European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 4, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Wednesday december 1991 the stars and stripes Page 13 commentary Anthony Lewis Bush Legal aide rubbing racial feelings raw when the White House last month circulated and the next Day withdrew a directive cancelling the fair employment regulations of the last 20 years Many saw the episode As an example of president Bush a uncertainty Over Domestic affairs. But there was another deeper reason for concern. A drastic change in Long established policy was prepared in secret in the office of the counsel to the president c. Boyden Gray. There was no consultation along the Way with concerned Cabinet departments much less with Congress. The intention was to Spring the change on the Public As a fait a comply in a statement the president would Issue As he signed the new civil rights Bill. On the afternoon before the a a had not approved the change and the plan came unstuck. Gray has been close to Bush for years and it is usual for a president to have a Friend advise him As counsel. But Gray and his staff have made the office into something More an engine for making policy without accountability. The White House counsels office Remote As it is from the Public and even from the institutions of government has no regular Way of getting feedback. The Justice department has roots in the Legal Community a and in the realities of the society. If we had had a serious attorney general in recent years he William Safire would not conceivably have let Boyden Gray exercise such Power As a Legal craftsman. Hie danger of this unaccountable office making major policy is the More serious when the policy concerns race. For Gray is seemingly obsessed with that subject. He planted in Bush a mind the idea that the civil rights Bill would produce for two years in numerous negotiations Gray resisted All efforts at Compromise. When finally politics forced the president to accept a Compromise Gray wrote an article for the Washington Post making a tortured argument that his View had won. Gray has a Young assistant who is equally fanatical on the subject. His name is Nelson Lund and he helped to draft the statement that Bush was supposed to make last month undoing the fair employment rules. Lund was a Law clerk to supreme court Justice Sandra Day of Connor in 1987-88. There he worked on an opinion that sought to shift the Burden of proof in Job discrimination cases from the employer to the employee. A majority of the court did not agree to the Burden shifting move at that time but the new Rule was adopted later in the Case of wards Cove is. Atonio. One thing the new civil rights Law does is overrule the wards Cove decision and shift the Burden of proof Back to the employer. Conservatives like to argue that the supreme court should defer to the elected branches of government. Yet Here is someone who As a Law clerk worked to change the established meaning of civil rights Law without further congressional action a and then carried on that Effort in an unaccountable White House office. Evidently Lund is one of that Brand of Modem right Wing radicals who Are fundamentally disillusioned with democracy. The George the third society i Call them. They want the president to govern without congressional interference. Now it appears they Are ready to dispense with most of the executive Branch too and run things from inside the White House. For Gray and his office to launch a coup on regulations covering fair employment when the country is so edgy on race snows the danger of such a rootless office. It was the height of irresponsibility. The episode also shows How profoundly the Republican party has changed on racial Justice. Some of the regulations that Gray and his staff were going to abolish were written by the Nixon administration in 1969 a and defended by the solicitor of the labor department Laurence h. Silberman now a conservative judge on the . Court of appeals for the District of Columbia. Gray is said to resent any idea that he is a racist and he is no doubt sincere in denying it. But i think he has done As much As any american to arouse racial feelings in this county in recent years. By their fruits be shall know them. C the now York Timos a Whitewash on Bocci affair needs scrubbing on july 23, acting on a tip from an informant familiar with the political reach of the Bank of credit and Commerce International i posed this question to White House counsel c. Boyden Gray did John Sununu have any dealings with Bocci or its subsidiaries Gray checked and called Back promptly a no. A Flat accordingly i wrote nothing an unequivocal denial relayed through the presidents attorney squelched a Rumor. Quot however we now know from Newhouse newspapers that about that time de Rogers a Sununu a right hand Man political prot go and personal press agent a was in the process of being hired by Sheik Kamal Adham the former chief of saudi intelligence suspected of being at the heart of the biggest swindle in history. This same Sununu Toady helped organize the May 23 meeting that founded the Arab american Council an Oil backed elite lobbying group that scorns broader based Arab american organizations. Sununu and the syrian ambassador were stars of the gathering out of lebanese contacts made there or later i presume came Rogers huge contract. Here is a 33-year-old Bush political Hatchet Man a 1985 graduate of the Alabama Law school who never practice Law a Day in his life retained by an accused criminal Mastermind at the rate of $25,0 x per month for two years. Plus expenses which will be considerable. Plus logic suggests the ability to pass on other fat fees to influential he designates. The $600,000 initial payment from the Sheik could be As Rogers insists on his foreign agents registration form for his Legal expertise As Well As for a duties that could Border on mean spirited types like me suspect that it May be for Access to intermediaries who speak to Sununu and to other Bush appointees Beholden to the chief of staff thereby circumventing the ethics Law. Something fishy is behind this governments reluctance to prosecute aggressively the Well connected predators of Bocci. Rogers claimed last summer that Nis Boss was being criticized Only because he was of lebanese extraction now that the connection has been revealed Between Bocci and Sununu a alabamian right Arm that excuse wont Fly. At first. President Bush said of Sununu a aide a the is a free citizen to do anything he wants once he leaves the White wrong we have a Law against revolving door lobbying. Then Bush aides concocted a Story that Bush fired Rogers and that Sununu never talked to his right hand Man about this out Sleazy ing of Michael Deaver that a tooth fairy stuff. The new attorney general who was present at the Justice departments sustained foot dragging in Bocci and the Bank of Lavoro ripoffs promptly labelled the concern that Sununu or anyone might have influenced the Bocci probe a butter nonsense that prejudgment removes Justice from any investigation of the Sununu connection. The final White House ploy to Avert a close look at possible influence peddling came when Bush directed Gray to inquire into it. I have seen the extent of such an a a inquiry Gray will pass along the denials and the White House Whitewash will continue. Did the Cia obstruct the investigation of one of its banking assets Why did James a. Baker Illus Treasury department fail to act on a Cia tip about Bocci drug Money laundering who in Washington tipped the drug lords to a belated crackdown enabling them to withdraw their Money first who else at or near the top took Bocci largesse the White House and Justice department cannot investigate themselves this latest affront tips the Scales to a special prosecutor. Senate judiciary committee chairman Joseph r. Biden jr., d-del., could trigger this process. The first step is to subpoena Sununu a phone logs and schedules and to get Nim under oath on his easy denials. The next move is to do the same with former attorney general Dick Thornburgh and his successor William Barr As Well As their criminal division chiefs and at least three Milf peasant . Attorneys. Then Grill Rogers and his intermediaries. If you have information about manipulation of our prosecutors do not Contact posterior covering Justice or its Fri subsidiary Send your evidence to the uncorrupted Manhattan District attorney or to sen. John of a a a a d-mass., or to rep. Charles e. Schumer . They will pass it to the special prosecutor so urgently needed. C the new York times 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
