European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 28, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Friday january 28, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 17 family remains important to senator mom Ellen Goodman its been a year since Patty Murray her husband and two teen age children packed up their car and drove East from Washington state to Washington had taken the words once used to taunt her you re just a mom in Tennis shoes and turned them into a winning slogan. . Senator arrived at the Ca Pitol determined to remain As Down to Earth As a pair of keds. When we met during her first week on the Job Murray talked fiercely about balancing her Job and her family. She set herself an extra task to be a role Model As Well As a senator. Part of my responsibility is to show that we can make Congress work for people like me she said. We Nee Congress to represent main Stream that Day i thought about the special burdens and concerns that women bring As we enter male institutions. Having fought Long and hard for Access we immediately face the next stage a dual struggle to make ourselves comfortable in an unfamiliar world and to change months later our conversation picked up Al most where it left off. The senator who has won a reputation for effectiveness without showboating is still Earnest and open and More aware of Pitfalls than of pleasures in her position. From her Post for example she has watched a humiliated sen. Bob Packwood hang onto his seat for dear life. Shaking her head she says of the Oregon re publican he can t conceive of leaving Here. He has soother life. And i frankly think that s what s wrong with the Senate that people Here Don t have a real life in the real has also Learned a great Deal about How sen ate life can push out real life. Try living a real life with out knowing when you la be Home each Day. There Aren t any hours she says launching into a subject that Shell return to again and again during our lunch -. usually get to work at 8 in the morning. And at 7 at night i am usually in my office saying Are we going to have a vote tonight or can i go Home the Senate operates she says by endless standoffs Between opponents who can hold out the As votes Are postponed and delayed her family often watches a Span to figure out when Shell be Home. More to the Point she adds it s a work place and style designed by and for men with wives who took care of their families. The whole world May be Chang ing to a new Model but the shop on Capitol Hill re Mains the fairness senators have their own demanding Bosses the Public. As Murray sees it there s a fear on the part of Many senators that. If i can t stand up until 3 in the morning and my family does t go along with that i m telling the voters i m incapable of this working hard is equated with working Long an legislating becomes this endurance contest. She has found that it takes a fierce will to retain any thing close to a Normal life. The one Concession she has made to her new lifestyle is to hire cleaning Hel for an hour and half every other week. Other than that she asks herself How can i speak for the women who work at Safeway and Are trying to hassle with child care and whatever else if i Don t understand it so she understands it when her husband is away on a business trip and a storm knocks out the electricity while she s at the office. Or her son has a bloody nose at school that won t Stop and she has to leave work. Or her car won t Start. Still there is much that is abnormal for the family of a part time state legislator who becomes a full time senator and Murray knows that As Well. Our family life frankly revolves around me what time am i going to be Home when i have to go to Testate she offers. That s a Tough thing to ask even my husband and kids to Cater if Murray is unusually and consciously Frank about the difficulties of the Senate Job she also cites with Pride the legislation about Timber or gun control or family medical leave that makes it worthwhile. She talks As Well about the special connection be tween the Senate women who shared the spotlight in the year of the woman. But the same woman who set out a year ago to make the Point that a working Mother could do this Job is most fervent when she talks about making the Job doa ble for herself and others who follow. I m not going to be the kind of senator who Abandons my family says this working Mother sounding like so Many others. She is we Are finally in the men s game. Now to change the rules c Tho Boston Globe Walsh s report an affront to Freedom s heroes after seven years during which he spent $36 million of our tax Money Iran Contra special projector Lawrence e. Walsh has delivered a 566-Page report that is Rife with character assassination innuendo unproven allegations and unfair attacks. The report released Jan. 18 reeks of a personal vendetta and could have Bee written at a conspiracy school headed by Bobby Ray Inman and Ross has held court in the Chambers of his own mind and has indicted and convicted High level members of the Reagan and Bush administrations whom he sees As having either broke Laws or created the climate that led others to break Laws. Specifically Walsh claims Laws were broken in a 1985 arms for hostages Deal with Iran and in aiding the nicaraguan Freedom fighters at a time when con Gress support was on again off attacking the ethics of others Walsh clearly violated the Legal code of his own profession. It is unethical for a prosecutor to make out of court statements about people who have not been charged with a happened to the concept of being innocent until proven guilty laying aside such principles the Iran Contra report smears number of reputations including those of Ronald Reagan George Bush and Oliver North. Who is about to declare Cal Thomas his candidacy i Virginia for the . Senate. If Walsh had the goods on any of these and the others whom he names he should have taken them to court. To smear these men is unconscionable. Perhaps the most detailed rejoin Der to Walsh s charges came from former attorney general Edwin Meese Iii. Meese and his attorneys make a Point by Point refutation of Walsh s charges. Just one example involves the novem Ber 1985 shipment of Hawk missiles to Iran leading to the release of american hostages held in Lebanon by iranian con trolled shiite Muslim fighters. Walsh claims that Meese attempted to cover up information about the shipment. In fact it was Meese who publicly spoke of the arms shipment by Israel and of Reagan s knowledge of it on nov. 25,1986 though he and Reagan have stated that they did t know about the shipment at the time it was made. At one time Walsh seems to be arguing that there was a More general cover up intended to conceal the president knowledge of the november 1985 missile shipment no matter when the president Learned of it. Walsh also claims absent any facts to Back him up that the ship ment in november 1985 was illegal. But then he says whether or not it was illegal Meese thought it was possibly illegal and therefore he participated in the alleged cover up. And so it goes for most of the report. The real criminal activity in the political sense was conducted by Reagan administration opponents in Congress who Bear to see the president s Tough anti communist tactics succeed. The had too much invested in the nuclear freeze movement unilateral disarmament and attempts to Cut the defense budget and appease the soviet Union. The real final chapter in the Iran Contra affair is to be found in Nicaragua which is no longer under the dictatorial Boot of the communist sandinista. Freedom s Bell has rung not Only i Managua but also in Grenada in East Ern Europe and in Many other places where communism was opposed. In Grenada they be erected statues twosome of those considered criminals by the special prosecutor. In Washington Walsh has attempted a one Man judicial Lynching of principled men who loved Freedom. Let history judge who the real heroes and villains Are. Better still ask a nicaraguan. C tha los Antolos times
