European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 26, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 a the stars and stripes Friday october 26, 1990 columns Eric Schmitt her arms procurement process defies overhaul in the Long and fitful annals of Pentagon procurement overhaul two recent episodes on Capitol Hill deserve footnotes. Last week an air Force brigadier general Robert w. Drewes told a House investigative panel that a rare review of the Northrop corp., one of the largest military contractors had found systemic production flaws in every program examined including the stealth or b-2, bomber. For the air Force which wants to buy 75 of the radar evading Bat winged bombers for $63 billion the Public castigation of one of its biggest suppliers was unprecedented. Two Days later Drewes civilian Boss air Force Secretary Donald b. Rice told the Senate armed services committee that things weren to so bad after All. The panel had been hastily summoned by its chairman a staunch b-2 advocate sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia. In fact Rice said problems such As engine designers not telling structural engineers about design changes were being corrected. A the review is not a basis for decisions about the b-2,�?� he said. Real overhaul Pentagon critics Are asking or business As usual in the military contractor business and politics As usual in Washington after All the talk of changing procurement procedures including some vaunted new efforts by defense Secretary Dick Cheney to streamline operations and to insure that weapons work before they Are bought the Back to Back hearings Only raised More questions about the Pentagon a ability to clean up the $130-billion-a-year acquisition process once and for All a and its appetite for doing so. A in the broadest context the problems still seem to be there a said Paul f. Math director of research development acquisition and procurement for the general accounting office the investigative Arm of Congress. For the most part the Days of $640 toilet seats and $435 hammers Are gone. The scandals of the 1970s spawned commissions studies reports and a eventually a Laws to promote Cost saving Competition among contractors limit Cost overruns and centralize purchasing authority in the hands of one acquisitions Czar. But even the Best intentions done to seem to be working Well. As rep. Nicholas Mavroules a Massachusetts Democrat and Champion of a career acquisition corps at the defense department puts it a if Congress writes a 10-Page Law the Pentagon will write a 100-Page  the new rules forced a greater degree of Competition in the contracting Industry at a time when it was already suffering from overcapacity. Some companies dropped out rather than confront the bureaucratic snarl. Margi if Pii mrva Nal contractors won awards with Low Ball bids and then failed to meet the contracts standards. Meanwhile the dwindling military budget has set off a mad scramble among Pentagon weapons buyers to secure Money for their pet projects. The Pentagon for example is pressing ahead with a $4 billion electronic radar jamming device that has failed crucial flight tests on fighter planes it is designed to protect. Congress is not blameless. For the last two years Cheney has sought to cancel the Osprey aircraft. The $26 billion Cost is just too High he says. And for two years Congress led by lawmakers from Pennsylvania and Texas where the Osprey is being made has financed the program. Pentagon officials throw up their hands in frustration and complain of pork barrel politics and congressional micromanagement. But when left alone the Pentagon often cannot seem to control its own contractors. Cheney was embarrassed earlier this year after he told lawmakers that the development of the Navy a new a-12 Carrier attack plane was on time. A few weeks later the general dynamics corp. And the Mcdonnell Douglas corp. Said technical problems would put the plane at least a year behind schedule. But to military historians the current obstacles Are no Surprise. A a it a like punching a Feather Pillow a said Gordon Adams director of the defense budget project a Washington research organization. A the feathers just redistribute  c new York time George will Golden state s tarnished political Agenda san Francisco democracy a melodious Thunder Rolls the length of this state which is Rich in rival distractions. The gubernatorial candidates Republican Pete Wilson and Democrat Dianne Feinstein Are tugging at the states sleeve competing for attention with two ballot propositions to which their candidacies Are linked. A big Green is a Radical salad of environmental measures. Proposition 140 would limit the number of terms state legislators and statewide officers could serve. Wilson supports proposition 140, which will pass he opposes big Green which probably will fail narrowly. Feinstein takes the opposite positions thereby undermining her two themes that she represents change for the state and a changed democratic party. Opposition to term limits is intellectually defensible but potentially ruinous for Feinstein. It is the position of the Sacramento establishment which is in particularly bad odor just now after protracted budget bickering As bad As Washington a. Opposition to term limits is the passion of Willie Brown a Democrat who is in his 26th year in the state legislature and is Assembly speaker. Brown a san franciscan is gifted charming Brassy Liberal a an anathema to most republicans Many independents and some democrats especially in South Ern California where most voters live. The democratic party a principal Handicap today is the perception that it is the party of government a that its two most Loyal groups Are government employees and Blacks. Many americans think of those groups As dispensers and recipients of government largess. Brown who is Black May be americans last political Boss. Feinstein a loyalty to him is an admirable reciprocity but it puts her candidacy of a a change in opposition to today a favorite formulation of change a the compulsory rotation of elective offices. Just six years ago Jeane Kirkpatrick a philippic to the 1984 Republican convention chastised democrats in a universally understood shorthand referring to them in their convention City a san Francisco  Feinstein a first task was to prove that she was not another warmhearted but woolly headed Liberal. This she did by aggressively flunking the Liberal litmus test she supports capital punishment. Remember Michael Dukakis bloodless laundering against capital punishment a in response to a question about How he would feel if his wife were brutalized Here is Feinstein referring to the killer of two teen agers a the blew their brains out. Then he ate their hamburgers. I feel it Down to my boots if i do nothing else in a going to make this a Safe  echoing californians most successful politician she asks a is there anyone Here who feels safer than you did 10 years ago a ten years ago Reagan a formulation was do you feel a better off a it is a measure of american regression that a a safer has supplanted the Milder More hopeful a better off As the Public a elemental aspiration. Yet at a moment when scepticism about governmental competence is acute she supports big Green a legislative leap in the dark. It would be a Bonanza for lawyers who would fatten on litigation about its ramifications. And it might be the longest suicide note in history killing californians Prosperity. Big Green is 39 single spaced typewritten pages clotted with 16,000 words Many of them technical terms. No one knows the Cost of its proscription of any pesticides Ever found to cause in whatever doses cancer or reproductive harm. No one knows the Cost of reducing by 40 percent in 20 years emissions of a any gases which May contribute directly or indirectly to global  the los Angeles department of water and Power puts the Cost of that a one provision of big Green the Cost to one department of one City a at $6 billion. Big Green and Feinstein Are being Hurt by the Public a deepening sense of uncertainty and vulnerability. Wilson is being Hurt by the Bush administrations ten thumb Edness that is deepening anxiety and destroying Republican claims to competence and distinctiveness. Wilson is a cautious conservative with interesting wrinkles. He is a passionate advocate of Early intervention in the lives of poor children. He Calls prenatal care the most Cost effective spending government does a to reduce the average class size in California by just one Pupil costs $1 billion so he offends the Public education establishment by favouring alternative credential ing involve High school Honor students in teaching for example. But he like Feinstein finds his most thoughtful ideas drowned out by the thunderous campaigns Over ballot propositions. Recourse to such ballot propositions represents rejection of the Core principle or representative government the people do not decide issues they decide who shall decide. In the autumn of 1988, $129 million was spent on proposition campaigns More than three times the $40.2 million spent on All state legislative campaigns whoever goes As governor to Sacramento must get Back to basics restoring the Primacy of representative government. C Washington Post writers group