European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 20, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 columns the stars and stripes tuesday october 20,1987 William Safire coming Down with the gotta Stop Bork fever when the Senate allows Hollywood produced television Tipoti to take Over in it confirmation of justices Good lawyers make bad mistakes and innocent witnesses can be ground up in the process. Take the Case of John t. Baker professor of Law at Indiana University the Only Black Law professor who came to Washington determined to speak up in favor of the Bork nomination. On his last sojourn in this City As Dean of Law at Howard University Baker objected to declining academic standards and resigned his successor threw brickbats at him As he left. On the Day before he was scheduled to testify Baker received a Call from Linda Greene of the Senate Judici Ary committee. Greene a Law professor herself also Black was a longtime professional Friend Baker had tried to recruit her for the Howard faculty. At 11 . On the Day of his scheduled appearance Baker asked to be excused from testifying and went Home. His reason he told a Friend Maurice Holland Dean of the University of Oregon Law school i just could t take the heat. Putting pressure on a witness is a serious matter if True that might trouble some of the senators who were stampeded into a rolling vote in the Media on a mat Ter better decided on the Senate floor. I accompanied Martin Tolchin a new York times reporter to the judiciary committee office of Linda Greene who works for sen. Howard Metzenbaum of Ohio one of the Bork nomination s fierce opponents. Tacked to a Wall is a cartoon showing dangling legs labelled Blacks Gays the press with judge Bork grinning evilly Itron the swing at first Greene was angry at being asked unexpectedly about her Call to a witness for the other Side what is this some kind of Shakedown but agreed to an interview in the presence of her chief counsel who had Learned Only the Day before of her Call of three weeks ago. Here is Greene s recollection of the 20-minute conversation with Baker i said do you know that people Are really playing hardball i said he should be prepared to Deal with Tough questions he was controversial himself at How Ard. You left amid a controversy. You re planning to come Back in the midst of a big controversy where your testimony will be subject to close scrutiny. If you come Here you will be the Issue. I told him Greene continued he would be in a visible position not Only As an academic but As a Black. Asked him Are you sure you re prepared to Deal with those questions Are you prepared to Deal with what this docs to your professional reputation " he said if i Don t want to do it what shall i do i said Vou have to talk to Diana Huffman who is staff Anthony Lewis director. He said what s her number and i gave hint the number. I said John i am calling you out of love for you he said. Linda i know thai that was the end of our conversation. You ask we did. Baker after consulting with Greene con firmed in All. Apparently Mcuen Baum s chief aide suspected the Story would break and had elicited a letter from the ill used Baker saying he had not been unduly influenced in his decision not to testify. In a prepared statement Baker added i was not intimidated by Linda Greene or anyone readers can decide for themselves. Even put in its Best Light As recounted by the person who mad the Call thai persuasion from a member of the staff the committee out to sink the Bork nomination strikes me As wholly improper. You just cannot do that to witnesses. Was her Call a threat however intended As Friendly warning the re suit was that it turned the witness around and sent him Home to Tell his friends of the incredible heat. Metzen Baum whose staff has been pressing the victim to in Sist he was not victimized says he sees nothing wrong in it at Alt. What happened Here Linda Greene is an Intelli gent articulate impassioned partisan with credentials ii is neither racist nor sexist to predict she will not Only survive this error but has a Federal judge ship in her democratic future. But like Many others on Capitol Hill she was caught up in the Golla Stop Bork fever. Just As head people jumped in with lies and senators stooped to the rolling Vole a staffer who taught Law was swept Over the Ethi Cal line. Before casting a Vole senators might ask what would a thorough ethics committee investigation of he tactics used against this judicial nominee reveal Hinr Vortis Twansi Newis Row soviet Union s rights policy filled with wrongs the soviet government has acted in recent weeks to resolve some longstanding emigration cases. Two Weels ago Tor example it gave an exit visa to Ida Nudel a leading campaigner for soviet jews. Last week officials told Vladimir Slepak another prominent re Usenik that he and his wife could move to Israel 17 years after they first applied. Such actions Are evidently designed to improve the atmosphere in soviet Amer ican relations before Mikhail Gorbachev makes his expected trip to the United Stales for a Summit meeting. But the effect will be limited. Every time one Well known person is allowed to leave the soviet Union we in the West remember others who have not been. Thus Slopak s Good news was Cou pled with reminders that such admired figures As Aleksandr y. Lemer and vat Ery n. Soifer Are still forbidden to Emi grate Many years after they began seek ing visas. Soviet officials have complained to americans about that reaction. When they take some positive step they say instead of being praised they Are criticized for not having done something else. That provides Little motivation for resolving any cases they argue. La is crucial to beware of thai soviet View i think crucial because it is so mistaken. It misunderstands fundamental Western attitudes on human rights. And the misunderstanding is As harmful to legitimate soviet interests As it is 10 the victims of injustice. The soviet View is based on the Prem ise that inc Resolution of individual human rights cases is a valuable gesture a favor to Wesim opinion. Soviet leaders traditionally save those gestures to be used As bargaining chips. When a Summit meeting approaches the chips Are played in order to brighten the mood for substantive negotiation. Bui we do not regard such things As letting citizens emigrate or practice their religion or speak their minds As govern mental favors. We think of them As rights rights that have a Legal basis in soviet undertakings at Helsinki. Moreover americans and others in the West do not like the idea of human lives being used As bargaining chips. So when restraints on some soviet citizen Are relaxed at a politically oppor tune moment in is inevitable that West pm gratification for the individual will be mixed with resentment at the tactic. The sense thai human lives Are being played with is deepened by the haphazard seemingly senseless cruelty of soviet bureaucracy in these matters. Or is it just bureaucracy Benjamin Chanty a mathematician presents one of several especially heart rending soviet emigration cases. He and the others have cancer. They want to leave to gel treatment or to be with their families. Chamy wishes to be with his brother Leon who is at the Massachusetts Institute of technology. Last month Benjamin Charny s daughter Anna was allowed to leave with her husband their 3-Monih-old child and her husband s parents and grandmother. In effect the whole family is out tace pm Benjamin Chamy. Or consider the question of divided soviet american couples spouses and i ances kept apart by soviet barriers. About 20 couples Are in that category now. On oct. 23, Elizabeth Condon a High school teacher of russian and French will Mark the eighth anniversary of the Day she was supposed to marry Victor Novikov in Moscow. The marriage was slopped. And Ever since Novikov has been refused permission to emigrate and Condon to visit the soviet Union. Last Spring Condon was encouraged to apply again for a visitor s visa. She did. Two Days before her planned flight to Moscow she was told thai her visa had been denied. More recently Novikov was told that he could still not leave because he Learned secrets years ago. That reason officials said will expire in 1990, the soviet Union pays a High Price in the West for such inhumanity and it is not Only inc Price of moral disapproval. The feeling that the . Cannot be trusted not even to keep to its Helsinki undertakings feeds opposition to the arms control agreement that both Gorbachev and president Reagan want. Gorbachev understands there is a Price. He has resolved some of the High profile cases not Only allowing prominent refuseniks to leave but releasing important political dissidents from prison. Bui action Case by Case cannot really solve the problem. Only removal of the underlying wrongs can. When a soviet cilium joins an Ameri can Fiance it should not be news. When a seriously ill Man in Moscow leaves to be with his brother in the u.s., it should not be news. It should be the Rule so routine that in is not newsworthy. Now York tuft mtg str i
