European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 24, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes May 24 1985 columns comments James Reston the Republican team for 88 saddens democrats Bob Dole of Kansas has emerged from the latest Battle of the budget As the most interesting and promising character in the he just barely squeaked through with a budget com Promise president Reagan didst want but accepted and he jokes at the suggestion that he put it Hes Lucky that in his first major test As majority Leader he didst lose instead of winning with the Aid of a Hospital patient and a tic breaking vote by vice president but he laughs when Hes Given credit for the that part of his Charm like Reagan Hes always but unlike Hes usually laughing at the revolt of the Senate against the presidents de sense and social Security policies were the result of More fundamental after four years and appropriations of Over a trillion dollars the Senate was in no mood to do More than freeze the Pentagon with allowance for with the largest budget deficit and Trade Defi Cit in the history of the the Senate suspected that the american people were finally beginning to realize that this was a serious practical not merely a Campaign argument As in the last and had to be to be Blunt about the Senate got weary of the presidents Public relations his indifference to his television appeals to the people Over the Heads of and the presumptuous and aggressive lec Tures of Secretary of defense Caspar All this Dole and there was another he knew that 22 Republican senators would be up for reelection in 1986 and that his party would probably lose control of the Senate if they campaigned on the presidents social Security and Central Ameri can this alarming thought that the last two years of the Reagan presidency might be spent with both a democratic House and Senate no doubt persuaded Reagan to go along with As whenever a senator Breaks out of the pack and gets out As Dole the great mentioning game begins and he is poor As a potential presidential its not an unreasonable after presidents Carter and most senators and Many governors also think that just maybe they could make and begin to hear Hail to the chief in the Dole is not immune to this common washing ton he has made it to the perilous Perch As the Leader of his party in the but he has some he has to decide whether to run for reelection to the George will Senate in 1986 or to stand Down and run for the White he will be 62 in and like Ted this will be his last Call for the dining his predecessor in the Howard Baker of Tennes decided to resign in the belief that he  meet his legislative responsibilities and still run for Dole May very Well refuse to do the same and stick it trying to Lead the new Young generation of senators who dont want to be led under rules that he cant abide and cant but you cant Dole has a sense of which Hurt him when he ran As vice president in but May help him now looking around at the we either have to laugh or he has been a Loyal supporter of reagans conserva Tive after his he was in the Kansas legislature for four in the House four in the Senate since 1968 and in the army for twice wounded and decorated for heroic this is not the sort of Man you would find by Accident in outside he has devoted much of his time to abandoned veterans and crippled and Farmers and their its a painful but the presidential Campaign of 1988 has already and the republicans have two possible and formidable teams the Bakers Howard of Tennessee and the Treasury from Texas and the Doles Robert of and his Elizabeth the Secretary of its no wonder the democrats Are so sad these c 1985 new York times Syndicate electrocution and evolving standards of decency if you Are enjoying your breakfast this column might Best be read a few years ago Barbara Tuchman plunged deep into the 14th Century and surfaced with fists full of startling including this in Village players with hands tied behind them competed to kill a cat nailed to a Post by battering it to death with their at the risk of Cheeks ripped open or eyes scratched out by the frantic animals that although Appal illustrates something heartening and relevant to a facet of constitutional Law human sensibilities the evolution of standards of decency is relevant to the argument about capital which is in part an argument about the meaning of the eighth amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punish recently the supreme court refused a writ of certiorari from Jimmy who has been sentenced to die by electrocution in a refusal of a writ a refusal to review rarely makes and this one did but it detonated a dissent from Justice William Glass says electrocution involves gratuitous inflict Ion of unnecessary pain and suffering and does not comport with evolving standards of human Louisiana supreme court has said that his claim is without medical or scientific Justice Brennan As he always does in capital punishment cases not so in new York became the first state to adopt it did so for humanitarian in the supreme court authorized new Yorks first making two it accepted the historical construction of the eighth arguing that electrocution is not cruel and unusual in Light of contemporary norms at the time the Bill of rights was and it said electrocution was certain to produce instantaneous and therefore painless Brennan says the supreme court has Long since rejected the historical insisting that the words cruel and unusual draw their meaning from evolving standards of decency that Mark the Progress of a maturing that such standards evolve is what is far from obvious is that judges Are better than elected representatives at discerning current standards of swerving around that Brennan adduces testimony that questions the instantaneous and painless nature of he relentlessly piles on details about the physical effects of which he considers the technological equivalent of burning peo ple at the he describes eyeballs popping flesh tendons skin the brain reaching the temperature at which water the liver still too hot to touch during Brennan cites various supreme court rulings that the cruel and unusual clause forbids punishment that involves unnecessary mutilation or Lin Gering he says electrocution involves All four and cites people he describes As electrical scientists who say that electrocution can cause excruciating pain of several minutes it is unclear that those scientists Are qualified to make that but if the question is truly it has a if not a More than should respond to the and indeed some Legislatures Are Unea in some where Community standards support capital Legislatures Are voting to abandon electrocution in favor of lethal for humanitarian the Power of Brennan argument is diminished by the fact that he will seize any stick for beating Down capital but that fact about him is irrelevant to his which turns on certain empirical claims that As if they would at the unconstitutionality not of capital punishment but of one Way of inflicting pub Lic opinion polls confirm what the actions of state Legislatures demonstrate a substantial majority of Ameri cans considers capital punishment compatible with civilized standards of Brennan believes that what is True about electrocution would be True enough about any alternative method of As Albert Camus said about the Guillo the Man who enjoys his Coffee while Reading that Justice has been done would spit it out at the least but revulsion is not an and jus Tice need not be easy to gaze Brennan believes he has made a Case for measured judicial consideration of the compatibility of the eighth amendment and one facet of american he has used a Judi Cial instrument a dissent to demonstrate the Case and to a Public debate that should be con ducted and resolved by those responsible for represent ing Community standards of decency elected represent 0 1985 Washington Post writers group