European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 16, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 a the stars and stripes columns David s. Brodersen. Mitchell can take a Bow for clean air Bill in an Era of divided government when partisan differences Cloud every transaction Between Congress and the White House the natural condition is policy stalemate. Only rarely through exceptional Effort can major Progress be made on National problems. That is Why the Senate action earlier this month in passing a new Dean air Bill by a bipartisan majority of 89 to 11, is deserving of comment and commendation. Many on Capitol Hill and in the Bush administration can properly claim a share of the credit. But it was particularly a Triumph for Senate majority Leader George Mitchell a Maine. His determination and skill virtually All those who watched agree were essential to passing this landmark piece of environmental legislation. As the final vote came sen. Max Baucus d-mont., who managed the Bill along with sen. John Chafee r-r.i., recalled one late night negotiating session a it was after Midnight. We were tired. We were not making much Progress. Senator Mitchell turned to me and said a Max this is the craziest process in be Ever been involved  but he stuck with it responding to every new problem with a new solution. Finding a new Compromise. Finding a creative Way to reach an  clean air legislation had been stymied in Congress for 13 years by a formidable set of regional and economic interests to say nothing of the Reagan Adir ministration s hostility to any environmental initiatives. During his years As majority Leader sen. Robert c. Byrd d-w.va., personally thwarted Mitchells efforts As the Bill a principal sponsor to get it to a vote on the Senate floor. When Byrd retired As majority Leader after the 1988 election to take Over the chairmanship of the appropriations committee his successor Mitchell promised the clean air Bill would finally pass. To make that a possibility he and other key legislators conducted lengthy negotiations with White House policy adviser Roger Porter and other administration officials to forge a Bill that Bush would sign. It was weaker than Many environmentalists hoped but far stronger than existing legislation. The trick on the Senate floor was to Block All a Deal breaking amendments whether from those trying to strengthen the Bill or derail it. That required Mitchell and Senate minority Leader Bob Dole r-kan., who was also instrumental in effecting the strategy to construct a new coalition to meet each new Challenge. There were a dozen times when a shift of a handful of votes would have wrecked their Hopes. Time and again Mitchell would close debate by arguing a even against amendments whose substance he personally supported a on behalf of the Compromise. Rallying support against a bipartisan amendment by two staunch environmentalists Sens. Pete Wilson r-calif., and Tim Wirth d-colo., that would have required introduction of Alt mate fuel vehicles he said Quot once again we see Here As we have seen so William f. Buckley or. Often the desire for perfection resulting in nothing. Those who in Good Faith offer this amendment run the risk of there being no Bill at All. A we have had 13 years of speeches. Do we want 13 More. Or do we want a Bill do we want to make statements or do we want to make Law i say to my colleagues if we do not get a Dean air Bill this year we Are not going to get a clean air Bill in this Century. Has Compromise now fled the Senate Are we unable As a body to reach agreement on legislation that without dispute substantially and dramatically strengthens and improves current Law do we now measure every proposal in the Senate. By some abstract Standard of perfection that each senator is now free to offer on his or her own that is a prescription for  the Wirth Wilson amendment was tabled by a 5246 vote. But Byrd seeking $500 million in special unemployment benefits for Coal miners who May lose their jobs because of the tighter pollution rules posed an even More formidable Challenge. As chairman of appropriations Byrd holds the purse strings for projects of importance to every senator. He called on them in their offices one by one to stress the importance he attached to his amendment. He reminded senators who had promised their support casually before the amendment was drafted or its Bill wrecking potential Clear that if they reneged he would not forget against that full court press by one of the most effective Senate insiders in history Dole and the White House delivered 34 of 45 Republican votes. Mitchell came up with 16 democrats a just enough to prevail. If politics were As intriguing to americans As sports that Roll Call would be Analysed As lovingly As Nick Faldor a final round in the masters. It took that same kind of artistry and stamina. Bush later told friends he Hopes Mitchell a whose foreign policy criticisms get under his skin a understands a we saved his leadership for  White House support was in fact vital. But in an Era when compromises Are scorned and political skills held in Low esteem it was George Mitchell who showed that he can make a Deal a and make it stick a for the Benefit of millions of americans who will neither know nor understand what he did. C Washington Post writers group Robert Harris last minute Savior is not a wimp listen to the 24-Ycar-old sister of one of the murdered boys when the news got out that a Federal judge had once again postponed the execution of the convicted killer a i was expecting this. I told you Guys i told everybody it Wasny to going to happen. Not with wimpy judges like that and wimpy people in the  she continued a the wimpy judge who gave Robert Harris the killer his Way a who cares How sick Harris is who cares if they want to claim some sort of sickness or something does that make it of so what this new testimony a they had their Chance to bring that up 12 years ago with the jury and they did no to. So too  the Case in question is singular in the annals of callous brutality. Two Brothers seeking an automobile from which to Rob a Bank seized one belonging to two 16-year-old boys who were parked with half eaten hamburgers. They were ordered to a Remote area and once there Robert Harris according to the testimony of his brother shot one of the boys. The second fled but Harris pursued him to a Bush beneath which he was hiding and killed him. Back in the car the two Brothers finished the hamburgers and then went off to Rob the Bank. In a few hours they were apprehended and the killer was sentenced to death. That was 12 years ago. If . Judge John Noonan Hadnot found for the defense a week ago Friday Harris would have gone to the Gas chamber last tuesday the first in 23 years to suffer the death penalty in California. Now Here is a complicating Factor a i happen to know John Noonan. He is not a wimp. I done to know whether he has private opinions on capital punishment. He has very Public opinions on abortion a he thinks it is homicide. He is an accomplished theologian he is a practising Catholic and a sometime professor of Taw. He would fall in my estimate in the lowest 1 percentile of those who would be influenced by Liberal trendiness. It was something More than that of course that caused Mother Teresa to Telephone California gov. Deukmejian to plead for clemency for Harris. But then Mother Teresa would not want anybody hanged not even the Devil. And All those Acle types out there cheering his decision can Only have embarrassed John Noonan because their demonstrations added to the confusion generated by the Case. All the anti capital punishment people wanted was a delay in the execution. If judge Noonan had err Antly misinterpreted the Law in such a Way As to Post Kone the execution they a have cheered is ignorance or his arrogance a anything to get the prisoner off. What was the Issue whether a ruling by the supreme court in 1985, seven years after the trial of Harris was applicable. That ruling holds that anyone up for murder is entitled to a a competent psychiatric defense. Harris parents were a mess he was bom prematurely to an alcoholic Mother and suffered whatever it is one suffers from fetal alcoholism. His father was a sadist and it is alleged by the defense that the beatings administered to the son caused brain damage. True Haven to the slightest idea. What John Noonan said to the feverish courthouse was a the Issue before us is not the rightness or wrongness of the death penalty or its Wisdom or a Wisdom or its constitutionality or the unconstitutionality. Our task is to deter mine if the petitioners rights under Law have been  he went on to Rule that a a substantial showing was that competent psychiatrists had not been there to give the jury their views. There were two psychiatrists there during the trial. One is dead and the other the prosecutor pointed out is in  to which judge Noonan replied there Are telephones in Africa. To the objection that 12 years Haa gone by since the jury finding Noonan said a a done to dwell on the 12 years. There was nothing wrong with the delay. It is a popular slogan but it has no place in a court of  Noonan is right Only on the final Point the argument does not a e a place in a court of Law. But Popia resentment of endless judicial review o capital cases is a legitimate complaint. If the supreme court were to Rule tomorrow that anyone sentenced to Cea was entitled to a genetic blood test Quiring into a tendency to a Chance he legitimate question is raised whether 2,000 inhabitants of the death pm should All be retried. Or has meanwhile Harris lives but his h not been saved by a bleeding heart. Universal press Syndicate