European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 19, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday december 19, 1992 i  ,-1 a a. Cum Mcnary the stars and stripes a Page 13 Don t turn up your nose at special interests Adrein rvs i t a  . Rosenthal president elect Clinton it stuffing his Cabinet with people who represent powerful special interests. The new Secretary of the Treasury is a Friend of the Oil and Gas industries. I he new Secretary of Commerce has represented a Tat Bank account Worth of business lobbies american and foreign. What s More in charge of the labor environmental and health welfare departments of government will be people who represent the most controversial kind of special interests. That is lifelong commitment to philosophies of government that offend some companies unions or other groups that will be affected by them. Wonderful news. Clinton a decision to appoint people who in the past represented special interests Means several healthy things. They we a be Likely to know what they Are talking about. The Public Given responsible congressional hearings press attention and divestiture Laws will know what it is getting. And hallelujah the appointment should end the great american charade of pretending that special interests by nature Are evil. In the 1992 Campaign All the candidates denounced them with routine passion. The truth is that the United states consists of groups that Are entitled to push for their special interests and do. As Long As they do it openly and legally they Are constitutionally protected and vital to american democracy. Every american is a bouquet of special interests. Some just smell better to particular noses. Here Are a few of mine As a new yorker i am in favor of generosity to the cities. As a jew i fight racial or religious prejudice As hard As i can. As a Newspaperman i am almost a first amendment absolutist a almost. Also i like Low postal rates for newspapers. I am anti communist and anti fascist. I do not believe in Neon a and am scornful of non a. Eliminating officeholders with special interests in their backgrounds would eliminate most people in the country. Mother Teresa would be banned and not one of the 1992 candidates nominated. The special interest nature of our society depends on two conditions. One americans who take jobs in which they Are expected legally or morally to submerge their past interests live up to the rules. Two if they done to they get thrown out. In journalism columnists and editorial writers openly express opinions and try to influence people. But reporters and news editors working for non political publications or stations Are Honor bound to put aside their own special interests. Their Job is to present articles that provide the Public with the information to make up its own mind. And the Public servant is Honor bound a the phrase is not embarrassing once you get used to it a to put aside past commercial or political interest or ideology to serve Only Public interest As defined by Law or common decency. Crooks happen. But the alternative is to appoint Only Nincompoop or failures assume All successful intellectuals politicians or business people Are scoundrels and make cynicism the Only american value. Still. In almost All of us there Are collections of special interests that make it impossible to Trust some people for Public office people who have broken no Law but who you feel in your stomach should not be hanging around government. My special interests include a survival instinct for democracy. So it is impossible for me to Trust for office people who have Long been associated with far left or far right causes that Are enemies of democracy. Thanks to the new York weekly the Forward i know the very special interests of the educator Johnetta Cole head of education labor and humanities in the Clintonia interim. Is. Cole was a member of the National committee of the pro Castro Ven Seremos brigade helped direct the . Peace Council which was pro soviet anti Israel pro marxist in Grenada ant criticism of the North vietnamese a the usual collection of far left loves and hates. I think her appointment was a mistake that should be explained. I Hope she does not hang around government much longer. Propagandists for dictatorships done to suit my particular nose. But that is no reason to throw away the whole bouquet and Settle for a Bunch of dry weeds. C Tho new York Olmos the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Paas represent Thoss of the authors and Are in no Way to of considered As representing the a Laws of the stars and str less or the in Ltd states  won t Lead to tranquil government there is an oddball Quality to president elect Clinton a first round of Cabinet and White House staff appointments that suggests the new president will be kept Busy refereeing fights within his administration. That May be exactly what he wants it is almost certainly what he is going to get. He has set up a situation where major constituencies of Cabinet departments will be appealing decisions of a a their secretaries to the White House and where conflicts of ideas and priorities among the decision makers will Likely have to go to the president for Resolution. It is this invitation to infighting As much As the strangeness of some of the individual choices that has Washington buzzing. This has to be the first time that the environmental Protection Agency director is designated ahead of the Secretary of state or where the Secretary of Commerce is a notable and the White House chief of staff an unknown. Maybe it will All make sense when the lineup is Complete. So far the roster is notably shy of the grassroots voices and fresh ideas Clinton was expected to draw from the ranks of state and local elected officials and the a reinventing government think tank crowd. But there Are plenty of jobs still to be filled. Individually the men and women he has named Are As Bright and academically Well credentialed As one would expect from a Georgetown Oxford Yale Law fir duct who picked a Harvard Gra it i for a running mate. Intellectually elite the appointees surely Are. Whether they will work As a team is another question. It May be As one transition official told me that Clinton is deliberately counter programming. He May be putting people in unexpected positions in order to keep the interest groups from taking Over the administration before it has even opened its doors. If so it is smart strategy. But it is producing some unexpected results. Harvard a Robert Reich whose economic theories two universities was Vail. Have influenced Clinton greatly seemed a natural for a top White House policy Job. But instead he winds up As Secretary of lab Oran operating position traditionally reserved in democratic administrations for a pal of the unions which Reich is not. Donna Shalala who has run touted for Secretary of education. Instead she is named Secretary of health and human services a not Welcome news to the medical Industry but Fine and Dandy with two Shalala buddies Hillary Clinton and Marian Wright Edelman of the children a defense fund. Ron Brown the first Black to head the democratic National committee and a savvy Well connected Washington operative would have been a plausible and persuasive White House chief of staff. Thomas Mack Mclarty Clinton a boyhood Friend does no to know much about Washington but As chairman of a Fortune 500 natural Gas company would have been a credible Secretary of Commerce. So Clinton makes Ted Kennedy sold pal Brown the Secretary of Commerce and names Mclarty As chief of staff. Go figure. If he wanted to keep the doctors from dominating health and human services As they have done for the last four years the unions from calling the shots in the labor department and business from thinking it ran the Commerce department he has been shrewd in what he a done. But in seeming contradiction of that principle he let his super environmentalist vice president Albert Gore put a protege Carol Browner in As head of Epa thus assuring that one interest group at least would dominate its part of the bureaucracy. The disposition of the agriculture Interior and education Secretary ships a three other departments often run by their constituency interest groups a May Tell which pattern will pre David s. Broder in some areas Clinton has been extremely conventional. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen of Texas a Gray haired Model of caution and Calm judgment is a Secretary of the Treasury right out of Central casting. With one Wall Street big shot Roger Altman As his Deputy and another Bob Rubin heading the White House s National economic Council the message to the financial Community is business As usual. Similarly by putting two of the democrats brightest budget wonks House budget committee chairman Leon Panetta and former congressional budget office director Alice Rivlin in charge of the powerful office of management and budget Clinton seemingly signalled the markets that he wants Strong anti deficit measures. Only those unkind enough to recall How David Stockman and Richard Darman a for All their vaunted Power and brilliance a were thwarted in that goal As budget directors will question Clinton a commitment. With quadruple layering of economic policy a among Treasury s Bentsen and Altman the Council of economic advisers Laura do Andrea Tyson a Berkeley academic the White houses Rubin and Ombis Panetta and Rivlin a Clinton has a mechanism that looks too top heavy for efficient decision making. But he has guaranteed that he will hear a variety of views and probably has seeded enough conflict that hell have to step in and resolve it himself. That was Franklin Roosevelt a Way of operating and if it works As Well for Clinton As it did for for All the muttering about the oddity of his choices will soon be forgotten. C the Washington Post