European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 16, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 a the stars and stripes column Walter r. Mear Campaign promises Are made to be broken Campaign promises Are not uttered under oath and president Bush will not Lack for company should he decide to renege on his vehement vow against new taxes. Ronald Reagan did it on the same subject at least a dozen times a and All without sacrificing the impression that he was an unyielding tax Cut Man. Bush of course has not undone his read my lips no new taxes refrain from the 1988 Campaign. All he has done is to ask congressional democrats to bargain on the budget without preconditions. Going in without preconditions docs not mean that there will be an identifiable tax increase As part of the bargain coming out its a Good bet that in the end the Republican White House will just say no. The reasons  have a lot to do with the Sanctity of a 1988 Campaign pledge. With cold War and defense concerns ebbing the no tax stance May be the Best Issue the republicans have going for them. Furthermore for some conservatives it is More than an Issue a it is a policy by which they mean to starve the welfare stale for funds. There is also the dilemma of a government that has run up massive deficits in Boom times facing the Prospect of a need for More taxes just when the Economy could be slipping. Campaign pledges arc another matter. They Are made by the dozens and they do not come with a vote Back guarantee. Dissatisfied voters can Only wait until the next election and by then the issues May have changed and bygone promises May be forgotten. That is As old As politics. Cicero wrote about electioneering in Rome and his guidelines still apply Quot All men have a feeling that they would rather you told them a civil lie than give them a Point Blank refusal. If you make a Promise the thing is still Uncertain depends on a future Day and concerns but few people but if you refuse you alienate people to a certainty and at once and Many people  the damage depends on the Issue. A Promise broken by Lyndon b. Johnson was the undoing of his presidency. Campaigning in 1964, Johnson said he was not a about to Send american boys 9,000 or 10,000 Miles away from Home to do what asian boys ought to be doing for  but he did after winning a landslide election and the Vietnam War was the Burden that led him to renounce his candidacy four years  Lippman or. Richard m. Nixon was wily enough to leave some room for Man Euver in his Campaign promises. In 1968, for example he said he would end the War and win the peace although he did no to say How or when. It ended but not on those terms. The last americans withdrew from Saigon in 1975, and North Vietnam took Over. Nixon who had resigned the White House Over watergate by that time said Congress forced the defeat by restricting and then refusing funds for the War. Jimmy Carter promised in 1976 that head balance the Federal budget in his first term. He  come close. Reagan upped that Ante saying he would balance it and Cut taxes. He got the tax Cut but deficits soared. Reagan blamed it on a recession and on Congress. He made an Art form of raising taxes while presenting himself As the Arch foe of tax increases. As governor of California he said he would not tolerate a tax increase and declared his feet were planted in Cement on the matter. When he had to have a tax increase anyhow he said the sound people heard was the Cement cracking. As president he confounded the democrats by championing one giant tax Cut and then approving a series of increases. Sen. George Mitchell a Maine now the majority Leader says Reagan proposed or signed 13 tax increases a and in the process convinced the american people that he was against All of  backing off a Campaign pledge is As Mitchell said a a rather commonplace occurrence in american  Nixon said last week that Bush can change his position with a no problem Al All. He can say t believed at the time but the situation has changed and in a dealing with  a that a one Way to scrap a Promise. In a the Earl of Louisiana a , lie bling recounts another the Story of a lobbyist who sought repeal of a state tax on movie tickets. He campaigned for Earl Long for governor on the strength of a Promise of repeal. But when Long won he recommended Extension of the tax. A the fellow went to see him and he said a i told my clients that you said you wanted their support and you would t Block removal of the tax. What do 1 Tell them now a a you know what old Earl said a the said til Tell you what to Tell them. Tell them i  a Walter r. Mears has reported on Washington and National politics Lor the a Tor More than 26 , social acceptance thickens one s skin Jimmy Breslin the Street smart columnist for new York new Day wrote a column about his wife a City Council member. He complained about her and All other Quot official  Quot it is one thing when women have jobs that Are not official and they act half Way decent because they Are afraid of a Man firing them a he wrote. A it is something else when they become official. I cannot stand  Breslin is sixty something. He was reprimanded for this piece by a Twenty something new York new Day reporter who is female and korean american. Now like most newspapermen Breslin cannot stand criticism. Most of us can dish it out but can to take it. 1 could Tell you plenty of stories. I know a columnist who cancelled his vacation in order to stay in town and cajole a letter writer into withdrawing a critical assault on him. I know a columnist who forged a Carbon copy of an offending piece to a a prove to an injured Reader that an ignorant mistake had been not the columnist s but an editors. . Mencken who glorified in criticism to the Point of publishing a Book of attacks on his work nevertheless once vowed to a get Quot a letter writer who exposed some Mencken foolishness. Anyway Breslin berated his critic to her Boss and colleagues accusing her of a juvenile arrogance and calling her a a yellow cure and  for that he was reprimanded after demands for such by the asian american journalists association and several members of the staff of new York new Day. Breslin apologized but then made Light of the affair on a radio talk show and was suspended for two weeks. The interesting thing about All this to me is that his column which is what he is paid to do was not grounds for institutional penalty but his temper Tantrum was. That May have been because the papers management is morally enlightened. On the other hand it May have been because 25 percent of the papers circulation is Black asian or hispanic and the word a a Boycott was being tossed around. I would like to think it is the latter. If minorities Are going to depend on the moral sensibilities of the White americans who run things rather than on their own economic clout their Day of deliverance is going to be a Long time coming. The Best Way to achieve status in America is the old fashioned Way buy it. A colleague of Breslin a Robert Reno said this about him a if he Wasny to an original head be just another Windy  done to expect to see an angry reaction from the ancient order of hibernian to this insulting stereotype. There might have been one a couple of generations ago when Irish americans were on the outside looking in. But not today now that they is not. I imagine that a generation or two from now. When today a minorities have joined the Irish amen cans on the inside looking out they wont get excited about coarse or stupid epithets either. And that Rathe than the insulting words themselves is what this is an about. The Baltimore Sun the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of a stars and stripes or the United states government