European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 25, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Clinton better Back this nominee this time Clarence Page Hite House aides say president Clin ton stands solidly behind his Nomi nation of Jocclyn elders to be the nation s next surgeon general. But then that was what he said about his recent hot potato Lani Guinier just be fore he jettisoned her nomination to be his civil rights chief. Health and human services Secretary Donna Sha Lala has Given her full unqualified support to elders. But then. Attorney general Janet Reno also gave her full unqualified support to Guinier. It did t save her. Here we go again a spirited assault from the religious right is battering elders for her views on reproductive rights with All the fury of the right s earlier assault on Guinier for her views on voting rights. But there Are significant differences that oblige Clinton to redeem himself with his political base partic Latty Blacks and women who were upset Over the treatment of Guinier by supporting elders All the Way. For one thing since elders a paediatric endocrinologist was Clinton s director of the Arkansas health department the past five years one might ask How is a woman he thought Good enough for Arkansas Sud Denly not Good enough for the nation she s not according to conservative groups like Pat Robertson s Christian coalition Don Wildmon s american family association Gary Bauer s family research Council and Phyllis Schlafly s Eagle forum. " they re trying to paint elders 59-year-old daughter of sharecroppers to be what Pat Robertson recently called on his 700 club broadcast a Way out leftist who is part of the Radical fringe of  Radical Clinton in his quest to avoid frightening Middle class swing voters has allowed smear words like that to have the sort of Power communist had during the darkest Days of the cold War a Power it does t deserve. Interestingly zealots of the right Are saying less about elders pro Choice stance on abortion than they Are about her favouring Early childhood sex Edu cation family planning Needle Exchange programs to fight aids and school based health clinics that provide condoms to prevent pregnancy and the spread of aids. Sounds As if they re conceding that a pro Choice position on abortion is riot to say the least Radical enough to cause political trouble for Clinton. Yet when you eliminate abortion elders position on the rest of those issues Are remarkably close to those held by another kindly but controversial sur Geon general c. Everett Koop an appointee of Ron Ald Reagan. Koop never bothered to poke his critics Back the Way elders has. In the Washington Post she called her anti abortion opponents of the christain right very religious non christians nailed one foe As mean ugly and evil and said of opponents of her policies toward teen pregnancy yeah they love Little babies As Long As they re in somebody else s uterus.". Sounds about right to me. But if elders wants sen ate approval she d Best tone Down her colourful Lan Guage. Washington a Haven for the appearance of comity even Between rivals who would just As soon Stab each other with Long knives prefers to confine its combative talk to us Loudmouth pundits who pop ulate certain television talk shows. Even so her critics Haven t been very gentle. In the fashion of the infamous headline on the conservative Wall Street journal s editorial Page that la bleed Lani Guinier a quota Queen in the fashion of Ronald Reagan s infamous 1980 assault on Weir fare Queen the Eagle forum s newsletter labelled elders a condom Queen who favors big mama government packaged As child  docs she or is she trying to use government to provide the poor with the sort of family planning choices Middle class americans take for granted the Best Way to Stop abortion is to Stop an unplanned pregnancy said elders. All i want is every child born in american to be a planned wanted  that does t sound Radical to me. It sounds like Good common sense. And As the spirited debate Over the Tough abortion Plank passed at last year s Republican National convention in Houston showed you Don t have to be a Liberal Democrat to think so. That s the political advantage moral arguments aside that elders has Over Guinier. Americans re main deeply divided Over the issues of race and civil Jocclyn elders the next surgeon general rights that have made up Guinier s distinguished Ca reer. But we seem to be moving toward a consensus on reproductive rights that says a sound Choice beats taking a Chance. Lani Guinier was the victim of a full fledged Bof King a smear Job that distorted remarkably unremarkable views she had expressed in a couple of Law journal articles in much the same Way liberals distorted Robert Bork s views to Block his Nomi nation to the supreme court. At least Bork had an Opportunity to defend him self in Senate hearings and show the world he was not the Crackpot his critics made him out to be. Clinton dumped Guinier before she got that Chance because Senate democrats feet grew cold Over the Prospect of another hot Button controversy like Clarence Thomas who at least had Strong Well orchestrated support from president Bush s Ali it House. Will elders get that kind of support i Hope so. But if you agree you should make yourself heard. You might have a Friend in the White House but As Guiner a supporters Learned you can t necessarily depend on him. The Chicago Trybon flipping through summer vacation Andy Rooney i la read it this summer on my  there Are so Many Good things to read that it s a constant source of frustration not to have the time thread them. High on the list of things i wish i read More of Are magazines. When i m faced with a great number of magazines in a news store i m tempted to buy half a dozen. I Don t like to look for too Long in the Back of the store because i m afraid the owner will think i m Reading through the dirty ones my problem in picking a Magazine to buy is that when i look at the table of contents if i can find the table of contents i usually see two articles that interest me. I see eight or 10 that Don t. Magazines Are so expensive that i m reluctant to put Down $2.50 to read one article. In my Magazine Reading lifetime six or eight of the most popular magazines have gone out of Busi Ness. No one seems to know Why. No Magazine was Ever More popular that the old saturday evening Post. Colliers and Liberty were popular. Do kids still read boys life when i was in High school the in Magazine was a mildly smutty one called Ballyhoo the Prin Ciple character in it was a nutty looking Guy named zilch. Every Young person read it for a few years and then As suddenly As it came Ballyhoo went. The chances Are if you Aren t More than 60, you be never heard of it. Playboy the girly Magazine with intellectual pre mentions came along in the 1950s and was huge for 25 years but i never hear of anyone looking at it anymore. Maybe that s because standards of sexual behaviour have become so relaxed that no one is interested in a picture when they can see the real thing. For a year i made a living or tried to make a Liv ing Selling articles. It s a great feeling to mail an article to an editor and a terrible feeling to get it Back rejected. The Way to keep from committing suicide is to get a second article out before you get the first one Back. That Way there s still room for Hope in your life. There s a wide variation in what magazines pay. One Standard now for the average Magazine is a Dol Lar a word but some pay More than that. A top writer might get As much $15,000 from Esquire for a Long article readers s digest paid me $2,500 for an article years ago. I think that s the most i Ever got. Esquire paid me $500 and at the time i needed it badly. To guide did t pay much. I sold an article to harpers for $350 and was pleased to have my name in the Magazine but i d spent a month writing it and realized that was t the Way to make a living so i started looking for work in television the next Day. Tribune Media Sov fam Andy Rooney i a former Star and stripes report. July 25, 1993 sunday Page 9 i