Watercooler Stories

CLINTON REGRETS RICH PARDON

Former President Clinton says he regrets the pardon he gave to fugitive financier Marc Rich as he was leaving the White House, because it was "terrible politics" that damaged his reputation.

In an interview with Newsweek magazine, Clinton said if he had the chance to do it over, he would "probably not" grant the pardon to Rich.

"It was terrible politics," he said. "It wasn't worth the damage to my reputation. But that doesn't mean the attacks were true."

Federal prosecutors and congressional investigators have been looking into the 177 pardons and clemencies announced by the White House within the last few hours of Clinton's presidency.

Clinton told Newsweek that being investigated made him "angry that after I worked so hard and after all that money had been spent proving that I never did anything wrong for money, that I'd get mugged one more time on the way out the door."

Rich was living abroad when he was named in a federal indictment in 1983 on charges of evading more than $48 million in income taxes and illegally buying oil from Iran during the 1979 hostage crisis. He never returned to the United States, and he lives in Switzerland.

The House Government Reform Committee issued a report earlier this year saying that the Rich pardon raised "substantial questions of direct corruption, primarily whether pardons were issued in exchange for political and other financial contributions."

"People are free to say that they disagreed with this or that part of the decisions I made," Clinton told Newsweek, "but there wasn't a shred of evidence that it had been done for any improper motive. In fact, there is a lot of evidence to the contrary."

JUDGE THROWS OUT VIRGINIA ALCOHOL LAW

A federal judge in Virginia has thrown out a state law banning the purchase of beer and wine from out of state, because it violates the Constitution's commerce clause.

U.S. District Judge Richard L. Williams of the Eastern District of Virginia ruled on Friday that the Virginia law discriminates against breweries and wineries in other states by denying them the opportunity to sell their products to Virginians.

The lawyer for Virginia consumers and out-of-state wineries who challenged the Virginia law said the judge's ruling might be used as the basis for a legal challenge to the state's longstanding practice of limiting liquor sales to Alcohol Beverage Control stores, run by the state.

ARE THE SKIES FRIENDLY ONCE MORE?

The travel and tourism industry is still working towards a full recovery from the downturn caused by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but there are signs that the hotel industry is gaining strength.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Marriott International Inc. -- one of the largest hotel groups in the world -- is adding 25,000 to 30,000 rooms this year and plans to add as many next year. That represents a 12 percent increase in its chain of 2,500 hotels worldwide.

Chairman J. Willard Marriott Jr. told the paper he is confident that business travel soon will return to a steady growth pattern.

"We are starting to see interesting things," he said, "short-term corporate meetings. Companies will call up and say we need 300 rooms in two weeks. They want a meeting to talk about where they're going."

The paper reported that Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. -- which owns the Sheraton, Westin and other hotel brands -- is adding 14,600 rooms this year and the same number next year. That represents a 7 percent increase.

Hilton Hotels Corp. plans to add 150 hotels to its franchised system, and Six Continents -- the London-based owner of Holiday Inns and other hotel brands -- is also expanding.

Marriott also said that leisure travel is showing signs of a comeback -- particularly international travel.

"Japanese tour operators assure us that their tourists and businessmen will be traveling again by May," he said.

However, the paper said prospects remain poor for European tourists coming to the United States -- Florida in particular -- in the same numbers as before Sept. 11, and for Americans to resume traveling in Europe.

THE HIGH COST OF RUNNING

Final accounting figures show that Michael Bloomberg spent more than $76 million of his own money to get elected mayor of New York City -- $73.9 million on the campaign itself and an additional $2.5 million on his transition and inaugural ceremony.

That's a record amount of spending for a non-presidential election in the United States, and far exceeds the $68.9 million that Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican Rick Lazio spent between them in the 2000 New York Senate campaign.

Bloomberg outspent the Democratic candidate in the general election, Mark Green, by about four-to-one. He got 744,757 votes to 676,717 for Green.