European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 22, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday May 22, 1991 the stars and stripes Page 13 commentary Alan Pell Crawford the ugly fight Over the enforcement of a politically corrects attitudes on College campuses will get uglier. Paul Weyrich is climbing into the ring and this is just the sort of dust up the new right brawler dearly loves. Having Little or nothing to do with such matters of governance As economics or foreign policy this dispute goes right for the gut. The most divisive issues from racial quotas to Gay rights a get dragged out and snarled Over mostly by those without the slightest interest in what is Best for higher education. A self described a political Mechanic a Weyrich is pushing a Bill to deny Federal funds to any institution of higher learning with a policy of punishing students for what is otherwise constitutionally protected speech. It is precisely the kind of legislative action that the founder and president of. The free Congress foundation likes to put Forth a deliberately provocative extremely unlikely to become Law and almost wholly symbolic. The Bill has no sponsors but it will find them soon enough. When Weyrich Speaks too Many republicans on Capitol Hill Jerk to attention. Surviving the movements seemingly endless internal skirmishes he has emerged Over the last 15 years As the single most powerful Force in new , All the while upholding a Standard of ideological purity Only he himself meets. Weyrich is not listened to just on Capi to Hill. When conservatives gathered last month to roast the new right Straw Boss White House chief of staff John h. R Sununu former drug enforcement chieftain William j. Bennett and Secretary of housing and Urban development Jack Kemp were among the guests. Each of them at one time or another has had to keep the new right mollified and keeping the new right mollified increasingly Means mollify ing Weyrich. There weren to Many laughs during the roast. Weyrich is definitely not a Hail fellow Well met who engenders in others the backs lapping Bonhomie that makes for uproarious toasts at dinners of this sort. V. A a a a about the funniest thing said was that Weyrich is a so Tough he gets hate mail from Mother  j. Glass sure kids or Wight be Nice Art but Are his though p0ut1cai-Ly, a Correct what Weyrich May Lack in congeniality however he More than makes up for in Talent for political intrigue. As press Secretary for then Colorado sen. Gordon allott.,. Weyrich came to prominence in the mid-�?T7l s As Colorado Brewer Joseph Coors unofficial agent in Washington. He persuaded the Beer Mogul to bankroll the heritage foundation and the committee for the survival of a free Corn Gross. Once those organizations were in place Weyrich with direct mail fundraiser Richard Viguerie and Campaign tactician Terry Dolan targeted incumbent Liberal Sens Frank Church George s. Mcgovern Birch Bayh Gaylord Nelson and John Culver All five went Down to defeat in 1980. Much has changed since then. Dolan died of aids and his National conservative political action committee has All but ceased to function. The moral majority which benefited from Weyrich a contacts has closed its doors. Viguerie hit with millions of dollars in lawsuits from other conservative groups is a political non entity. The survivor is Weyrich who has not Only managed to consolidate his Power 3r but build on it. Back when he Dolan and Viguerie ran things conservatives plotted strategy at Weyrich a Behest at weekly Kingston group meetings named for the Washington hotel banquet room in which they were held. Today As chairman of coalitions for America Weyrich runs eight such weekly caucuses All More or less under his conv nand each devoted to a policy area and All with considerable influence. Even defense Secretary Dick Cheney has been known to attend the Stanton group caucus where military and foreign policy issues Are discussed he is probably Wise to do so. Cheney owes his Job at least in part to Weyrich. Cheney got the Post that president Bush first nominated John Tower for. Weyrich testified against the former Texas senator because Tower supposedly frolicked with women a to whom he is not  As the glory of persian  War Victory fades and voters become increasingly disenchanted with an administration that refuses to come to grips with Domestic problems Weyrich a already considerable influence will Only increase. Remarkably enough fund raising is up for conservative groups these Days. What that Means is that thousands of disgruntled americans Are now willing to Send their dollars to new right groups despite the recession. Or perhaps because of it. After All. As Weyrich once proclaimed the new right that he represents is not composed of conservatives who seek amelioration of social ills but of a radicals winking to overturn the present Power structures in this  and As Wey Riehs a understandably riled up constituents in Middle America Are Well aware we have those a present Power structures exemplified by president Bush and his. Buttoned Down Middle of the readers to thank for this recession. When you have been Washington insiders for As Long As Weyrich and his cronies however you might have a hard time remembering your own radicalism. That May account for the Peculiar Resep Tion Given the one interesting speech delivered at the Weyrich roast this by Ralph Nader the Only non right Winger to speak. Nader who made common cause with Weyrich to fight the congressional pay raise asked his audience to pause for a moment and contemplate a some of the awful things that would have happened had there been a Liberal regime in Washington in the last 11 years. A they would have padded Over $2 trillion to the Federal deficit. They would have seen waste fraud and abuse reaching record Levels. Law and order for corporate crime would have been a shambles. The Federal Cap would have been taken off the banking beat under the lib craps and the resulting looting speculation and fraud in the a amp a Industry would Cost taxpayers Over a trillion dollars Over a period of 30 years with the commercial Banks not far  by the time Nader was barely into his tirade the right wingers were grumbling squirming in their scats even booing. Given the Opportunity the Bush administrations sorry record represents for rabble routers like Weyrich they should have been jotting Down notes for future fund raising letters plotting further det Noggie conspiracies with Nader and cheering. C 1 to los Angelos time health care shaping up As big Issue for 92 Back in his Hollywood Days Ronald Reagan once made a phonograph record designed to stir up a popu. Lar outcry against medicare. He did so at the Behest of surgeon Loyal Davis who was then both a bigwig in the american medical association and his father in Law. Davis never lived to see the am a devote an entire Issue of its official journal to the problem of caring for uninsured and under insured patients. As a former president Reagan did see his fellow Republican George Bush offer a plan to curb medical malpractice awards As a Way of capping soaring health costs. A. A. A even if the Bush plan is enacted it would hardly make a Dent in the nations $600 billion a year medical Bill. Democrats vow to devise their own Reform plan before the next election. So health care lines up As a big Issue in the 1992 Campaign. Even so the politicians seem Only to pick at the scabs. Chances for Radical changes remain slim. Surveys show voters Are ambiguous about Congress. They distrust it As an institution while they continue to bring Back their own elected members year after year. They Are also ambiguous about health care. A Louis Harris poll reveals that Only one in 10 americans is satisfied with the current system or believes that Only minor changes Are needed. On the other hand. 55 percent say that they Are a very satisfied with their own and their family scare. The Reagan eras modest Stab at health Reform underscores the perils. Democrats built upon Reagan a bid to insure Middle class order people against the huge costs of catastrophic care. They insisted the plan cover poor people too. In the end the whole House fell under a torrent of complaints against higher premiums on government medical insurance a. A a As the amass journal notes the uninsured can be quite expensive too. Society As a whole pays the Price of undelivered prenatal care. It pays for shots never Given. A. It pays for undetected cancers. But those hidden costs and those worse outcomes do not show up on individual medical Bills. Structural engineers would never let Drivers Cross a new Bridge before first doing safety tests. Yet in the name of a Reform a politicians Load existing health structures with newly mandated programs without first testing whether they can withstand the Shock. As a result in some places pregnant women must wait weeks if not months for visits at Public clinics. Meanwhile big City Hospital emergency wards Are fast becoming the Only place the poor can go for medical services of any kind. Reformers despair because they claim taxpayers wont pay the billions needed to fix the system. But a nation that shells out More than 12 cents of every Dollar for health care already pays too much for medical Protection. We would pay less if Rural hospitals with Many empty Beds merged. We would pay less if major hospitals shared their High tech diagnostic machines. We would pay less if doctors did not order up every test under the Sun for fear of being sued should anything go amiss. A Many employers compound the Overall Bill by demanding second opinions while denying coverage Lor routine checkups. Often such checkups could prevent future costly major  it comes to medical care we should All be Able to afford the Best. But some among us cannot afford any care. And others All too often see the system As a kind of Casino where doctors and hospitals can be made to pay off. C co it news service 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 the stars and stripes or the United states government