European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 4, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Monday november 4, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 13 commentary William f. Buckley coarseness of spirit evident in . A scholar recently made a shrewd Point about the nature of americans High reputation among the people of the world. He distinguishes Between our a a hard and our a a soft reputation. The former has to do with the strength of our military our economic resources and the constitutional liberties we enjoy. The soft reputation we have has to do with emanations Given out Over a couple of centuries. The land of Opportunity. The melting pot. Upward mobility. Tamers of the West. The physical courage of our military. Great corporate the Marshall plan and personal $92 billion to philanthropy last year generosity. A secular state but with Strong religious leanings. And of course the question is our soft reputation eroding stories published in a single edition of Usa today remind us How soft our soft reputation can be. There is a distinctive flavor in some of the stories we Are becoming accustomed to take for granted. It has to do with a creeping coarseness of spirit and a lessening civil competence. Consider the headlines a a food Stamps feed almost 1 in 10.�?� the Good news is that the hungry Are Mary Mcgrory being fed the appalling news is that the wealthiest country in the world with the most productive agricultural system in the world is actually having to give out food Stamps to prevent starvation for 25 million people. A a witnesses link Gotti to everybody suspects that the mafia godfather is and has been for years a criminal capable of killing but notwithstanding the accumulated strength of our Fri our police and our courts we never succeed in putting him away. Why a a Miami Beach mayor faces 41 if convicted. Mayor Alex Daoud could get a total of 528 years in prison and $12.5 million in fines. Self government purists please note. A a Detroit mayor the raw and Jhc Coleman Young has been the mayor of Detroit for 18 years and his language is so colourful As to have justified a Book whose sales Are just under those of Scarlett the sequel to gone with the wind. The Story is Short of examples mayor Young did Call Ronald Reagan a prune face when he entered politics and promoted him to a president prune face when he reached the White House. But other specimens weren to quoted because the mayor s Quot liveliest quotes larded with conjugations of theft word Are unprintable in family publications a including a Quot jail for delinquent just one More Case of a failure to support one s children elevated to headline status because the father in question owes $108,000 and made the National a most wanted list of delinquent dads. A a a psst. Want to talk to Kathy a this is the Story of a woman charged with prostitution in which profession her husband acted As Pimp. We Are informed that he charged $150 per hour for the use of his wife averaging eight customers every Day. But after the Messy business with the Law is Over the news is that she will make herself available on a 900 number at a rate of $2.99 per minute so that an hour on the phone will earn her $179.40. Upward mobility rides again. A a Louisiana s Edwards Duke take off the the voters in Louisiana Are having to choose Between one candidate who Early on was a nazi fellow traveler and a grand wizard of the Kun flux klan and h Bon vivant sex governor who was twice indicted and is so confident of his political prowess that he has boasted that he will be elected every time he runs Quot unless they find me in bed with a dead girl or a live a a naval officers accused off you see there was the party of Junior Navy officers who a fondled and harassed at least five women a including one who was stripped of her clothes a at a raucous convention in Las vegas. The private group. Caused $23,0 x in damage to the Las vegas Annapolis graduates a and. Quot delicate Bra is permitted As the store tells us that the Bra worn by the plaintiff on the evening w Hen it was alleged that she was raped by William Kennedy Smith was a product of something called Victoria s secret. The design of the defense is clearly to try to persuade the jury that anybody who buys suggestive bras can to really be raped by a Kennedy relative it has to have been consensual. After All Teddy a rape of the voters of Massachusetts was consensual. All in one Day and the Chart High in the Clouds that records americans soft reputation comes Down a notch and the heavens weep for our diminished country. C Universal press Syndicate hearings highlighted Kennedy s ineffectual Ity it was an ugly moment in the life of the Senate. Arlen Specter r-pa., grand inquisitor of Anita Hill had turned on her Lone judiciary committee defender Edward m. Kennedy. The senator from Massachusetts called the treatment of Clarence Thomas chief accuser a shame shame Specter who was still in his weekend attack Mode shouted a we do not need characterizations like a shame in this chamber from the senator from Kennedy repeated his chamber was stunned. Where was decorum tradition the Courtesy that requires that senators must always Call each other a a distinguished and never make Nasty personal attacks sometime later Orrin g. Hatch a Utah one of Specter a subaltern in the torching of Anita Hills reputation took the floor and aimed another Low blow at the Massachusetts senator. A if you believed that a he said referring to some disputed Point in the hearings record. A i have a Bridge up in he later expunged the remark and said it was All a mistake. He was it was a slip of the Tongue. He is supposed to be a close Friend of Kennedy a and at the time of the most recent episode in Kennedy a troubled history a calamitous Good Friday night in Palm Beach had presented himself to the world As a kind of spiritual adviser. Washington is overwrought in the Wake of the worst nomination Battle in memory and nobody after the orchestrated weekend of revenge on Hill believes that the meanness just happened. Kennedy has Many enemies As did his Brothers before him a the country has had a love hate relationship with the family a but the Senate is a privileged Sanctuary where Kennedy was always in spite of his transgression were the republicans having muzzled Kennedy except for a few impassioned moments now organizing to drive him out of the Senate he has sponsored Shoals of progressive legislation criticized their foreign policy and stopped their judges. But in office he has been one of their most effective Money raisers. Letters mentioning him bring in big Bucks. He is up in 1994. Would they like the Coonskin on the Wall earlier several others on the judiciary committee have warts beginning with chairman Joseph r. Biden plagiarism problems in 1988 and Dennis Deconcini one of the a Keating five. But Kennedy has the most severe image problem having to do with women and carousing. It was exacerbated last Spring when Kennedy in a generational reversal woke up his son and Nephew and led them on a bar tour that ended with rape charges being filed against his Nephew. The trial is under was. An earlier offence is not forgotten Thomas pickets chanted a a Chappaquiddick at him in the Halls the Day of the vote. At the reopened hearings Kennedy had an excruciating decision to make. If he absented himself he would show his constituents that he cannot take full part in the business of the Senate and also certify widespread opinion that he is a Rake. If he came and asked a lot of questions on sexual harassment he could expect hissing from those who feel he Long since lost any right to pass moral judgments. The a designated questioner formula seemed designed to bypass any such provocation. He sat silent. Every Frame that showed the chairman showed him at his Side. It was a sight that inflamed Many callers who complained to other democratic members. A what is he doing there a was the theme of some of the thousands of Calls that poured into democratic offices. The battered interest groups the women and civil rights lobbyists speculated gloomily about what might have been if the Liberal lion had been at the top of his form during the i Homas uproar. The women a groups Are disconsolate about the defection of women As registered in polls. When they first heard that Anita Hills complaints had been brushed aside by the committee the women exploded. Rep. Barbara b. Kennelly d-conn., a Leader of House women was elated. A at last women have stood up. We be been after them to Call in on their issues. But they Felt they had no Power. But this Lime nobody told them and they flew at the but later the women left the beleaguered Hill and joined their men in choosing Thomas. Nancy Zir Kin of the american association of University women says sadly a women tend to see women through menus eyes and they done to stick together and they heard no opposition except the Little that Kennedy did provide. Kennedy gravely wounded in the dirty War cannot escape the limits of his usefulness. It is up to his constituents to decide whether he should retire. Senate republicans seem Bent on helping them make up their minds. C Universal Syndicate
