European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 24, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday Juty 24, 1993 commentary the stars and stripes Pago is i t elders7 Arkansas record raises Many Cal Thomas int it hypocritical for Liberal who opposed the nomination of c. Ever Ett Koop for surgeon general 12 year ago to blast conservatives who oppose the nomination of or. Jocelyn elders to the same Post now when Koop was nominated his critic said Little about his medical skills which were considerable after a 40-year record of exemplary practice. Rathe they opposed him for his views an required him to take a kind of disloyalty oath vowing that he would not impose his views if Liber als were to acquiesce to his confirmation. It was Clear then that liberals in and out of government did not want Koop to use the office to promote practices with which they disagreed. Because they could not fault him on Medicine they tried working him before Robert Bork had been  rep. Henry Waxman d-calif.,said or. Koop frightens me. He s dogmatically denounced those who Dis agree with him and his intemperate views make me wonder about his and the administration s  Waxman also hauled out an All purpose condemnation saying Koop was a Man of tremendous  when elders says that pro lifers Nee to get Over their love affair with the fetus that seems to be a dogmatic denunciation of those who disagree with  about the nature and value of the unborn. But there is More to elders than  views. As director of Arkansas stat department of health since 1987, she has a record. The Senate and the Public have a right and an obligation to judge  based on . Performance since she will be bringing  world View to the of fice of surgeon general should she reconfirmed. Reducing the number of teen agers who become pregnant is a High priority for elders. Yet under  leadership Arkansas went from having the fourth highest teen birthrate in the country to the second highest according to the publication vital statistics of the United  that teen pregnancy rate de spite elders goal reached a 10-year High. Under  leadership the Inci Dence of sexually transmitted diseases Rose dramatically. Between 1989 and1992, there was a. 130 percent increase in syphilis cases among Arkansas teen age Sand a 150 percent jump in teens affected with his. Her prescription then As now waa based on a near absolute Faith in condoms which she would make Avail Able to every Public school student who wants them. She said on Abc television that she would provide the Long term contraceptive norplant to drug addicted prostitutes so they could still use sex if they must to buy their   defenders say she would no give a kindergarten Pupil the same Type of sex education she would advocate for student in High school. Maybe not but the information would be based on the same flawed philosophy that ultimately leads to the free condoms abortion advice and other views about sex that conflict with the values and beliefs of Many if not most parents. Bill Jones past president of the Arkan Sas medical society told the Washington Post she is a rabble rouser. She polarizes people pretty  apparently it is All right to polarize people if a lib eral is doing the polarizing but not i someone of Koop s background does it. Elders is the medical equivalent Flani Guinier president Clinton s failed nominee for the Justice department Scivil rights division. The two come from the same ideological Mold. It is a Safe bet with elders that what we have read of  performance in Arkansas and heard in  interviews willbe the Agenda she would continue As sur Geon general. If those views Haven t produced desired results in Arkansas Why should we expect them to succeed in Theresa of the country e los Angola Timm Syndicate teardrops fall and the a follows slowly Truman fires Macarthur Ike drops Adams Nixon axes Haldeman and Ehrlichman Carter dumps Lance Reagan sacks Regan Bush Sheds Sununu an Skinner too. Clinton cans sessions. In business when it is time for the a to fall the Cutis usually Quick and clean or at least hidden from View. But Washington firings Are an other matter. The government Guillotine is Balky and Creaky and the. Blade sometimes descends exceedingly  William s. Sessions whose removal monday As head of the Fri on ethical grounds was started by George Bush and finished by Bill Clinton in a process so prolonged and Messy that Eye were driven to aversion. Often aides resign usually with an Exchange of flowery letters with the Boss Mike Feinsilber f that offer the Public no clue that they were pushed out the door. Sessions would t resign by any definition so Clinton pushed. But it took six  it is presidents who resist letting go of aides on whom they be come to  need him protested Dwight d. Eisenhower be fore letting the plug be pulled on his chief of staff Sherman Adams. Tjo had taken a Topcoat from a Friend with government , i m proud of you said Jimmy Carter As he Laid out the Plank for his budget director Bert  have accepted the resignation of this decent and Good Man said Gerald Ford of Earl Butz the agriculture Secretary whose departure was ordained by racist and dirty joke he told on the Way Home from the 1976 Republican convention. Two of the finest Public servants i be Ever known said Richard Nixon As he cast off White House assist ants . Haldeman and John d. Ehrlichman trying surgery to Stop the watergate cancer on his presidency. A red eyed Nixon told Ehrlichman he hated doing  is like cutting off my right Arm he said. Replied Ehrlichman just explain All this to my kids will you but Nixon s most famous firing was the saturday night massacre that of Archibald Cox the special prosecutor who was investigating him and wanted his watergate tapes. Elliot Richardson the attorney general quit rather than fire Cox and Richardson s Deputy William Ruckelshaus was fired by Nixon when he also refused to sack Cox. The deed was finally done by the no. 3man at the Justice department Robert Bork. Harry Truman knew he was in for the Dickens when he fired his korean War commander five Sta hero Douglas Mac Arthur who he thought was guilty of insubordination. Macarthur had been ignoring Whitehouse orders and criticizing the president in interviews. Truman was right. Sympathy flowed to  Public was fed up with an unwinnable War. Tru Man was burned in effigy. Flags were flown upside Down. And when Macarthur returned and addressed Congress and said he would just fade away like the old Soldier of the Barracks Ballad senators wept and Emo Tion swamped the country. We just heard god speak Here today cried  Short of Missouri. God in the flesh the voice of  Donald Regan Ronald Reagan s chief of staff got revenge for his firing instigated by Nancy Reagan. In his memoirs he revealed that she had depended upon a san Francisco astrologer to bless virtually every major move and decision the reagans made Dur ing my time As White House chief of  sometimes the handwriting on the Wall is in a first lady s script. It in t True it s ugly and i Don t like it said Barbara Bush about rumours she wanted John Sun Gnu out As  husband s chief of staff. A week later he was out. Sununu was deemed too caustic so he was replaced by Samuel Skinner who was deemed insufficiently caustic. He went too. On the other hand George p. Shultz Reagan s Secretary of state was considered in dispensable. On a number of occasions Shultz threat ened to pack his bag if policy did t change. Each time policy changed Shultz stayed. C the associated pres