European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 6, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Saturday March 6, 1993 commentary 1 the stars and stripes Page 15 Perot s continuing Power worries White House t Tom Raum Ross Perot helped pave the Way for the wide Public support president Clinton s economic plan is now enjoying. But for the White House Perot is a shaky ally at Best capable of undermining that plan As much As helping unpredictable Dallas billionaire and 1992 Independent presidential challenger demonstrated that tuesday in a Lively three hour congressional appearance during which he lashed out at both his hosts and the Clinton White House. As for Clinton Perot said it is doubtful the president can create any new jobs artly because no one around him knows of to run a business his economic program lacks details and does t contain enough spending cuts and he a missed the Point Quot in not imposing tighter restrictions on foreign lobbying by sex White House staffers. Perot s advice to Congress end the a junkets the trips Quot Stop living. Lives of relative a a opulence Cut Way Back on the number of staff and the numbers of committees spend More time at Home with constituents. And for both the White House and lawmakers Perot lectured the joint committee on the organization of Congress to Stop with the a funny talk we done to _ in other words he said a a debt is a debt Quot and a a tax is a when it was All Over democratic leaders May have begun to Start thinking of Perot As the crazy aunt they could no longer keep locked up in the basement. That show Perot referred to the budget deficit during his remarkable presidential Challenge in which he garnered 19 percent of the vote. A do you really believe that most of us Here Are Crooks. Are we really that bad a rep. Lee Hamilton d-ind., asked defensively. Perot replied that americans Felt Congress a is not responsive to the people. It is responsive to the special suddenly Ross Perot is everywhere again. Just on tuesday he was on lbs this morning testified on Capitol Hill and returned to a favorite haunt in no a Larry King live. He was doing More talk shows later in the week and has purchased half an hour of to air time for March 21 for a televised a town Perot s focus on the budget deficit during the Campaign sensitized americans to the problem and helped Lay the groundwork Tor Clinton a package of tax increases and spending cuts. Perot a opened up the debate on the deficit said Ann Lewis a democratic strategist and former political director of the democratic National committee. Residual support for Perot and for his message of budget austerity is one of the reasons Clinton a economic plan a is getting deeper broader support than Washington insiders predicted a she said. A we need to take him seriously.�?�. And while the political establishment remains wary it is abundantly Clear he is being taken seriously by both parties. Perot s former research director gop pollster Frank Luntz told a Republican Retreat in new Jersey last week that Perot a 6 million supporters will play an important perhaps Pivotal role in 1996. At Best Perot has Given the Clinton plan Only a lukewarm endorsement. But some analysts have suggested that the conditional support helped persuade corporate America and Many otherwise sceptical americans to Back the Clinton plan. Ironically the More acceptance that Clinton s plan wins the less Impact Perot will have on the process a even though it was Perot who started the Ball moving. A if the problems go away if the deficit gets adequately addressed if the political process seems to be More on the up and up the reason for Ross Perot diminishes a said Bruce Buchanan a Politi Cal scientist at the University of Texas. A but until that happens he stays afloat and he stays influential a Buchanan added. Still not everyone is charmed by Perot a Plain talk and straightforward remedies. A a he a becoming a gadfly. He just pops up from time to time. He s entertaining but he a not useful a said economist Michael Evans. And sen. Harry Reid d-ncv., told Perot to his face on tuesday a you gave us five minutes of details and 45 minutes of sound bites. Start checking your facts and spend less time listening to the Perot bristled and shot Back �?�1 do Check my facts a and then went on to accuse Reid of not checking his. And the room erupted in applause. And guess what it Wasny to for Reid. C the associated press familiarity numbs us to horrors of modern life being a reporter is As much a diagnosis As a of description. It is a strange business making a living it of other people s misfortunes standing in the rubble Vith a press card As a nominal shield writing in a grabbed hand notes no one else can read Riding an adrenaline surge that ends in a product at once Flimsy ind influential. A every Day is a fresh beginning Quot it once said on a Nural in the lobby of the new York times building. A every morn is the world made it is not unlike the confessional a a clean slate overnight to be sullied later with newsprint. Like the canaries sent Down mine shafts to detect Poison Gas our stories signal How Dank is the general atmosphere. Some argue that we alone produce the Poison which misses the synergy Between Public and press Between the world As it is and our work As we see it which is to reflect reality. Not Long ago a teen age murderer was news. Today the big Story around the world is the alleged killing of a toddler by two 10-year-Olds in Liverpool and stories of teen agers killing teen agers have become almost commonplace. Our coverage reflects a shifting threshold of pain. A. The world Trade Center explosion was an easy Call. Tallest building in new York terrorist bomb thousands evacuated hundreds Hurt several die a nuff said Page one Banner headline. But what if the bomb had gone off in a much smaller building what if it Hadnot gone off at All simply been discovered what if Only one person had been killed under different circumstances shot at the office by a disgruntled spouse the Story gets smaller More Ordinary if death and destruction can Ever be so classified. In this business they can. It is not a news Story in a big City when one woman is raped by one Man unless one of them is famous. Rape which we once rarely spoke about and so pretended was rare is now assumed to be common. If there is More than one Man however and they Hunt the woman Down As she is jogging in Central Park a and if she is a White investment banker and they Black and latino kids from Harlem a that is a big Story. Americans have a Happy fantasy of a past of exceptional probity. Much of this fantasy is built on silence gang rapes no one talked about beatings in the bedroom that were an accepted but unacknowledged part of life self abortions with the same Needles used to knit baby things. About 19th-Century London is to know that we have not cornered the Market today on poverty crime child abuse disease or abject misery. Those clucking Over the Prince and Princess of Wales should read Antonia Praser s Book about the wives of Henry vi11 before they speak of an indulged modern monarchy. Anna Quindlen but the taped phone conversations of the King and Anne Boleyn never wound up on inside edition and the prosperous burghers of Dickens London averted their eyes from the slums. Watching men and women stumble from the Trade Center their faces Black with soot you were there. Our life experience becomes the bits and pieces of ail these other exposed lives on television in print. It happened to you a Well practically. There is Good in that exposure. We cannot say we did no to know about the starving somali children Ana the families living hand to Mouth not 10 Miles from our comfortable suburbs. Sometimes people Are moved to Good by knowledge. But while ignorance can make you insensitive familiarity can also numb. Entering the second half Century of an information age our cumulative knowledge has changed the level of what a palls what stuns what shocks. Someone Calls a reporter and says a i have this Foster child and he a going to be returned to his biological Mother and i m afraid Shell kill and part of your mind registers that this is a kid at risk and part thinks of the old Foster kid and abusive Mother Story. We have the opposite of silence now we arc awash in the revealed world talking of things that for so Long were adjudged unspeakable. Events that Are merely tragic must yield space on the Page for those that Are truly terrible. Gang rapes instead of rapes. Fre adolescent killers instead of teen age ones. It is a sliding scale and sometimes you have to wonder whip Ana when the slide will end. C the new York time
