European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 15, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns James re5ton the stars and stripes monday december 15,1986 Iran scandal pinpoints fundamental question by now we know quite a lot about the effects of the iranian scandal but very Little attention has been paid to the deeper causes of these bizarre events. This is not merely a question of whether the Mololah from the mullahs in Iran went to the contras in Nicaragua or what was going on upstairs downstairs and Bac stairs in the White House but a fundamental question about How we elect presidents choose their assistants and decide on the ends and Means of our official Public relations and foreign relations. To begin with politics since we arc starting another National Campaign it is now Clear that we have a tendency to pick candidates who can wow the vote son television rather than presidents who can govern the country. President Rea Gan is a reminder that the qualities for these two jobs arc not necessarily the same. That is one of the deeper causes of our present troubles. A second cause is that we choose their assistants in the Cabinet and the while House in a rather absent minded fashion and confirm them inthe Senate with almost equal indifference. Sometimes we put them in key jobs such As the National Security Council without the senators Ever having a look at hem. Except on television and then dispose of them like kleenex we have had five National Security advisers under Reagan in less than six years the fourth of whom vice attn. John pm indexer was pursuing democracy with gun abroad while mocking it with disinformation policies at in my. A related question asked by James Bryce in his classic Book the american Commonwealth almost 100years ago is Why Don t the Best men go into politics the answer much of the time is that they re uninvited underpaid and bypassed in favor of political Hacks. Ideological zealots or presidential Cro Nies. Then there s the problem of not using to their full capacity in key jobs Many of the most experienced people who arc available and who might give some con Tom Wicker. It Ai 1