European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 6, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes Tom Wicker Bush s experience should disqualify him for Job have american voters really thought about the implications of electing a president who once was director of he Cia and who later attended All the High level meetings at which the most damning failure or the Reagan administration was perpetrated these questions about vice president Bush the heavy favorite to win Over Michael Dukakis tuesday transcend the specific Issue of How much he knew about the drug trafficking and other criminal activities of the Cia s paid asset Gen. Manuel Noriega of Panama. As the Agency s director. Bush met with Noriega and Bier worked against prosecuting him on charges of having bribed . Service members in a National Secu Rity Case. Bush says he knew nothing or Noriega s criminality. That s the same defense he pleads in the Case of the Reagan administration s arms for hostages dealings with Iran in both instances either he did know to his discredit and is lying now or he did not know which Means he was inattentive and ineffective in the jobs he boasts of having held. More important is he fact emblazoned on Bush s much ballyhooed resume that he was indeed director of Central intelligence during the Ford administration. If elected tuesday he will be the first occupant of that sensitive secretive and sometimes com promised Post Ever to win the White House or to aspire to it or even to become Active in elective poll lies. The directorship has been and should be a non partisan and non political office to use it As a stepping Stone to the presidency sets a dangerous precedent for inc future for the Cia As Well As for the nation. A former chief of . Covert action in the presidency moreover could raise Sharp and damaging prob lems from the past. The Agency Over the years has earned an unenviable reputation among other nations particularly inthe third world for political meddling subversion of governments parties and politicians dealings with Crooks and dictators like Noriega Selling cold War advantage Over local interests and frequent violence. Bush once presided Over All that a fact thai lends itself to up Uili Uton by loss who wish this country no Good. Who knows moreover what future revelation about such past activities might yet Blacken Bush s name in William f. Buckley or. To i  u of Fri of this country As Well As in others where the Cia is hated and feared it s All very Well to say that Covert actions Are Nec Essary though that s a dubious proposition but the reason they re supposed to be Covert is that no one wants publicly to acknowledge them or to have had a hand in them presidents never do or should. Perhaps worse involvement in such International skulduggery even administrative and at a distance might make a future Cia director subject Loblack mail from within or without. National leaders and other important officials often have shown themselves As unprincipled and unsavoury As Noriega. The possibility exists that someone per haps Noriega himself might someday be Able to. Control or influence the actions of a president who once had been chief of . Covert activities. As for the arms for hostages dealings with Iran re cords show that As vice president Bush was present at Alt the High level meetings including the one at which George Shulli he Secretary of state denounced the whole disreputable  insists he did t understand what was going on but it s equally plausible if not More Solo suggest thai a vice president who had headed the Cia an Given it a Green Light for Covert action in fact supported Reagan s secret dealings with Iran and believed thai they would work. That George Bush has never condemned the Amii to loan Deal As anything worse than a mistake hardly suggests that he has Learned to be wary of Covert action. As president the greater possibility is that he will once again give his old comrades of the Cia the Green Light Lor their secret dangerous often harebrained schemes. In several Stales Michael Dukakis is reported no certified to be gaining if so it s because he s finally gotten off the defensive and is waging a fighting Campaign not Only striking Back at Bush s distortions and demagogy bul appealing to the Long Liberal tradition of the democratic party. That probably won t be enough. If voters continue to see George flush s vaunted experience As an asset Tor the presidency rather than the disqualifying record it ought to be. Already because it is anticipated what will be the results of the election on tuesday the Reform in lips Are moving. It was a dirty Campaign.,. It was a superficial Campaign. The candidates were less than High specimens of the political species. Al a More profound level there Are questions about expenses about the appalling sums of Money that Are needed in order to Challenge an incumbent there Are related questions about the apparent Immo ability of incumbents. -. In the House of representatives two years ago More than 98 percent of incumbents who ran were re elect cd. That has got to mean something especially when set alongside contrary mandates from Lite electorate what s going on in a representative democracy in which 60 percent of the people Vole for Ronald Rea Gan but 60 percent of the members of the House of representatives arc democrats and we come upon a Basic question which has to do with the role of the political party. Next tuesday Lowell Weicke Rof Connecticut is the outstanding Chav Lenic to that two Pany system. He Voles As a left Wing Democrat and he is elected As a Republican. Docs this make sense no. Bul the imposture is Only now being publicly challenged. There will be Republic. Cans in Connecticut who will either vote for the demo cratic challenger Joseph Lieberman or else will with hold their vote from Lowell Weicker now the fancy word forthe kind of thing  does is  Weicker loves to be called a Maverick. V indeed. Or. Weicker will accept in a couple of weeks the Wayne Morse political integrity award. The win leg Mari a friek1 dece yes a be Forte Ner of that award last year was California supreme court Justice Rose Bird. She was a Maverick in that she decided what kind of Laws appealed to her and then construed the Constitution of the state of califor Nia As stipulating such Laws. What inc people of the Wayne Morse historical association do not stress is hat Wayne Morse had the political integrity to leave he Republican party against whose policies he voted so regularly in order to join the democratic party. If or. A ticker were to abjure the Republican party and join the democrats he could continue to Vole his conscience without dam aging the two party system. His trick is that of the skillful egomaniac. Do everything in your Power to discourage the Ascendancy of any other Republican so As to secure As by default your own nomination. And then woo the democrats with the Catnip of your left voting record confident that the republicans will need to come along because there Are enough Gullible republicans around to place party loyally above the necessity to work for the Strate Gic re vital Ilion of a Republican of buy in Connecticut in some manner or form differ Cal from the left Wing of the democratic party. One necessarily pauses to add the personal Factor. Wayne Morse could bore you to deals with his filibusters. Bul there was an academic intelligence there. By contrast or. Weicker is a Blo Viator. If a Rhinoceros could speak he would sound like Weicker consider this As an example. Or. Sticker is in new Orleans with the Republican platform committee the question arises what should be inc Republican party s position on South Africa. Or. Weicker who backs the Dellums Bill which Falls just Short of a declaration of War against South Africa announces thai the government of South Africa is Assad As the government of Hitler s  a woman rises and says senator you la have to explain that to me he replies that both states have racist legislation. Suppose the questioner had gone on to say sen Ator go Back a generation. There was racist legislation on inc books of every slate in the South docs thai mean that the state of Virginia was As bad As Germany under Adolf Hitler the problem with junk thought is thai in under mines effective analysis. If you Are going to say hat Salvador Allende s Chile was As bad As statin Russia because both Allende and statin were marxists you will make a rhetorical Point thai appeals to superficial thinkers. But you will undermine the Noble Pedigree of the distinction and distinctions arc the instruments of Clear thought of right  Weicker is a Beacon of constitutional and moral fog. And he is a lumbering Challenge to the concept of a two Pany system. If sen Edward Kenned decided to declare himself a Republican no doubt he. Could continue to represent the voters in Massachusetts but such cynicism at the expense of the iwo party system would be applauded Only by the cynics who Admire or Weicker s Little came and the Gulli ble who make his Little game possible. There will be much to deliberate on after the election. One can Only Hope thai the Weicker Paradox will be a historical problem and not a current prop icon. -