European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 22, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Pago 10 the stars and stripes Friday january 22,19b8 columns Jim Fain the 1988 Choice could be Santa is. Root canal history is biography Ronald Reagan is fond of saying a conceit not unlikely for a president on his Way out particularly one who co starred with Errol Flynn. As with Many of the dipper s romanticism this sounds Good bin the truth is More Complex. The answer to the Riddle of whether men shape event or events shape men is both. At the moment we re All lamenting the fact we have 13 pygmies running for president none of whom shows the courage and stature demanded by the Chal Lenges in View. Partly that s because no candidate Ever seems worthy of being president and probably in l. In my time Only Eisenhower and Hoover looked presidential in Advance. Both turned out to be As passive As Pontius Pilate. On the flip Side. Truman was he Model of an unlikely giant. Bui the More telling truth is we would never elect in 1988 a candidate who pledged to take the Steps necessary Lodi the country out of the Hole Reagan has buried it in. Of this year s Field Only Babbitt and Dole even verge on realism Babbitt who has Little to lose with actual mention of inc obscene word lanes Dole with a spending freeze. While commendably bold m today s political climate both Are Miles Short of the draconian measures that will be necessary. The reason is simple. In a race Between Santa clans and a Root canal How is the country Likely to vote a Case can be made hit the smart or Lucky politicians this year Are those much mourned red shirts. Bill Bradley Sam Nunn Dale bumpers and Mario Cuomo who Wail for 1992. Whoever is elected this time will have a splendid mandate to do absolute nothing As Waves of crisis engulf the nation. Indeed there s much to recommend George Bush for this Hoo Var Rcd us role. As the calamities rain Down he can cheer us with preppy slogan while reflecting in his secret heart As he says he did in his Dingy after being shot Down during world War ii. On separation of Church and state. Dole is a stronger and More appealing per son but he can t be counted on not to do something. Bush is a dependable paralytic As witness his pro George will bog no orge pcs cd Iran Centra role. Among democrats. Simon wins the award for Sil Liest. He s going to replicate Reagan and give us to much Prosperity the deficit will disappear in the Booty that spills from pc a Cash. Gephardt and Jackson Are no Nurs up a greek Moses Dukakis will Lead us from deficit desert to the promised Lind by Way of the Harvard business school. Gore will think about it after he gels to the while House. Hart is running because he needs something to do after Crapping out on the lecture Cir Cuit. Babbitt is noted above flirts with realism. He s a Long shot bul could be nominated. Democrats do in Torva. Strange and wonderful things. Look at Mondale. Is Lii Story any of these 13 biographies Don t be ridiculous. Bul Why blame them they re what we make them. Trauma lies in wait for the beloved country but that s what it takes to move democracy to action. In the Oast crisis followed at a respectful interval by response always has worked for us. And 1992 will be the year for history As biography. Tray the Luck holds if it s any Consolation totalitarians do worse at least in the Long run. Which is another Way of Joying Gorbachev whether his program is sound or flawed destined to drown in even goo ice inertia than our next Peerless Leader. Horse whipping lawmakers would be Good idea in the present unsatisfactory slate of the Law we Are not permitted to horse whip lawmakers for which fact some senators should give thanks. They deserve thrashing for their behaviour concerning judge Robert boric their be Havior since the vote. They arc giving constituents Odd and sometimes dishonest explanations of Why they opposed him for a sent on the supreme court. Obviously some senators arc not proud of what they did or Why they did it. A Wise Man once said in defense of wartime deceptions that sometimes the truth needs a bodyguard of lies. Today some senators do too when dealing with their constituents Alabama s Howalt Heflin a demo crat should listen 10 his conscience understood by  Mencken As the inner Dork once considered himself a socialist. Heflin does not say that Bork committed that crime when he was a teen Ager. Then Heflin says he nearly became a communist he recruited friends to attend communist forty  that is another lie. As Bork has cheerfully recounted his adolescent Intel incl a life when he was 16 he and a Friend attended one count with us Heflin one communist meeting in his role As cod s servant he Lin has Lold an Alabama radio station that he was disturbed by Bori s refusal to discuss his belief in god or tic Lack  to this Heflin ism three responses Are required. First there was no  second in the hearings Heflin himself eschewed such questioning noting that inc Constitution says no religious test shall Ever to ice that warns us that someone May be be required As a qualification to any of watching. Heflin is a Large loud Man  third with Heflin now implying Winter s  seems id think the lungs Are re scr " a voids of learning. In his newsletter to constituents your tax dollars at work and in letters such As one to some constituents in Mobile Hellin charged that the history of his bark s life and Bis present lifestyle indicated a fondness for the unusual the unconventional and the  regarding Dork s present life Heflin says nol a syllable to substantiate his smear. It just hangs there reeking of innuendo and its author. Concerning Bork s past Hellin says Bork right in the Eye after questioning Bork and that Warner had Lold Bork he would oppose him. The constituent also sent to Bork a news Story from the Richmond news Leader. It reported Warner saying that he did not get satisfactory answers to questions he put to Bork. I reported that Warner concluded from his questioning that bark lacked a philosophic Center of Gravity Well now. Responding to Warner s constituent. Bork says he was available to Warner for More than three months and Warner did nol ask to see him until the Day of the Senate vote. Then Warner called. Warn or said he had not studied the hearings. They met for approximately 10 minutes. Warner reminisced about a judge then asked Bork about a Heflin remark about Bork i intellectual history. Bork Warner did nol respond. To such a test there is a noticeable silence from the self appointed guardians of the american  the Liberal lobbyists Are too tuckered out from Bork bashing to Rise to the Chal Lenge. Heflin is nol just disagreeable he is ammunition for disagreeable ass in others. Sen. John Warner r-va., has quoted to constituents Heflin s smear about Bork s fondness for the  a Warner constituent wrote to Bork 10 report that Warner said he had looked "1 said i hoped he would vote for me and he simply did not answer. Nor did he look me in the Eye. Oar entire conversation was Brief devoid of Content and wholly unsatisfactory. When Warner had left one of my clerks expressed Surprise that the conversation was Over so quickly. The absence of any real discussion made me think that Warner had merely wanted to be Able to say he talked to me. After Reading the account of hit misrepresentations in the newspaper i am convinced of  some senators have said silly things to inquiring constituents. Bob Graham d-ra., wrote to a Daytona Beach shores Man that Bork did nol understand that the supreme court u the living instrument of the will and yearn Ings of the american  How then docs the judicial Branch differ from a political Branch of government Jim Sasser. D-tcnn., wrote to a signal Mountain. Tcnn., voter that because Bork is not a southerner his nomination jeopardized the court s regional bal Ance and in a refreshing departure from a pretence of High principle saner said scientifically conducted polls showed that Bork was unpopular. Ohio s irrepressible Howard Melzen Baum a Democrat wrote to a priest m Cuya hoga Falls Ohio thai Bork would support reinterpreting the antitrust Lawi to eliminate the right of retailers to give Consumers a discount Liat in to exquisitely misleading Way of saying that Bork perhaps the nation s leading authority on anti Rusl Laws i Vors allowing re Sale Price maintenance for manufacturers. But Mclien Baura May be explaining things As Well As he can. The opinions expressed in the columns and Canyon on this Page exp resent those of the authors and Are in no Way 10 be considered As representing the views of the Stan and stripes or tie United states government