With A Little Help From Some Friends

In Building 11, the dingy former headquarters of Eastern Airlines at Miami International Airport, an alphabet soup of federal and state agencies went to work coping with the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew. EOC on Floor 2, FEMA on 3, JTF on 4. CAP, COE, DNR, DER, SBA, GSA, even the ubiquitous IRS. In the hallways, Army Rangers in combat camouflage crossed paths with Army engineers in red shirts, sleepy-eyed state emergency officials in rumpled clothes and even Marilyn Quayle in Bermuda shorts and a ponytail.

Twenty-five miles south, in what was Homestead, the Army began checking in the first of the 17,000 homeless persons who are expected to occupy five tent cities, possibly until Christmas and beyond. "No drinking, no drugs and no profanity," new arrivals were told. With area residents reluctant to leave their gutted homes, only a few hundred had taken up the Army's offer of shelter by week's end.

Torrential rains and mosquitoes made life even more miserable for homeowners trying to save their last possessions. By Red Cross estimates, about 85,000 homes were destroyed or severely damaged by Andrew's winds, which topped 164 m.p.h. Many may have to be razed. Insurers, who put private payout losses at $7.3 billion, were struggling to make contact with policyholders and vice versa. Angry homeowners have already filed lawsuits for shoddy construction against firms like Lennar Homes, southern Florida's largest builder, and Arvida/JMB Partners.

For the second time since Andrew tore off into the Gulf of Mexico, George Bush and his entourage descended into the heat and bustle of South Florida, anxious to show their concern and capacity to make things right again. Bush promised to rebuild the gutted Homestead Air Force Base, which pumped about $400 million into the local farm-based economy, though logic suggested it should be closed. Bush also agreed to waive the normal 75-25 federal-local split on disaster costs; Washington will pick up the full tab.

The President's largesse, in fact, went well beyond Florida. In Fort Worth, Texas, he backed the sale of as many as 150 F-16 fighters to Taiwan despite a longstanding policy against such sales -- and despite a predictable explosion from Beijing, a regime Bush has taken considerable pains to cultivate. In Humbolt, South Dakota, and Shallowater, Texas, the President announced the release of $755 million in crop disaster relief, as well as $1 billion in export subsidies for U.S. wheat farmers.

When Bill Clinton learned of the handouts, he quipped to AFL-CIO members in Washington, "Now, I'm a Baptist, so I believe in deathbed conversions. But this is amazing." Clinton was not alone in noticing the contradictions. China denounced the F-16 sale to Taiwan and threatened to pull out of international arms-control accords. Europeans, whom the Bush Administration has been browbeating for being far too generous with their agricultural price supports, called the wheat deal belligerent.

Clinton also attacked Bush for backing an across-the-board tax cut without spelling out how to pay for it. But while the Democratic candidate adopted a more populist tone last week, championing Social Security and Medicare as he lambasted Bush for his ties to the rich, he showed he was no less amenable than the President to making some political capital on the cheap. As he toured southern Florida, Clinton sounded every bit as keen to rebuild Homestead Air < Force Base as Bush.