NATION/WORLD
*Two Bush brothers
enjoy stealing the show
The Michigan Daily - Thursday, November 19, 1998 - 9A
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The
brothers Bush, George W and Jeb,
plopped into their seats and stared
with wry smiles into a bank of televi-
sion cameras. "Will the real governor
Bush please stand up?" somebody
cracked.
Neither man budged. There was no
need. They're both the real thing. And
in the eyes of some, George Bush's boys
are the stars of the GOP
George W, the governor of Texas,
and Jeb, the governor-elect of Florida,
stole the show at the Republican
Governors Association's opening day.
r "They are our future," said Oklahoma
Gov. Frank Keating.
For nearly 30 minutes, the Bush
brothers held forth on the Republican
Party's future and their future as
America's latest political dynasty.
They were chummy. "I love him a
lot," George W, 52, said of Jeb, 45.
They were funny. "He's the tall one
and I'm the short one, right?" the Texas
governor asked.
They were teasing. "How old are
you?" "A lot younger than you," Jeb
told his brother.
The Florida Bush was getting even:
Earlier, George W jabbed a finger at his
brother and told a reporter, "Throw him
the tough questions! He's new on the
national scene. See what he can do."
And they were self-confident, bor-
dering on cocky in the case of George
W Asked if he believed he would
make a good president, the Texas gov-
ernor smiled his father's slanted smile
and said, "You know me well enough
to know the answer is yes."
He didn't answer the Big Question:
Will he run for president?
"I haven't made up my mind yet and
I'm going to make it up later on;' said
Bush, elected to a second term Nov. 3
with 69 percent of the vote.
That's what he said. But he sent a
different signal with everything he did:
George W. was relaxed, witty and
charming - making eye contact with
national reporters, referring to them by
their first names. "Behave yourself" he
admonished the entire group before the
first question was asked.
Indeed, he literally winked and
nodded when he told journalists, "I
understand there is a time frame" for
announcing a presidential campaign.
"I understand I'll have to send signals.
Just kind of hang in there with me."
Bush said his main concern is the
impact of a presidential campaign on
his family. He is expected to decide by
April whether he wants to try to be the
first child of a president to win the
White House since John Quincy
Adams. His father served from 1989 to
1993.
Texas Gov. George W. Bush gestures as his brother - Florida's govemor-elect Jeb Bush - looks on during a joint news cot-
ference in New Orleans yesterday. They are attending the Republican Governors Association meeting.
.Democrats seek
to strengthen ties
to entrepeneurs
*Dems aim for high-
tech new economy
Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON-Battling for the
political allegiance of the burgeon-
ing high-tech industry, an alliance of
entrepreneurs and Democratic
* office-holders yesterday launched
an effort to design an agenda for
accelerating America's transforma-
tion into an information-based "new
economy."
Sponsored by the Progressive
Policy Institute - a Democratic think
tank with close ties to President
Clinton - the "New Economy Task
Force" aims to increase cooperation
between Washington and high-tech
companies on issues from education
Wto patent policy - and at the same
time deepen the links between cen-
trist Democrats and this increasingly
powerful and politically active indus-
try.
"It's a constituency that is getting
much more into politics," said Al
From, president of the Democratic
Leadership Council, a political
group that founded the Progressive
Policy Institute. "But I don't think
it's a constituency that has settled on
one side or the other."
Indeed, the timing of the confer-
ence underscores the steady escala-
tion in the competition between
political groups on the left and right
for support from the high-technolo-
gy industry, particularly in
California's Silicon Valley.
Even as the policy institute was
promoting government-industry
partnerships with computer, com-
munications and biotechnology
executives in Washington, the liber-
tarian Cato Institute was preparing
to open a conference in San Jose,
Calif. today titled: "Washington
D.C. vs. Silicon Valley."
That conference will reflect the
widespread skepticism about gov-
ernment interference that has
defined Silicon Valley's politics for
'most of its existence. The gathering
is partially underwritten by the
Microsoft Corp., which is locked in
a bitter antitrust battle with the
Justice Department.
"The Beltway strategy is alternat-
ing threats of regulation and bribes
with subsidies," said Solveig
Singleton, a Cato Institute official.
"But in the long run, these both have
all kinds of pernicious effects."
By contrast, the PPI conference
embodied a recent receptivity in the
high-tech industry to a centrist
Democratic message that empha-
sizes fiscal discipline, opening mar-
kets abroad and support for public
education.
"I don't detect here a lot of sup-
port for the right's view that the
dawn of the information age means
the twilight for government," said
Will Marshall, executive director of
the policy institute. "We see an
opportunity for a much more con-
structive partnership."
Even so, perhaps the most striking
aspect of the policy institute's con-
ference was how heavily both the
entrepreneurs and elected officials
emphasized the limits of the part-
nership they're seeking.
While the business leaders repeat-
edly said they wanted Washington to
increase its spending on worker train-
ing and basic scientific research, as
well as accelerate efforts to reform
public education and open markets
abroad, several made clear they did
not believe the high-tech industries
needed major new government initia-
tives to prosper.
"Maybe we are already seeing this
(growth) without having to do a lot
more stimulation," said Regis
McKenna, a prominent Silicon
Valley marketing consultant.
Even Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.)
the Senate minority leader and co-
chair of the task force, struck a cau-
tious note. In assessing the role of
government in the new economy,
Daschle said the task force should
study first "how do we do the least
possible harm" and only second
"how do we foster it."
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