European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 20, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 columns the stars and stripes William Safire get quote to agree before altering words this is Safire candidate Richard Ninon said in 1967. Introducing me to h is innermost Circle absolutely trustworthy worked with us in 60. But watch what you say he s a that half-in-jcs1 remark from a Man nol yet soc rally Lamg everything is not just a vague recollection. 1 whole ii Dawn is inc Lime and quoted it verbatim in a Book of memoirs later. It s a solid quote Tor what it s Worth a historian can Trust it. Not every presidential quotation reported by an aide is exactly accurate. When the nation s capital was in danger or capture by the Southern rebels on april 24, 1861, president Lincoln bitterly noted the absence or Federal troops by snapping i Don t believe there is a thai s inc Way John Hay his Junior Secretary jotted Down inc remark in his diary that night when the Lime came three decades later for the writing of his history however. Hay softened the line to "1 begin to believe there is no North lest his mythic Lincoln be thought to have doubted the ultimate Triumph of the Union. Aides have Long Edi cd punched up or Pretti fied the remarks of their Bosses. . Hudson a newsman working for Graver Cleveland in the Campaign of 1884, found a line in a Dull speech saying we Are the trustees and agents of our fellow Iii Crri and turned in into the Snappy Public office is a Public Hudson asked Cleveland if he would stand for the change in the interest of Brevity Cleveland reluctantly agreed to make his own the phrase he became famous for but went to his grave truthfully denying thai he Ever said it that Way Cleveland s aide acted properly in gelling i Boss s approval fur the cd engr. Lincoln s aide acted improperly in shading the quotation to tit his image making Ronald Reagan s press aide Larry Scakes acted corruptly in pretending to report two statements that president Reagan never made. Coming is a rough word but deliberate distortion of moments in history is a rupture of the Trust that should Eisl Between the spokesman and the spoken to. The Memoir Selling Nide has already paid the Price in his reputation and in the lass of his Post White Kousch Job and deserves some credit fur confessing and correcting inc record but the confession was less out of remorse than out of an attempt to show How smart and powerful he had been when his Boss was inadequate to the moment. The Washington reaction has been cynical after All. Aren t most presidential statements cooked up by some speech writer anyway that misses he ethical Point by James Reston Vok if a want read it to me i la read it aay self a mile. When a Leader chooses to accept the suggested prose of a subordinate the words become his own when delivered or released because the Cader s Ludg mini is at work in selecting them. But when a subordinate Cooks up a phony quotation after the fact the aide is lying demeaning rather than glorifying his Boss and undermining the principle thai we All rightly associate with Grover Cleveland. The Brouhaha Over the quotations that never were should serve to remind the other Busy memoirist of the importance of accuracy. Reagan Cra books have fallen far Short of the Schly detailed Roosevelt Era works of Robert Sherwood Samuel Rosenman and Harold ekes or of the foreign policy Insi Ihl in the impressive books of Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon absolutely trustworthy but watch what you say he s a writer now. So far Reagan watcher have seen the embittered manipulations of David Stockman the disc Cal frustrations of Al Haig the pitiful pretensions of Mike Deaver and now the gel even sniping of Larry spate soon we can expect the Mure interesting justifies Lien of Don Regan he More pulsing reporting of speech writer pc by Noonan and the longer View observations of Manin Anderson whose work May rave a provocative Iran Contra Angle. All will be redeemed in the end we Hope by the historian in reside acc Edmorris. What can we ask of them and of the new Bunch no getting started in the Bush and Dukakis Camps make contemporaneous notes. Write Down the funny poignant or passionate things your Liger May in private it s not kiss and Tell they la thank you laity for remembering. And Peel an Bye for the revealing detail. 1 unloaded a Heap of what 1 thought was insightful historical stuff on Stewart Alsop the All time Best columnist and he winnowed out one item to Mark a turning Point when Richard Nixon stopped putting a Towel on the silk ottoman in front of he chair before pulling his feet up. Thai was the Day the president first frit comfortable in the Oval office. Spokes Book shows who s Reay in charge everybody seems of be beating up on Larry up cakes for faking statements and attributing hem to presi Dent Cagan. Bul up cakes is merely a Symbol of a larger problem. In fact the confession in his ghost written Book that he was putting words in the president s Mouth May be the Only useful thing he did in the White House. For he has called attention once More to the hidden bureaucracy in washing ton and reminded us thai Oliver North and John Point Citer were not alone in acting for a president who pays Little at Tention to what his Stan is doing. President Reagan condemned these kiss and Tell books by former govern ment servants bul he did t denounce inc kissing just the telling. He dismissed them As Scakes disclosure was nol fiction i was inc Inith. Nobody supports up cakes not even Merrill Lynch which apparently did t want him writing books about Wall Street it s hard to defend a spokesman who needs a spokesman to write his Book. Bui if you had a Dollar for every statement issued in Washington in the name of officials who never read it. Your income to would have been much bigger than it was. What needs to be is not the fall of up cakes but the Rise and role of the bureaucracy in Washington since world War ii. This administration is spending s2 billion a year on Public relations activities this at a time when it s complaining thai the government is too big and too costly. The White House staff numb in 312 compared with about a dozen in presi Dent Franklin Delano Roosevelt s first term. The same thing is Siruc on Capi lol Hill where the staff members serving senators and representatives now num Ber no fooling 15,659, compared with 2,030 in 1947. And the salaries of top staff members run from j7d.ooo year to $80,000. What do i desc people do most of the time they do the essential work of a government whose responsibilities in the Fields of foreign and Domestic affairs have increased Norm oily in substance and complexity in recent years and most of hem do it Well and tastefully bul they make it very easy for their Raas Len to Delegate responsibility everything has grown beyond belief. The press corps for crumple has incr Auto from 600 in 1940 to 5,600 Loday. But As Secretary of state Shutlz observed during the Iran Contra investigation the National Security Council staff was far too big. And these swollen staffs have a Way of getting Oul of hand not Only serving their Mas to rebut sometimes replacing them. Even before the Iran Contra scandals the White House staff either with or without he president approval was engaged in a calculated disinformation Campaign which was supposed o mis Lead Moa mar Gad Hafl but also misled the Congress and the american people. This like up cakes antics was not inevitable bul intolerable. The fact re Mains however that staff member not Only write the speeches and sometimes sit in the Well of the Senate drafting questions for debate but also concentrate on Public relations that often mislead the Public. The result ii that we know the great men who read the so Alcmenia. Often Over teleprompter which gives the impression that they just thought hem All up. But the people who Twoie them and drafted the policies Are usually unelected unconfirmed and Manly unavailable. This is More important than Larry pc act silly Gaffe for much of the time the voices get a misleading picture on the screen plus the thou jul s of staff members they never example members of Congress have Long had the privilege of tee mail in order to reach their constituents. Now they Frank videotape. A senator can read a speech from a Capitol Hill to Jaudio and whisk it by satellite to the vote in the state. One week it May be a speech by his expert on he farm problems of the Middle West and the next the Langlei of the Middle East. This conveys the notion thai the senator is a certified Genius on almost everything and help explain Why 90 percent of the incumbents Are re elected. Tii1s does not excuse Larry Speaks or indicate that past or present press aides Are equally stupid. Bul it duo bring inc staff problem to the fore and it makes you wonder what the president thinks if he thinks when he reads if he reads remarks he never made. Nune of this unfortunately seems to distress the Public or even the press u much As it should. After North poin Doxier and attorney general Meese it Sodd that Speakes comes a such a sur prise
