Tilting at windmills.

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: Health care reform and other current events

The American Medical Association is distributing leaflets in its members' waiting rooms that ask "Is the Clinton proposal for health reform good for you and your family? You need to think about these 10 questions." Heading the list is "Will I be able to see my own doctor?" My guess is that this will prove to be an effective tactic.

Clinton could have avoided the problem by adopting the Canadian plan which, of course, lets patients choose their own doctor. Ironically, the insurance companies, the fear of whose wrath apparently led the Clintons not to go for the Canadian plan, are also now planning to use the "you can't choose your own doctor" argument against the very plan the Clinton administration adopted to avoid making them angry.

The AMA used another clever lobbying ploy when it hosted a three-day weekend at the Greenbrier for congressional staffers who will help shape the health legislation. "Interest groups often use posh getaways to woo senators and representatives, but," points out The Wall Street Journal's Timothy Noah, "the lavishness of the Greenbrier [minimum rate $425 per night] as a setting to court congressional staff is extravagant even by Washington's somewhat jaded standards. Its use in this case points up not only congressional staffers' importance in affecting legislation, but also the enormous stakes in the coming health-care debate."

It appears that the lobbies against health care reform are covering every base. They've even hired Paul Tsongas, the man who gave Clinton the most trouble in last year's Democratic primaries. The opposition is so strong that the only hope I see for the cause of reform is for the media to do a good enough job reporting the case for change to balance the propaganda that will flow from the AMA and the insurance and pharmaceutical companies. And the chances that the media will do that are slim indeed. [See "Dead On Arrival," by Ton Hamburger and Ted Marmor, in this issue.]...

If you want to see the tip of a federal iceberg, consider the U.S. Embassy in Grenada. For three American employees, there are six cars, sex blenders, nine toasters, 29 tables, and 49 chairs. Multiply that by all the military and diplomatic posts we maintain abroad and you get some idea of how the U.S. treasury might benefit by putting in a call to Sonny's Surplus....

And if you want to get an idea of the efficiency with which all these posts operate, consider the case of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, the Muslim cleric with the predisposition for befriending people who like to plant explosive devices in public places. To begin with, the State Department failed to add his name to its suspected terrorist list for seven years after his proclivities had been clearly manifested. Even after his name was added to the list, the Sheik made seven applications for visas, only one of which was rejected on security grounds. On that occasion, the State Department did notify the INS, but the INS failed to catch Rahman either entering or leaving the country. He received at least two other visas to the United States after his name was on both the State Department and INS lists. Finally, while the INS office in New York was trying to deport the Sheik, another INS office in New Jersey was giving him permanent residence status

Incidentally, on all six occasions when the U.S. consulates failed to spot the Sheik on the terrorist list, the culprit was as CIA undercover agent....

Another classic tale of government comes from Chicago where it seems that, hours before Mayor Richard Daley was to escort Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala on a tour of the Ida B. Wells housing development, crews arrived to clean the streets and spray silver paint on the rusty fences. A van that offers free immunization was rerouted so it could offer a backdrop to TV cameras. Colorful balloons and a trampoline were provided to attract children and bring appropriate smiles to their faces. Cops were there to keep the gang members away.

"We're not stupid," one mother from the project told John Kass of the Chicago Tribune. "Once Daley and that lady from Washington go, the gangbanging will start again. But they won't be here to see that. They'll be in their own homes, watching themselves on TV."....

Richard Reeves' unsparing but fair new book on JFK's presidency reminds me that even though this government is all too often the depressing joke that the foregoing...