| Show Opinion 14A Thursday May 20 1999 Standard-Examin- - III t f r' Ni 'v nv‘c Standard-Examine- r NOUUD SERVING THE TOP OF UTAH SINCE 1888 Scott Trundle Publisher Ron Thornburg Don Porter Editorial Page Editor tAAXE Aft EXCEUBKTT Managing Editor TEDEfcto- - Hatch should scuttle Stewart nomination The national good outweighs the political rationale for governor’s chief of staff to be nominated to federal bench federal Though asfrequently minor favors in larger political deals it’s difficult to fathom the ins and outs of the current tussle over Utahn Ted Stewart Orrin Hatch the Beehive State’s senior US senator has asked the White House to nominate Stewart Gov Mike Leavitt’s chief of staff to a vacant seat in Salt Lake City’s US District Court The lifetime appointment would be a career coup for any attorney but especially one like Stewart who has never argued a client’s case in court or prosecuted a felon While he did work for six years at a law firm the bulk of Stewart’s career has been in politics: heading the state’s utility regulation commission its Department of Natural Resources and Commerce Department So far the Clinton administration hasn’t given its thumbs-u- p or down to the senator’s request Meanwhile Hatch the Senate Judiciary chairman hasn’t moved on the backlog of 36 pending nominees to fill vacant federal judge vacancies across the nation he’s holding them hostage until the president gives in on Stewart If Stewart were already an exemplary jurist or even an experienced attorney with a strong legal record - he’s al -- lowed his Utah Bar membership to slip into inactivity -Hatch’s position would be more understandable Somebare-flste- d times hard-ba- ll politics must be played as when this newspaper’s editorial board urged Hatch in June 1997 to use a stalling tactic on judicial nominations to force the Clinton administration to abide by defense base closure rules The Stewart matter however smacks of nothing but rank political favoritism: He’s a prominent Republican who’s carried the party’s water for a sufficient length of time therefore Hatch is bound and determined to reward him with this lifetime appointment to the federal bench The White House’s reluctance on the matter probably has plenty to do with the bad blood between Stewart and environmentalists activists for Utah’s wild lands have been lobbying Clinton to deny Hatch’s request At some point either Hatch or the president will have to decide what is in the best interest of the nation’s courts and Stewart will either be in or out But since a persuasive case for the man’s nomination based on legal skills has not been made Hatch should be looking elsewhere for a more seasoned attorney - preferably one with ample courtroom ANOTHER VIEW relations China-We- st China must feel deeply insulted and doesn’t find NATO’s explanation that “we used an old map” to be good enough China does not have the dramatic need of today as does Russia It is Americans and Europeans who need the Chinese market which in time will be the biggest in the world not Say it ain’t Jesse Ventura’s said enough about his personal life the other way around China has helped to save Western capitalist interests in Asia by skillfully avoiding being a victim of or an accelerator of the Asian economic crisis - Aftonbladet (Stockholm) so Jesse - more than enough actually -- preferences and exploits Ventura prides on Jesse being different the average politician but he sure isn’t any different from those Americans who having achieved fame decide to exploit it Elected governor of Minnecandisota as a third-part- y date Ventura has been hailed as something refreshing on the political scene a common man espousing common sense instead of a professional politician espousing whatever it takes to keep him in office As if tired of the adulation Ventura has produced an autobiography in which he brags about how he lost his virginity on a bet admits to past drug use finds humor in his adventures with Nevada prostitutes and reveals his distaste for underpants News accounts make the book sound thoroughly tacky In part because of criticisms from political enemies it is also an obvious distraction from Ventura’s performance of his gubernatorial duties and was wholly unnecessary except perhaps as an exercise of the Ventura ego and of course as a means of landing a fee estimated as being in the mid-si- x figures For a very brief shining hour Ventura was something of a hero - Scripps Howard News Service PEomtSK COLUMNS Court may force Congress to do its jo says lawmakers give away power to make laws Ruling WASHINGTON - The court ruling transfixed this city but probably has been barely noticed elsewhere It should be noticed It touches the vitality of representative government Last week a federal appeals court ruled 1 that some air quality standards promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency were so and unprincipled that the EPA must have exceeded its powers in setting them It must have because - this is the dynamite in the court’s decision - Congress would have acted unconstitutionally if it had delegated such unfettered authority under the Clean Air Act That is if Congress intended the EPA to exercise almost uncircumscribed discretion Congress made a mockery of the separation of powers by delegating essentially legislative powers to an executive branch agency This ruling resuscitates - how much remains to be determined probably when the case reaches the Supreme Court - the “nondelegation doctrine” which has been dormant since the mushrooming of the regulatory state under the New Deal If that doctrine stages a comeback Congress may have to return to legislating Nowadays congressional lawmaking often amounts to little more than stipulating goals (eg no sex discrimination in federally funded education programs) or expressing sentiments (eg that there should be no discrimination against people with disabilities) Congress leaves it to executive branch bureaucracies to say by means of regulations what the legislation actually means Soon there is an avalanche of litigation arguing that a law not as Congress made it but as Congress allowed it to be made elsewhere requires say equal 2-- numbers of men and women in a university’s athletic programs Or requires employers to regard chronic tardiness as evidence of a mental disorder that amounts to a disability Since the 1930s courts have been tolerant of delegating by Congress The argument has been: Because society is increasingly complex and because government is increasingly involved in recondite matters and because legislators are generalists and regulators are specialists therefore (in the words of a 1989 Supreme Court ruling) “Congress simply cannot do its job absent an ability to delegate power under broad general directives” However that might mean that if in order to do what it considers “its job” Congress must leave lawmaking to unelected people Congress should reconsider its understanding of its job But that would require Washington to think the unthinkable: Perhaps big government is incompatible with is connected to the responsibilities of representative institutions The same issue - the dilution of American democracy - frequently arises in the steadily expanding reach of what is called international law Much of that law is not even codified in the form of treaties subject to deliberative ratification processes Professor Jeremy Rabkin of Cornell nt notes in his new book “Why Sovereign- ty Matters” that in the first 100 years under the Constitution Congress ratified 277 treaties and presidents made 265 executive agreements In the next 100 years the number of treaties tripled but executive agreements increased Between 1980 and 1992 there were 218 new treaties but 45 1 0 new executive agreements by presidents required only to notify Congress of such agreements In 1973 the Senate ratified the UN ‘ World Heritage Convention under which nations propose historic or scenic sites for inclusion on a kind of landmarks registry Innocuous? Not exactly In 1 995 the Clinton administration prompted by environmental advocacy groups invited the World Heritage Committee which under the Convention monitors the safekeeping of “world heritage sites” to sound off about a pro- posed mining operation near but outside of Yellowstone National Park That episode was trivial However consider what is contemplated by A1 Gore and other advocates of the Kyoto Protocol signed last November Its aim is in effect to ration energy use among a few developed nations in order to cut emission of greenhouse gases It commits the United States to reduce energy consumption within its borders If ratified the Protocol would submit the United States to enormously costly policy decisions by foreign “ex25-fo- ld perts” Because senators flinch from political suicide the Protocol cannot be ratified But the fact that the Clinton administration favors it proves the prevalence of the “delegation impulse” which debilitates democracy George Will is a regular panelist on ABC's “This Week" His column appears on Thursdays and Sunday’s Girls video games need bite not Barbie Media rails against violence but what about veiled sexism? There’s so much media hype these days about violent video games Why the White House even held a conference on media violence last week and hauled fisin manufacturers of computer-drive- n ticuff fiestas to make the case for the freedom to continue producing them But a aspect of the video game industry is not how it may or may not inure teens and younger kids to mayhem but how it may perpetuate stereotypical roles among young girls Granted there’s very little overt sexism left in our culture It’s against the law and practiced at one’s financial peril (juries award generous grants to girls who are sexually harassed in school or women who are similarly harassed on the job) But covert sexism abounds And pushing the industry to design and market games that portray girls as less-cover- intelli- gent creatures and to simultaneously promote those sorts of games as heavily as they promote their more violent products aimed at boys is way beyond due The video game industry convention was recently held in Los Angeles Most people don’t realize the US video game industry income on an annual basis dwarfs the gross national product of d nations: It is an obscene many $63 billion annual market Even No 3 video game console maker Sega plans a $100 million marketing blitz for the US launch next fall of its Dreamcast system That’s a tidy sum to mid-size- spend on marketing alone Meanwhile smaller producers who cater to the “niche” girls video game market (since when is half the population “niche?”) are having trouble keeping the electricity on and are either logging off or being gobbled up Pacman style by dominant players One such case is Purple Moon a small start-u- p ed woman-owne- d company that set out to pioneer the previously unknown territory of girls’ video games In a daring corporate move Purple Moon’s video characters were designed to boost and creatures portray girls as capable of navigating an increasingly complex universe In the process the company created the video character Rockett Movado who quickly developed a cult following According to National Public Radio which recently profiled the company Rockett’s world was full of choices which she made decisively powerfully and with aplomb In a smashing departure from the norm this video maven is blue-eye- d no blond-haire- d stereotypical fashion follower She’s a trend setter and self-estee- m an Amazonian leader According to NPR reporter Elaine Korry: “With her pug nose orange bangs and fiat chest Rockett is a far cry from Barbie In her latest adventure Rockett beats out Nicole the stuck-u- p class bimbo to become Queen of Hearts at the dance In Rockett’s world girls have to make choices and each decision shapes the outcome of the game” What sass! The oddball beats out the Barbra Streisand queen of the stuck-upbesting Melanie Griffith How totally tos! day! But there is trouble in progress-lan- d Purple Moon turned blue for lack of fiscal oxygen And it was bought out by (aargh!) Mattel the centrifuge of toy conformity which spins out and then spits out all things original and different This is a personal plea to Jill Barad the brains behind Mattel’s ruling role in the toy world: do not modify Rockett Please do not make her more marketable by going blonde or implanting her flat chest with Barbie-size- d boobs Girls will still love her if Rockett never learns the meaning of Please do not take her out of sneakers and dress her up in tacky prom gown after prom gown Let her maintain her stunning individualism and show girls that different is good that smart can win and that is desirable Bonnie Erhe host of the PBS program Puh-leeee- “To the Contrary " writes this column weekHoward News Service Her address is 10240433I7(a CompuServe com ly for Scripps il |
