European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 22, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 12 the stars and stripes William Safire Friday september 22, 1978 vindictiveness against Mitchell unequalled for eight Long months during the presidential Campaign of 1976, reporters vainly tried to get their hands on the secret list of fat cats and generous corporations that had financed Jimmy Carter since 1970. Candidate Carter flatly denied that any such list existed. In the final weeks of the Campaign too late for investigative reporters to inter View heavy contributors like nursing Home promoter David Rabhan who skipped the country a Georgia staffer for Carter named Cecil Mccall found a card file of contributors in the basement of his Home. When finally made Public the list had been sanitized thanks to fund Raiser Mccall. The stonewalling was a huge Success. The incident comes to mind this week in the Case of John Mitchell a Man convicted of a More serious Case of stonewalling. The column Sand five months Mitchell spent undergoing and recuperating from two serious operations has in effect been added to the time he must spend in jail. The unprecedented vindictiveness of the Carter parole Board supported by the department of political Justice is documented in a petition recently denied by that Liberal southerner judge Frank John son who was Carter s first Choice for Fri director. Mitchell had been Given a sentence of from one to four years in jail. Though one would expect a Model prisoner to be re leased after the minimum water gaters get a Little More for polities Sake hence a panel of hearing examiners and regional commissioners recommended his release last month after serving 14 months. However five of those months had been spent under doctors care outside prison Walls. Though Nixon haters originally assumed this was a Tricky Way of beating the rap they fell silent when it turned out that Mitchell had a dangerous aneurysm in his stomach a swollen artery that can burst and cause death. That was no optional " operation the second surgery on his pain Ful arthritic hip probably saved Mitchell from spending the remainder of his life in a wheelchair. A member of the National parole Board whose husband had been fired by a Mitch Ell aide for interfering in a criminal Case urged the parole commission chairman to overrule the Ordinary process of release she urged that Mitchell be held until Jan. 19, 1979, partly because of his extended time on furlough  the democratic parole chairman cheer fully assented ruling that the physically weakened financially ruined disbarred Mitchell be held the extra five months be cause after All part of his time had been served loll gagging in  but when it was pointed out he would be making a special policy to fit one prisoner in the entire Federal prison system and would thereby discourage All other prison ers from getting needed medical attention Carter s appointee hastily changed his reasoning. The parole chairman did not change his verdict however. He wrote a different opinion no longer improperly penalizing Mitchell for medical care. Instead car Ter s appointee suddenly discovered in creased guilt in the original crime and made that his sole reason for extending Mitchell s stay in prison until Jan. 19,1979. One less reason but the same Date. That s a red Queen verdict. I m not arguing the merits of the Mitchell sentence though even Leon Jaworski and actor the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government. Ney general Griffin Bell have said publicly that Mitchell is being treated unfairly but it is depressingly certain that Carter s parole commission chairman had a fixed Date in mind no matter what the Law demanded or the facts showed. I suspect that the chairman has a Politi Cal reason for squeezing the last months of time out of the Man who once offered to take All the watergate guilt upon himself in 1980, Carter intends to run against Rich Ard Nixon and his men just As for ran four times against Herbert Hoover. That precludes any even handed treatment of the big enchilada. The foundation for my suspicion is the identity of the parole commission chair Man. Who do you suppose is the Carter Choice to dispense severity to Nixon ites and if needed compassion to Bert Lance and the big shot Crooks of Korea Gate the Man who jangles the keys to free Dom is none other than parole commission chairman Cecil Mccall the Carter fund Raiser with the big basement and the hazy memory who has shown How willing he is to take orders from the Georgia mafia whether it is to cover up embarrassing contributions or to push an enemy. C new York times Bov  a bus ride /. Los to Hoo sack a Nixon guilt syndrome explained8 anyone with a mortician s interest in the decomposition of socialist thought should have a look at an essay in the cur rent new Republic by professor Irving Howe who struggles mightily to give artificial respiration to All the old cliches and ends by reciting a child s Garden of socialist verses As if nothing had happen Ned All these years to stimulate his mind. Reading him is like Reading Beatrice and Sidney Webb. If we do not succeed in restoring capital punishment for particularly sadistic murderers i will Settle for sentencing them to read the collected work of Beatrice and Sidney though most peo ple would go gratefully to the chair in Stead. But professor Howe inadvertently makes one interesting Point. In his Pursuit of Irving Kristol Howe fires his big Ber tha. And you can Tell it in t an attack fun eled entirely by ideological differences. You see Irving Howe and Irving Kristol were students together at Cony and Irving Howe recruited Irving Kristol into the Young people s socialist league in the late thirties. Subsequently Irving Kristol grew up and Irving Howe understandably re sents this. So Howe writes about Kristol generally accepted As the Leader of the Neo conserva Tive movement author of two cheers for capitalism and editor of and founder of the Public interest Kristol. Imprudently endorsed Richard Nixon As the candidate of Pru Dence i assume that conservative think ers drawn to theologies of guilt can yield to the smaller experience of shame it is appropriate i think to make a Gen eral statement at this Point about Richard Nixon. It is everywhere acknowledged that or. Nixon is attempting a  what is meant by a comeback in t that he intends to run for president or even for Alderman. It Means that he feels that his confinement in san Clemente is Over and that if he desires to travel to Kentucky or to new York City he should feel free to do so without previously asking facts we the permission of Irving Howe or even the Washington Post. If the government of Australia does not desire or. Nixon to travel there that is a matter Between Australia and or. Nixon. The fact that Australia should recognize that Nixon is other than merely a . Citi zen is itself an indirect acknowledgement that he is still a considerable political pres ence. Now the Point or. Howe is seeking to make is that anybody who voted for Nixon in 1972, in preference to George Mcgovern should be at least ashamed preferably guilty. This is a venture in retroactive ideological opportunism appropriate to people who defend the positions Irving Howe defends. One must assume that Irving Kristol did not know when he voted for Nixon in no vember 1972, that Nixon was implicated in watergate. But one would think it would be at the very least prudent to vote for Nixon in november 1972 even if one had had secret information that he had at tempted to Rifle the Headquarters of the democratic party the alternative being Tovote for Mcgovern. What Nixon did he should not have done and few men have suffered More acutely for their sins. To suggest that anyone should have been ashamed of voting for Nixon in 1972 is on the order of saying that or. And mrs. Borden should have known better than to Breed Lizzie. The shamelessly seductive Shana Alex Ander recently on lbs s 60 minutes spoke most uncharitable about or. Nixon s Leav ing san Clemente. Exactly three Days later she attended a party celebrating the 15th anniversary of 60 minutes. And guess who one of the guests at that party was Gordon Liddy chief executive of water Gate. Everybody so far As i could see was being very Nice to Gordon Liddy who is a very charming Man. Why is it of to fraternize with or. Lid by but monstrous to listen to or. Nixon if he wants to say something about a world about which the Only Good thing we can say about it is that it is a lot better off for hav ing rejected George Mcgovern in 1972? c Washington Star