Liberal Democrats

Liberty City Democrats, a political organization that says it can field 15,000 gay and lesbian voters, decided not to endorse anyone in the Philadelphia mayor's race. James Sicks, chairman of the liberal Democratic Ninth Ward in Chestnut Hill, resigned because he plans to vote for the Republican candidate. And Mary Goldman, who headed the liberal Americans for Democratic Action in the 1980s, when it was still an influential group, is struggling to choose between her party's candidate, former City Council President John F. Street, and Republican Sam Katz.

Republican Party leaders from around the country are in Philadelphia this weekend, trying to figure out how to beat Bill Clinton next year. Newt Gingrich, speaker of the House, breezed into their meeting here yesterday and offered a simple strategy: Blame the "liberal Democrats" - particularly Clinton - for everything that's wrong with America. Crime, the deficit, bad schools - doesn't matter. If it's bad, it's the fault of the liberals - not Republicans. Those who disagree with this theory are liberal Democrats who should simply be considered "early indicators of America's educational failure.

State House Majority Leader John Perzel is worried about "liberal Democrats. " So much so, the Northeast Philly Republican wants $100,000 to scare them away. Perzel, in a political fundraising letter just mailed, mentions "liberal Democrats" or "liberal interests" four times in two pages. Then he says he needs "400 new donors" to his state House reelection campaign next year. He says he needs the new money to "dissuade Democrats from mounting an aggressive challenge against me . . . I expect to be one of the House members targeted for defeat by the Democrats.

Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu's Liberal Democratic Party is likely to hold on to its majority in the lower house of Parliament following Sunday's general election, according to public opinion polls published today. But from 30 percent to 40 percent of voters questioned remained undecided, according to surveys by the Asahi Shimbun, the Yomiuri Shimbun, the Mainichi Shimbun, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun and Kyodo News Service. The Liberal Democrats have ruled Japan for the past 35 years.

TOKYO PM REFUSES TO STEP DOWN Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa confounded party leaders yesterday by refusing to resign after voters ended the Liberal Democrats' 38-year majority in parliament. With no party in clear control and no person dominating the Liberal Democrats, Japan could face weeks of political instability as parties and factions jockey for power. The Liberal Democratic Party, despite being linked to a series of corruption scandals, remains the largest party by far and has the inside track on creating a governing coalition with the help of other conservative parties.

WASHINGTON - The House passed a bill Thursday that would impose strict campaign donation disclosure requirements on unions and corporations, despite Republican opposition and objections by liberal Democrats who were upset by exemptions added to appease the National Rifle Association. By a vote of 219-206, lawmakers approved the Disclose Act, intended to partly fill a void created when the Supreme Court in January struck down decades-old laws barring corporations and unions from directly supporting campaigns.

The very moment that Sen. Bob Kerrey declared his candidacy, he became the favorite among Democrats to win the nomination. That's because he has the poofiest hair. Most politicial pundits ignore the Poofy Hair Factor, or don't understand it, although it's simple enough. Liberal Democrats prefer poofy hair. And because the more liberal Democrats dominate their party's selection process, the candidate with the poofiest hair usually gets the nomination. This poofy hair tradition goes back to 1960, when John F. Kennedy was elected and brought the illusion of dashing, youthful style to the White House.

The atmosphere in Washington in the aftermath of the agreement that foresees a balanced budget by 2002 evokes a line from Lewis Carroll: "All have won and all shall have prizes. " Almost all, that is. The largest group of winners are the incumbents of both parties in the House and Senate who will have a real accomplishment to brag about to the voters in 1998 even if nothing else is enacted. In light of the notoriously cranky and disputatious beginning to the 105th Congress - it got so bad that the two parties went off to Hershey for couples counseling one weekend in March - the agreement on a budget framework is as surprising as it is welcome.

The House Ways and Means Committee voted 19-17 yesterday to cut taxes on capital gains - profits on sales of stocks, bonds, homes and other assets - to 19.6 percent for two years. The average rate now is 28 percent, and the maximum is 33 percent. The vote also formalized committee decisions made earlier to cut the surtax paid by the elderly for catastrophic health care and to provide new help for working parents with child-care expenses. House Democratic leaders, who oppose the capital-gains tax break as an unfair windfall to the rich that eventually will deepen federal budget deficits, vowed to fight it when the issue reaches the House floor in about two weeks.

Liberal Democrats may be in short supply in Delaware County, and the labor movement may not have the clout it once had, but you wouldn't have known it from the high spirits of the 75 people who gathered at the Ramada Inn in Essington to honor Ridley Park resident Maggie Shaefer. They came together to pay tribute to her contributions to the Democratic party and the union movement, and to celebrate the life of an 80-year-old woman who they said had worked for all of her adult life to make the lives of others better.

WASHINGTON - The House passed a bill Thursday that would impose strict campaign donation disclosure requirements on unions and corporations, despite Republican opposition and objections by liberal Democrats who were upset by exemptions added to appease the National Rifle Association. By a vote of 219-206, lawmakers approved the Disclose Act, intended to partly fill a void created when the Supreme Court in January struck down decades-old laws barring corporations and unions from directly supporting campaigns.

Leon Shull, 93, a force in liberal Democratic politics for more than half a century as head of the Americans for Democratic Action in Philadelphia and nationally, died of heart failure Saturday. Mr. Shull, who lived in West Philadelphia, had been at the Unitarian Universalist House in Germantown for four months. Mr. Shull, often dubbed "Mr. Liberal," began his political career in the late 1940s, working to reform Pennsylvania politics, and in the 1950s he led efforts in Philadelphia for fair treatment of minority and female workers.

Liberal Democrats are hungry for red meat, but John Kerry is offering only beef jerky. Nevertheless, they are swallowing it. They have agreed to disagree with Kerry over the war in Iraq, and that's a sign of his political health. When party activists are willing to mute qualms about a candidate - as many liberals did when Bill Clinton ran in 1992 - it means that the thirst for victory has trumped the desire for ideological purity. Case in point: A few thousand antiwar die-hards met at a conference here the other day, and there wasn't a single banner demanding that Kerry call for U.S. troop withdrawal.

President Bush's plan to ease immigration laws is doomed in Congress, opposed by Republicans who think it goes too far and Democrats who think it doesn't go far enough. Although White House officials had hoped the plan would boost Bush's standing with Hispanics, it has turned out to be a flop. Some of the strongest opposition comes from Bush's fellow Republicans, especially in California and other states with large immigrant populations. The hostile reaction will put Bush in an awkward position when he welcomes Mexican President Vicente Fox tomorrow for a two-day visit to his Texas ranch.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy called yesterday for halting $350 billion in scheduled tax cuts and using the money instead to help the poor, the unemployed, the elderly and other needy groups. In a speech intended to rally liberals at a time when supporters of big government programs are on the defensive, Kennedy (D., Mass.) went further than other Democratic leaders in Congress. Many have criticized President Bush's tax cuts, but only Kennedy said they should be stopped in their tracks.

When my Russian friend Zoya Kaganova endorses a political candidate strongly, I have to listen. A former dissident who risked prison by signing a petition against the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, she has worked tirelessly for liberals in every election since Russia became democratic. So when Zoya told me that she and her husband had voted for Vladimir Putin, the former KGB colonel who was elected president on Sunday, I was startled. Vote for a former KGB colonel, who has waged an ugly war in Chechnya, surrounds himself with ex-KGB cronies, and chafes at democratic niceties such as press freedom?

Liberty City Democrats, a political organization that says it can field 15,000 gay and lesbian voters, decided not to endorse anyone in the Philadelphia mayor's race. James Sicks, chairman of the liberal Democratic Ninth Ward in Chestnut Hill, resigned because he plans to vote for the Republican candidate. And Mary Goldman, who headed the liberal Americans for Democratic Action in the 1980s, when it was still an influential group, is struggling to choose between her party's candidate, former City Council President John F. Street, and Republican Sam Katz.

It wasn't a day for millionaires or outsiders. And it was a disaster for advocates of bilingual education. When Californians went to the polls Tuesday to choose their nominees for governor, they opted for the most traditional of choices: Republican Attorney General Dan Lungren and Democratic Lt. Gov. Gray Davis. What could have been a fight over big money, gender or experience now shapes up as a classically defined race between two career politicians with different philosophies.

U.S. Rep. James C. Greenwood, it seems, will be attacked from both sides in his reelection bid this year. Two Bucks County Republicans have announced plans to run against the three-term Republican congressman from the Eighth Congressional District, declaring that his "liberal agenda" does not promote "core Republican values. " At least one Bucks Democrat who wants to run for the office also has hopped onto the anti-Greenwood bandwagon, calling Greenwood entirely too conservative and out of step with his constituents.

President Clinton announced yesterday that China deserved to keep its normal trade status with the United States, opening what promises to be a bruising struggle in Congress over U.S. policy toward the world's most populous nation. An unusual coalition of liberal Democrats outraged over what they consider to be China's repression of human rights and conservative Republicans worried about China's growing potential as a strategic U.S. rival is organizing to fight Clinton's decision.