European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 06, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The stars and stripes a Page 10 a Walter r. Mears sunday january 6, 1991 Bush s midterm grades bring demos Hope a Washington a on the conservative report card. President Bush a midterm grades Are Down. There is unrest on the Republican right and recurring talk of a. Challenge in the 1992 presidential primary elections. Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole of a Kansas says even if the conservatives do run somebody to a make a statement a in the primaries he does no to think it would pose a worrisome threat to Bush. A i think he should have satisfied most thinking conservatives a Dole said. To besides presidents and the party have passed this Way before. Conservatives bristled at Dwight d. Eisenhower a version of modern republicanism. They did no to care for Many of Richard a Nixon a Domestic programs and some of them opposed his opening to China. A conservative congressman waged a Token Challenge on the right in the 1972 primaries. There was even a touch of disenchantment with some administration decisions when Ronald Reagan was president. Now the Only complaint conservative ideologues have with Reagan is that he chose Bush for vice president in 1980 and thus put him on the track to the White House. A a a stay the course was president Reagan a slogan a said Amy Moritz president of the National Center for Public policy research. A a a whereas the course a is fitting for president  a there almost surely will be a revolt if George Bush and his most senior White mouse aides continue to repudiate the Reagan legacy As they have done in the past year a wrote Burton Yale Pines senior vice president of the heritage foundation a conservative think tank and sometime Haven for republicans heading in or out of government. Dolic interviewed on no cd so meet the press a said Bush a real problem Isnit the conservatives but rather the threat of War in the Middle East and the slumping Economy at Home. A i think its make or break time for George Bush a Dole said. A so far the conservative revolt is largely academic. It is based in the conference rooms and seminars of theorists on the right not in the political organizations in which such an uprising would have to take shape in order to take hold byt992. Bush a political allies say he has the support of most Republican conservatives despite their Wrath at the tax increases in his budget Deal. That was the single Issue that prompted the sharpest complaints from a panel of seven conservative activists and theorists who graded Bush a first two years in office in a Survey by the heritage foundation. Pines was one of the graders he marked Bush Down to a a do and said the president was in a Sophomore slump. A nah Best he is reactive Pines wrote. A at worst he. Risks being a Herbert Hoover William Howard Taft one term  t Mark Blitz of the Hudson Institute said Bush earned a  a although the president is not living up to conservatives wishes he is still much. Better than Michael Dukakis would have been a Blitz said faint Praise that touches one of the dilemmas of a Challenge a if it gets anywhere it can help the democrats. More than 30 years ago Barry Goldwater told conservatives to support Nixon a 1960 Republican ticket even if it Wasny to the one they really wanted saying their Day would come. A a let a grow up conservatives a Goldwater said. A we want to take this party Back and i think some Day we can.�?�. They did most durably during the eight years of the Reagan presidency. Now rebellious conservatives argue that the Reagan legacy is being undone by the built administration. And Bush conservatives say it Isnit so. A a the associated pres Jim Fain world watches Chicken game played on to Washington a it lacks the human grandeur of the Lone hero facing Down the tank in Tiana men Square a or the historic sweep of communism a collapse at the Berlin Wail a but this first global to psychodrama of the Chicken game that traditionally precedes War has its own fascination. Its set in arabian exotica with sheiks in Mercedes Quot f-15s spooking camels Gas playing volleyball while the Young men they soon May be trying to kill Kneel on prayer rugs a few Miles away. Its All there on your to screen no matter what part of the Globe you occupy. Its Schoolboy posturing is As old As the first dare and double dare face off Between rival Cave dwellers but never before has the ritualistic soap opera been transmitted simultaneously to the entire human race. 1 the tawdry process of Bluff and counter Luff by which nations stumble into wars or Back off and try to pretend they intimidated each other has repeated itself throughout history. But never before in living room color. A. A even the bit players become instant celebrities. Brent scowcroft Dick Cheney and Jim Baker regularly roust themselves out on sunday mornings to make the Counte Case. We hear the moves kibitzer in the British parliament the Kremlin the Council of Europe. Central casting could never have dreamed up the two protagonists. George Herbert Walker Bush Andover Yale chauffeured son of a Wall Street banker Over taught by Stern parents to share half with every child in sight intent on shaking the wimp image that resulted. Saddam Hussein fatherless at birth shaped by an embittered Uncle Assassin while still in his teens ruthless murderer and Klutzy mis calculator awesome bully in Small matters inevitable Bungler of major ones. Hitler and Mussolini had their Absurdity captured on Grainy footage but earlier potentates escaped. They had the Good Fortune to live before camcorders. Their portraits were softened by sycophant artists their pratfalls retouched by historians who ignored the ludicrous. The trouble with the Chicken games they All played As anyone bloodied in a schoolyard fight is Likely to remember is that when goaded across the line people frequently get Hurt. World War i started by Accident and wiped out almost generation there a no reason to think televising the newest diplomatic roller Derby will make such miscalculation More Likely. Nor much reason to Hope it will make it less. If standing naked before All Mankind makes More a awkward the business of backing Down it also forces leaders to think twice about the opinions of those whose lives they Wager. Vietnam was primitive to compared to what Well see next time. You can watch the previews in the strutting of those pot bellied iraqi reservists in the Earnest shy american faces at every station break. A Cox news Servic Andrew j. Glass n Power brokers Are confused too Washington a a so what Are the folks saying up there a Bobby Harper Atlanta a popular drive time radio Host asked me the other Day. A will it be peace or War a a _ people like to think that politicians arid  ply their Trade Here have a Keener sense of what the future holds in store for All of us. Washington Power brokers rarely discourage such fanciful notions. In fact some of them who earn a Nice living by a opening doors along the Potomac do Little More than what their clients could do Tor  a Well thumbed government phone directory. To his credit president Bush admits that he. Wasny to among the few who foresaw the communist collapse in Europe. A a but that has not kept him from Honing a vision of a  framework in which greedy Guys like Saddam Hussein who upset a the new world order Quot must Back Down or else get theirs. A in the Serene splendor of the Oval office the president tells visitors that he Hopes a War if it comes to that will last no More than a few Days. V the few iraqi diplomats left Here to peddle Saddam Scase appear to be flexible on All issues a save for journalists visas to Baghdad which they stamp As valid for no More than 10 Days. I hey do not like to talk about what they. Luvs done to Kuwait. When pressed they say just look what the israelis have done to the West Bank. A it Baghdad is bombed they suggest then Toree w ill he used against americans All Over the world including Here in this magnificent capital. They say that no one including the president will he immune. A few Miles away at the White House the Issue of War or  is also being weighed a Bur from a much different perspective. A presidential adviser considers the Prospect of an iraqi terrorist Type at tack on Washington or a similar Galvaniz ing event. There would be an upside and a Downside to this he says. On the one hand it would end All doubts about american resolve. On the other it would make it harder to fight for narrowly defined National interests. A moral crusade would require the near total destruction of Iraq. Destroying Iraq would satisfy a lust for revenge an emotion that comes easily to mind in the Middle East but is More alien to american soil. Real . Interests in the area Are More mundane maintaining a stable relatively cheap Supply of Energy. That would fuel a new economic Boom and bring an end to the w widening slump. 1 hese i Armatie concerns were what the invasion of Kuwait was All about. Tor Saddam sought not Only to wrest control of 2 million barrels of Oil a Day in Kuwait thus doubling his own Supply but also to intimidate and undermine the saudis and their friends who control another 10 million barrels. 7 7�?o. To undo Saddam s thrust and still retain regional stability would require a carefully calibrated strike a just the kind the president says he would never ask in the aftermath of Vietnam. The ironies do not end there. Even though most palestinians see Saddam As their Champion an american led a Victory in the Region would offer them their Best Chance of forging a palestinian Homeland. _ quo that is because it is Only when the israelis feel Safe from an Arab onslaught that they would conclude a. Genuine . A. Quot Cox