A Marriage of Convenience

Ross Perot was a bit tired. For months he had been traveling and making TV appearances at a more frenetic pace than when he was running for President, so he had been planning to take a break. Instead he abruptly decided to rush to Washington last Thursday to fulminate on the Capitol grounds against Bill Clinton's budget. The program was moving through Congress faster than Perot had anticipated, so he personally displayed a truckload of petitions -- bearing 2.5 million signatures by his count -- demanding that Washington cut spending before raising taxes. Minority leader Bob Dole gave Perot's show an...