European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 11, 1981, Darmstadt, Hesse                                January 1981 the stars and stripes Page 15 William Safire new attorney general bungles Frankie Gate pickled water chestnuts wrapped with strips of cold half deflated cheese puffs and bit sized chinese egg Rolls Are All we live on during the capitals pre inaugural As in a Runyon esque floating crap the luncheons flow into the which flow into the but the cast of characters stays pretty much the we All bid Farewell to the make con tact with the and search for insight and a Nice piece of smoked Salmon on a Crisp what a cheap shot expostulated Wil Liam French the attorney general after i introduced myself at one phase of the floating the California lawyer was taking very heavy umbrage at criticism in this space of his attendance at a Celebration for Frank Sinatra last month it seemed to me that the nations chief Racket Buster should not lend his presence to any Salute to a Man Long associated with Racke Teers and who now seeks from the Reagan administration the respectability he needs to reenter the Las vegas Casino the agitated French As he shall hereinafter be heatedly enumerated his grievances 1 he had accepted the Sinatra invitation before he had been appointed attorney general 2 it was almost a civic with 200 people and 3 the Singer had never been Khomen Ransom chrysl8r Stock William Buckley Sunset legislation a must for Reagan the greatest Yawn maker in american politics is the one that goes q and in order to effect these Supply any without reference to or political by cutting Down on the reporters go Back and and usually they Are that a has no program for cutting Down on government spending and b int going to succeed in cutting Down on government to come out against waste in government is thought to be an analogue to coming out against tomorrow Well All be a Day older and tomorrow the government will spend More than it did the fatalism is partly the result of two generations experience with politicians who Promise to Cut Down on waste and Haven and partly the feeling that such As there is rather an aspect of human nature than of curable there is in new York City an institution called Lewis a relatively Young Man of sub Stantial Means who runs a industrious thin tank which is receptive to differing but in private life he is an Active partisan of the private sector and serves As chairman of the economic advisory coun cil for the new York Republican state his reports Are miracles of Economy and and his november Issue is devoted to the subject of cutting government Brace the journalist Robert whose sympathies by the Way Are provides the single most interesting though Lehrman has collected in the Calendar year of the two million bureaucrats working for the govern ment were fired and most of these Sher Rill quotes a spokesman for the office of personnel management were for punch ing the Boss on the something like exactly 119 were fired for what is euphemistically called unsatisfactory per meaning stupidity and one need to know More than that to know what one needs to know about the but Lehrman goes he cites the classifications made by Charles the editor of the highly esteemed Washington month Peters wrote a Book called How Washington really works to Cut the fat not the muscle out of the Federal Bud Peters there Are four interrelated inflation to look at inflated inflated Job inflated grades and inflated the last of these is the most and Peters give us an example suppose the country were being overrun by albanian the department of agriculture would ask the civil service com Mission for authority to establish positions 200 albanian Moth control offi because of the the author Ity would be granted and agriculture would have 200 new suppose the albanian Moth were then brought under would the slots be abolished certainly now you understand Slot although inflated Job descriptions Are easily someone should award prize for ingenuity to the Man who came up with vertical vehicle they Are elevator Cost journalist Donald Vjio has also written a Book South 1980 puts it at but who is a very careful Man with and raises Lambro and then he tenders some advice to Congress and to the president elect there Are two Basic kinds of waste which Congress must the most obvious is whether government Money is being spent frivolously in a program whose Basic intent is worthy of the More fundamental is whether the government program itself is once too Many programs Are granted immortal euthanasia for government programs is considered sacrilege by special but euthanasia has gained converts in re cent years among those who think that Sun set legislation is needed to rid the govern ment of programs whose Worth is far exceeded by their this is the key Sunset it will be the toughest fight Reagan has to it is fortunate that he is accustomed to win when he strides in to the of c Universal press much less As a cheese puff grew Sodden in my the attorney general Tobe added that All the newsmen he had met that Day told him they agreed my piece was a cheap and that this sort of harassment was the reason it was so hard to get Good men to serve the government in 1 hate to add to the crisis of executive taking French Smiths objections seriatim 1 when you Are appointed attorney your life changes All previous bets Are you May not in propriety carry out or attend parties you agreed to before you were named the nations chief Law on the you must Start acting immediately like cac scars 2 to think of a Sinatra party As a kind of civic function is a measure of the Depths of naivete in which the supposedly sophisticated lawyer has 3 it is quite True that Sinatra has never been and that the Only official action taken against him was by nevadas columns and comments gaming control which denied him a License because of a Gangland French Smiths defense of civil Liberty is High minded and irrelevant i commend to him the last by Ovid in which a mobster reports that a grand jury witness on Long Island recently took a years jail term for contempt rather than testify about Frank what we have Here is a classic Case of French Smith comes to gets criticized for doing some thing and waxes righteously Indig Nant at what he considers to be an accusation of he knows Hes pure his friends Tell him Hes been unfairly and he begins to think of himself As a mar Tyr to guilt by Calm French take a civility lesson from Ben who kept his professional Cool while protecting his dont turn your simple Blunder into not All the Reagan ites Are insensitive to propriety and hypersensitive to later at the floating two of the highest new appointees expressed their dismay at Sinatra inaugural promo As they pressed unwanted cheese puffs into my to a part goer who was recently elected president of the United i mentioned in sadness that i had Felt it necessary to Zap his lawyer in i Ronald Reagan re weve heard those things about Frank for and we just Hope none of them Are that was All no no no protestations of violated our next president is not an Amateur in the exercise of and evidently wants Nei ther to Embarrass an old Friend nor to let an old Friend Embarrass his lawyer could take a Cue from that even unto admitting an error in judgment no Law officer should rub elbows socially with any Friend of to keep from compounding this inaugural French Smith should pass the word to Rancho Mirage that Sinatra would be Wiser not to use the presidents name As a Las vegas gambling the Fri has begun a new summary of the Sinatra and Senate judiciary wants to see it the attorney general would have to Forward it to through the endless the Public interest is but god save us from cheese c new York times 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