European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 12, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 columns the stars and stripes saturday. December 12.1987 James Kilpatrick extreme right flutters about like Henny Penny it is Hunny Penny time again. You remember the is cry an Acorn fell from an Oak tree and hit poor Hunny Penny on the head. The sky is falling she , and she fluttered about the Chicken Yard scaring the other Birds quite out of their wits. To listen id the lugubrious cackles from the right Wing you would suppose thai president Reagan has taken leave of his senses. He has signed an agreement with Mikhail Gorbachev to achieve a reduction a very minor reduction in nuclear arms. We need .1 soothing voice to say hey girls this is Only an Acorn. Coo it. The most hysterical outburst comes from two gentlemen who identify themselves in a formal statement As conservative these leaders Are Richard i Guric and Howard Phillips both of Washington. They have nominated and elected themselves co chair men of the anti appeasement the Grava men of their complain is that the president has resurrected the disastrous policy of he is plunging headlong into another it is with deep regret says Vigurie thai we who have supported president Reagan in so Many Bailies during the past 20 years now must begin to publicly separate ourselves from our former Leader. We feel alienated abandoned and rejected human events the conservative weekly Wor Ries that Reagan is about to give away the my David Broder brother pundit Dill Duckley fears that our policies arc serving she soviet Union to such an extent that eventually we will Lay Down our the Wall Street journal warns that if the agreement on intermediate nuclear forces should be ratified the soviets will not Lack for nuclear assorted Republican presidential candidates not having read the agreement pronounced themselves dead set against it. Now messes. Viguerie and Phillips Are extremely vocal Fellows they Are extremely everything but their nation that they arc conservative leaders is a notion to be regarded with extreme Dubiell. They arc so far to the right they Are not even in the Ballpark Tike a pair of doleful vultures they Roost on a billboard overlooking the bullpen. Their charge that Ronald Reagan is engaged in appeasement to put the mat Ter mildly is Poppycock. As for the disastrous policy of detente the noun is defined As an casing of tensions and strained relations Between nations. Their View is that the greater the Strain and the tighter the tension the better but that is not a View that is universally held among conservatives with longer credentials. Human events is a world class worrier it always worries. Brother Buckley 1 think was just having one of his bilious Days to the journal s profound Obser vation that after inf the soviets still would have nuclear weapons a reasonable response is in order so would we. Do not understand this fluttering of the right Wing. The Hunny pennies would have you believe that without intermediate nuclear arms the West would stand naked before its enemy. What hokum what absolute rubbish the sky in t falling. It s right there. It is there in nearly 11,000 nuclear warheads in the . Strategic Arsenal and these arc not Cream puff warheads. On average each warhead carries the destructive equivalent of 300,000 tons of int. A nuclear deterrent remains in the Trident submarines in a modernized Fleet of bombers in a superbly equipped Navy that cars its goal of 600 combat ships. What is this talk of the United slates laying Down its arms this is twaddle. Toys anyone seriously pro pose that with this agreement we Are on our Way to Ward disbanding 28 army divisions do we Cut up the new mini tanks for scrap in the Pasi few years seven Aegis cruisers have joined the Fleet. They Are Formida ble ships of War. The Force of attack submarines has grown from 73 in 1980 to nearly 100 today. The soviet Union has no match for the capacity of our military Airlift omd. As opposed to the disastrous policy of detente let me nominate the catastrophic possibility of All out nuclear War. Is it sensible to reduce that possibility it seems so to me. In moving step by cautious step to Ward relieving the fears of Mankind both Reagan and Gorbachev Are acting responsibly this in t appease ment. This is common sense. It is a characteristic that Henny Penny sad to say conspicuously tacked. A Unwor in pres dealt Kemp Gephardt must overcome anti House Bias two presidential candidates of whom much was expected in 1988, Republican Jack Kemp and Democrat Richard Gephardt arc falling out of the race As the Long pre Campaign year grinds to its end. They May yet recover but the latest Abc poll shows Kemp running 36 Points behind the Leader in Iowa and 33 Points Back in new Hampshire while Gephardt is 11 Points behind in Iowa and 46 behind in new Hampshire. Each of their campaigns has had its specific prob lems but they share a similar Handicap both Are House members running Uphill against a Papular Bias which says hat the White House is off limits to con Gressmen. It s a dumb prejudice but it is powerful enough to have kept any sitting House member from gaining the presidency since James Garfield in 1880. Rep. Morris k. Udall of Arizona recalled the other Day mat after he ran unsuccessfully for the democratic presidential nomination in 1976, i had the experience of people calling me senator when i name to town. They assumed trial if you had run for president you must be a governors also enjoy an almost automatic Ca Chet. Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan used the statehouse As a stepping Stone to the while House and Many democrats arc hankering for Mario Cuomo to follow their Lead. Bui House members just Don t make it Over the last five elections the House has offered presidential candidates of considerable Charm and a Bitite representing All varieties of thinking conserva Tive republicans like Pete Mccloskey and John an Derson conservative democrats like Wilbur Mills moderates like Gephardt and liberals like Udall and Shirley Chisholm. None has cd managed even to get nominated. I be never quite figured it out Udall says but House members Don t have the mystique. There s an Aura when a senator or a governor arrives. But a House member is just Good old Udall has porn cd there is life after a presidential Campaign. He occupies a position of considerable Power As chairman of the House Interior committee. His newly published Memoir and assemblage of favor Ite political stories too funny to be president is a Delight. But it gripes him and other House members thai the reputations people earn on the South Side of the Capitol seemingly Are not sufficient to sustain a successful presidential Campaign. Why not it is not a question of Effort. Udall All but exhausted himself in his Long siring of second place finishes to curler and no one has worked harder or longer for the 1988 ump than Gephardt and Kemp. And they did it while remaining influential and effective legislators who earned the respect of their House colleagues. Gephardt is the elected chairman of the House democratic caucus and Kemp held the counterpart position on the Republican Side. Both have had a major Impact on legislation larger than any of the Senate based candidates except Bob Dole can boast. The landmark across the Board tax Cut passed in 1981 was an idea which Kemp conceived and promoted tirelessly among his colleagues and across the country before Reagan came on Board. Gephardt was a major architect of several health Trade budget and tax Bills including the 1986 tax Reform Law. Yet they Are not accepted As being on a Par with rivals who have other titles before their names especially senator. Rep. Henry Hyde. R-lll., a Kemp sup Porter thinks it is because the Senate is a smaller More exclusive club and being a member of the House or even in the House leadership is perceived As a lesser position. If that s the Case it s a Misper caption. It probably takes greater skills to be an effective House legislator As Kemp and Gephardt have been than to succeed in the Senate. The House is a larger More diverse and More cumbersome body in which to work. Staff re sources while adequate Are not As lavish As in the Senate. A proposal s Fate depends More on the elected official s own abilities energies and alliances. But most voters probably think of the House Mem Ber As running a service Agency taking care of the pressing but usually parochial problems constituents May be having with the Federal government. The serv ice function is stressed in campaigns and Public relations by most members of the House Over their role Ai National legislators while the reverse is the Case for most senators. So the senator is seen As an awesome figure a Wise Man on my. Olympus As Henry Hyde puts it while the House member is just a Washington errand boy. There Are other differences As Well. Senate campaigns Are Mure like presidential campaigns. They re quire raising and spending Large sums of Money devel Oping sophisticated television strategies managing Large staffs and dealing with diverse constituencies. Kemp and Gephardt probably Hurt their chances to be president when they passed up opportunities to run for governor or senator in new York and Missouri. But beyond All that As Udall discovered to his Cha Grin in i Jug there s also a Subtle National Bias against House members becoming president. It s a Bias the country needs to overcome. It Ltd i Eliji a a i a v
