uncomfortable position.

MOAB, Utah - Like ants on the lip of a giant bowl, swarms of tourists wait at the top of a red rock amphitheater for their turn to pose beneath towering Delicate Arch, one of the most famous landmarks crafted by Mother Nature. On most days, it is a surprisingly civilized gathering, despite the blazing desert sun. But the politeness sometimes gives way to fights that require ranger intervention. And sometimes the combatants return to the overfilled parking lot to find that someone has boxed them in. It is then that Arches National Park seems more like a theme park than a natural wonder.

When President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed a new government for the District of Columbia three decades ago, he did so with balance in mind.It was understood, though unstated, that the government would be predominantly black for the first time, to replace the traditionally white District Commission that had only recently added its first black member.The president named Walter A. Washington, black, as mayor, and John Hechinger Sr., white, as City Council chairman. Sterling Tucker, black, was council vice chairman; John Nevius was the lone Republican and one of four whites on the nine-member body.

Describing his spending plan for next year as a balancing act, Howard County schools Superintendent Michael E. Hickey formally presented his proposal for a 4.9 percent budget increase for 1997-98 to the school board last night.The $251.9 million plan -- which proposes hiring 238 new teachers and staff members and adding money for new textbooks and library books -- received general, albeit brief, praise from board members.In his 40-minute presentation, Hickey said the budget decisions reflect an attempt to strike a "reasonable balance" among a number of competing factors.

ROCKVILLE - The hug was Douglas M. Duncan's idea, naturally. As hope rose Oct. 24 that the two suspects in custody were linked to the sniper shootings, the Montgomery County executive and his police chief couldn't really believe the three-week ordeal was over. They feared the sniper would strike again, to prove they had the wrong guys. But that night, when ballistic tests convinced them that they had the right guys, the relief was palpable. Duncan met Chief Charles A. Moose on the second-floor landing at police headquarters.

WASHINGTON - As Karen Hughes, counselor to President Bush and the most senior female official in any modern White House, announced her plans yesterday to step down and move her family back to Texas, many of her colleagues fielded phone calls from journalists looking for reaction. One of them, Mary Matalin, counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney, chatted on the phone as her 4-year-old daughter Emma scampered around her spacious, high-ceilinged office munching M&M's. The struggle to balance the demands of work and family are notoriously difficult for everyone in senior levels at the White House.

For 10 weeks, the Frederick Keys were Dylan Bundy's stewards. The Orioles' High-A affiliate was charged with bringing along the 19-year-old's arm and delivering him to Double-A Bowie in better shape than he arrived, a transaction that is expected to be made with all stipulations met before Game 1 of the Baysox's doubleheader Tuesday. The Orioles invested more in Bundy than they have in any other pitcher, and the right-hander came to Frederick in late May after posting utterly goofy numbers during his stint in Low-A Delmarva (30 innings, no earned runs, five hits, and 40 strikeouts in eight starts)

After weeks of open auditions around the country, judges Howard Stern, Sharon Osbourne and Howie Mandel are in Las Vegas to narrow their current talent pool from over 100 to 48. Right off the bat, the judges gather the contestants in the Palazzo Hotel lobby and announce they have already sorted them into groups: the judges' favorites, the standbys and those who are definitely advancing to the next round. The judges' favorites will perform in Las Vegas for a chance to advance to the next stage.

The deadline for registering at the early rate for the American Copy Editors Society's national conference in New Orleans has been extended until February 8. That would be tomorrow.  There is nowhere else that you will find as thoroughgoing an exploration of the craft of editing, with as many experiences practitioners. Alex Cruden's exploration of how readers actually read headlines has exploded many presuppositions. Bill Connolly's "Jimmy's World" has demonstrated how close reading and determined editing could have avoided a major scandal.

There may well be something in our genetic heritage that makes us susceptible to circuses. The ancient Romans sure treasured theirs, especially with a side of bread; kids of more recent times routinely dreamed of running away with them. And while the traditional idea of an ooh-and-aah circus with animals and all might have gone into decline, the genre continues to thrive, thanks to a French twist. Call it a "cirque," and the sky — or the highest wire — is the limit.

When Robert Muraine is performing the intricate, rhythmic, robotic form of dance known as popping, it's easy to imagine that every single part of his body — including the vertebrae in his spinal column — has a mind of its own. When a finger insistently taps his temple, Muraine seems as surprised as anyone when his head moves jerkily towards the ground while the rest of his body remains proudly upright. In the summer of 2008, Muraine, now 23, became a pop culture phenomenom when he auditioned for Fox's blockbuster reality television show, "So You Think You Can Dance?"

- When Orioles manager Dave Trembley addressed his full squad for the first time this spring, his speech centered on the team over the individual. He'll now have to wait to see whether his talk resonates. Of all the tasks Trembley faces entering this season, his ability to get his players enough at-bats to keep them happy might be the most challenging. While more talent and a deeper bench are issues that Trembley is willing to confront, he also knows they can affect the positive team chemistry he is trying hard to cultivate.

As Maryland's newly elected treasurer, Richard N. Dixon has reached one of the top posts in state government after a steady climb that often has been a balancing act between politics and race.The thin line Mr. Dixon has walked as a black legislator from predominantly white Carroll County never was more clear than last week when the veteran Democratic delegate drew fire from some black legislators and the state NAACP for his conservative voting record.Ironically, Mr. Dixon, a Westminster resident who traces his family back six generations in the area, becomes the first black elected to a state constitutional post, one of the few Carroll County residents to achieve such political heights.

WASHINGTON - U.S. officials worked frantically yesterday to quell Israeli-Palestinian violence that roiled financial markets, threatened to escalate into regional war and promised to alter the contours of Middle Eastern diplomacy far into the future. During a day of intensive telephone diplomacy not only with the Middle East but Europe, President Clinton deplored the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen and the continuation of strife in Israel and the occupied territories, especially the killing of at least two and perhaps three Israeli soldiers by a Palestinian mob. "I strongly condemn the murder of Israeli soldiers in Ramallah today," Clinton said.

For his appearance this week with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Christopher O'Riley will perform works by 20th-century French composer Maurice Ravel and Radiohead, the British alternative rock band - a perfectly normal juxtaposition for this pianist. "There never was a plan," O'Riley says of his emergence from traditional classical artist to multimedia celebrity to crossover success story, acclaimed for brilliant arrangements of rock songs. "It was just a matter of willingness, and doing what I like doing, and playing what I like playing."