European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 29, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Friday november 29, 1991 the stars and stripes Page 13 commentary George f. Will Cuomo a loser in monologue with himself on television sunday Mario Cuomo was at his most Cuomo Ean. Interviewer a the Congress that you say is being inadequate is run by your Cuomo a Correct. No its run by a a it has a democratic majority in both houses Correct. No. Yes. Governor please. Democrats control Congress of when he recently spelled out his economic policy he said our problems Are a a fundamental so a change Quot must be too. A your entire society is threatened by a plague of poverty drugs and violence. A a but what a a fundamental change does he propose for fixing the deficit that paralyses government and debilitated the Economy he would Cut defense even More a look again at Quot reducing a non Means tested spending a and toughen tax enforcement against a the if new taxes Are needed he would spare a the Middle class but a look to people making More than $200,000.�?� about 2 percent of families this encore of liberalism a most threadbare nostrums would be tiresome even were it not coming from a Man who radiates disappointment with and condescension toward almost everyone because Thev Are not thinking As deeply As he is would he consider raising taxes on the Middle class he said sunday a it depends on How you define Middle class. To me Middle class is people who Aren t poor enough to be on welfare not Rich enough to be free of worry. So that s kind of Quot interviewer �?o$80,000 is a Middle class family Quot Cuomo a it depends a How Many kids what circumstances. Do they have two children that need special equipment so it would sure would if we were excluding Only people a free of does the family live in a High tax slate like Cuomo s new York do the parents feel As so Manv do in Cuomo s new York City that Thev must Pav for private education a his definition of Middle class is More than a flexible Quot it is elastic enough to produce a category As capacious As Montana. Turns out the Middle Quot class which is to be protected from any strip agencies includes a Surprise a about 95 percent of All non welfare families. A i think he said sunday a the key to my plan is that it is holistic. 1 told the Fortune 500 cos think of it As holistic but Don t use that word think von smoke interviewer they knew what the word meant Quot Cuomo Quot Well. I m afraid some of them looked it up and started with a and got Cuomo sometimes seems like John Summit a silk smart Man a intelligent but not intelligent enough to avoid flaunting the fact. 1 it is unattractive for Cuomo to advertise As he did with that Little Pirouette about cos and his Lane word his superiority to his audience. On sunday Homo was asked about his suggestion these Are the interviewer s words Quot that perhaps the Way to Deal with Saddam Hussein after he invasion was to give him a few Cuomo Quot no i never said that. Well. I know you people get annoyed when i Tell you what you re saying is not a a second interviewer a moment later a but of suggested a territorial Concession at that Point Cuomo a no no yes. The los Angeles limes of nov. 21. 190 1, quoted Cuomo saying in Angeles a you could negotiate something the gets them out of Kuwait for the most part emphasis added leaves them maybe a Little bit on the water leaves them a Little bit of the Oil. On sunday Cuomo said Quot there was Only one reporter y is a Good one a the times Ronald Brownstein who taped Cuomo urging president Bush to Quot try to negotiate our was out Quot of a confrontation with Iraq. A month later dec. 17 at the National press club Cuomo in a question period following his speech was asked simply. Quot How would you Deal with Saddam Hussein Quot and he brought up the controversy begun in California. Stressing a it is unclear Why a trial a there were no reporters there except one a he gave an extremely elliptical discourse the operative portion being Quot Well it you want to talk about settlement As compared to War a settlement Means you have to make compromises what that Means is you have to give is the Cuomo drama bound for Broadway which in politics Means Pennsylvania Avenue nol with the current script. Cuomo continues on the losing Side of a monologue with himself which is not easy to do but is less remarkable than this he May go from being a lad to being a bore without an interval of being As interesting As he could be. Cd Wishington Post writes group wet Tok or Fae to do w6t i should try to Kesone fou of lets inteiu0uauze it for a second. It by it 6otta askww"s1n it fac rambo Able la look m the Mirror and say. H6y.mawo-ls is thing really you7 Andri fluff i Meam to crat of amp i me my it s i t Mem is a fwd Renoir of a Wie Oris a cedi Jmary Mcgrory new attorney general targets i Slaw mess after eight years of Stonewall and cover up the Justice department is admitting it maybe did wrong in the i Slaw Case. The decision to appoint a a special counsel to find out if the family software firm of William and Nancy Hamilton was robbed Blind by its own government has been announced by newly sworn in attorney general William Barr. The move is a Victory for Elliot Richardson the onetime fair haired boy of the Republican party who has been embarrassing his party Ever since he refused to fire watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox a and set Richard Nixon on the Slippery slope to resignation. Richardson is one of in Slaw a lawyers and he has been agitating in a Well bred Boston Way for action on the outrageous talc of grand larceny in the Justice department a which bought i Slaw software from the Hamiltons and then after a trumped up contract Dis Ute stopped paying its Bills and forced them into bankruptcy. The software has turned up in foreign government offices and the Hamiltons think that cronies of former attorney general de Meese were Given it to sell As Campaign payoffs. Former attorney general Dick Thornburgh inherited the scandal and embraced it for his own. The speculation was that in order to be named Reagan a attorney general he had to pledge never to poke around for the truth Thornburgh refused to see Richardson withheld documents irom congressional committee and in a climactic act of Defiance refused to show up at a House judiciary committee meeting last july. He has been severely punished for his intransigence by his Home state. The people of Pennsylvania where he ran for the Senate against a College professor whose name sounds like an English Village a Harris Wofford a emphatically rejected him at the polls nov. 5, Richardson went to Philadelphia the week before the vote ostensibly to make a speech about the United nations. He told the Philadelphia inquirer that Thornburgh erred by not appointing a special counsel in the i Slaw ease. Long before being sworn in Barr a husky Boyish unapologetic conservative was doing Well with the judiciary committee even he fore he changed course on i Slaw. He was even forthright about Roe is. Wade it was Quot wrongly senators who disagreed with him praised him for his Candor. The judiciary c Ommittee members who during the weekend of the Thomas hearings constituted the single strongest argument against incumbency were quite subdued and sought discussions on abstractions like privileged lawsuits and prison Reform. Sen. Paul Simon 13-111., quoting copiously from Richardson a new York times editorial piece about i Slaw asked Barr about the possibility of a special prosecutor in the Case which one judge said reeked of a trickery fraud and Barr said he did not think a special projector was a necessary or desirable Quot and is Quot not aware of any impropriety having been Stab As a Mailer of Laet the record is Replete with improprieties with refusing judges recanting witnesses and disappearing documents. But said Barr he would like to get to the hot Tom of it a reach some kind of Resolution a and so lie had named a retired Federal judge Nicholas Bua of Chicago a Carter appointee to the Bench to conduct a probe. Bua will bring with him three . Attorneys and two lawyers which could mean a measure of Independence from the Justice department. Richardson hailed the change As a a big step a. The Hamiltons More guarded called it a a step in the right Barr is a night school Law graduate. So were two important figures in watergate judge John Silica and rep. Peter Rodino. Maybe he would like to contribute to a tradition that suggests that night people Are often More tenacious and difficult to trick. Or maybe he is a Republican loyalist who intends to guard the secrets of the Justice department As ferociously As his old Friend Meese but who realizes that cover up is a dirty word that can Hurt the parly badly. It should t take too Long to find out in this is a Public relations stroke or a serious Effort to find the truth which has taken an awful battering in the in Daw ease la ijpi�<-r-.,i in f a r run big
