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High-tech ambulance chasing?
Attorneys register EgyptAir domain names, seeking to comfort families, not attract clients.
By Anthony York
[11/16/99]

Pilots ponder the mysteries of EgyptAir crash
Those who fly planes want to know why the autopilot was disconnected, the engines were shut down and nobody contacted air-traffic controllers.
By Phaedra Hise
[11/16/99]

Did relief pilot seize control from captain?
As Egyptians protest the move toward a criminal probe, reports emerge that a crew member said a prayer and plunged the plane into the ocean.
By Alicia Montgomery, Fiona Morgan and Daryl Lindsey
[11/16/99]

Workers vs. WTO
Will China's entry into the World Trade Organization soften labor support for Al Gore's presidential bid?
By David Moberg
[11/16/99]

Invasion of the body snatchers
When Pat Buchanan made his unholy alliance with Lenora Fulani, it wasn't the "left" he embraced but a strange, secretive group of disrupters known as the "Newmanites."
By Joe Conason
[11/16/99]

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Trump kept a straight face as he positioned himself as the only alternative to the current Reform Party presidential front runner, commentator Pat Buchanan. Trump has attacked Buchanan in recent weeks, accusing him of anti-Semitism, of insensitivity towards blacks and gays and for being a pro-life zealot.

Ronn Young, the national treasurer of the Reform Party, said he had come to Miami specifically to urge Trump to enter the race. "It will be an uphill battle for him," Young acknowledged. "Buchanan has the political experience and the grassroots organization. It will interesting. The more nationally known people we have in the party the better."

In a closed meeting with the Florida members, Trump reiterated his recently announced plan for reducing the national debt, slashing taxes and bolstering Social Security: a one-time 14.25 percent tax on the net worth of all United States citizens and trusts worth $10 million or more. The plan has been attacked by some economists and by Buchanan, who have said the scheme would cause flight of capital from the U.S.

Trump also said he was not intimidated by the $100 million campaign war chest built by GOP front-runner George W. Bush and was ready to spend more than that out of his own pocket if he thinks he can win the presidency. Trump used one of his many press conferences to attack Bush as a feudal heir to the presidency.

"The son isn't particularly good at anything he's done, but he's anointed," Trump said. Trump, meanwhile, pointed to his bank account as his primary presidential qualification. "Have any of the other candidates made a billion dollars in a short time?" he asked rhetorically. "No they haven't."

Florida Reform Party vice chairwoman Pauline Klein of Key Largo praised Trump's presentation, but was worried by his offer to fund his own campaign.

"We in the Reform Party support campaign finance reform and a system where you don't have to be a billionaire to run for office," she said. "Our nomination is not for sale," a strange declaration, since the only person to ever get the party's presidential nomination is Reform Party godfather and former sugar-daddy H. Ross Perot.

Anthony Hernandez of Tampa, secretary of the state party, said he was worried by Trump's repeated insistence that he would only run if he thought he could win. Hernandez said he and other party members were concerned of a repeat that the 1992 scenario, in which Reform Party candidate Ross Perot dropped out of the race temporarily in the middle of the campaign.

"We want somebody whose committed to leaving an infrastructure of state parties on which we can build," said Hernandez.

State party chairman Frank Goldman welcomed Trump to the fray against Buchanan. "In the Reform Party we could have a real race," he said, "not like the other two parties."

He said he hoped the two well-known figures would engage in meaningful debate. "I'd like to see the celebrity circus evolve into a meaningful discussion of the issues," he said.

Trump advisors said the candidate is in the process of developing positions on issues to do just that. Trump has scheduled two more meetings with Reform Party members this year: Hartford, Dec. 1 and Los Angeles, Dec. 6-7. He is also planning a similar foray to the Midwest, possibly St.Louis, early next year.

Douglas Friedline, former campaign chairman for Ventura, was in Miami for the events. He said he had been invited by Trump to discuss the structuring of a possible campaign. "The challenge he has is the same we had with Gov. Ventura in the beginning, that he be taken seriously as a candidate," Friedline said.

Friedline said Trump had made three positive moves in that direction in the past month: the naming of a presidential exploratory committee; the naming of a political director, Roger Stone; and the forming of a media team. "Now what he needs to do is develop stands on key issues," he said. Friedline said he expected Trump to construct a position on health care before long. He also said that Trump had hired Phil Madsen, who ran Ventura's campaign Web site, to do the same for the Trump effort.

Whether or not Trump is to be taken seriously indeed seemed to be the issue with the editors of the Miami Herald Monday. They assigned a regular news reporter to the events, but for the press bus they assigned nationally known humorist Dave Barry. "Where else would I be today but here," Barry said.
salon.com | Nov. 16, 1999

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