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UPI's Capital Comment for Nov. 7, 2001

By United Press International

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Capital Comment -- News notes, political rumors, and important events that shape politics and public policy in Washington and the world from United Press International.

Tax cap -- Tim Eyman, the Washington State wizard of the initiative process, has done it again. His I-747, a proposition that limited increases in property tax collections to 1 percent per year -- unless the voters approve a larger rise -- passed Tuesday with almost 60 percent of the vote. Even more amazing: I-747 carried the day in every county of the state but one, King County, which is home to Seattle and was enjoying a mayoral runoff between two Democrats at the same time.

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Catching flak -- Conservative activist Grover Norquist has come under increasingly hot fire of late for his efforts to bring American Muslims into the GOP voter coalition. His activities have been the subject of discussion in the Boston Phoenix and The New Republic, among other places, which have accused him by not-so-subtle implication of being an unwitting or unseeing shill for friends of terrorists.

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Now Norquist has fired back with a strongly worded letter to The New Republic, accusing TNR editor Franklin Foer, author of the latest piece, of "protecting a lie."

Norquist writes: "I believe that American Muslims like active Catholics, Orthodox Jews, evangelical Christians, Mormons and other Americans of faith have a natural home in the Republican Party. The secular Left will drive them away from the Democrats as they have so many others. I also believe that immigrants often make the best Americans -- they choose to come here. They chose not to be somewhere else." Expect to hear more about this.


Getting postal -- The United States Postal Service has been sent reeling by the Sept. 11 terror attacks and the subsequent anthrax incidents that have severely jeopardized American confidence in the mail. Some estimates suggest that mail volume may have dropped by as much as 10 percent since Sept. 11, making the USPS's bottom line even bleaker.

Some who follow the postal debate suggest that forthcoming USPS request to Congress, while couched in the idea of making the postal system safe from terrorist attack, may actually be a lot more about a system bailout than safer mail. Sources say that there are those on Capital Hill who may be willing to help the USPS raise the cap on money it may borrow from the U.S. Treasurer to address the deficit, but only if certain market-based reforms are put into action. One suggestion is that U.S. Postmaster John E. Potter put together a commission composed of business, labor, postal service and congressional representatives that he would chair, and take 90 days to develop and recommend real reforms to the way the USPS does business so that another bailout is not necessary. If Potter doesn't bite, one source says, then the USPS may find its request for a bailout -- which could amount to $5 billion or so -- stamped out.

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Need a lawyer? -- Reports from Virginia say that the state's Democrats put together a poll-watching operation like never before seen. One component of that was a brigade of lawyers, some say as many as 750, who were sent into targeted polling places to insure that state election laws were followed and that proper procedures were used. One admiring Virginia Republican, the one who told us about this, lamented that his party was in no way able to mount any kind of effort similar in size or scope.


In other news -- Some election results you may have missed: The GOP won a majority on the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court. The Republicans picked up a state House seat in Missouri. Democrat-endorsed incumbent Mayor Charlie Luken was re-elected in Cincinnati by more than 10 percentage points, confounding predictions. The Democrats won the mayoral election in Frederick and Annapolis, Md.


Out -- Former Charlotte, N.C., Mayor Richard Vinroot has dropped out of the race for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate currently held by retiring Republican Jesse Helms.


Trick or treat -- That was former CIA Director Jim Woolsey receiving honors from the mysterious group known as The Pumpkin Papers Irregulars on Halloween night. The group, which meets every year on that night, is dedicated to preserving the memory of what members call "the case" -- the dispute between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss -- and to sharing any new evidence that Hiss was, as most now believe, a spy for the Soviet Union. That, of course, was what Chambers had alleged. The group takes its name from the hiding place Chambers used to protect materials he believed would prove his assertions -- inside a hollowed out pumpkin on his farm.

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