European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 3, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes William Safire Over conf Dence could become Bush s downfall before the conventions in was generally conceded that George Bush was running substantially behind Michael Dukakis. Today pollsters pundits sages and savants opine in unison thai Bush has caught up and pulled ahead. What happened did t Bush s Choice of tunning mate backfire at his convention in contrast to the smooth Way Dukakis handled the Jackson Challenge How could it be if the Duke made no mistakes and the vice president blundered that the Lead changed set aside the possibility thai the consensus was wrong a month ago and is wrong now the Only thing we can be certain Boul is that the perception of who s ahead has changed. What caused the Shin f we could predict the consequences or certain personalities acting on Given issues we could hold an election by computer simulation happily we cannot which is  Lymm sucking Dodge Are making esoteric omelettes out of the egg on our faces. We All have theories to explain the seeming shift in momentum. Try a few 1. Domination of attention theory. Although these Lection of a controversial running mate was widely interpreted As spoiling the Bush Entrance it effectively wiped Dukakis off everybody s radar screen out of sight out of mind out of the Lead. This is the Dukakis staffs favorite 2. Never Loe a stranger theory. The new Man professing centrist views was subject to attack As a secret Liberal and closet cart Eric the change came with the pledge patriotism impugning Issue and the furlough which More legitimately questioned the Duke s stand on punishment the Bush staff is pushing this conjecture 3. Snotty elitist Wise Guy Media backlash theory. Serves pm right the lefty hypocrites which is explained by its intemperate but Heartfelt title. My own suspicion which is not Jpseph Logist enough to be called a theory is that the democratic convention came across on television As dominated night after night by Jesse Jackson and his legions of admirers while the Republican convention was Vanilla ice Cream on White bread culturally maj Onlan an and non threatening but backed by a Don to let them take pros peril away threat and a weakness cads to War warning. The democratic orations said Trust us we have families we Salute flags we re just like you but the relentless picture on the tube was saying we re not you at All. The Republican orations said we re the True party of kind and gentle change but the picture was saying we Are you and not  Anthony Lewis which brings us to what we can Hope is the Nadir of the Campaign. Bush has come off the floor with an uncharacteristic snarl seeking the approval of Reagan democrats by Flag waving making an Issue of the pledge of allegiance and . School prayer and slyly suggesting that a concern for civil liberties is in american. In response Dukakis is giving up his arrogant Massachusetts Rose Garden strategy. He is clearly where Bush was a month ago on the defensive needing to come out of hiding to define himself to explain in some detail where he stands that cd Bush when he Ras trailing to Ted Koppel s interview Dungeon Dukakis May now have to follow. Both men Are wooing the constituency of the mean spirited. Let s face in that s a sizable slug of the electorate but it h probably not the majority of the swing vote. Most inde Pendents come Down in the end More on pocketbook issues than social issues More on character judgments than a candidate s Speed up the Greasy  m More worried about Bush the front runner than Bush the underdog. When running scared he is open available and specific but when he gets ahead and starts running not to lose he becomes aloof and imperious. That s what he s doing now in debate planning. Affront runner he wants Only to debates and neither one devoted Only to foreign affairs lest his opponent match or Trump the supposed Bush Strong  shows the vice president to be overconfident about his Lead and  about his ability. As the wheel keeps turning the Bush Campaign May need those  not count Loo much on the pledge Issue George never forget the example of  led the pigeons to the  we kids used to Mur Mur hands Over hearts and to the Republic for Richard stans he is still the most saluted Man in american history but who remembers what for Bush s criticism of Acle ties revives a Nasty Era when Franklin Roosevelt nominated Felix Frankfurter to the supreme court in 1939, voice soothe extreme right called professor Frankfurter a communist. They cited especially the fact that he was a member of a National committee of the american civil liberties Union. On Jan. 12, 1939, Frankfurter himself appeared As a witness before a Senate judiciary subcommittee a break from the traditional practice of supreme court nominees. The questions begun by sen. William e. Borah a Idaho. Focused on his association with the Acle. Frankfurter explained How the civil liberties Union had Cost into being after world War i a time of Public Hys Teria about supposed Radical plots. He had been a Federal prosecutor Frankfurter said and he knew about the dangers of Power in official hands. He knew the need for a group of people whose special Job it should be to be watchful of the Bill of  As an example of his Rote he said the Acle had consulted him about whether to help the  flux klan when Boston officials tried 10 Stop it from holding a Parade. "1 said of course civil Liberty Means Liberty for those whom we do not like or even detest " he was surely paraphrasing a passage in one of his Favoriti opinions by Justice Holmes if there is any principle of the Constitution that More imperatively Calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought not free thought for those who agree with us but Freedom for the thought that we  Borah asked about the relationship of the Clulo communism. So far As 1 know Frankfurter re plied it has no relation to communism except that if a communist claimed the Prol Clion of the Constitution the american civil liberties Union would be within its rights and duty to see that he got that constitutional  sen. Pat Mccarran a conservative Nevada Democrat who later wrote the ideological exclusion provisions into our immigration Law was the chief hostile questioner. He asked whether Frankfurter knew about congressional committee reports attacking the Acle. "1 have not read them Frankfurter said. But he added i am chargeable with responsibility which i cheerfully As sume. As to my association with the american civil liberties Union. The re Cord of its activities and my relation to them is not what somebody else May have said about those  Mccarran turned to Harold Laski the British labor party theoretician. Did Frankfurter know him of  quite Well very  do you subscribe to his doctrine Mccarran asked. He held up a Lask Book titled communism which he said advocated communism. Frankfurter replied that the Book was a study and it was impossible to say what its doctrine was. If it advocates the doctrine of marxism would you agree with it senator Frankfurter replied i Donot believe you have Ever taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United states with fewer reservations than i have or would now. Nor do i believe you arc More attached to the theories an practices of americanism than i am i rest my answer on that  the audience in the hearing room cheered. With that passionate answer breaking from his rather pedagogical style Frankfurter had exploded the opposition. His nomination was approved unanimously by the Contr Nettei and five Days later by the Senate. In that Vignette we can see much meaning for today. Now As then this country has politicians who do not believe in Freedom of thought who try to equate the idea of protecting civil liberties with communism vice president Bush follows an old pattern when he Calls Michael Dukakis a card carrying member of the Ameri can civil   it is he Pat Tern of pal Mccarran of Joe Mccarthy. Is that what Bush thinks americans want in a pics Ideal is that the real George Bush i find it hard to believe thai the answer to either of those questions is yes. But if not Why does Bush persist in an attack whose empty nastiness was exposed in a Senate hearing 50 Yean ago Felix Frankfurter turned Oul to be a judicial conservative ironically. Bui he always thought a conservative was some one who believed in american liberties and their Protection. One of his parti Muiir heroes was Henry l. Stimson. The great lawyer and Public servant who As it happens to at George Bush s Andover graduation. Stimson was a Republican of another age another tradition