Janos Gereben at [log in to unmask] wrote:

>New attorney general may investigate opera monopoly on federal subsidy,
>protect country music poor boys
>
>"I tend not to be an individual who has invested a great deal of my life
>in opera," Sen. John Ashcroft told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in a 1997
>intereview, noting that his musical tastes run to gospel and country.
>
>"Now the opera gets a subsidy from the National Endowment for the Arts,
>but, by and large, Willie Nelson and Garth Brooks don't. Those of us who
>drive our pickups to those concerts don't get a subsidy, but the people
>who drive their Mercedes to the opera get a subsidy."

Irony, the Republican Senator who lead the compromise over the NEA, and
secured its only increase in funding during the Clinton era, Slade Gorton,
was defeated for re-election this year.

But it is likely that the compromise will largely remain in place, neither
side really wants to start this fight up again.

Stirling Newberry <[log in to unmask]>