European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 15, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday August 15, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 13driving Home a Point on professional sports David s. Broder As i sit Here in the basement workroom writing this column on my Home computer a dodgers reds game is on the television with the sound turned off. It is soothing to glance up and see the familiar rituals a Ray Knight flashing sins from the third base coaches Box Todd Worrell fussing with the resin bag a that i have seen other players coaches and managers perform Over the decades since my father took me to my first game at Wrigley Field. It is hard to imagine that baseball May be Over for the year shut Down by a players strike that is the eighth such stoppage in the last 23 years. The �?T80s were supposed to be tie decade of greed but Here we Are almost Halfway through the supposed sobering up �?T90s, and baseball cannot figure out How to Divide the pie Between owners and players without a strike. Major league revenues top $1.8 billion. Players salaries average Over $1 million. There Are 28 teams and 700 players to split this Fortune and they can to work it out give me a break As you May have gathered i like sports and watch a lot of games a in person and on the tube. This year it has struck me that the Best times i had were at the least professional games. Last fall i saw the 100th revival of the Battle for the Monon Bell a a football rivalry Between two neighbouring Central Indiana Liberal arts colleges Quot Wabash and de Pauw University. The game was played on a mild but drizzly saturday in Greencastle and almost everyone got to the stadium the old fashioned Way. They walked. You could buy a hot dog. And soft drink at no inflated prices right under the stands. At halftime veterans of past Battles a Bulky Guys with varying degrees of skryness a came out on the Field from opposing sidelines wearing their school colors. They Shook hands and chatted briefly with the Guys they had once opposed. Tradition nostalgia every Good feeling overflowed. The other event came just a month ago while visiting grandchildren in Connecticut. The new Haven Ravens baseball team was playing Binghamton on that Friday evening and three generations of Broders trooped off happily to see the game. As in Greencastle Access was easy prices right and the crowd of about 6,000 enthusiastic in pounding the Metal flooring at the old Yale Ballpark every time a Raven got a hit or made a Good catch. In a not sure we saw any future rip kens or Griffey or keys but we saw a Home team Homer several smoothly executed double plays and few mental gaffes or booted balls. Management had ingeniously provided some kind of Giveaway or fan participation contest at every half inning break so the entertainment never stopped. Daniel and Madeleine who Are a Little Young to appreciate All the nuances of the game were much taken with rally Raven the Bird costumed Mascot cheerleader and snacked their Way contentedly through the evening. At neither of these occasions were there off Field tantrums threats or controversies to Cloud your enjoyment of the game. So far As i know none of the players held out so Long that he missed the Start of training Camp As the redskins new $19 million quarterback did. Nor was any of them dumped unceremoniously onto the free agent Market after a marvelous career a la Art Monk. The whole pattern of today a professional sports a players switching teams every time they can get an extra million teams switching cities every time they spot a Richer television Market a turns off the real fans. Maybe wed be better off just amputating the top of the professional leagues a where salaries revenues and egos All have inflated out of sight a and get Back to where both players and fans remember its supposed to be fun. C Washington Post. Senate ties Whitewater to constitutional Issue Why have the Riegle hearings on the Whitewater scandal brought credit to the Senate while the Gonzalez circus on the same matter has brought ridicule on the House because the essence of the Senate hearings is not about the abuse of the banking system by William Safire the Clinton or even about White House attempts to impede or wrongfully investigate an investigation. These hearings Are not yet about Whitewater they Are about the constitutional requirement that the Congress be told the whole truth. That a Why the Tenor of the Senate hearings has changed so radically. A week ago democratic senators were Pooh pooling the investigation As partisan poking around. Now republicans Are giving some of their questioning time to the other Side because democrats Are acting As members of the legislative Branch being deceived by the executive Branch. A generation ago Congress and the courts came Down hard on a Cia chief Richard Helms for doing what he saw to be his duty in concealing a Covert action. In the �?T80s, the Reagan appointee. Elliott Abrams was convicted again not for lying but for a a wilfully and knowingly. Failing to answer fully and completely when asked about material information by a Senate committee. The latest example of incomplete testimony a subtracting a significant fraction from Quot the whole truth a was not to protect National Security but to help a Friend the president avoid political embarrassment. Treasury a Roger Altman plainly withheld a series of questionable contacts and heated discussions of recusal from probing senators this Spring. Yet the Clinton appointed counsel Robert Fiske and the office of government ethics saw no evil. The Prospect of condoning incomplete testimony Drew the checks and bal ances Issue for the Senate if democrats allow a democratic administration to make a mockery of congressional oversight today what Power would the Senate have to Check any president tomorrow with House hearings a National joke a die hard cover upper Hemy Gonzalez awarded Altman a a congressional purple heart a senators reluctantly showed their displeasure at having been made fools of. Altman no a murderer is a political  members of Treasury a briskly walking dead showed How a pattern of legalistic half truth telling has permeated the Clinton culture. Treasury general counsel Jean Hanson whose sworn testimony frequently oof oks thu. La Mew Ltd  . Ital Gorr sort a conflicted with Altman a and Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen a was shown her own memos and written reports of phone conversations. Five times she claimed to have a no Independent recollection of the information in the documents but did not Dis Ute their accuracy. That is a Slippery any cry a Way of saying a i done to remember so you can task me More about  the Clank of falsity goes to the top. For More than a year the White House has been saying that Whitewater files were sent from Vincent Fosters office after his death to the Clin tons private attorney. At a much praised news conference in april Hillary Rodham Clinton was asked if her top aide Margaret Williams had removed documents from Fosters office. A i done to think that she did remove any documents a Clinton answered. A she said a emr. Bernard Nussbaum distributed the files according to whom he thought should have  sounds As if it went right to the family lawyer right but Newsweek reveals that Nussbaum let Maggie Williams take the Whitewater files she spoke to Hillary Ini Arkansas and was told to lock them in a closet in the family quarters of the White House. Five Days passed before they were turned Over to the Clin tons lawyer who arranged for their continued secrecy under subpoena. Hillary Clinton a answer was not an outright lie Only a incomplete a intended by the first lady to mislead. Deceiving the press with a half truth is no crime. But wilfully failing to answer fully to the Congress is a violation of 2nd . Code Section 192. Only a Misdemeanour a but it helps preserve the american system of checks and balances. C new York times