Washington briefs

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 2, 2001

Bush talks religion, program for the disabled

WASHINGTON -- President Bush reached out to moderates Thursday by declaring that in offering more aid to religious groups, "I'm interested in what is constitutional and I'm interested in what works," and by announcing a new government program that will make it easier for the disabled to travel, worship and work.

As he has all week, Bush argued Thursday that current government policy unfairly denies federal aid to religious groups and said he would change that.

At a prayer breakfast, he told more than 4,000 people, including several African leaders, that "the days of discriminating against religious institutions, simply because they are religious, must come to an end."

Bush has so far largely breezed by the legal issues raised by his new definition of the division between church and state and has worked hard to overcome the suspicions of many moderates and liberals just by the force of his personal charm.

He did not say Thursday what it would cost to enact his proposals for the disabled, which range from new funding for research into technologies for the blind, deaf and others, to providing low-interest loans to help disabled people buy computers and other equipment needed to work from home. All that will be clear, White House aides say, when Bush presents a budget later this month.

Bush continues his efforts to woo Democrats today, when he is speaking to the Senate Democratic Caucus, and again on Sunday, when he is traveling to Pennsylvania for a retreat of Democratic House members.

Clinton's first lecture stop: Florida

CHAPPAQUA, N.Y. -- Bill Clinton will hit the lucrative post-presidential lecture circuit next week, making two speeches in Florida, including one for a reported $100,000.

The former president will speak to a business convention in Boca Raton on Monday and at a synagogue in Aventura on Feb. 10.

The fee for the first speech, at a Morgan Stanley Dean Witter convention, is for $100,000, according to reports Thursday in USA Today and the New York Daily News.

That's about the same amount paid to ex-President George Bush for his first post-White House appearances. Former President Ronald Reagan created a stir the year after he left office when he received $2-million from a Japanese company for delivering two speeches.

CLINTON FILM: Think of it as Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Horrormeister Wes Craven, the man behind such slasher classics as Scream and Nightmare on Elm Street, has made a film of former President Bill Clinton giving a White House tour during his last days in office, Knight Ridder reports.

The footage is to be edited into an hourlong documentary that eventually will be shown at the future Clinton presidential library in Arkansas.

Craven spent nearly three hours following Clinton through the historic mansion at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., filming the Oval Office, Cabinet room and other areas normally off-limits to the public. The crew then went through rarely visited private quarters at the first lady's request to film for posterity.

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