European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 22, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 columns the stars and stripes George will Wright s Case Many parallels to Meese s it is sauce for the Gander time in your nation s capital. Speaker Jim Wright. God s Gilt to de Mccase the Republican Goose now being roasted is himself being busied. This is Wright s Reward Tor the remarks. Blk achievement of whetting the literary thirst of the teamsters Union. Wright who May have written or caused to be assembled More books five than he read is a More fortunate author than David Hume whose a treatise of human nature fell in famous phrase still born from the Wright s reflections of a i Hubli can fell in big batches into the hands of avid readers. The teamsters bought about a thousand copies As did a lobbyist. The Book was published by a political crony who gets gobs of Wright s Campaign Money for printing services. Wright got a royally of 55 percent. Fifteen percent is Normal for a hardback. Seven and a half percent is Normal for a paperback which reflections is. It was not distributed through bookstores but through political friends and events. One does not need a moral micrometer or a congressional investigation to recognize that inc Book looks like a Money laundering scam for lining Wright s pock ets with Campaign funds. Dul because it involves royalties a Alicr than other kinds of payments it May be Prelec Ted by a loophole thai Wright that prolific author wrote into congressional rules. Of the six questions Over which the House ethics committee will Brood three concern Wright s interventions in govern menial processes and one con Cerns the use of a condominium below Cost. A fifth question concerns Wright s use of a staffer for the cutting and pasting that produced the Book for which mro cily the staffer should be sent to room without dessert. I have not read inc Book because i do not read books the authors have not read. I have read Wright s defense of the publishing arrangement. The defense is damaging evidence either of the Caliper of Wright s mind or. More Likely contempt for the Public s mind. Tic says a great Many Public figures have been paid enormously More generous terms by their pub Lishem than i was paid by mine. Many Public officials writing books have received very Large Advance pay ments far in excess of the total payments received by me. Several under their contracts have received As much As $1 million whether any books might sell that is As raw As the arrangement it seeks to clo in in respectability of course real publish ing houses have Given Large advances in anticipation of James j. Kilpatrick m rebuke Wright. Replied Large sales. The advances arc for books that will be widely reviewed and advertised and distributed nationally. Those books unlike Wrights arc expected to find a Reading Public As opposed to u collection of political operators seeking an end run around rules restricting payments o politicians. Wright uses Power to ride roughshod Over the Only utterly unprotected american minority Republican members of Congress but he is Loo demure to offer even inc smallest Smidgen of advice to the ethics committee. If he would ask the com Mittee to appoint an Independent investigator the committee would do so and its findings would be believable. Instead he says i m not going to try to Tell the committee How to run its heaven forfend. Perhaps the Ideal outcome would be for Wright to be on the receiving end of the sort of Stern pursed lipped report that an Independent counsel is sup Posedly about to drop on a desc s stoop. Wright would be found guilty of nothing worse than bad judgment Sharp practices sailing close to inc line of legality and avarice. He could blame inc avarice on the climate of Reagan ism there was no avarice Here before my at that Point democrats would have to gel rid of Wright or shut up about a Csc. The Case for Mcnese resigning still come Down to this there is an appearance of regarding the perception of impropriety Stich an appearance is said to exist when a few politicians profess themselves scandalized. About this or that. Democrats especially have become sensitivity mongers having Little to say about How they Are going to make America More glorious government being Short of Money to do the making. Democrats have become Virt Crais the term is Joseph Epstein s. They say put us in Power because our inner land scapes the Lush Green Meadows of our sensitivity arc so admirable the new Republic Magazine which frequently compares its sensitivity favourably to a Csc a feel compelled to ladle up sauce for the Gander in an anti Wright editorial tilled the Magazine seen inc future and does t like it one bit. As House speaker Wright would be important to a Dukakis administration so this autumn republicans would say you May not have liked a Meuse in your past but do you wan a Wright in your future . Graduation most significant in Many ways scrabble a. My Dearest heal her we were sitting around the Kitchen the other Day. And you were Reading a funny column about commencement speeches. So Many platitudes so Many cliches you were giggling so hard you could barely make it from one paragraph to another. A crossroad in your life a Torch to carry Don t commencement speakers Ever say anything new or differ Etwell my love this week you will be graduated from Tappahannock county High school. Next month you will be 18. And the month after that you will be in the Netherlands beginning a year abroad As a foreign Exchange student. At the risk of provoking More hilarity your Grandfather a few words to say. The first words of course arc i love you but you will have to take the affection with a speech. The thing is inc commencement speakers Are mostly right. High school graduation in Many ways is More significant than graduation from College. For Good or ill from now on you re mainly on your own. Your parents and your teachers have done about All they can do for you. Of sure your parents will see you through the University of Colorado a year hence and As Long As they live they la be Here to prop you up when you fall Down but when the piano plays pomp and circumstance in the gym on saturday believe me my love a Cor will be Cut. What i am saying is that the Funda mental values you Nave developed arc not Likely to change hereafter. I be watched your values grow Over the years and i like them. You have a keen sense of what is right and what is wrong. So Faras 1 know there in t a devious Bone in your Strong and healthy body. You will make mistakes we All make mistakes but your mistakes won t be irretrievable mistakes. When you re about to get in trouble some inner voice of self re Spect is going to say to you. Whoa Heather Knock it off. And you la Stop Short. I m not thinking of moral values alone. The years have taught you other values also. You re not a sophisticated person if by sophistication we mean the kind of worldliness that other 18-year-old girls have acquired. Most of your life been lived right Here in the Lilac Ridge mountains of Tappahannock county va., population 6,093, your activities sound downright Homespun singing in the Church choir running the sunday Nursery camping with the girl scouts taking a part in the class play. You will be one of Only 54 graduates of Rural High school. But country living its compensations. You have lived among people who Hunt and fish. With your father and your brother you have taken a Canoe Dow White water streams. You have found the quiet pools where Deer come to drink. There is much to be said of a life close to animals to the planting of crops to the rhythm of the seasons and to the Brilli Ance of the stars on a Clear autumn night. And after All you have travelled a Good bit. Remember that six weeks trip in the family station Wagon All the Way to Seattle and Back 12,000 mites and everybody still on speaking terms at the end. List year you had a Little table of Europe with a week in London and a week in Paris. You Learned among other things thai it is not permitted to walk Barefoot through the louvre. Other values have shaped your life and will shape it hereafter. 1 thank god and your parents that you re an omnivorous Reader. You never have been glued to the Boob lube. You be read hundreds of books and you be absorbed something from All of them. Yes. You be read some trashy stuff. That s All right. The experience Laughl you to recognize Sham when you see in. In a world lamentably filled with phonies that skill will serve you Well. Another thing you have the value of a Loving nature. I suppose you Are the pre eminent baby Sitter of Tappahannock county and i can Tell you some parental tears will be shed when you Fly off to Amsterdam. I be watched you with Little children. One of these years bul i will spare you some premature observations on marriage and the family. Have a wonderful year abroad my love and come Back speaking dutch and bubbling with laughter. I expect you to be a Little homesick speaking a foreign language in a foreign land and i expect you to miss your family keenly. Know that we will miss you As deeply. That s the Way it works with High school graduation. When you Cul a Cordil cuts iwo ways. Grandfather synd Cali
