European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 14, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday oecembem4, 1993 commentary the stars and stripes Page 13 id Woven into French film Flap William Safire French culture is regularly on display in the architect . Pei a Modem addition to the louvre in Paris. Last week in another . Pei Structure in Beverly Hills a a Tinseltown Temple on the Corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards a Hollywood financial muscle held a glittering gathering for Bill Clinton. Afterwards at a $25,000 to $100,000 per Mogul couple dinner to Benefit the democratic party barbra Streisand Sang can t help Loving Dat Man Frank Sinatra whose Gangland connections and Moll introductions did so much to besmirch the Kennedy Escutcheon was insinuated into the Clinton Circle. Left out in the cold were Julia Roberts and Michelle Pfeiffer whose agent was humiliated the two Pei structures Are about All Paris and Hollywood have in common. The two cultures Are locked in a struggle bound to affect International Trade and presidential politics. The american movie Industry wants and deserves an end to the import tax on  films now subsidizing unprofitable French film production. Jack Valenti voice of american movie makers says a fall we want is Access to a Market arid  the French Public prefers the american product to the dismay of Frances cultural elite politicians there no longer Able to protect their Farmers from world Competition in the Trade talks Are making a last protectionist stand on movies. Their cultural chauvinism is a facade to use a couple of French words. It fronts for anti american snobbish and a desire to impose quotas to gain economic advantage. Today movies Are targeted tomorrow euro rats will aim to control satellite and Cable entertainment and information that should be available to everyone. On the merits a free expression free Trade fair Competition for jobs a we should take a stand on this Issue in the final week of world Trade talks under the general agreement on tariffs and Trade. We can be flexible in phasing out the Tariff and May offer sops to push foreign films Here but the president should not Cave in on the principle just to sign an agreement. Beyond the merits is the politics which makes this Issue so fascinating. Cat fornia is our largest state in population our state that is hardest hit by defense cuts and immigration influx and our most politically Pivotal state. Whoever wins California in 1996 will win the next presi a dental election. That a Why Clinton has travelled to the West coast nine times this year. It is Why he is willing to risk being seen As out of touch with his pseudo populist roots by embracing Hollywood a glitterati. It is Why he wades up to his hips in hypocrisy talking about Campaign finance Reform while using his incumbency to generate millions in fat cat donations for democrats his Money managers justifying his bad example by muttering a no unilateral  Here a the biggest reason also in California is Republican gov. Pete Wilson who has just sent a fax to Clinton a we must walk away from a bad Gatt  his poll ratings took a plunge after his election and Are now As depressed As the state confident democrats Are looking toward the Inex Seric need Kathleen Brown to re vilify the town dynasty. But Wilson a former san Diego mayor and . Senator has been Riding a wave of anti immigrant resentment troubling to me but not to most voters. He May Benefit from a fact too politically incorrect to voice both California senators Are women and the Prospect of a woman As governor May evoke a yearning for reverse affirmative action. An elderly former californian who has won More campaigns than he lost in that state predicted to me recently that come and listen to a boat a Man named Bill for resident barely kept his critics still. Then erne Day he was looking Ofia Tredor when  Kif door come a bumb Liri a Neva. Staff that is Mlat tors. A it Ipp . We nonet  moderate. Frie Ruu of Siu Saio Toufe by from that. Liev  the y space you Wanna  he loaded up the truck and. Moved to Beverly. Hills that is. Movie stars. Suck haircut. If Wilson survives in 1994, he will be the most Likely Republican presidential nominee in 1996 a and would make a Strong . No wonder Clinton has been commuting monthly to California accepting the Glitz risk and finance hypocrisy charge. No wonder he impressed the fat cat moguls with his grasp of the Case for ending movie tariffs emphasizing the Job potential touching Ever so lightly on the need to curb movie violence. Trade representative Mickey Kantor until recently a Hollywood super lawyer received this instruction from Clinton hang Tough on our proposal. Trade principle and California politics have combined to put steel in the . Spine. C tie new Yoth Elmo Clinton hails judge for civil rights leadership he is 83 now but the twinkle is still in his eyes whether he is talking about the shakespearean plays he will see next summer on his expedition to Stratford on Avon his recollections of his political Battles for Dwight d. Eisenhower or his Hopes for his protdg6, Lamar Alexander. Nothing delighted judge John minor Wisdom More about receiving the presidential medal of Freedom last week than president Clinton a noting that Wisdom was the Only one of the five Honoreen was once a member of the Republican National  what Clinton also said in the emotion packed White House ceremony was that Wisdom and his colleagues on the 5th . Circuit court of appeals did the whole nation and especially the South a signal service by the courage with which they carried out the civil rights tev solution from the 1950s through the 1970s, when so Many of the elected officials in the Region were dragging their feet. Wisdom and the other Eisenhower appointees to the 5th circuit then covering Alabama Florida Georgia Louisiana Mississippi and Texas a had the fearful responsibility of enforcing the historic supreme court school desegregation decision and the later judicial and legislative actions opening the polling place the Surv Box and Public accommodations to Blacks. Wisdom and his colleagues on the Bench were deeply imbued in the traditions of the old South As Clinton noted Wisdom a father marched in the funeral procession of Confederate Gen. Robert e. Lee they understood Why their Region fiercely resisted change. But instead of taking a narrow and crabbed View of their duties the judges of the 5th circuit used All of their authority a and critics said even appropriated Power a to move the South through and beyond that awesome transition to what they clearly saw As its Bright destiny Clinton was giving the judgment of his own generation that benefited from their courage when he said a i done to think the South could have made it through those trying times without leaders like judge  Veteran journalist Jack Bass has told the Story of those judges in his 1981 Book unlikely heroes recounting the personal abuse the threats and the vilification their neighbors poured Down on them and their families. But the Man who was sipping a pre dinner cocktail with his wife and daughter and a few invited guests a couple of Days after receiving his medal was anything but a self appointed  Knees Are stiff but his mind is supple and though officially retired to a a senior status he carries his share of the workload of the court on which he has sat for 36 years. As he flipped through his store of anecdotes a from the 1952 Republican convention to last weeks White House ceremony spinning out the yarns in his Rich new Orleans accent and pumping his visitors for current political gossip a Wisdom was a Man awash in the pleasures of life there is an irony to his career. Before he and his David s. Broder Friend Elbert p. Tuttle of Atlanta were named judges on the 5th circuit they forced open the door to today a two party South. Wisdom was on the Bench when Barry m. Goldwater and later Richard m. Nixon established their own version of a Republican a Southern strategy a appealing directly or by coded messages to the very southerners most aggrieved by the desegregation policies those Eisenhower judges were enforcing. Wisdom roars with laughter when he recalls How John n. Mitchell Nixon a attorney general dismissed a 1969 suggestion that Wisdom belonged on the supreme court by saying a the s a damned left Winger. He d be As bad As Earl  although officially out of politics the judge cannot conceal his interest in seeing the kind of republicanism that attracted him to Eisenhower restored to the White House. After assuring himself that Clinton would not take offence Wisdom invited Alexander the former Tennessee governor and education Secretary who is planning to seek the 1996 Republican presidential nomination to the medal of Freedom ceremony. Alexander clerked for Wisdom after finishing Law school and the judge and his wife Bonnie glow when they talk of the Young Man who supplemented his meager pay by playing Honky Tonk piano on saturday nights at my fathers moustache on Bourbon Street then got up on sunday mornings to teach sunday school. When Clinton gave Wisdom permission to invite a prospective 1996 opponent to the ceremony the president gave him a gift almost As much appreciated As the medal of Freedom itself. Cd Hal Washington Post