Party Leadership

"If I were in a battle, I would still rather have the governor with me than against me."Democratic Majority Leader D. Bruce Poole of Hagerstown"If you assume the position of party leadership -- whether it is governor, county executive, or mayor -- you no longer have the luxury of picking and choosing. . . . At least half the budget problems we have now in Maryland are the result of the failed economic policies of the president."Prince George's County Executive Parris N. Glendening"It will play well [for the Republican campaign]

Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander caused a ripple on Capitol Hill last week by announcing he will drop out of his party's Senate leadership to pursue a more independent course, which would seem to be a break from the GOP's my-way-or-the-highway solidarity. The news that in January he will give up his No. 3 position as Republican conference chairman was particularly surprising because the two-time presidential candidate has always been a conspicuous climber. A few years ago he ran for the No. 2 spot as Senate Republican whip and missed by a single vote; he had been expected to try again, with Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the incumbent whip, slated for retirement.

W e send our elected representatives far from home to conduct the people's business. We send them to Washington, D.C., where they form what our flyboys (and flygirls) call "a target-rich environment" for the lobbyists and for the political party leadership. We send them far from us … to conduct our business. There was no other way in the 18th and 19th centuries and most of the 20th. In the 21st century, of course, this is absurd. As things now stand, it is too easy for lobbyists and party leadership to get at our elected legislators.

John A. Boehner, soon to be speaker of the House, is a conservative Midwesterner who loves his cigarettes. Nancy Pelosi is a San Francisco liberal who, upon becoming speaker four years ago, banned smoking near the House chamber, where Boehner enjoyed puffing away between votes. She introduced organic food choices to the House cafeteria. He prefers "food that I can pronounce. " She believes in active government. He believes in shrinking government. They are a political and personal odd couple, a pair of wary prize fighters who nonetheless have maintained a cordial relationship and respect for each other's political skills.

Hopes for progress in Middle East peace negotiations were marginally strengthened by the party leadership struggles in Israel, preparing for the June 23 election. Former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who returns to the leadership of the opposition Labor Party, favors the negotiations and the concept of swapping land for peace. He has said that, in power, he would put a stop to settlement-building on the West Bank.Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, who remains at the helm of Likud, is his old seemingly intransigent self.

The John Arnick debacle left many Marylanders wondering whether their legislators in Annapolis had lost touch with the real world around them. Now they can wonder the same thing about the state Democratic Party's leadership.Maryland's top Democratic party officials are pushing a bill that would open a giant loophole in the two-year-old $10,000 cap on an individual's or group's state political contributions during a four-year election cycle. Fat cats would be able to pitch in 10 times that much by splitting it among party committees in each political jurisdiction.

When President Bush told the nation last night that the budget deficit is "a cancer gnawing away at our nation's health," he was right. When he said "Tonight, the Democratic and Republican leadership and I all speak with one voice in support of this agreement," he was dead wrong.The reason: Rep. Newt Gingrich of Georgia, the No. 2 Republican in Congress, is fighting the deficit-reduction agreement tooth and nail.Gingrich's reversion to ideological zealotry -- indeed, fanaticism is not too strong a word -- means that the most serious budget in a decade is now in grave danger of defeat.

THE LONG-AWAITED leadership change for Vietnam went through without a hitch. But can that country sustain a Communist political system and a capitalist economy, especially when its capitalist neighbors are going through banking and currency crises?The new political elite who now run the place want Vietnam to remain wedded to both isms in their separate spheres.President Le Duc Anh, who retained military and political control in Communist Party hands while opening relations with the United States and welcoming old enemies to Hanoi, is stepping down.

It was an intriguing strategy for Anne Arundel County's dwindling Democratic Party: Recruit the second most visible Republican in this increasingly conservative county to run as a Democrat against the Republican county executive.The theory was that the Democrats might be able to sneak back to the top of the political hill by using a Republican to steal Republican voters and a Democratic label to lock in the Democratic voters.It didn't work. Democratic voters in Tuesday's primary saw the party's recruit, Diane R. Evans, as an elephant in sheep's clothing -- a Republican trying to fool them -- and chose Janet S. Owens as their nominee, according to local political observers.

HOUSE DEMOCRATS and Republicans have added promising young lawmakers to their party leadership in the 106th Congress.The Democrats named Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island, son of Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, as congressional campaign chairman.The GOP chose as conference chairman J. C. Watts, of Oklahoma, the only black Republican in Congress.Mr. Kennedy brings an attractiveness and name that will greatly help fund raising as the party tries to regain Congress and keep the White House in 2000.

W e send our elected representatives far from home to conduct the people's business. We send them to Washington, D.C., where they form what our flyboys (and flygirls) call "a target-rich environment" for the lobbyists and for the political party leadership. We send them far from us … to conduct our business. There was no other way in the 18th and 19th centuries and most of the 20th. In the 21st century, of course, this is absurd. As things now stand, it is too easy for lobbyists and party leadership to get at our elected legislators.

JERUSALEM --- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon narrowly subdued last night a revolt within his ruling Likud Party, whose hard-line members sought to repudiate his leadership because of his decision to end Israel's occupation of the Gaza Strip. In an extremely tight vote, members of the Likud Central Committee defeated a proposal by Sharon's chief rival, Benjamin Netanyahu, to hold an early party leadership primary and force early elections. Although a seemingly minor question of timing, the issue voted on by 3,000 committee members was widely viewed as a referendum on Sharon's leadership that would have a huge impact on the future of Sharon's government and on the Middle East peace process.

JERUSALEM - Ariel Sharon's trademark characteristics include his bulky build, a trumpeting voice - and an extraordinary political resilience. Today, that storied ability to bounce back from adversity will be put to a crucial test as members of his conservative Likud Party hold a referendum on the Israeli prime minister's proposal to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. Polls have suggested they are likely to reject the plan. Sharon envisions his initiative as an ambitious first step toward drawing the borders of Israel and those of a future Palestinian state.

BEIJING - The last time power changed hands at the top of China's Communist Party, the event was preceded by hundreds of thousands of students leading demonstrations in Beijing's Tiananmen Square and other cities demanding democratic reforms. Thirteen years later, President Jiang Zemin, 76, is set to surrender his post as general secretary of the Communist Party to his anointed successor, Vice President Hu Jintao, 59, at the party congress that opens today. And China's young, bright minds are too busy having fun and planning careers to stop and take note.

JERUSALEM - Israel's coalition government faces a parliamentary showdown today over one of the most contentious issues in Israeli politics - the government's financial support for Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Leaders of the left-of-center Labor Party are threatening to leave the government because of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's request for about $416 million to subsidize settlements. If Labor carries out its threat, it would destabilize Sharon's government and potentially delay any attempt to negotiate a peace settlement with the Palestinians.

BEIJING - The appearance in the West of secret documents revealing Chinese government decisions leading to the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown appears to be the work of well-placed people in the Communist Party trying to rekindle the long-suppressed debate on political reform here, scholars, analysts and former party officials say. Given the breadth and depth of the papers, which include minutes of Politburo meetings, some believe they were compiled by...

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesia's new president, B. J. Habibie, consolidated his hold over the country's politics yesterday when one of his close advisers won a hotly contested vote to lead the country's dominant political party.It was the first electoral test for the man who was almost nobody's choice to succeed President Suharto six weeks ago, and who many people believed would hold office only fleetingly.Habibie's control over the party greatly improves his ability to set the political agenda and remain in office at least until the end of next year, when he has scheduled a parliamentary vote for a new president.

BONN, Germany -- Police said yesterday that Petra Kelly, founder of the nation's Green Party and a leading figure in its peace and anti-nuclear movements, was shot and killed by her longtime companion, who then took his own life.The bodies of Miss Kelly, 44, and her companion, Gert Bastian, a 69-year-old former major general in the West German army, were found Monday night in the modest row house they rented in a working-class suburb of Bonn."We must assume, based on evidence and expert opinion, that Kelly was shot and Bastian shot himself afterward," said Harmut Otto, chief of the Bonn police.

HOUSE DEMOCRATS and Republicans have added promising young lawmakers to their party leadership in the 106th Congress.The Democrats named Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island, son of Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, as congressional campaign chairman.The GOP chose as conference chairman J. C. Watts, of Oklahoma, the only black Republican in Congress.Mr. Kennedy brings an attractiveness and name that will greatly help fund raising as the party tries to regain Congress and keep the White House in 2000.

It was an intriguing strategy for Anne Arundel County's dwindling Democratic Party: Recruit the second most visible Republican in this increasingly conservative county to run as a Democrat against the Republican county executive.The theory was that the Democrats might be able to sneak back to the top of the political hill by using a Republican to steal Republican voters and a Democratic label to lock in the Democratic voters.It didn't work. Democratic voters in Tuesday's primary saw the party's recruit, Diane R. Evans, as an elephant in sheep's clothing -- a Republican trying to fool them -- and chose Janet S. Owens as their nominee, according to local political observers.