European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 30, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes tuesday december 30,1986 William Safire presidential musings on a sleepless afternoon Reading Reagan s mind the whole world is going bananas. Here i am. Home on the ranch and Whai do i see i see the russians giving Sakharov a television studio to broadcast to All the american television networks and Gor by s men smiling As Hal fearless dissident denounces the red army s occupation of Afghanistan. Crazy. See chinese students rioting against Deng for being too slow on democracy and the authorities in peking patting the kids on the head and telling them 10 go Home and be Nice. Unbelievable. Here at Home i see All the people who Tore their hair out at my heartlessness and tack of compassion now up in arms because i la med Oul to be a soft touch on hostages. The liberals Are sore because i was t the Tough Guy they hated. Which brings me to the Iran arms controversy. I m inc Only one who Calls in a controversy everybody else agrees in perfect Hindsight it was a terrible idea to sell them anything which is another example of inc world gone bananas. Its not enough that i had to admit in a passive voice that mistakes were made in the execution of my Iran policy. Now they want me to confess to making a mistake in the policy itself and that s not like me i Haven l even admitted Mak ing a mistake in turning Down the role in Casablanca thai went 10 Humphrey Bogart. The cover Story in t flying that this was some go strategic design to foil the russians after the death of the  they have the memo from Casey thai shows this was a straight hostage Ransom payment with a Hokd up cover about moderate elements. Bui what can i do go Oul there and say i caved in to those families that came to me crying or that Bill Casey was going bonkers at the Cia station chief in Beirut being tortured and was will ing to pay anything to Spring him before every name in our Middle East network was forced Oul of him that s out of Char Acter. We can never admit publicly we re Anthony Lewis vulnerable 1o blackmail. The Plain truth is no a realistic option. Poor Bill to have All his Fine work rebuilding thai Agency go Down the Drain this Way. Do you suppose his brai tumor affected his judgment Over the past year the Way his friends say Ilaf felted his mood at least now when they ask him to testify about meetings with me he can deliver my old line from King s Row where s the rest of me Bill can Lake a joke especially coming from me now. I did t choose january for my prostate opera Ion because it was the most convenient time for a president just before the stale of the Union and the budget it s the worst time but the doctors say i should t Wail another month. Gutsy Guy. Casey As soon As thai great american can talk i la bet hell Tell me his candidate for a successor. Hell want me to get Leo Cherne s advice. Pity we kicked Edward Bennett Williams off the intelligence advisory Board to make room Tor Henry Kissinger or somebody now the Williams Law firm is working for Ollie North and de knows Loo much about the place across the River. I wish my friends would Slop dumping on Pollic calling him a Kook hinting he was in cahoots with some general with his hand in the till. We have to treat that Young Man with great care get somebody to give him immunity not so much 10get him in talk As to gel him to relax. If he and his Friend the Admiral gel angry they could decide to involve me in thai Contra thing which i was not a pan of Hal i can remember. And now when i can least afford it my own wife is giving me trouble on the advice of Mike Deaver who was not exactly a barrel of laughs a Christmas dinner Nancy s been calling a pal of hers in the Media regularly undercutting Don Regan the Only per son i can talk to these Days. The White House operator has a list of Hose Calls but i Don t want to look at it thai would be spying on your wife. Pushing Regan off the sled would not a taxi Cam rom but Vou Carn Noe. Satisfy the wolves and in would be admitting a mistake i never made. Come to think of it the role Bogie played in Casablanca was t right for me. Well when the going gets going the Tough get Tough or whatever. I la Start off the year Flat on my face in the polls and Flat on my Back in the Hospital but my exit line has t been written Sci. Televised hearings and investigators leaks can smear my reputation the democrats can gut the Reagan revolution the Kremlin can turn truth on its head but i m hanging in there until sd1 is a fad of life. Lei the world 30 bananas space defense is my legacy and no Mai Ler How they All come at me i la deliver on thai. In a Turk Tinni concept of limited government under attack the year of the Constitution is upon us. Through 1987 we shall be celebrating the 200th birthday of the extraordinary document that created our  is every reason to celebrate. But there is also reason to wonder whether we really understand and believe in the essential idea of the Constitution. The men who framed in in Philadelphia 200 years ago put their Faith in limited government. They had seen unlimited Power in the hands of the King and they feared it. So they divided Power in the government they made hedged in about with rules made Ilac countable to the people. All that is schoolbook stuff and we shall be hearing a Good Deal More about it in the year ahead. Bui if you look at what american presidents actually do you May wonder whether the idea of limited government sur Vives except in textbooks and patriotic sermons Over the last 20 years presidents of both parties have acted in foreign affairs As if they had or ought to have All the rights of Kings. They have treated efforts by Congress or the Public to control their Powers illegitimate. The Constitution confers upon Congress alone the Power to declare War. But Lyndon Johnson slipped us Inlo a terrible War in Vietnam All the while denying what he was doing. Richard Nixon took the War Inlo Cambodia bombing Here in secret and then objecting when Congress finally asserted ils right to limit the War. The same anti constitutional belief in a presidency of unlimited Powers underlies the Reagan administration s activities in Nicaragua and Iran. Here again a president and his men ignored the rules ignored the Law because they thought they were entitled Loim pose on America the policy they wanted. When president Reagan first set out to overthrow the government of Nicaragua he Well knew that con Gress would not endorse such a policy. He Well about it in secret so he could not be held accountable. When Congress found out and Drew the line his people connived at ways to Tunnel under in. And similarly in Iran the pics Ideal adopted in secret a policy of trading arms for hostages that the country would overwhelmingly have rejected if he had told us about it. In the Iran Nicaragua affair As in All the others we Are told that the president had to act for reasons of National Security. He saw the dangers More clearly. He had the intelligence reports. He had the responsibility As commander in chief. He was the Leader. And if some rules were Bent or broken Well they had to be. In the words of Patrick Buchanan Reagan s communications director Oliver North was a hero because in helping the nicaraguan contras he was buying Lime for his own distracted and indifferent  this is the modern world a dangerous world and we cannot pause for All the niceties of the 18th Century. So the argument goes. But thai is exactly what the Cramers of our Constitution rejected Al their convention in Philadelphia. They refused to put their Trust in the perfect Wisdom of leaders. They Bel their country s future instead on a system of checks and balances. The Iran affair thus represents much More than a particular foolish and. Damaging policy. In is an acute example of a continuing attempt in this country to gel away from the constraints of inc Constitution to let the president Rale in foreign affairs As if by divine right. Why is in happening this thrust for unlimited presidential Power in foreign affairs in is not just a hunger for Power in Washington i think. It must also be a response to a Public yearning for leadership for some figure who will solve All our problems in this complicated world without bothering us about the de tails. In the television age the president is More than Ever he focus of our Hopes. It is like the scene in shake Speare s Henry a when the King reflects unhappily that in his solders thoughts he bears heir burdens upon the King let us our lives our souls our debts our careful wives our children and our sins Lay on the King but that was not the vision of those who framed our Constitution. The Structure they Buill often seems awkward slow inconvenient. But is there really a convincing Case i hat America would do belter under Royal leadership or ils Modem authoritarian equivalent this country has become whal it is the freest and most prosperous on Earth because of its Faith in he Constitution not in spite of it. In a York Tinmun