The Week October 9-15

NATION

Clinton Begins Campaign '94

With polls indicating voter support for congressional Democratic candidates to be at a historic low -- and the Governors aren't doing much better -- President Clinton ventured out of the White House to begin stumping for his party's revival. At a rally at a Ford assembly plant in Dearborn, Michigan, the President unfurled the aggressive political message he intends to press in the month ahead: Democrats propose "a covenant for the future" that will offer more jobs, a lower deficit and better education while Republicans would return to the "trickle-down" policies of the past. Republicans scoffed at the President's political blitz, happily exploiting the distance that vulnerable Democrats around the country seem to be creating between themselves and the President.

Virginia Is for Brawlers

Virginia G.O.P. Senate candidate Oliver North set in motion a series of political skirmishes when he attacked President Clinton -- whom he characterized as "not my Commander-in-Chief" -- for weakening the American military to the point of being unable to stop Saddam Hussein in Kuwait. Though North later claimed he had been misinterpreted, Vice President Al Gore lost no time in striking back at the former Iran-contra colonel, condemning his remarks as "despicable" and "unpatriotic." To which, in turn, Senate Republican leader Bob Dole felt compelled to retort,"Cheap shot."

Troubles at the CIA

The CIA revealed that two senior officials had decided to leave the agency rather than accept demotions ordered by Director R. James Woolsey. The two men -- John MacGaffin, the No. 2 man in the agency's clandestine branch, and Frank Anderson, the head of Near East operations -- ran afoul of Woolsey for giving an award to one of the CIA officials whom Woolsey had criticized just last month for the agency's failure to detect mole Aldrich Ames. Congressional overseers expressed concern that the incident might suggest that Woolsey faces problems of insubordination.

Now, a Cisneros Investigation

The Justice Department announced it was beginning a preliminary inquiry into how much money Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros paid to a former mistress and whether he had been fully candid about the payments in pre-nomination statements to the FBI. The move could lead to the appointment of an independent counsel. Cisneros said that under the strict standards of federal ethics law, the Justice Department had no other choice than to open a probe, but he reiterated his contention that the investigation would uncover no wrongdoing.

The Simpson Case

Procedural tussling continued to dominate center stage of the Simpson murder trial. Judge Lance Ito chided the prosecution for having taken too long to submit key pieces of evidence for DNA testing and threatened to suppress the test results. Ito also declined to pursue the matter of erroneous news leaks, declaring that those leaks were so widely discredited they have not hurt Simpson's defense. Meanwhile, the slow and laborious face-to-face questioning of prospective jurors got under way, out of range of TV cameras and radio mikes per the judge's orders.

Gay-Rights Ruling