European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 23, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Sunday october 23, 1977 the stars and stripes Page 15 John p. Roche frenzied machine that turns out no sausages never in history have we seen such a kinetic presidency. Everywhere you Chance to look somebody is doing policy pushups six or seven tumblers Are Loose in the area of foreign policy and the president is challenging congressional Barons to Arm wrestle. Just keeping track of the players who often seem to be fighting each other is exhausting. It is therefore hardly surprising that in substantive terms the Carter administration has accomplished zilch. Indeed Jimmy is beginning to make Jerry Ford look like Lyndon Johnson. I have tried to get them to slow the Pace suggesting for example the whole policy elite take August off and relax at Martha s Vineyard but if anything the Pace has quickened. The sausage machine goes faster and faster but turns out no Sau sages. What to put the key question has the Carter administration accomplished in 10 months for starters a number of formerly alienated once Young persons have been reconciled to the system by extremely Well paying jobs a shrewd move be cause it co opted people who could other Wise have been Carter s most vociferous critics. The Mcgover nites went into the government like ants into a sugar bowl and colonized with the foreign affairs Section their favorite nest. As a senior foreign service officer put it i voted for Carter to get rid of Kissinger and got Mcgovern yet this colonization process has Proba Bly increased the frenzy and decreased the product. A Deputy assistant Secretary of state imbued with sen. Mcgovern s world View decides to prepare a strategic Posi Tion paper. It is a Gem suggesting in essence that we ditch South Korea abandon Taiwan fold up nato and get the Cia to overthrow the governments of Chile South Africa and the Philippines. The Case is hypothetical but barely so other Deputy assistant secretaries of similar ideological background agree this is the most notable contribution to Ameri can strategic thought since the four freedoms and Start pushing it. One of their friends at defense signs off for the Sec def it slips by the vigilant Eye of under Secretary of state Phil Habib who can t single hand edly cover All mouse holes and winds up at the White House. Here other members of the Mcgovern clan on the National Security Council staff Are quite equally enthralled preparations Are made to get it to the president. Meanwhile an old state department hand stunned by this bizarre document As it whistled by takes a journalist Friend to lunch. Do you know what those clowns Are proposing and he lays out the Sce Nario. Next morning it s on Page one. The pres ident who has never heard of the thing braces Brzezinski Vance and Brown. They have never heard of it either. Quick a cover Story have Jody Tell them no senior officials have knowledge of this alleged document. In Case the Damn thing is floating around have him throw in some thing vague about the thousands of Contin gency plans that Are always hidden in that takes care of the press at least for the time being but what about the Are sick and tired of waking up in the morning and asking what is our. Policy today you can fill in the Slot with any of two dozen options ranging from Middle East and Salt to natural Gas and tax deductible business lunches the average citizen May not keep close track of the soviet naval buildup in the James j. Kilpatrick Eastern Mediterranean but he or she is jolted when the United states congratulates itself for returning the russians to the Middle Eastern picture. Similarly the Senate and House have been trying to Dis cover since january whether the emperor really wore the Armor of the lord. C King features talk along Potomac concerns Constitution columns comments i koreans members of nato and other candidates for execution Vance and Brzezinski have to spend a week or two just Cooling this constituency. Which of course leaves them Little time to find out How this crazy scheme slipped through a dozen filters designed to screen out idiocy. Which in turn Means there will be another similar episode next the United states at the moment has about six foreign policies another Way of saying we have no Compass Bear ing. And polls on president Carter s performance showing him below 50 per cent approval indicate the american people it used to be said of Southern gentle men that in any ranking of their favorit indoor sports construing the Constitution consistently ranked in second place. This put the supreme Law of the land in a Nice one two race with whisky whist and women and there it remains to this Day. Here on the Banks of the Potomac our Constitution is once More the talk of the town. Three issues in particular have provoked arguments in barroom and cloak rooms. The first involves sen. Birch Bayh s City Slicker scheme for extending the time to ratify the equal rights Amend ment. A second has to do with the role of the House of representatives in the matter of the Panama canal. A third deals with the political future of the District of Colum Bia. It is a bit much perhaps to credit the senior senator from Indiana with sole proprietorship of the Era proposal. Rumor Sof a time Extension floated around last Spring but it was t until two weeks ago that the possibility began to be taken seriously. Then Bayh talked with the staff of his subcommittee on the Constitution and Down at the White House counsel Rober Lipshutz asked the attorney general for a formal is proposed to state the matter bluntly is to change the rules in the Middle of the game. When Congress sent the equal rights amendment to the states in March of 1972, the act of submission contained the familiar seven year time limit on ratification. This has been the time Frame almost without exception in every constitutional amendment that has been proposed since the 18th amendment was sent out for adoption in december of 1917. The 18th prohibition amendment contained a seven year deadline within the body of the amendment itself. The same procedure was followed with the 20th and 21st amendments in 1933 and with the 22nd amendment on presidential terms in 1951. Scholars objected that the practice need Lessly cluttered the Constitution with use less clauses and thereafter the custom developed of writing a seven year deadline into the submitting statute rather than in the amendment. This procedure has caused no problems. The last four amendments have sailed to ratification in periods ranging from three months to 19 months. Now the equal rights amendment is becalmed. It has been stuck for More than a year at 35 out of the necessary 38 states. Senator Bayh and the White House have the seven year itch. Their nebulous idea is to provide by simple Salute for a three year Extension. This would give Era proponents until 1982 to get their remaining three states. It is a Slippery stunt and could be pulled off Only Over the dead bodies of sen. James Allen of Alabama and 30 of his infuriated colleagues. If Bayh wants to see a filibuster to surpass All filibusters he is Welcome to give this a try. The second constitutional uproar involves the Power of the whole Congress under article in Section 3, to dispose of. The territory or other property belong ing to the United beyond question the nation owns certain property in fee in the canal zone. This is not a matter of sovereignty it is a matter of title. No on questions the authority of the Senate alone in the ratification of a treaty. But is the House absolutely excluded when property is also to be disposed of the attorney Gen eral says yes the House is out of it. Many members passionately disagree. Finally what to do if anything about the District of Columbia the rest of the country May not be much concerned but the topic stays hot Here in Washington. One idea is for Congress by statute to cede the District Back to Maryland but critics say Maryland s legislature would t take it As a gift and the Constitution prohibits Congress from altering a state s Boundary lines. Another idea is statehood which i theory might be granted by a majority vote in each House but critics say that impossible also. A Justice department at Torney Patricia m. Wald told a House sub committee that constitutional amendment is the Only route. Don t hold your breath Tillan amendment gets approved. Nothing May come of All the Yak Yak Yak but it s Good clean fun and it beats arguing about cargo preference or the Lance affair. If anyone tells you the Constitution is a Dull subject Don t believe it. This fall the Constitution is a fighting word. C Washington sur
