European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 28, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday october ?8, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 17 Rostenkowski sees himself As above the Law George f. Will some pertinent pre election Reading is Dan Rostenkowski s Brief in defense of himself and an audacious proposition. The proposition is that All the interesting things he is accused of doing with Public Money Are no business of any one or anything but the con Gress in which he has flourished for 36 years and to which he willbe returning in january in spite of his 17-count indictment Forb Havior that looks to the laity and to Federal prosecutors a lot like thievery. The charges in his 17-countindictment Are that he made hundreds of thousands of Dol Lars of payments to ghost employees who performed person a services for him that he acquired ownership of congressionally leased Auto mobiles that he used official purchases from the House stationery shop for personal or Campaign uses that he diverted to personal use official funds authorized for postage and that he tampered with a witness. He is charged with diverting $724,000 in Federal Money an Campaign funds to personal use in a pattern of corruption spanning portions of three decades. He says the very Structure of constitutional govern ment the separation of Powers is jeopardized by any judicial proceedings about these allegations. He says a trial is precluded by two clauses of the Constitution. One says that no member shall be questioned in another place concerning a speech or debate in either House. Another says each House shall make its own rules and punish transgressors. Rostenkowski says that House rules which he Calls amorphous and transient provide no standards by which a court could de cide for example whether a member has violated the rules which Grant vast discretion regarding the use of office funds and employees. In a stinging response prosecutors say he is claiming that the whole question of whether he systematically looted the Public Treasury is beyond the reach of criminal  the speech or debate clause derived from the desire of the Constitution s framers to protect Candor in legislative deliberations. It pertains to legislative acts broadly construed to include committee work communications with other members and other acts directly relevant to deliberation about , the supreme court has held that the speech or debate clause does not prohibit inquiry into con duct simply because it is done by a legislator regardless of whether it is closely connected to the process of legislating one court has already rejected Rostenkowski s Brassy claims. With biting understatement the judge said that precedent seems to be lacking for the proposition that immunity attaches to a congressman s Deci Sion to hire employees whose duties consist of photo graphing his daughters weddings mowing the grass Athis summer Home or other  Rostenkowski will Appeal to a higher court which probably will be just a unsympathetic about the Lawn care at his vacation Home in Wisconsin. Then there will be a trial and Washington will weep. When he was indicted in May Washington was . Such is the Solidarity of the political class this City s bipartisan sympathy for him probably would not be dented even by a Reading of the argument he makes on his own behalf. If his argument is cynical it i perhaps forgivable As the Best defense at hand. But if it is As it probably is sincere it is a devastating indict ment not Only of him but of the kind of life that makes someone capable of believing his argument. As six More states prepare to vote on term limits for congressmen and senators Rostenkowski is a Rele vant specimen of the political class. Before he was elected to Congress in 1958, he was in the Illinois sen ate and before that he was in the state legislature s lower House. He has been a professional legislator since age 24. Never haying been in the private sector it is no won Der he cannot draw cannot even imagine a line dividing Public from private spheres. His indictment must be unintelligible to him. Furthermore his con science and even his instinct of prudence have been numbed by the corrupting life of unchallenged control of the House by his party during All his 36 years Here. Today he is asserting for people like himself something Akin to what was called Sovereign immunity when Kings claimed it. His claim is evidence of mental affliction that deserves to be called incumbents  but his affliction will not soon be incapacitating. He will be re elected this year and Given the Speed which the Mills of Justice grind per haps again and then again before Justice is done. C Washington Post f candidates Are All u p for hair Queen the children in my town Are being sent Home from school with Holiday greetings. The Holiday is halloween an the greetings Are warnings about the gob Lins and ghosts of modern  not go out alone the children Are told. Do not go into houses. Eat Only treats that Are wrapped. Show your parents the treats before you eat them. If anything unusual occurs Call the  read Down the list with less horror than Dull dismay. I know that on Hallow Een now we wrap Pur children in layers of such messages. We Send them trick or treating with instructions on How. Take Candy from strangers. We worry about them on streets where even neighbors maybe strangers. But this year i am reminded that halloween is no longer one Day of fright. Fear has come to haunt us. The Specter of crime has Hung Over this election season like a malevolent ghost. It s topped the hit Parade of Orwell polled anxieties. It s sprung up in endless ads Yelling boo at voters from behind every placard. Today each Candi Date is self cast As a crime fighter As i the Senate or the governor s mansion were a police station. Opponents crop Upin ads like defendants in a lineup in the Grimy Black and White film once reserved for Willie  further prove their Tough Ness on crime most candidates Are Topping each other in Calls for longer swifter surer punishment. The Eagle scout badge of Tough Ness has become the death penalty. Worn with Pride rather than re Gret. The unsettling part of these political scare tac tics is that there is so Little connection be tween fear and punishment betwee Public anxieties and the political Solu  what Are we afraid of Carrack Ings guns in schools 11-year-Olds drop Ellen Goodman Ping 5-year-Olds out of windows. What Isth political debate largely about build ing prisons three strikes and you re out Laws hardened criminals. What Are we scared of disintegrating communities letting our kids roam the streets rape in the mall. What is the political dialogue about the death penalty. The crime debate says James Ajan Fox Dean of northeastern University school of criminal Justice is enough to make a criminologist  As for the death penalty it does t accomplish much except to get people  today the crime rate is not on therise. But juvenile crime is growing. So is the category we think of As random senseless crimes. So Are sex crimes. By the year 2005, if these figures for juvenile crime hold there will indeed be a crime wave for one simple reason. There will be 23 percent More teen agers than today. Yet there is painfully Little talk this election year about How to keep today s5-year-old from becoming a violent 16 year old. Democratic pollster Cerinda Lake believes that for most people crime has come to represent the breakdown of fam ily Community institutions morals. An she says they Don t have the foggiest idea what to do about it in our bewilderment we Are looking for easy answers and they Are being provided with cynical abandon. Instead of leading politicians Are following. To even speak of crime prevention is to be labelled  it s the rare politician who wants to risk being caught coddling Tomor Row s criminals even if they Are to Day s children it s easier to talk Tough. But the Gap Between fear and punishment is real. What will happen when getting Tough does t make us Safe will we get tougher and when that does make us Safe will candidates run on the Promise of implementing the death pen airy with their own hands this year candidates have come to this electoral Hal Low s eve with their hands out. They Are wearing the costumes of crime fighters. Don t take Candy from these strangers. C Boston Globe