Abstract

Editorials

The article presents information on several socio-political developments from across the world. The U.S. White House can round up a new Secretary of Defense in one day. But a year into U.S. President Bill Clinton's Administration, the top civil rights enforcement jobs--Assistant Attorney General (A.G.) for Civil Rights and head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission--remain two empty chairs. More than symbolism is at stake. On December 28, 1993 two weeks after the White House dropped its latest nominee to be Assistant A.G., a three-judge panel in Shreveport, Louisiana, handed down a decision that bodes ill for the voting rights of minorities in historically segregated states and shows the cost of further shilly-shallying on civil rights policy. The fracas over some Arkansas state troopers' charges that they facilitated and witnessed U.S. President Bill Clinton's sexcapades prompted all the usual pundit handwringing and gameplaying, as well as some overeager defenses of the President. Nothing here, said the President's pals in the elite press corps. Americans want a faithful husband as President, cried some self-righteous pro-exposure journalists. People can ponder whether a President's infidelity--or that of any political leader--is of concern to anyone outside his or her family.