European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 15, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Saturday june 15, 1991 the stars and stripes Page 13 commentary George will Gorbachev Strauss not what soviets need it was appropriate that when the Nobel peace prize was awarded to the Only significant authoritarian ruler remaining in Europe his acceptance speech resembled a blackmail note give me Money or you la be sorry. Sorry Gorbachev says because he can to be responsible for the ugly consequences of continuing collapse. 1 what is he responsible for he says he deplores his governments violence in the Baltic and other nationalities disputes. He says he deplores his governments unrelenting investment of 25 percent of the Gross National product in militarism. Either he does no to mean what he says in which Case he is part of the problem or what he Means does no to much matter in which Case he can not be part of the solution. Some americans regard Gorbachev said request As an invitation to a whopping buyout. We will buy the soviet Union out of statism. But How by giving the soviet state Money Gorbachev who has vowed to preserve a the socialist Choice made in 1917,�?� who still sends huge subsidies to the Only totalitarian regime in the Western hemisphere and whose Power such As it is is based on the communist party a privileged elite and the Security forces a this Man makes an unsympathetic Oliver twist proffering his bowl for More porridge. For six years now the two great questions of world politics have been what sort of Man is Gorbachev and will the Nomen Latura a the privileged three million who run and Benefit from the soviet system a be the first ruling class in history to liquidate itself for altruistic reasons the answers Are Clear. Gorbachev is the most misunderstood Man of this half Century and the most overrated. James Billington historian and librarian of Congress believes that Gorbachev a never had a Clear program and events have Long since moved far beyond anything he intended expected or can Gorbachev says Billington a is a pure child of this Nomen Latura that is successful Only at perpetuating itself. The soviet unions democratic forces struggling against suffocating statism a against Gorbachev a Leninist base in the Nomen Latura a look toward americans example As a continent wide multicultural nation. There is Little we can do to influence events but the least we can do is not encourage Gorbachev to think that the old game will go on our government giving him spurious legitimacy by brokering the future with him and his Nomen Latura Theo Lippman or. Over the Heads of the people. It is quaint to wish the Moscow embassy occupied by Billington or historian Richard pipes a someone fluent in the language and familiar with the tapestry of history against which the future is fast unfolding. But sending Robert Strauss to Moscow is a bad idea because it be tokens a bad idea that will confirm the soviet elite in its bad idea. The appointment be tokens the Bush administrations idea that foreign relations Are a purely a a practical business to be conducted by a a practical people whose practicality is proved by their preference for reducing relations Between nations to deals Between governments. Strauss widely experienced and Public spirited is a Man for All seasons and Many roles but not his new one. The new York times headline on the Story of his nomination a a the ultimate capitalist a came from a friends description of him a Strauss is the ultimate capitalist if there Ever was one. Just look at his client list a Page and a half of the Fortune 500 companies. Hell teach Mem the soviets about making of in a healthy society you make Money by making things not by having a client the idea that Strauss is the a ultimate capitalist is ludicrous Given the lives of Rockefeller Astor Carnegie Harriman Ford Luce he founded Fortune and other magazines and among today a capitalists Gates of Microsoft Packard of Hewlett Packard Wexner of the limited jobs of Apple. Such people made or make things a railroads steel cars computers a not just deals. Such people do not. Have a client lists a they have factories and payrolls and inventories and they hire lawyers like Strauss. It Speaks depressing volumes about the condition of american capitalism and the degree to which it has caught the disease of statism that the times and much of Washington think the quintessential capitalist is a broker of influence at the seat of the Central government. Frat Strauss and legions of lawyers like him do is not dishonourable. Today state Power permeates society supplementing and supplanting Market forces in the allocation of wealth and Opportunity. Naturally private interests hire political lawyers because influencing government decisions has become an important Arena of Competition. But it is passing strange to think that this aspect of America rather than its entrepreneurial producing aspect is what we should present to the soviet Union. C Washington Post writers group attorney general Dick Thornburgh is running for a Senate seat in Pennsylvania but refuses to quit his Job his critics say this compromises the non political administration of Justice. His defenders say that Robert Kennedy set the precedent in 1964. Now there san inspiring justification Bobby Kennedy never Ever mixed politics with Justice right some Kennedy defenders say its different that he unlike Thornburgh remained in the department of Justice Only a few Days after deciding to the Senate in new York. Thornburgh had planned to be attorney general and candidate for a couple of months. Now that a judge has ruled that the parties in Pennsylvania must have primaries rather than the planned conventions for the Senate nominations his plans and timetable Nav Chanee actually Kennedy stayed at Justice for a couple of months after he had pretty much decided to run for the Senate and for a month after he had definitely decided. He really wanted the vice presidential nomination that year. A forlorn Hope. But not until late july when president Johnson told him a no soap did he resign himself to the Senate race. In late August with his nomination assured by Covert campaigning among delegates to the democratic state convention he announced his candidacy and soon thereafter resigned As attorney general and began running against the Republican incumbent sen Kenneth Keating citing Kennedy As precedent ignores an interesting bit of political trivia. He is the Only former . Attorney general Ever elected to the Senate since senators became popularly elected. Only two others even tried and that was years after leaving office. Ramsey Clark who was Lyndon Johnson a attorney general Rah twice in new York in 1974 and 1976, losing in the general election the first time in the primary the second. Elliot Richardson one of Richard Nixon a attorney generals ran for the Republican senatorial nomination in Massachusetts in 1984 but lost. A Thornburgh has one advantage Kennedy did t have. He is from Pennsylvania. Kennedy was attacked As a Carpetbagger throughout his Campaign. He shrugged it off with jokes. Novelist Richard Condon recalling a memorable Juk moment suggested Frk end All his speeches with a Rich bin Ein new yorker a but the Issue Hurt him. He almost lost. He needed Lyndon Johnson a coattails to win. Frk Defeated Keating by Only 719,693 votes a As lbs carried the state by 2,669,597 votes. Going strictly by precedent Thornburgh is More Likely to be convicted of a crime than to be elected to the Senate. Two of Nixon a other attorney generals were convicted. John Mitchell was sent to prison for obstructing Justice and lying under oath. Richard Kleindeinst got a suspended sentence after a plea bargain in which he admitted to not telling the truth to a Senate committee. C los Angelos times Washington Post 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
