European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 12, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday october 12, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 13 / commentary Tom Wicker Thomas would just add to court s mediocrity the confirmation of Clarence Thomas As the ninth Justice of the supreme court could result in a strengthened conservative majority but it certainly would strengthen the Rehnquist courts position As one of the least distinguished of modern times. The current Justice who achieved the highest position in pre court life is Byron White who was Deputy attorney general when he became the Only High court appointee of John f. Kennedy. That slightly outranks chief Justice William Rehnquist who was an assistant attorney general in the Nixon administration. Thomas and Antonin Scalia reached the court of appeals for the District of Columbia. John Paul Stevens Anthony Kennedy and Harry Blackmun were Federal District judges. David Souter sat on the new Hampshire supreme court and Sandra Day of Connor on the Arizona court of appeals. So the Rehnquist court does not include a former senator a As Hugo Black and James f. Byrnes were when named to the court. It has no former governor a such As Earl Warren of California or Frank Murphy of Michigan. There is certainly no former president like William Howard Taft chief Justice 1921-1930and there is not even a former presidential nominee As Charles Evans Hughes chief Justice 1930-1941 was in 1916. One May search the Rehnquist court in vain for an experienced Diplomat. Murphy and Taft had been High commissioners of the Philippines John Jay the very first chief Justice helped negotiate the treaty ending the american revolution As Well As a a Jay a treaty with great Britain. A a former attorney general like Harlan f. Stone chief Justice 1941-1946 under Calvin Coolidge or Robert h. Jackson named to the court in 1941 after serving As solicitor general then attorney general that kind of experience is absent today. A former Holder of some other Cabinet Post Salmon p. Chase chief Justice 1864-1873 and Fred Vinson chief Justice 1946-1953 had been secretaries of the Treasury Arthur Goldberg 19621965 had been Secretary of labor. Forget Cabinet officers on the Rehnquist court. Missing also Are great and proven jurists from other courts unless justices Souter and of Connor Are considered great and prove nor people with widely known Legal reputations a such As Benjamin Cardozo or Felix Frankfurter. Nor does the Rehnquist court boast a splendid patriarch of the Law like Oliver Wendell Holmes an associate Justice from 1902 to 1932, or Louis Brandeis 1916-1939the first jew to serve on the court. Depending on ones Point of View not All these jurists May deserve Honor. But whatever political motivations presidents May have had in naming them All were people of considerable achievement Legal or political or both before being confirmed. The Rehnquist court includes estimable individuals but its Overall Precourt record is hardly outstanding. Its True however that Many revered and remarkable justices came to the supreme court Little known to the general Public a William j. Brennan appointed by president Eisenhower comes to mind. Pre court performance outstanding or not Isnit necessarily a guide to performance on the Bench. Still the supreme court is one of three co equal branches of government an institution the american people have a right and a need to View with respect. Its makeup depends in the first place on the occupant of the White House but recent presidents seem to have searched More nearly for ideological compatibility than for judicial or political distinction. Senate hearings on the nomination of Thomas suggested that George Bush has followed this dubious pattern. During the ju4iciaiy committee hearings Thomas often seemed to insist that he was just what sen. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota called him a nominee a who says that he is an empty vessel and had no views at All on widely discussed matters. That is a better reason than most for the Senate to deny him a seat on a diminished supreme court to which Thomas himself suggests he could bring Little but a Lack of awareness experience and scholarship. The court needs no More mediocrity. C Tho new York time Anthony Lewis Pope report Sheds Light on Gates Candor the Candor of Robert m. Gates has become a it rime Issue in his confirmation hearings and one Intel gence episode throws particular Light on it the 1985 Cia report stating a the Case for soviet involvement in the 1981 attempt on the life of Pope John Paul ii. The character of the still officially secret report is indicated by some of its reasoning. A the soviets were reluctant to invade Poland in 1981, the report said a so they decided to demoralize the polish opposition by killing the polish Pope. The report came to this menacing conclusion a since the soviets Haven to been blamed by world opinion thus far they Are then More inclined than before 1981 to undertake adventurous  the tortured logic of the report was quite uncharacteristic of Cia documents and indeed was denounced in a Cia review a few months later As a deliberately  it read like a novelists fantasy of red conspiracy. Yet Gates sent the report to president Reagan and then vice president Bush with a covering letter describing it As a a comprehensive examination of who was behind the attempted assassination and saying that while questions remain a we feel Able to present our findings with some  in response to criticism of the papal paper Gates testified last week a i think in retrospect the covering note probably should have indicated that it the paper did not thoroughly examine All the alternatives that were  that was a a a concessions designed to conceal. If the covering letter had been honest about the politicized nature of the papal report it would not have been submitted. The question is Why Gates ordered such a report a and then As it happens rushed the draft through the approval process in 24 hours. The answer is evident. William Casey the director of the intelligence Agency then was seized with the notion that the russians were behind everything wrong in the world including the attempt on the Popes life. He wanted a report to that effect and Gates got it for him. The antecedents of the affair in fact go Back to the Day after president Reagan was inaugurated when Secretary of state Alexander Haig made a speech linking the soviet Union to All the worlds terrorism. The state departments Bureau of intelligence and research then commissioned a National intelligence estimate Nie on the subject. When the Nie draft was shown to Casey some time later he called its authors into his office. He held up a Book and said contemptuously that he had Learned More from it than from All of them. The Book was the terror network by Claire Sterling a journalist who advanced the theory that a soviet conspiracy was behind the worlds terrorism. Cia specialists dismissed the Book As useless. They thought Sterling had been taken in by their own a Black propaganda a anti communist tales planted in Europe by the Cia. But Casey and Haig were fans of Sterling. And in 1984, she published another Book the time of the assassins tracing the papal assassination attempt to a Kab plot. The Cia had actually done a study of the attack on the Pope in 1983. It concluded that knowledge was fragmentary and conflicting but that there was no reason to believe there was soviet involvement. And Robert Gates then briefed the Senate intelligence committee to that effect. Why did Casey allow the dispassionate report in 1983, and then in 1985 have Gates order up a politicized report tuned to the Sterling theory a and Rush it to completion and distribution in 1983, with Yuri Andropov As soviet Leader soviet american relations were at a Low Point. In 1985, Mikhail s. Gorbachev had taken Over and relations were warming up a so much so that by november there was a Reagan Gorbachev Summit meeting in Geneva. Casey alarmed did what he could to keep Reagan thinking a evil  and Gates did his bidding. Gates has done his Best to conceal the real Point of the papal report episode a and much else. One of the witnesses against him Harold 1�?T. L Ord a much praised Cia Veteran said he had reluctantly decided he must speak because Gates testimony was  the English have a phrase for it Quot too Clever by  c the now to k Limos