European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 9, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes monday june 9, 1986 columns & comments James re5ton Senate s temporary Experiment is Here to stay True vision in the Senate of the United Stales  supposed no be a ice Poray Experiment but you can be sure it s Here to slay. For most senators will give up almost any other addiction except the tube. I Cir the Washington Dihedral. Jet alone the House of . Was wired for sight and sound years an and even a  can see same advantages in televising the Senate. We arc going through is the leaders of both parties con cede. 3 critical phase in inc history of i he Republic and there s something to be said fair idling the cameras Roll. At East they will keep the record of he debates in inc Congress unlike the hidden struggles within the White House and the Cabinet. That will give the historians a few clues to sort out the tangles of the present age. There arc other advantages. The directors of television will now have Yards or even Miles of tape la Analyse and will be Able to produce As they can do so Well documentaries that explain for their mass audiences the difficulties of problems no Home and abroad. On a More modest level television with its daily pictures of  happens in the Louse Ami Senate can identify better than print journalism the political frauds merely by putting them in 1 he screen and Citti no 1 he m Lal k. It was interesting for example in he first televised Senate debate to watch the difference Between the speakers and the readers. Those Whu spoke on their on. /imvbt1 you a bl4n� Al nip the Way were so much More persuasive than those who with their Heads Down were Reading something nobody knew who wrote. There arc other advantages in keeping a televised re Cord of the Senate s proceedings. There Are for example some Young or younger members in the Back of the chamber intimidated by the tradition of Courtesy and seniority who have something to say to their ciders but Are Seldom heard. Now television May hear them. Television has a gift no newspaper can provide can put a face and a voice to the words. President Reagan has proved the Point. It does t really seem to Mailer what he says but if he says ii in his amiable Way with his cheery wave of the hand to he cameras and the people who Aren t there it dominates the evening television news. Congress has been watching this for years even before Reagan. Its leaders Are very proud of the theory that they preside Over a separate but equal Branch of govern Man. Reagan has been clobbering them on the Hill. He takes Over the National television networks whenever he likes to explain that colonel Qadhafi in Libya or the sandinista m Nicaragua or he allies who want to preserve the fragile nuclear arms agreements arc a menace in his policies for puce on Earlh and in outer space Congress knows when it s losing to Reagan s persuasive arum cats on television. So it thinks it May be Abb to get Back to a separate but equal position by going on television itself. So we will new have the Senate As we be had the House for eight years on television. But it won t really balance the television Power of the president he s so Good at it and Here Are so Many of hem so divided in what they want to say. Meanwhile the disadvantage s of cameras in the Senate Are fairly obvious. They show people speaking with Many voices All of them different and Many of hem silly. There s no Way to reconcile the slow and necessary proce dures of the Senate with the Quick half minute summaries of complicated problems on television. The Senate can record its procedures from the opening prayer to the timing Gavel but it does t have a Chance to address the nation As inc president does whenever be picks up the phone and say he wants o talk about Tai Reform or nuclear disarmament or he la is outrage in he Middle East or South Africa. But the disadvantages of monitoring everything on Tele vision in the Senate May be less obvious. For members can take their own speeches off the tape and edit hem and Send them Back to he television stations in their states to prove How Wist they were about farm policy foreign policy Tai policy and nil the rest. Funny thing television. It not Only reports the news but influences it. Sports stadiums Golf courses and even cathedrals Are being changed to meet its popu Lar demands and its pauses for advertisements. The sen ate has finally come Over to its Side and the supreme court of the United slates is the last holdout. Jim Fain Reagan committing . To High stakes arms race by renouncing Salt ii president Reagan All but guarantees the United Stales a High stakes arms race it does t slant. La the familiar Litany of the political right he justifies Bur on Rte other a kid. The breach by charging the soviet Union with wholesale treaty violations though the record shows Moscow has largely complied. On yellow rain Reagan accused Moscow of using toxins to kill thousands in Southeast Asia. Many scientist think the rain if any was Bee faces. British and Canadian government studies recently showed the Xii complains of was a fungus infection indigenous to the area. On nuclear testing the president said Russia frequently exceeds he threshold test ban treaty s Iso Killon limit. However a Cia study in january lowered by 20 percent previous estimates of soviet tests bringing most within he limit. Reagan is on sounder ground when he says construction Ola phased array radar in Siberia violates the Anli balls slip missile treaty which forbids additional Battle management radar and requires hat warning radars be constructed near the coast. Krasnoyarsk clearly violates this  Cia says ii is not Well designed for Battle management however and Gorbachev recently offered to halt construction if the United states would Stop modern izing radars in Greenland and England. The offer implies Krasnoyarsk is negotiable with respect to Salt ii Reagan says Moscow is building a one warhead Mobile missile the ss-25. Similar to our proposed midget Man. Gorbachev claims erroneously that the ss-25 is a permitted follow on to Russia s ss-13. We could Deal with it by building mid Getman. Reagan Abo accuses the soviets of deploying More than their allowed 1,504 delivery systems a claim refuted by a joint chiefs of staff intelligence document listing their total us 2,477, he says he russians ignore treaty limits though they have dismantled More than 1,000 missiles la our fewer than 100, according to sen. Albert Gore jr., a Tenn. Indeed. It. Gen. John Chain then in the slate depart ment told Congress lost year if you take the body of the Realica in a  hey have complied with the Large  what this All Means is that Reagan it being Reagan. He lambasted Salt ii As a candidate and look office vowing he would not be intimidated into negotiating with Russia. In his first two Yean he in weighed repeatedly against the evil  then with the 84 election looming pollsters told him his Cowboy rhetoric was scaring voters who by and Large favored arms control. He Joti icy shifted gears and urged a Summit. Now Riding High in he polls he Feck cocky enough to snub Gorbachev overtures and push for an arms race be believes will bankrupt and topple the soviet regime he has calculated neither the costs nor the production lines. Initially Russia will out produce us in missiles be cause their Assembly Una Are up. Down he Road the costs of such esoteric systems As Star wars will be unbearable even to americans who Are not prepared for an arms race. Our allies Are appalled. Reagan s knee Jerk anti Sovi Elum wastes what May be an Opportunity to achieve verifiable arms limitations. It geometrically increases the Chance of nuclear War. It is it mistake that history if there is one will not forgive. Cd Cox pfc be fake