European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 22, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes tuesday september 22,1987 columns William Safire Kennedy reveals himself to be a hollow Man anti is no longer the sole province of right Wing yahoos in is now inc Refuge of the Darling of Hil Charles River gang. Observe inc Way that sen. Jcj Kennedy. B-mnss., beyond his depth Al the confirmation hearings of judge Robert bark asks a question. He studies a paper begins seems to stumble and a few words into his first sen tence Isle Mills himself with an us or he looks up and then proceeds Hal tingly As if he were thinking through his question As if he were not Reading exactly what had been prepared for him of course in is a pose delivered with the skill of a television announcer who looks Down occasionally Ai the papers in his hand to make in seem he is not read ing from a Tel prompter Kennedy is Una pfc in function without a text prepared by his talented staff because he cannot articulate his thoughts or be cause his Awn thoughts Lack profundity. We All saw thai dramatically demonstrated in his intellectual collapse during a 1980 Roger Mudd interview on television. But you would nol know that Kennedy remains the John Alden of american politics unless you watched his part of the hearings in its in Liecty. If like Moil americans you took your impression from sound Biles and confrontational bits of the network television news you would be misled. Give Kennedy and the Media manipulators on his staff credit they know precisely How to Tuni a dramatic line or phrase that is guaranteed to make the evening news he is protected from having to think Tiki Lud he makes Short speeches con Taining a farrago of charges concluding with a request for a rebuttal. When the Kennedy target in this Case a thoughtful anti activist judge being be spattered with charges of racism sexism hypocrisy and dishonesty re sponds 3d lib in detail and with some eloquence inc senator docs not engage it is not in his script. He says Only to move once in a while engagement cannot be averted. In one instance Dur ing the hearings just after a tape re cording slum set up to provide inc news shows with sound Over film of the wit Ness listening to his own words the senator read a quotation that Musl have seemed damning in print but turned out to have been a Bork after dinner joke. When the witness pointed i is out. The inquisitor seemed to conic apart. Sen. Joseph Biden the committee chairman hastened to Ilic Rescue asking additional questions until Kennedy could take in from the lop of his script. That was irony in i he fire there was Biden his candidacy endangered for plagiarizing the speeches of others bravely demonstrating his ability to extempore be intelligently to save from Embarrass ment the brother of one of the men from whose speeches he borrowed unlike Kennedy Biden is not an Over stuffed empty Sun whose sound bite is worse than his bark. The Biden approach has been la espouse marital privacy As if that had come under attack. Judge Bork patiently explained that no danger Enisley to the marital bedroom in a nutty connect Cut Case that some Vale professors succeeded in having the court strike Down. Surely Biden who is no Dummy As his own news conference showed fully comprehended the nominee s Complex criticism of the judicial creation of new undefined in legislated rights of privacy. Bui the senator chose to play to the cameras and Clung to his defense of the nation s bedrooms because he knows privacy has become the code synonym for abortion. Both i tic blatant Kennedy sound Bil ing and the restrained Biden demagogy Ery arc in different styles Anli into Alec. Yuul. Fortunately not All questioners were staring decisively at the yahoos de manding thai Bork Promise to stick to precedent in a display of the Senate at work defining the Constitution s Bicentennial Paul Simon Robert Byrd and Arlen Specter used their own minds la joust with the nominee on great questions of judicial Power nobody had o hand them Little slips not so Kennedy whose idea of a qualified Federal judge was the incompetent family crony Francis x. Morrissey. By resolutely following his script calling for judge bark to be referred Loas or. Dork and by shrinking front mime to Nind combat Edward Kennedy revealed himself again to be one of . Eliot s hollow men gesture without motion. What a week. The nominee s depth of intellect and Quality of personal integrity was defined by the shortcomings of the Leader of the opposition to him. Can a York Tinei Carl Rowan non smoker cheers Victory by tobacco Industry even though i detest tobacco smoke j found myself cheering when the tobacco Industry won a big one in the first circuit court of appeals in Boston what the court said in simple terms is that the heirs of a Man who smoked heavily for 23 years and died of cancer cannot gel 13 million from Ligget Myers tobacco co on the grounds that the company did not give the deceased Man adequate warning about the dangers of smoking cigarettes. My regret is that the court backed the tobacco Industry on a legalism rather than Lake the common sense approach to Justice by saying anyone who has smoked As Many As three or four packs of cigarettes a Day for 23 years and did not know he was Imp riling his life bad to be hiding under a tobacco who smokes abuses drugs runs up his cholesterol level or his weight without Dot Tori giving ample warning at some time Over two decades what i want the judges to say is thai there Are areas of life in which individuals must accept responsibility for their own behaviour. Manufacturers ought a pay dearly if nude j that blows up in j child s fair in Aulont in that races out of control when Pul in reverie or a Nightgown that erupt in flames while the wearer is merely standing in front of a fireplace. But Here must be common sense limits to this business of making someone else liable for any individual s recklessness or stupid 1. The courts ought to make this dear and in doing so rein in the vast army of lawyers who Sec product liability in just about every personal tragedy i have written before thai it is ludicrous to think the Host of a cocktail party of. Say. 100 people can be held liable for an automobile Accident involving one guest who May have had a drink Loo Many Al the Pany or a few too Many before arriving Al the parly. Owners of bars and restaurants cannot reasonably be expected to know when the alcohol blood level of a guest has passed the Point where the state says that person is driving under the influence of Beer booze or wine i have this weakness fur Mam Candy. There s nuiding on the wrapper thai Sais that if 1 let them melt in my Mouth until m i get Looth is satiated. In other Ichih May fall Oul. Bui uni there somewhere is a liw Jar Whu would haul any decayed molars into court and say that the manufacturer of those Lille chocolate gems owes me a few million Bucks. There must be a thousand lawyers salivating Al the Prospect of suing condom manufacturers on the grounds that their client got aids practising unsafe sex Only because the condom was defective. In this society of speedy and All encompassing communications everyone of reasonable intelligence knows that smoking cigarettes abusing drugs drink ing excessive amounts of booze and perhaps even eating 14 eggs and seven steaks a week can be Hazar Dous to health i find it Ruvo Klingly unjust that anyone who flouts inc warnings should be Able logo into court and ask for a Fortune from manufacturer made inc product that the Vraim a d in outlandish the opinion pms to in the columns and Carto Otu on this sgt represent those of the authors and tit in no Way to be Catusi dried is representing the to Laws of tit Stan in Stripo or the United suits govern mint
