Inside the Beltway

Emotional memories

Jane Schultz, who lost her 20-year-old son, Thomas, in the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland — and who later was instrumental in Congress’ approving new antiterrorism legislation — says former White House counterterrorism czar Richard A. Clarke did not select a victims’ memorial site at Arlington National Cemetery, as he claims in his new book.

“I was very upset when I read it, because if I gave him the correct material in the first place, what else in the book is not right?” says Mrs. Schultz, who contacted Inside the Beltway. “I had the highest regards for Dick Clarke. There was always a lot of respect there. I just don’t know; I think the record should stand corrected.”

She does credit Mr. Clarke for contacting her before writing “Against All Enemies,” requesting “historic dates” surrounding the Pan Am 103 memorial, which — owing mainly to Mrs. Schultz’s own efforts — was erected in 1995.

She also says Mr. Clarke, contrary to the recollection of Pan Am 103 lawyer Frank Duggan in this space yesterday, did meet with at least five families of the doomed flight.

“So Clarke’s wrong, Duggan’s wrong,” she says. “It’s a Catch-22, really.”

AIDS imbalance

Let the record reflect that Uncle Sam spent $3.6 million in taxpayer dollars to send 236 of his bureaucrats to the 2002 International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Spain.

Now, apparently at the insistence of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson — who, we recall, was heckled by protesters at the Barcelona conference — the HHS will limit attendance at this summer’s AIDS conference in Bangkok, Thailand, to 50 federal employees at a cost of $500,000.

Some feel that is still too much for too many.

“We applaud you for your leadership in working to scale back the largess of the federal involvement at these international conferences,” more than two dozen congressmen write to Mr. Thompson, but “spending a half a million dollars to send 50 federal employees to a conference — an average of $10,000 per employee — still seems like an enormous expense.”

So they request that Mr. Thompson provide Congress an “itemized list” of expenditures, and submit a cost comparison between HIV/AIDS conferences supported by HHS and other health concerns, such as heart disease and breast cancer, which kill a far greater number of Americans every year than does AIDS.

Grizzly Burr

Facing a woman proved difficult enough for Erskine Bowles, Bill Clinton’s former White House chief of staff, who lost his 2002 Senate bid to Republican Elizabeth Dole, North Carolina’s first female senator.

Now, Mr. Bowles is back for another round, aiming to fill the seat of Sen. John Edwards, who isn’t seeking a second term. And who is the Democrat’s likely opponent this time?

“Between [campaign] stops, he slips some Skoal smokeless tobacco ’dip’ in his cheek, but doesn’t spit out the juice,” the Charlotte Observer writes of five-term Republican Rep. Richard M. Burr. “His college football coach banned the cups into which players would expectorate, so Burr and others learned to minimize the juice and swallow.

“He regularly hunts deer and wild turkey and bears the slightly weathered complexion of someone who enjoys the outdoors. Burr, 48, runs and lifts weights, his squared shoulders filling out a conservative suit with a Brooks Brothers tie ($4.99 at the factory store in Garland, he notes.)”

Intriguing fellow

Given his interest in the federalization of crime and punishment, James C. Oleson, assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice at Old Dominion University, has just learned he’s been awarded one of four 2004-2005 fellowships with the U.S. Supreme Court.

Now, the justices who sit on the nation’s highest bench might be interested to learn that there’s more to Mr. Oleson’s curriculum vitae than meets the eye.

In addition to his many academic accomplishments, the professor-lawyer happens to be an amateur filmmaker. His most recent feature film screened just last week on the Norfolk campus as part of ODU’s annual Film and Video Festival.

“Try Not to Scream,” described as a tense thriller, deals with a drug mule whose cargo — carried internally — bursts open in transit, touching off a mad scramble by the FBI and the bad guys (we’ll let you know if there will be a private screening for the justices).

The Supreme Court Fellows Program was founded by Chief Justice Warren Burger in 1973 and is patterned after the White House and Congressional Fellowships.

• John McCaslin, whose column is nationally syndicated, can be reached at 202/636-3284 or jmccaslin@washingtontimes.com.