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Put a price on his head
Now that we've won the war and silenced the critics, let's put a bounty on Milosevic.
By Joe Conason
[06/15/99]

Mass graves and mine-riddled neighborhoods
Refugees and NATO troops make their way into war-torn Kosovo
By Laura Rozen
[06/14/99]

Chicago hope
In the wake of two recent police shootings, rhetoric about police reform in the Windy City remains nothing more than hot air.
By Neal Pollack
[06/14/99]

Cops in the 'hood
Does it help to have police live in the neighborhoods they patrol?
By Debra Dickerson
[06/14/99]

First as tragedy, then as farce
Russia engages NATO in a game of chicken, threatening to send its own troops to Kosovo.
By Laura Rozen
[06/11/99]

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With his "new partnership" vision, Gore erased what could have been a major difference between next year's presumptive Republican and Democratic presidential nominees. Yet, in a very Clintonian way, Gore may also have set in motion political forces that he won’t be able to control, and which could end up burning him. Gore’s justification for supporting faith-based groups with federal dollars is the same rationale that supporters of private-school vouchers use to support their argument.

Having set the faith-based organizations' ball in motion, Gore must now attempt to maintain the distinction between religious drug counseling groups and religious educational programs. That distinction won't be easy. He could make a narrow, legalistic argument -- that schools are a unique government responsibility, for example -- but that isn't going to cut it with the true believers. Just as with Clinton and welfare, Gore could be steering the Democratic Party toward defeat on vouchers through short-sighted rhetoric meant to score political points in the here and now.

But that possibility has done little to slow the vice president as he attempts to make an impression amid the white noise on the campaign trail. Gore elicited amens from a gathering of Salvation Army members in Atlanta last month when he called for a "new partnership" between the government and religious groups that run drug-treatment and job-placement programs. Basically, he proposed splitting the difference between an over-reliance on private volunteerism (President Bush's "thousand points of light" route) and the public bankrolling of the Great Society. If faith-based organizations can help addicts kick on a shoestring budget, why not have Washington lend them a hand? Republicans, including George W. Bush, were pushing this idea long before Gore, but the vice president set it squarely before the electorate as no one else has.

But in the process of defending his proposal, Gore is treading into murky waters for Constitutional purists who insist upon a clear separation of church and state. Whereas Republicans see a seamless connection between using federal dollars for faith-based groups and federally-funded school vouchers, Gore is a staunch opponent of vouchers. Last July, Gore told cheering members of the National Educational Association that vouchers were "fraudulent" and "dangerous" -- a threat to public education.

In his search for a political "third way," Gore might have broken with the Democratic tradition completely and argued that public money ought to go to private and religious organizations of every stripe -- schools as well as church charities. Instead, he has gone for a Clintonian compromise, endorsing Republican principles yet deploying them in pursuit of slightly more centrist policies. Even if you assume that his argument is heartfelt (Republicans have accused him of simply trying to co-opt one of "their issues"), Gore is playing a dangerous game.

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