European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 02, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday july 2, 1991 the stars and stripes Page 13 commentary William f. Buckley  Sununu s boo boo As trivial concerning the matter of gov John Sununu a few observations 1. What exactly does the term a appearance of impropriety mean Sununu has apologized for the trip to the stamp auction and to the dentist on the grounds that it gave the a a appearance of impropriety. This really begs the question which is was the trip not a a apparently wrong but actually wrong the answer is that the trip was wrong. The taxpayers Are not supposed to pay for philatelists pleasures even if redeemed by dental pain. Expenses incurred in going to either party Are supposed to be personal not official. It Hurt Sununu who is a Metic list in expression to use a term inappropriate to his conduct. It is one thing for someone to say that to receive a Massage naked from a Beauty Queen gives off the a a appearance of impropriety but you can get away with it if you convince the Public that that is All that it was a a Massage. Sununu was t getting a Massage he was engaged a to pursue the metaphor a in coital Defiance of the relevant regulations. 2. Having granted this what then Are we left with defenders of president Bush a refusal to dismiss Sununu i am among them need always to ask the truly relevant question which is what Are the relevant perspectives the axiom pronounced by several editors is disarmingly simple and naive. It is that anyone who can make a mistake of such a character As Sununu a cannot be trusted As the top adviser to the president and the chief executive officer of the White House staff. Well that is nonsense. In the past few months we have been waterlogged by accounts of president Kennedy a sexual Misbehaviour while president of the United states. We know that he boasted to one of his confidantes that he was certainly the first president to have had sex in the Lincoln room with someone other than his wife and we profoundly Hope that this is so. He had sex with women with ties to the mafia and the soviet Union. But there is nowhere a retrospective consolidation of sentiment that he should have been impeached had we known of his behaviour while he was president. Indeed there Are those i have in mind for Andrew Sawislak re instance a former chief of correspondent of time life who will Tell you that they knew the whole thing about Juk and the girls knew it week by week while he was president but that they gave him cover on the grounds that there was no derivative disablement of his capacity As a functioning chief executive tied to his extracurricular activity. Warren Harding kept mistresses in and out of White House closets during his tenure in office. There Are reputable historians who might wish that president Harding a tenure however Brief had been aborted by the disclosure of these activities. But there is hardly anything like a consolidation of opinion on the subject. This May be so because those who have read history know that the sexual behaviour of our princes has in few cases resulted in the impairment of the capacity to Rule. Nero maybe and Caligula. But Henry Viii enters the history books As an effective Monarch never mind his satyr basis and his inclination to dispose of unsatisfactory wives on the scaffold. 3, the question arises is the attack on Sununu in fact an attack on George Bush once again there is the need for perspective. The editor of an important paper in Oklahoma testified on the Macneil Lehrer news hour that there was t any sentiment in his part of the world to do away with Sununu As a Public blight indeed the paper had received Only eight letters on Sununu since the will Waw began. It is proper to raise the question whether this is an indication of the dulled morality of the Public or whether the misuse of Public transportation is merely a venial offence. And the perspectives Here Are critical if the Public deems the transgression trivial there is a sense in which it becomes trivial and is trivial. How Many americans reflecting on the misuse of a government limousine have asked themselves whether they should be fired by their employers because every now and again they use a postage stamp from the office Supply to mail a personal letter mutates Mut Andis they might say to themselves that is the equivalent of misusing a government limousine if you Are chief of staff of the White House. And of course everybody knows about congressional junkets. The late rep. Adam Clayton Powell or. Once took a highly publicized trip to Greece with a  blonde. He was investigating greek affairs. Congressman Powell contemplating the bust of Homer. 4. And the final perspective which is of course president Bush s estimate of the value of Sununu to him As principal aide. It might be a matter of Loya to which is sometimes inordinate but likelier it is an assessment of the value of John Sununu to the Bush administration and nobody is better equipped to pass definitive judgment on that question than Bush a who is saying in effect John Sununu did a dumb provocative thing. But he is an admirable aide and the country would suffer from his dismissal. End of question. C Universal Pross Syndicate Brouhaha on Hill boils Down to just politics president Bush and the democrats have been spotting about the Bush administration s program to Deal with problems that face americans in their everyday lives. The president says the democrats who control both houses of Congress have been sitting on his Domestic program. The democrats say Bush has no real Domestic program to Siton. The president with some fanfare called on Congress Back in March when the persian Gulf War ended to act within 100 Days on his anti crime and transportation Bills. When they failed to do so he accused congressional leaders of partisan foot dragging. The democrats noted that the House of representatives had acted on the so called Brady Bill which would establish a waiting period to permit background checks before anyone could buy a handgun. The president has no love for that Bill but in any Case declared it would not get his approval without the rest of his anti crime program. The Senate meanwhile passed a major transportation measure that must get House action before going to Bush plus their own version of the Brady Bill. Some or All of this might be resolved before Congress takes a month off in August. What is this bickering All about the one word answer is politics. The democrats see the Bush administration s record on Domestic problems As the Only chink in the president s political Armor As the 1992 Campaign approaches. Even though Bush s Job approval rating has come Down somewhat from the awesome Heights his popularity reached after operation desert storm it still is very High and most of the democrats think it would be very risky to attack him on foreign policy issues. But they think voters will respond when they go after Bush on Domestic issues a things like the continuing banking and savings and loan Bank mess the limping Economy the nation s poor record in education and a list of other nagging problems. The emerging democratic strategy apparently will be to accuse the president either of ignoring Domestic problems while giving All his attention to foreign policy or to charge that he has highlighted . Successes abroad to divert Public attention from his failure to solve problems at Home. This strategy clearly is based on what might be called tip s first Law the axiom of former House speaker Thomas a tip Quot of Neill  politics is local a there Are a lot of people in Washington who would like to think that the Mam business of a the capital of the free world is dealing with global issues but that proposition does t enjoy total support on Capitol Hill or in the political office at the White House. Tjie republicans including the president Are not dismissing the democratic strategy As some desperate gambit born of the Lack of foreign policy issues. They know that except in limes of crisis directly affecting the United states a Large part of the Public  care less about what is going on Kuwait China or Latvia. They know the old time a a pocketbook issues a jobs taxes prices living standards and yes crime and potholes in the nations streets a will drive Campaign polities in most election years. So that is Why the White House is making a big Deal of the two Bills the president challenged Congress to pass by summer arid Why some congressional republicans Are working on their own legislation in some Domestic areas rather than waiting for the Bush administration to speak up. C United press International