European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 5, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 Tom Wicker of s too ofe for Nunn it s too late for anyone the decision of sen. Sam Nunn d-ga., no of run for president leave1, democrats racing the hard reality that what hey Sec seven relatively unexciting prospects and Len possibility of an eighth is what they la get in the Choice of a candidate. From those seven plus rep. Pal Schmo Cdr of Colo Rado if she decides to enter the democrats will have to find a candidate. Just How to hum their search appears is suggested by the latest poll results from Iowa Gephardt is percent Dukakis 14 Simon 13 Biden 10 Jackson and Babbitt 9 each Schmo Cdr 5 Gore 2 and undecided apparently Lead ing at 20. With that Many in the race dreamers can conjure up a contested convention and the brokered choke of someone not before then a candidate. The chances for thai lie Between slim and none and would have been greater had Nunn become a candidate or had either of the other two democrats upon whom so much Wishful thinking has been lavished sen. Bill Bradley has Given no indication at All that he might run. He has even id in gel about that he thinks he s not yet ready to be president a refresh ing modesty in an age of pygmies playing giant. Adv. Mario Cuomo said plainly in february thai he would not be a candidate but in some people Hope Springs eternal. If however he is nursing some secret scheme say a favorite son ticket in the new York primary it s a better kept secret than any of those hatched in the White House basement. For democrats to continue waiting for godot ignores the Plain fact thai these reluctant dragons As Well As champions yet undiscovered even a resurrected Gary Han candidacy Are not going to Rescue the party. Worse that kind of Wishful thinking Only delays the necessity to Lake the seven perhaps eight real candidates seriously enough to begin commit Ting Lime Money Energy and belief to one s Choice among them. Besides if it was t before it really is Selling to be too late for anyone else to raise the Money build the organization and form the Delegate slates for an effective candidacy. Of Nunn s decision Robert Squier a democratic Campaign consultant remarked sensibly i think it was too late to put in together and if it s too late for Nunn it s Loo late for  deep political thinkers assert that Nunn s absence on super tuesday with its 13 Southern Prima Ries will Benefit sen. Albert Gore the Only while southerner among the seven democrats. But the Black southerner the Rev. Jesse Jackson is making a populist Appeal to dispossessed and disgruntled Farmers of whom there Are Many in the South. With his predictable Black support and against six while candidates Jackson May be helped More Anthony Lewis  Ixia is front Kuh hots than anyone by Nunn s decision. Thai s because Nunn would have been the most conservative Democrat in the race since he won t be on the ballot not a few conservative southerners might shift Over into Republican primaries in he eight slates where they can do so. On super tuesday those shifting voters could lip the balance to Blacks and moderates possibly to Jack son in those states democratic primaries. A week ago former sen. Paul Laxalt resigned from the race for the Republican nomination saying he could t raise enough Money and feared the effect of a National Campaign on his family Nunn echoed both concerns though he conceded that he was passing up what would be in All likelihood the Best Opportunity i would Ever have to be president. Money and family stress also were cited by gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas when he too decided not to run. Cuomo though showing no qualms about raising Money said in february that he did not want to subject his family to the inordinate pressures of a presi denial Campaign. Thus american political parties in reforming them selves into a presidential election system that requires primary campaigns in More than 30 states Over a mini mum of 18 months at horrendous Cost in Money and personal Effort have reformed a lot of Good and Honor Able people out of even trying to be president. The Prospect of that exalted office is not enough to offset the Lear cd consequences in their personal lives. Quite a few candidates remain 14 in both parties if i Haven t lost count. But most Are running because no recognized National Leader dominates the race in either party. Thus Alt have a Chance to promote some minor gain in some Small state into the illusion of political strength and National stature. Such an illusion magnified by television can carry someone right into the White House and that s precisely the problem. Bork disagrees with free speech Legal tradition in Large areas of constitutional Law. Judge Robert Bork is a committed Radical. He wants to tear up settled understandings of the Constitution. His approach to Freedom of speech is a telling example. The willingness to let people express ideas that a majority find offensive even dangerous is a distinctive feature of american society one of its glories some would say. Bork Dis agrees with the Legal tradition. In Law. Our free speech doctrine traces Back to dissenting opinions of justices Holmes and Brandos starting in 1919. The majority naturally want to suppress opposing views they said but in is Wiser to let ideas be tested in the marketplace. That at any rate is the theory of our  Holmes wrote. It is an Experiment As All life is an Experiment. While that Experiment is part of our system 1 think that we should be eternally Vig Ilum against attempts to Check the expression of opinions that us loathe and believe to be fraught with death unless they so imminently threaten immediate interference with the lawful and pressing Pur poses of the Law that an immediate Check is required to save the  the Holmes Brandeis View in time be came the majority then the virtually unanimous View on the supreme court. In 1974, Justice Lewis f. Powell or. Spoke of what he called the common  under the Firel amendment pow Ell said there is no such thing As a false idea. However pernicious an idea May seem we depend for us correction not on the conscience of judges and juries but on the Competition of other  Bork has been nominated to replace Powell on the court. And his View is very different indeed. In writings and speeches Over the last 16 years Bork has frontally attacked the Holmes Brandeis philosophy of free speech. Pc cry that adv caws either forcible overthrow of the government or violation of Law he said must be excluded from the Protection of the first amendment. He charged Holmes with terrifying frivolity in his rhetoric. The striking thing about barfs thoughts on free speech is their abstract and absolutist character. He writes As if attempts to punish subversive speech mostly concerned massive dangerous advocacy of dictatorship. That in t so. Most of the free speech cases decided by the courts Over the decades have involved fringe groups and actions that threatened no one. The 1919 Case that evoked Holmes s great dissent Abrams is. United states itself involved a few anarchists who published what Holmes called puny leaflets denouncing . Intervention in revolutionary Russia. For that they were sentenced to 20 years in prison. Fear May bring repression where there is no danger. Men feared witches and bum women Brandeis said. And re pression of a few May numb the whole atmosphere of Freedom in the society. That hardly needs to be said in a country that has gone through the 1920 red scare the Mccarthy Yean and other Para noid episodes ii is the Central Point but Bork lakes no account of it. His argument thai speech urging a violation of Law deserves no Constitution Al Protection is equally divorced from the reality of american history. That is what or. Martin Luther King or. Did. He urged Southern Blacks to violate the in just Laws of segregation. They did and they changed the country. Can anyone seriously suggest that King could Nave been imprisoned for his speeches Bork s deference to presidential Power also has worrying implications for free speech. He emphasized the president s foreign affairs Power in deciding for a majority of the . Court of appeals in Washington that the government could prohibit demonstrations within 500 feet of a foreign embassy if the demonstrators were critical of the foreign govern ment Nicaragua s in that Case. The supreme court has agreed to review the ease. Pinter is.  constitutional right of free expression is powerful Medicine in a society As diverse and populous As ours. To Many the immediate consequence of this Freedom May often appear to be Only verbal Tumuli discord and even Offen Sive utterance. But it is not a sign of weakness but of  Justice John marshal Harlan a great conservative on the supreme court wrote that in protecting an individual who used an Offen Sive word to protest the Vietnam War. Bohr has particularly criticized Harian s moving opinion. He does not conceal his Radical  with the Legal mainstream of free ice cd