Financial modernization isn't the only victim of the Senate Banking Committee chairman's Whitewater investigation and political obligations. Now, Sen. Alfonse M. D'Amato's busy schedule has taken a toll on his love life.
Last week the New York Republican and television gossip Claudia Cohen called off their year-old romance, citing hectic schedules and long distance.
The relationship landed the couple on the front pages of New York City tabloids last February. Sen. D'Amato was once quoted predicting their marriage was "something that's definitely in the near future."
But it was not to be. As a top fund-raiser for Sen. Bob Dole's presidential campaign and for Senate Republicans, Sen. D'Amato's workload is getting heavier. For her part, Ms. Cohen is busy foraging the celebrity scene as a correspondent for ABC-TV's "Live with Regis and Kathie Lee" and caring for her five-year-old daughter, Samantha.
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While Sen. D'Amato had trouble finding time for the woman in his life, he had no problem fitting in his buddies.
A day before he announced the breakup of his high-profile romance, he was spotted dining in a private room at the swank Washington eatery La Brasserie with Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.
Their get-together followed Mr. Greenspan's Feb. 21 testimony before the Senate Banking Committee. Joining them were panel members Lauch Faircloth, R-N.C., and Connie Mack, R-Fla.
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Small-business and securities lobbyist Joshua Tenuta is leaving the American Bankers Association after six years to join KPMG Peat Marwick's government relations office in Washington.
Mr. Tenuta starts his new job March 4, though he doesn't yet have a title, said Stephen E. Allis, Peat Marwick's director of government affairs.
Lobbying won't be part of his tasks, however. Instead, Mr. Tenuta will analyze financial services, telecommunications, and health care legislation for Peat Marwick's management consulting and accounting clients.
His new boss praised Mr. Tenuta's experience. "His background bridges public policy and business work. He has an MBA and has traded bonds on Wall Street," Mr. Allis said.
Floyd Stoner, ABA's congressional relations director, credited Mr. Tenuta with recent lobbying to preserve federally guaranteed small-business lending programs and to ease terms for banks that sell agricultural loans to Farmer Mac.
"We're sorry he's leaving," Mr. Stoner said.
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BankAmerica Corp. chief executive officer David A. Coulter tried to establish a claim to the reputation chairman Richard M. Rosenberg's enjoys as the nation's top Community Reinvestment Act banker.
Addressing a community development conference sponsored by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency last week, Mr. Coulter said his community reinvestment roots run deep.
While in graduate school at Carnegie Mellon University, Mr. Coulter said, he created a minority-controlled financial institution called the New World National Bank to serve Pittsburgh's minority community.
"That's how I really got started in banking," he said. "It taught me ... that it is possible to balance business objectives with efforts to close economic gaps in our society."
