European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 23, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday june 23,1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 17rostenkowski gambling on Legal hocus pocus William f. Buckley the unfurling Story of rep. Dan Rostenkowski tells us a great Deal about american Justice. At the end of one week it was reported that the Illinois Democrat would do As advised by counsel and plead guilty in return for gentle treatment. A few Days later it was reported that he was in a fighting spirit and leaning against a Deal. A few Days after that we were told that he had decided against the Deal and would fight and As the saying goes establish his . A few Days after that we got the report that he would fire his lawyer concerning All of these Maneu vers a few observations 1 is it fair to a a assume that someone who is indicted on a criminal count is a a guilty the question puts a heavy semantic Load on a a assume and  obviously we know that no one is guilty under the Law unless a jury so declares him. But what this tells us is merely that someone is not going to go to jail unless he is a a guilty in the Legal sense but How a jury deliberates does not in every situation govern the conclusions of a thoughtful Public. There is built in ambiguity in some judicial proceedings but by no Means in All. The american people do conclude that someone is guilty who has been indicted and they Nave certainly concluded this about Dan Rostenkowski 2 some years ago the question was put to professor Alan Dershowitz the famous Harvard Law professor and defense attorney do people assume that someone who is indicted is guilty his answer was a yes they do Ana b properly so. He went on to explain that if the Prima Facie Case against a criminal defendant weren to overwhelmingly plausible then to indict him in the first instance a take him Down to the police station fingerprint him and ask for bail a was a most awful indictment of a just civil society. If the great majority of those who Are indicted Are not thereafter convicted then a True grievance against the pros a tutorial Arm of Justice is overdue. The purpose of the defense attorney b to play against the very great Odds which Are with the prosecutor. And the defense attorneys two great weapons Are the 12-memeber jury and the vulnerability of state evidence illegally gathered. 3 by these lights no sane american is really going to suppose that an indictment of one of the three or four most powerful men in Washington became possible in the absence of absolutely overwhelming evidence of his guilt catching Rostenkowski raiding the till and making a Federal Case out of it Are different from a vice squads accidentally stumbling into a room that has the Prince of Wales in it. To go after Rosty if it is in fact conceivable that All of that Money was accidentally collected and accidentally distributed to private accounts is something people Arentt prepared to believe. Now this does no to mean4hdt it is inconceivable that a Menendez style trial lies ahead of us in which All of a sudden America is advised by a jury punch drunk by Legal machinations that it could not convict the Menc Nycz kids of the murder of their parents. What fascinates about Rostenkowski is that he is betting that this is possible to bring off. The people who brought off the indictment of the Menendez kids had no alternative than to prosecute. The people who investigated Rosty had every conceivable alternative begging for adoption. Among other things they have been preparing to prosecute the Man who is primarily responsible for appropriating to Cir payroll. Even so Rosty decides on the great Gamble Robert Bennett his celebrated attorney had whittled the government Down to six months in Gaitand a mincing Little Fine Rosty ended by saying the hell with it ill take my chances on All 17 counts of the indictment a which if they Are substantiated and if the judge is severe could end him up in prison on the 100th anniversary of the Normandy landings. What his action tells us is of the deep opportunism with which people Deal with the Legal system. Some years ago a prominent Jurist sighed that it was becoming a ridiculously difficult to prove the simple act of guilt. There Are anomalous difficulties ahead. Rostenkowski just recently won a hard fought primary and for All we know the voters in his Home District would vote for him even in jail As has happened before in american history. But its also possible that the protocols of the Law notwithstanding the voters Are going to come to the conclusion whatever the jury comes up with in our View Dan Rostenkowski is guilty. He is a cheat and a fraud and it hurts especially to say that about the person on whom the whole country has primarily Rei cd to Orient Federal taxes and spending. Head be without his committee chairmanship even if he had taken the advice of his attorney but he is now betting everything on successful chicanery in court. C unt Versol Prosa . Needs caring i not us imagine an Ideal american Community a slice of their alleys r s civic Paradise where neighbors Are Friendly children Bright and optimistic streets Safe and life a necessities in Good supp now look Public schoo behind the scenes and what do you see a that virtually runs itself a corps of sanitation workers moving quietly Down pre Dawn streets on rubber tired sweepers a police Force whose presence discourages most criminals and whose skill catches the rest a food distribution Center staffed by uniformed City employees a and All of it humming along As though on automatic Pilot Well maybe not. Maybe what you see is a school substantially staffed by volunteers streets kept clean and crime free because residents do their bit to keep them that Way people enjoying life a necessities because neighbors see to it that no one goes hungry. The first might be a Lovely place to visit but would t you really prefer to live in the second i used to think that the two possible pictures described the Liberal and conservative ideals but i m no longer  seems to me that a once you get past the ideologues a everybody finds both visions attractive. We want a smoothly functioning government capable of delivering services As Well As Security. But we understand that some things require individual As Well As governmental Effort if they Are to work Well. Conservatives done to want to pave their own streets and liberals done to want the government raising their children. Its partly a question of efficiency there Are tilings Public agencies simply can to do very Well a for example instilling the Pride that makes some people keep William Raspberry Hope in youngsters who have Given up on their future. But its also a matter of taste there Are things we believe that individual citizens ought to do for the common Good. It is a belief that Quot manifests itself in everything from tutorial programs and political involvement to civil rights protests and disaster Relief. It is the source of that Staple of american lore the Community barn raising. And yet at least in recent years it has been hard to sell the notion of combining government responsibility and private involvement. At any rate it has been a hard sell for the government. A. The reason i suspect is that a particularly during the Reagan years a Calls for volunteerism came to sound like an announcement of governmental abdication. President Clinton who recently has been on a Community involvement Campaign made the Point Tho other Day. A sometimes president Reagan would give a speech that i thought was a great speech a it would make me want to shout a hallelujah a but id also want to say a what a your Job you know you can to put it All Back  maybe that a the problem a not so much that liberals and conservatives have vastly different ideas about the shared responsibilities of government and Community but that each group fears the other will go too far in a single direction. One result is that self described liberals and conservatives Are often found behaving contrary to their own rhetoric. Conservatives May give anti government speeches but they re As Quick As anybody else to Back Federal Relief for victims of natural disasters a or even for victims of changing markets. And liberals have never been More exuberantly Liberal than when they were demanding government deliverance a with a civil rights movement driven by their own Money and their own personal sacrifice. My guess is they  have had it any other Way a that their personal involvement in creating political and social change was almost As important As the change itself. Indeed the wonder is that liberalism and Consena Tim have been Able to survive As competing political philosophies Given the fact that there is at least in their american versions so Little difference Between them. In any Case it May be time to nudge these ideological distinctions toward the Back of the shelf the greatest threats to America today have virtually nothing to do with ideology and everything to do with the fact that we have allowed More and More people to Drift beyond the reach of Community. If we Are to save ourselves a let alone build anything approaching a slice of civic Paradise a Well have to do it at that critical intersection of liberalism and conservatism that place that attitude and that Mutual involvement we Call Community. Pc it