Washington journal

By Times staff writer

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 25, 2001

Sorry, Mom, Bush boys changing your rules

When Gov. Jeb Bush and his wife, Columba, slept at the White House on Saturday night, it was the first time they had been welcomed there when the president was out of town.

When Bush's father was president, the children were not permitted to stay at the White House when the president was not in residence.

"It was a Barbara Bush rule -- which carried as much weight as any law passed by Congress," said Jeb, who was in town for the National Governors' Association meeting.

It seems the governor's older bother, who was spending the night at Camp David, revoked their mother's rule.

Faith-based charities plan opposed by . . . Pat Robertson

President Bush's plan to funnel more government dollars to faith-based charities is hitting an unusual roadblock: televangelist Pat Robertson.

The Christian Coalition president and Bush ally blasted the plan on a recent broadcast of his television program, The 700 Club.

"This could be a real Pandora's box," Robertson said, apparently referring to a recent New York Times report that non-traditional religions such as the Church of Scientology and the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church were seeking money under the plan.

"You know I hate to find myself on the side of the Anti-Defamation League and others, but this is, this gets to be a real problem," Robertson said, according to a transcript by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a watchdog group.

Robertson denounced as "appalling" the idea that government money might go to Scientology and the "Moonies," the popular yet derogatory term for adherents to the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification U.S.A.

The Church of Scientology, with its spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, "was involved in an incredible campaign against the IRS. I mean, they were accused of all sorts of underhanded tactics," Robertson said, referring to Scientology's controversial quest for tax-exempt status as a religion.

"The Moonies," he added, reportedly use "brainwashing techniques, sleep deprivation and all the rest of it that goes along with their unusual proselytizing. The Hare Krishnas much the same thing."

Americans United executive director Barry Lynn, in perhaps a bit of wishful thinking, said Robertson's remarks mean that "Bush's plan is in enormous political trouble."

Graham, Boyd team up to save the earth -- and some money

Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., and Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Monticello, teamed up with Florida environmentalists this week in an effort to save the earth and the government some cash. They suggested that President Bush and Congress drop the $20-million-a-year navigation project along the banks of the Apalachicola River.

The proposal was part of a report released by the Green Scissors Coalition that recommends cutting or changing 74 "environmentally destructive" programs worth more than $55-billion over five years.

The Army Corps of Engineers has been dredging the river to allow ships to pass through. Environmentalists charge that the project has killed 50 percent to 75 percent of the game fish population and covered the river's banks with mountains of sand.

"Dredging the Apalachicola River . . . is certainly not in Florida's economic or environmental best interest," Boyd said.

- Staff writers Sara Fritz, Mary Jacoby and John Balz contributed to this column.

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