WASHINGTON INSIGHT
FED RUMORS: Speculation is rampant within the Federal Reserve these days about the future plans of Fed Vice Chairman Alan Blinder. Many Fed observers are convinced that Blinder is planning to leave the Fed when his term ends Jan. 31 and return to Princeton University, where he was an economics professor before joining the Clinton Administration as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers in 1993. They believe that Blinder will leave the Fed because he is convinced that President Clinton will reappoint Alan Greenspan to a third term as Fed chairman next March, shutting Blinder out of the chance to take the helm of the nation’s central bank. Some also note that Blinder may not feel that he fits in at the conservative Fed. Unlike other members of the Fed board of governors, he doesn’t believe that Congress should change the law that now requires the Fed to pursue two basic objectives: price stability and full employment. Greenspan and others believe that the law should be changed to make price stability the Fed’s only legal objective. Despite the gossip, Blinder issued a statement saying that he has not made a decision about his plans. But Clinton would probably reappoint him if he wants to stay.
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LOSING STREAK: For the first time in the memory of veteran Supreme Court observers, the U.S. solicitor general, the Administration’s top courtroom lawyer, actually lost more cases than he won before the court in the last term. The government can choose which cases to appeal, so it usually wins at least three-fourths of them. But in the last year, the solicitor general’s office took part in 25 cases and lost 13. One reason may be that Solicitor General Drew S. Days III, a Yale University law professor on leave, has the unenviable task of defending liberal causes before a conservative court. This term may prove better, or at least safer. Days elected to stay out of the highest profile case in the fall, the challenge to Colorado’s anti-gay-rights initiative.
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SEA STORY: Top Navy admirals are busting their buttons over the fact that the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt is playing a key role in the latest series of NATO air strikes in Bosnia. Navy officials were demoralized when carrier pilots took a back seat to the Air Force during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Not only did the sea service get cut out of much of the action, but its bombing raids often missed their targets because Navy attack planes did not have the precision-guided munitions (PGM) that enabled the Air Force to shoot missiles down chimneys. Since then, however, the Navy has upgraded its PGM capability, and the admirals are quick to point out that the deployment of the carrier showed the value of maintaining “a naval presence” in key hot spots around the globe.
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COURT LOBBYING: State court officials nationwide, including California Chief Justice Malcolm Lucas, are engaged in a heavy lobbying campaign to persuade the Senate to kill a House measure that would eliminate funding for the State Justice Institute. Lucas, a Republican and former chairman of the institute’s board of directors, declared it was “inconceivable” that the GOP-dominated Congress would dismantle the “only item in the federal budget designed to help state courts manage an overwhelming number of criminal cases with greater speed, efficiency and justice.” Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that will decide the fate of the $13.5-million measure, heard about it last weekend when he campaigned for the GOP presidential nomination in New Hampshire. That state’s chief justice, David A. Brock, vice chairman of the institute’s board, spent about 45 minutes with Gramm. Later, an institute source said Gramm told Brock that he had made some important points in arguing for salvaging the institute.
