European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 21, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Pago 10 the stars and stripes Tom Wicker . Ashamed of Meese even if Reagan in t Iakhyd Speakes has set the administration he used to work for an admirable precedent not in inc wards he wrongly put in Ronald Reagan s Mouth but rather in manfully resigning a lucrative Job when he realized his confession had embarrassed his company and perhaps damaged in credibility. Compare that with the behaviour of attorney Gen eral Edwin Mccase. Who returned the other Day from a trip to latin America to find himself embroiled not guilty of course nol Iii la indictable in still another dubious episode at least As questionable As anything charged against spec pcs. This time the news was that Melesc s wife Ursula had had a Job arranged Tor her by a real estate Developer who was trying to Case office space to a desc s department of Justice. A foundation set up by the Developer paid her salary. This disclosure followed those about Meese s disputed involvement with the wed tech corp. And Wilh an abortive Middle East pipeline scheme. A special counsel looking into these mailers has snid he has found no evidence sufficient to indict inc attorney general hardly a ringing endorse ment or his ethical sensitivity and not even a Gua Ranucc that Sonc sort of smoking gun won t turn up later whether or Noi the High to ranking Law enforce men officer of the nation ought to be indicted is one thing whether he is sufficiently the Model of probity that his office requires is another thing and still a third is whether he can under the Cloud of suspicion and mistrust he has brought upon him self Lead the department of Justice and maintain its morale As effectively As he should. When two of his senior aided resigned specifically tiling that self generated Cloud hey gave telling evidence on those last two Points he in to and he can t. Meuse is still trying to fit the Post of Deputy attorney general his latest choke John a Shepherd of St. Louis was reconsidering his acceptance Over the weekend and now is reported to have decided against it. Remember too that All this comes after a Csc survived an earlier investigation by another special prosecutor of Loans and business dealings that if not culpable were hardly at Fife highest ethic Alleven. His present troubles also came after he promised the Senate during hearings on his fitness to be attorney general to be Nio a sensitive to appearances in the future. So the question arises if Speakes was an Embarrass Mentlo his employer Merrill Lynch for having con trived two banal statements for president Reagan Whit is Edwin Mccase to the Reagan administration the answer must be that his continuance in office shows thai Meuse in not an embarrassment 10 a presi Dent who seems incapable of being embarrassed by i subordinates. The worst thing about speaker making up remarks to be attributed to Reagan without his consent was that the president never even noticed that his press Secretary had done so. From the Tower commission on Down no one is surprised any longer that Reagan in not attentive to act Iii now it s Clear that he does t even know what he s supposed to be saying. The president s Only complaint about up cakes was not that he made up the statements but that he wrote a kiss and Tell Book. This is the same president who did t know or says he did to thai Oliver North and John Poindexter were at work in he while House basement illegally divert ing funds to the contras in Nicaragua the same president who nevertheless Calls them heroes the same president who can t remember or says he can to sign ing the intelligence finding thai allowed arms to be sold to Iran the same president who did t know or says lie did to that this was an arms for Hai Lages Deal being carried out even As he and his associates were demanding thai no one else pay Ransom to ice Roriie or Reward them in any Way. No wonder Meuse won t resign to spare such a president embarrassment. In that kind of an Atmo sphere after that kind of a record of carelessness or duplicity in the Oval office what can de a Csc or anyone do to Embarrass Ronald Reagan if the attorney general possessed however the sensitivity and Persona responsibility up cakes showed at Merrill Lynch he d resign anyway As an Embarrass ment to the nation if not to an unaware or uncaring president. Andrew j. Glass Speakes Book shows How Washington works not Long ago several High ranking Justice department officials quit in disgust Over the ethical stink surrounding attorney general Edwin Jcsse. When president Reagan s spokesman Marlin Fitzwater. Was asked about those resignations he said blandly that people leave a inc time. What s going on Here it s time to let you in on a few Trade secrets. First Fil Waitr knew he was lying second nearly All the reporters present in the while House press room that Day a pretty savvy Bunch knew he was lying. Third by the pained i Presb on on his face and through other body language Filz Walcer made it quite Clear that he knew that they knew he was lying. And finally this sort of thing goes on All the time in washing ton. It is in fact widely regarded As a Normal slate of affairs. This is of course the same Fitzwa Ter who puts Down the presidential quotes fabricated by Larry Speakes. His predecessor on the while House podium As a damned outrage had apparently offended Filz Walcer s delicate sensibilities be cause he asked an aide to make up some innocuous stuff about the world i breathing easier and told re porters falsely that Reagan had in probably whispered these Sweet Noth Ings into Mikhail Gorbachev s receptive car. Washington now presumably breathes easier because fit Waler has stood up Tor the truth arid because an equally outraged Reagan has told the nation s newspaper editors that he was appalled by All the fiction being written about him by his former aides. That Flap will die Down while speak is ponders How much his future has been damaged by his Public confession of error and by his resignation As a lop Hack Tor Merrill Lynch it will no doubt be revived anew Cit month when another kiss and Tell Book by Donald Regan the former White House chief of staff hits the headlines. Up cakes Book does t reveal too much about the Reagan years. Until Regan look a fancy to him late in the game speaker was t much of a player. It docs underscore however both How Scakes views this City and How it really works. A apparently major purpose of Scakes Book is to Settle old scores with a Long list of officials reporters and columnists who fur one reason or another once provoked him. Knowing Speakes i suspect he viewed his reve lation that he made up quotes for Rea Gan As one of his most innocuous admissions. Still it provided a convenient Hook which up cakes ene Mies used to skewer him. The pervasive truth in this account is the implicit Assumption throughout nearly All its pages that official Washington operates under a scenario mentality. Thus in dealing with any policy Issue the Basic idea is to forge a line and then to i lilt by in. The sole pull Loward truth and it in t much of one is a fear of being caught lying. In was just such a climate that bred the disastrous Irin con Ira affair. Reagan remains comfortable Wilh that approach to governance. In must remind of him of Hollywood years when publicity agents made up quotes and even whole biographies for their actor clients. It s unfair however to pin All the blame on a hapless Reagan. Nor should we target his manipulative wife Nancy t former actress whose real name As Scakes Unelus Hugly notes is Anne Frances Robbins Davis who has sought to Lell tips about such things As her age she s older and a pimple really skin cancer on the president s nose says Speakes " Reagan had tremendous instincts for saying the right thing at the right  that happens to be True. It i too bad that this irony escapes critic who arc too Busy condemning the messenger to sense the perfidy of his whole message. Of Llort a Hufft met Hinek  Tow own d to i Mno staph of if Rem Slaibi g