European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 08, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 12 the stars and stripes thursday september 8, 1977 Tom Wicker death penalty Issue is irrelevant in . New York City has Many problems. As the old saying goes its problems have got problems. The City s still flirting with bankruptcy its services have had to be Cut Back its potholed streets Are obstacle courses its municipal unions have too much Power to paralyse it everybody knows about its blackouts and the Sec says the big Banks played games with its notes. Welfare is a horrendous Burden. A lot of other cities have More crime but new York s still a pretty Good place to get hit Over the head on your Way Home at night. None of these problems including the last can be solved or even improved by the re imposition of the death penalty in Testate of new York. Even if that would help the mayor of new York City has no Power whatsoever to put the death penalty on the Law books much less order anyone executed himself. That s Why As the City struggles wearily toward the democratic mayoral primary on sept. 8, it s ridiculous that the Campaign has become ensnared in the irrelevant columns comments Issue of capital punishment. With All Thi City s problems with the vast responsibility any mayor must take on what differ ence does it make which one of the candidates is most eager to throw the switch sadly enough it apparently makes a lot of difference to a great Many voters at least the candidates think it does. The loot ing that followed the july Power blackout the hysteria generated by the son of Sam murder Case and its wild press and television coverage a Midsummer out break of terrorist bombings All of this apparently has much of the citizenry More than normally frightened about crime and violence hence in a mood to applaud a lot of Loose talk about Law and order. Governor Carey also focused attention on the death penalty when he vetoed the Bill that would have restored it to new York state Law and declared himself opposed to the taking of life by the state. Thus when he came into the City to Campaign for mayoral candidate Mario Cuomo who also opposes the death penalty Carey was repeatedly questioned about his veto and about the Issue itself. That produced the celebrated Flap in which Carey was quoted As having said of Cuomo give him a year As mayor. If he does t bring the crime rate Down i personally will listen to anybody on a review of the death  but this offer was Good under Mario Cuomo  the governor s later denial that he had said this was not convincing but he did repudiate its substance by insisting again that he would not support or advocate a death penalty in new York As Long As i am  Carey s stumble or whatever it was nevertheless had the effect of steaming uneven further the false death penalty Issue raised primarily by mayor Beame and rep. Edward Koch two of the four leading candidates. The other is Bella Abzug Lik Cuomo she opposes the death penalty. Beame s capital punishment stand i particularly notable since prior to this Campaign he had been opposed to it. He been listening to the people he says they want the death penalty so he wants it  is hardly surprising from a mayor who grabbed More publicity mileage from the son of Sam Case than anyone except the Man accused of being the son of Sam but a mayor who was nowhere near the major areas of looting on the night of the blackout. Koch is not so recent a convert to capital punishment. But his aggressive use of the Issue detailed by Many reporters and his tendency to downplay it in supposedly lib eral Manhattan and emphasize it in the other boroughs has shocked some who might otherwise have supported him. No doubt he s a net gainer anyway As calculated. The Point in this Campaign however snot really whether a candidate is for the death penalty or against it whether Capi Tal punishment is right or wrong a deter rent or not or even whether some candidates May be prostituting themselves on the Issue. The Point is that the death penalty has no relevance to new York City s Basic problems that whoever is elected mayor will have no Power to impose it anyway and not much to influence a state Legisla Ture that already favors capital punish ment. In the mayoralty Campaign the death penalty is a Flim Flam Issue. It s ironically symbolic of the City s trouble since new York has been Flim slammed for so Long by so Many politicians Banks unions  new York now elects a mayor who Flim flags it on the death penalty Issue the City will deserve what it gets a mayor who will Fli Flam it on everything else. C new York times George f. Will now Fiance were a Republican the Bert Lance Case is vexing be cause it does not involve the kind of Gros material goods freezers Vicuna Coats that often explain Washington tempests. Inthis Case Washington is agitated because a Public figure is thought to have engaged in Sharp practices. At Issue is not what Lance has done in Washington or anything he did to get there. The problem is thai before Jimm Carter summoned him from banking to the office of management and budget Lance was a bit too nimble at the Art of getting. A government report suggests Lance s knowledge of banking regulations was spotty at Best and that he used his knowl Edge to discover advantageous gaps in the regulations. The report caused Carter to exclaim Bert i m proud of  Lance s Bank gave him and his wife huge interest free Loans by baptizing the Loans  he profited by exploit vol take get ing his relationship with other Bankers who provided him with Loans. He used the same collateral to secure two separate Loans. Press Secretary Jody Powell called that an innocent mistake a bit of dead pan that must have brought an appreciative smile to the face of a former press Secretary Ron Ziegler wherever he is. To be fair Lance s record would not arouse such interest were he not serving the president who invented ethics. But suddenly Carter seems to have taken off the Burden of a lot of shining Armor. He did so when he proclaimed himself proud of Lance because the government report found Lance guilty Only of 50 violations of the regulations and various other unsafe and unsound practices. Carter seems to have grown weary of being custodian of the ten commandments. Lance is a familiar kind of political satellite a trusted Friend from the old Day who is valued As much for the chemistry of his Friendship As for his Virtues and talents. He certainly is not the most Formida ble Public figure Ever to have financial problems. While John Marshall was chief Justice he was sued As a result of land speculation. James Wilson a principal theorist of the revolution died while a Justice of the supreme court his death hastened by fear of debtors prison. Robert Morris who helped finance the revolution was ruined by land speculation and landed in debtors prison. Even William Mckinley embodiment of capitalist Virtues got into grave financial trouble when he imprudently backed Friend s borrowings. It is said that were Lance a Republican this Congress would be clamouring for his resignation. Certainly it is Worth remembering what democratic senators did to another georgian to Callaway who was smeared last year on the basis of no Evi Dence and forced to resign As president Ford s Campaign manager. But it also can be argued that Lance would not be receiving such scrutiny were his Case not the first Opportunity for the press to demonstrate that it also cares when democrats fail to measure up. But the question is measure up to what the evidence about Lance s career in Commerce reveals that he is not Likely to be confused with Plantagenet Palliser. In Pursuit of gain Lance has not been re strained by the scrupulous sensibility of Trollope s fictional Duke of of minium. The discovery at a High level of government of someone who is not a Model of Aristo cratic disinterestedness has stirred much comment. Nineteenth Century critics of democracy would have dismissed such comment As symptomatic of a yearning for incompatible things popular government and government by a class of persons characterized by exceptional refinement and virtue. The 19th Century critics would have argued that it is sentimental to expect that government chosen by the mass opinion of a commercial Republic will be composed exclusively or even primarily of persons Superior to the roughest morals of the  even if Lance remains in govern ment his Case has strengthened the interesting Assumption that a person s fitness to serve a president depends on the Gentl manliness of his behaviour before being summoned by the president. If this Prin Ciple becomes accepted it will transform among Many other things the Senate duty in confirming nominees. Even More than today senators will judge nominees by criteria far More exact ing than those by which the electorate judges candidates for the Senate. C Washington Post the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Aga represent those of the authors and Are in no Way ?.cpnsidered As representing the views of the Star and stripes or the United states government