European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 05, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Friday february 1993 commentary the stars and stripes Page 15 a alb s. Broder republicans have been Lucky i their choices of party chairmen. Over the years to be sure they have had plenty of mediocrities lawyers businessmen or out of work politicians whose names Noone but such veterans of the Republican National committee staff As to Good can remember. But when they have needed exceptional Talent they have found the 1964 Barry Goldwater disaster they turned Toray c. Bliss of Ohio the bespectacled nuts and bolts technician who healed the party s ideological wounds rebuilt the state organizations and paved the Way for White House comeback Only four years later. After Gerald Ford s close loss in 1976, the inc Mem Bers elected former senator Bill Brock of Tennessee As their chairman. He matched Bliss skill in strengthening Testate and local infrastructure while mov ing the party aggressively behind a Cal for across the Board tax cuts and other issues that powered Ronald Reagan to Victory in 1980. Senate minority Leader Robert Dole r-kan., recalled this history when he told the inc members last month inst. Louis that it was up to them to prove that lightning can strike three , lightning struck a plump rumpled chummy 45-year-old lawyer named Hale Barbour and left him As the third ballot Winner of the party s top Barbour becomes the third a in a politically blessed Trio of Bliss Brock arid Barbour no one knows. But Barbour a Yazoo City boy who was executive director of the Mississippi gop at age 25, has something of Bliss main Street common sense and Well honed appreciation for the basics of party building. And As a former Senate candidate Reagan Whitehouse political director Washington lobbyist and frequent to commentator heals has something of Brock s Media savvy and capacity for spotting and promoting political issues. But the party leaders Hunch that bar Bour will prove to be the third a is Only one of the reasons that this first major Gath ering of republicans since George Bush s defeat found them surprisingly full of hop for another Quick comeback. Part of it is president Clinton stumbling Start. You could say he had a bad week Dole quipped. But he s Only been there a More of the optimism is rooted in the fact that 1992 was no debacle for the gop. Despite Bush s loss Republican gained 10 House seats held their strength in the Senate and picked up control of seven additional state legislative Chambers. Many of these gain were rooted in redistricting successes. If 1994 brings the usual midterm swing against the party in Power the gop could achieve further gains in the House and the state Legislatures As Well As among senators and governors where democrats have far More scats at stake. The third reason for their optimism i that republicans Are moving with remarkable Speed to repudiate the hard edged ideological rigidity of their recent past. The meeting in St. Louis clearly signalled the beginning of the end for abortion As a litmus test Issue for republicanism. Many skirmishes remain to be fought but the mainstream conservatives like Barbour who now run the party recognize that the gop must have a differ ent identity from the National right to life committee if it is to become competitive again. Outgoing party chairman Rich Bond a longtime Bush operative put that message bluntly in his valedictory speech. Wutt Tab umm Boft Imam a our Job is to win elections not cling toi tolerances that zealots Call principles he said. Our Job is not to administer lit mus tests on any Issue or be the champions of any single Issue , who is anti abortion himself put the proposition More tactfully but the Bottom line was the same. Republicans will have their Heads in the Sand if the make abortion a threshold test for Earty loyalty he said time and again Inis Campaign for the Job. As a pragmatist with Only a generalized conservative inclination to guide him Barbour is squarely in the Bliss and Rock Mold. And his views have Broad support. He can Point to a poll of Republican voters by the consulting firm fab Rizio Mclaughlin and associates re leased on the eve of the inc meeting. It showed republicans overwhelmingly consider themselves conservatives and put great importance on adherence to traditional values. But they arc deeply divided on Abor Tion with half favouring no restrictions at least during the first three months of pregnancy and nearly As Many favouring limits of some severity. What holds the to their party is its stance on economic and National Security policy. What happened in St. Louis i being repeated at the state level from Oregon to Iowa to Georgia. Pragmatic conservatives of the Barbour Stripe have beaten Back takeover efforts by the religious right but have been Able to enlist the Energy of that movement into Hegop cause. The Texas special Senate election in May will provide another test of the republicans ability to forge such a coalition and the first big Challenge of Barbour s chairmanship. A win there could make the St. Louis meeting look like a landmark on the re publican comeback Trail. C Tho Washington Post Why does t everybody grow up about sex we americans took Franklin d. Roosevelt s advice and conquered our fear of fear. We replaced it however with something equally As corrosive. To Para phrase our world War ii president we now have Noth ing to fear but sex knew there were All these sex fearing people out there Strom Thurmond i can understand the chemicals from the hair Dye have leached into his brain. But Robert Dole unfortunately Dole once deservedly viewed As an honorable Man of the right has now grown so embittered at being passed Over for the presidency in favor of lesser republicans that he has slipped a gear or two and taken to barnstorming against sodomy. Dole and a lot of others in the sex terrified Halls of Congress Sam Nunn looks absolutely haunted say they re worried that if homosexuals Are allowed to serve openly in the armed forces instead of covertly As they do now then sodomy or maybe just the fear a sodomy will destroy All military cohesiveness and effectiveness and leave us defenceless before our ene Mies. I m confused. When i went into the army Back in the cold War they stiffened our spines with training films that showed a soviet octopus with rampant Tenta cles slowly encircling the Globe. Nothing about sodomy or even Only training film about sex warned us against Loose women and showed us How to use condoms. And of course there was the obligatory film about How to get a bunk mate to take a Bath in Case his smell was get Ting Hose instructional materials were pretty silly 1 agree but somehow i prefer them to Sam Nunn s forthcoming horror films about Gays. The Only known Gay in my unit in Germany was a sergeant whose experience makes a joke out of those hoary claims that being Gay in the military or in a Sensi Tive government Job leaves one vulnerable to blackmail by our country s Man was in fact blackmailed but not by anyone you would normally describe As an enemy of the state. He was blackmailed by his Superior officers. Sidney h. Schanberg when they found out he was a homosexual they told him they would spare him court martial and discharge and let him stay in the army if he agreed to one Condi Tion he had to Snoop and inform on other soldiers who were violating military regulations such As Selling cigarettes on the German Black Market. And this he did just to remain in the Environ ment which had Given him a Ca reer and pseudo respectability. Of course Gays Are still being blackmailed in the armed forces. All Gays not just one or two Here and there. This is the blackmail they can stay in the military if they keep completely quiet about their sexual Orienta Tion. Just be silent. Hide. 13e ashamed. Don t be code of military behaviour he makes one wonder. Does there exist any other modern industrialized country that dedicates such a Large portion of its National ethos to guilty feelings about sex i understand Why the joint chiefs of staff Are opposing president Clinton s decision to end the ban against homosexuals serving openly As who they , these generals will indeed have a problem they la have to do some educating of their troops. Generals not unlike Many civilian chiefs tend to abhor change believing that they be worked hard to shape their institutions and finally have gotten things the Way they want were churlish and worse about racial integration 45 years ago. But it happened anyway. Not instantly upon Harry Truman s issuance of executive order 9981 on july 26, 1948, but steadily and gradually Over the ensuing few years until it was real. And now they Tell us that this fully integrated military is the Best fighting machine this country has Ever had. Sexual orientation the opponents of this new change insist is different from race or skin color but their Ian Guage oddly is the same language the integration opponents used. It will lower morale cause unnecessary tension Etc., Etc. I think i understand what they re telling us. It goes docs it not like this we should keep things the Way they Are because if Gays in the military come put into the open straight soldiers and sailors and marines will beat them up and sometimes kill them. So in t it better to have All the Gays in uniform stay in the closet no one gets killed that Way. No one gets killed either if the generals train and educate their troops to accept Gays. Just As they sensitized an integrated military into being the Superior Force we have today. The alternative i suppose is to fall Back on the War against sodomy Newt Gingrich r-ga., is about to burst with repressed excitement. Wow look there s the ammunition right there inthe uniform code of military Justice Section 925. Article 125. Golly gee Whiz bang we Vegol pm the article says any person subject to this chapter who engages in unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex or Withan animal is guilty of the penalty is dish Ono Rable discharge and five to 20 years in a military jail. Unnatural copulation incidentally is defined As either anal or Oral sex. Oral sex of of. I guess that Means we re going Mohave a deluge of dishonourable discharges and stockade time. For heterosexual soldiers. There is one other possibility. We could grow up. C now Day the opinion a of my in in column end cartoon on Ihl p0r�nt Tho of the author end a in no a to Beon Lor or a the Al i of the sur and strip or the unit a 8tt� gov rom it
