European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 21, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes monday. July 21,1986 James Reston returning congressmen find Subtle changes the Congress has returned from ils fourth or july recess to a Capi Tal that ii changing in Subtle ways. Somehow ii seems Man conscious of the passage of Lime since the great festival of Liberty in new York. Then will soon be a Dunning of the guard in the while House and with the retirement of speaker tip o Neill in the House and this has taken some of the sting out of politics which i surprising in an election year listening to Secretary of the Treasury James Baker and Dan Rozenkowski the democratic chairman of the House ways and Means committee on the glories of lax Reform you would think they had planned this remarkable achievement to Gether which in a Way they have. Never since the two major parties put aside their partisan differences to agree on the charter of the United nations has there been such bipartisan  what s even More surprising is that nobody is trying to take All the credit for this fundamental Reform. There remain of course fundamental differences about the budget and Trade def Kili and about How to balance expenditure with revenues. But even these issues an id Ter Ioui that the dogmatism of the past seems to be giving Way to Compromise and occasionally even to a spirit of Modera Tion. In the tangled Field of for eign affairs he while House is now saying it Wilt talk to the russians in Geneva this month about the control of strategic nuclear arms. A month ago it was saying the Salt ii agreement was dead and there was nothing to discuss except maybe mos cow s violations of past agreements. There Are other differences or modifications of past differences one of them especially interesting. The Leaden of both parties and of management and labor have lately been forced to wonder How it could be that the United Stales has lost its Lead in the Trade markets of the world that us Trade deficit has mounted to an alarming level and that the United slates is now he William Buckley leading debtor nation of the world even importing More agricultural products than it exports. This May help explain Why officials Are piping Down a bit. Their theories Are being murdered by the brutal facts and they Are beginning to wonder what went wrong. It has always been assumed that Progress was made by Competition and confrontation party against party management against labor with government president Reagan s favorite villain on the Side. But Here come the japanese with a different notion namely that More Prog Ress and production can be achieved if government management and labor co operate with one another. So even in Washington officials have been Silling around in their Toyota and hearing on their Sony thai Japan May soon be the most productive Industrial and scientific nation in the world even though it has few natural resources of ils own. Ever so slowly these facts have been compelling a reconsideration of this country s political and business Phi Toso Phy. At the tame time the Leaden of our schools and universities have been looking at their responsibilities and won Dering whether they arc realty preparing our children in science mathematics languages and engineering for the wort Dof the Corning Century or merely for r world hat is  we approach the 200ih anniversary of the Constitution the most successful ind enduring political document in history even it a coming under review by Many thoughtful Titi Chi who Are calling Lor in other constitutional convention. No doubt All these questions will be debated probably not in the congressional elections this year but almost certainly in the presidential Campaign of1988. The question before the nation will be quite different then. It will no longer deaf with the amiable and optimistic personality of Reagan who will retire to his ranch but with tins temporal world that ii changing faster than we can change ourselves or our institutions. No such analysis is taking place sow. What we arc seeing i think is just the be ginning of a philosophical inquiry about the assumptions of the past even of the Validity of the Sovereign nation stale. Certainly a questioning of How Prog Ress can be achieved by confrontation or cooperation by propaganda or toe spirit of toleration. It will be a Long time before the nations can put aside their present assumptions and priorities in a world that if pan free and pan slave. But people in Washington Are begin Ning to think about such things and even to listen to one another not much but some. The relative quiet these summer Days is reassuring. Act of retroactive vindictiveness against voters James Reston exercised Over the fight president Reagan made on behalf of his nominee Daniel Manion for circuit judge waxes  Wroth. He demands the right to make ideological appointments but condemns ideological opposition even when in does t exist that obstinacy is using up his capital and Why he does it on behalf of a two bit lawyer like or. Manion even his friends cannot  Waal i in a Friend of Ronald Reagan and Volunteer to explain in All to or. Res Ion. To begin with the suggestion that the opposition to or. Manion u extra ideological is disingenuous. Sen. Joseph Biden after examining or Manion at the judiciary committee hearing said,"1 think you Are a decent and honorable Man but i do not think 1 can vote for you because of your political  if that does not amount to ideological opposition then or. Region s use of the word is unique. Or. Reston then rehearses the usual syllabus of errors. Or. Manion sponsored a Bill to allow the ten commandments to be posted in the Public schools just two months after the supreme court had overturned a similar Kentucky  or. Reston must have known when he wrote those lines that the Bill sponsored by or. Manion sought to meet the criticisms of the court in Ken Tucky where the posting of the ten commandments was prescribed by Law and the plagues paid for from Public funds. The Manion Bill provided Only thai those schools that petition for the ten commandments should get them and Only if the commandments were furnished not by the slate but by Moses or some other Pri vate party. We do not even now know whether if the Bill had passed the supreme court would have said yes or no. He was also criticized or. Reston goes on for proposing that the supreme court be stripped of some of its jurisdiction and for suggesting thai Ami War demonstration should be penned  Many serious american commentators have suggested from Lime to time that the jurisdiction of the court be limited and of course it was limited by the founders. For 100 years the supreme court had substantially no jurisdiction Over criminal cases. And who says that lawbreakers protesting the Vietnam War or anything else should have been jailed but in keeps coming Down to this Dan Manion has extreme right Wing  but the logical question then to ask is whether or. Reagan has extreme right Wing views and by the reckoning of or Revlon he does indeed. But or. Revlon needs to remind himself that a Large majority of the amerian people voted for Reagan in 1984 fully cognizant of what those views Are. If there is a political position taken by or Manion significantly different from positions taken Byer Reagan i have not heard of it the pressures to mislead Are highly resourceful. A big piece published the same Day As the Reston column in the new York times and writ ten by Philip Shenon Speaks of Daniel Manion an Indiana lawyer who has been closely tied to the political work of his father Clarence a founder of the Ultra conservative John Birch society it is strange How often the biological relationship Between son Dan and father Clarence is mentioned without the Reader s being informed that father Clarence was not Only a member of the John Birch society but also the Dean of the notre dome Law school. One assumes that son Dan Learned More about the Law at his father s knee than about the John Birch society. It happens that i am personally familiar with Clarence Manion s relationship with the John Birch society. About it one needs to say just one thing namely that the late Robert Welch came to the cuckoo conclusion that Eisenhower was a communist anyone who believes that is quite simply incompetent. Did father Clarence believe it he laughed at the very idea bul thought that on balance the society was Worth supporting and so he Lin gered on ils Board of directors but was Nomore involved in spreading uie word that Ike was a communist to which Russell Kirk made the appropriate comment Eisenhower in t a communist. He i a golfer than be was id the silly Birch proposal thai Earl Warren be impeached. So what Are we left with in Cril idling Dan Manion his spelling and his grammar. My own prejudices in the matter Are Strong but 1 would not have voted against Andrew Jackson of that account nor after listening to an a temporary speech by Dwight Eisenhower would i have insisted he go Back to the schoolroom and not to the Oval office. The fight against pan Manion the personal Choice of the president is a fight against an amiable and hard working conservative lawyer strongly barked by republicans and democrats who have seen him in action is political in motivation an act of retroactive vindictiveness against the american people for having voted for the Man who nominated him. Una jul Pali in local