Show 10A StaKjard-gxa'rm- e’ Mocvriay ApfJ 2 1990 Standard-Examine- Opinion r UKBW cfe-mE- SE Legislature’s drug testing law flawed Utah State workers are in for a surprise They arc going to be expected to submit to drug testing sometime in the immediate future Without fanfare little or no public input and minus any chance for agonizing a bill whizzed through the 1990 Legislature mandating drug tests on state employees Furthermore it’s an elitist bill The absence of certain regulations mean that some high profile state employees may be excluded Gov Norman Bangerter was not exactly comfortable with the new law The governor has heartburn over some of the provisions of the law His concerns should be shared by all state workers and the public as well The governor signed the bill aiming for a “state employees drug-fre- e workplace” but he opined that the legislation lacked some cogent provisions He’s right g The program does not apply to everyone in Several branches of government are exstate government cluded It was mostly designed to test the average employee working in the trenches All state executives — including himself — should have to submit to the same drug test that the government workers will be subjected to under one of the last bills from the 1990 Legislature he signed into law the governor said drug-testin- -- He took his concerns a step further Although he signed g bill the governor added a letter to legislathe tive leaders suggesting the law also should apply to legislative and judicial-branc- h employees as well as all those in drug-testin- the executive branch Bangerter said he would have no objection to taking the test himself although an executive order would not apply to elected officials As written the law excludes state legislative and judiciary employees elected officials university and college faculty and administrators the attorney general and department heads Attorney General Paul Van Dam advised the governor that the bill has flaws and could leave the state vulnerable to a court challenge based on the equal protection clause of the Constitution All across the nation employers are wrestling with the problem of how to screen drugs out of the workplace without infringing on the privacy and dignity of the majority of employees That may have been the intent of Utah’s new drug tracing law But in its haste the legislature failed to give credibility to the testing program by excluding some crucial members of the the state’s work force Another serious flaw is the lack of provisions that equally protect individual rights More over the bill was kept under wraps until the waning hours of the legislative law-abidi- session There’s just something sinister about a law that doesn’t surface until it’s too late for any opportunity for public de- bate Wrong to influence judiciary decisions Gov Norman Bangerter probably deserves the benefit of the doubt His venture into the decision-makin- g process of the judiciary was more than likely unintentional Nonetheless he needs reminding of the awesome responsibility he must bear in avoiding any appearance of attempting to influence a judicial ed decision The governor called on federal judges “not to make decisions in isolation” regarding the double-bunkin- g issue at the Utah State Prison He was suggesting that judges should consider how much their decisions will cost taxpayers The governor was referring the pending lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union that claim Utah State Prison inmates are subjected to unconstitutional conditions because of overcrowding and poor medical care Bangerter said an unfavorable decision could cost the state as much as $100 million to build additional prison space if the courts rule on the side of the ACLU Bangerter was reflecting aloud his frustrations over restraints on the state budget and the potential for huge outlays of tax dollars that would be required if the state is forced to expand its prison facilities to accommodate a bulging prison population The governor also was lamenting that the cost of building additional prison space would be $100 million an ostensible reference to taking scarce financial resources needed for other state projects Under constitutionally protected rights it is unlawful to invoke undue pressures on the judiciary not by any other branch of government or any individual It was wrong whether subtly or otherwise for the governor to try to sway a judicial opinion by implying that costs to taxpayers should be a factor in making a ruling on g issue at the state prison the controversial double-bunkin- Bush finally finds something safe to hate CHICAGO — Wherever politics is spoken the stunning impact of George Bush’s Broccoli Coup has already moved beyond news into legend With one simple statement Bush enhanced the powers of the presidency ratcheted up his lika’oility ratings dispelled any lingering doubts about wimpishness acted out everybody's childhood fantasy and showed himself to be his own best speechwriter Not even Peggy Noonan could have put it more unforgettably: “I do not like broccoli" Bush said “And I haven't liked it since 1 was a little kid and my mother made me eat it I'm president of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli" Those three sentences should be worth 10 million votes a guest shot on “Saturday Night Live" and a citation in Bartlett’s “Familiar Quotations" It helped that Bush timed his Broccoli Coup fortuitously Washington DC is no longer the new s center of the world with its economic prowess shifting to Japan and its control of global events to Moscow So restless hordes of journalists analysts pundits and assorted other media types were ready to turn Bush's declaration of liberation from veggies into political history Caught offguard campaign managers political advisers speechwriters and assorted Democratic candidates are scrambling to find an effective counter Peas perhaps? Turnips? Rutabagas? But Bush has made a strike with broccoli and anything else will be so much spinach The beauty of broccoli is that it isn’t ethnic or racial It's not sexist or feminist It’s not right wing or left wing It’s not protected by an league or a civil rights pre-empti- Joan Beck Beating on broccoli won’t increase the deficit or hurt trade relations with Japan or make Congress angry or turn out the gay and lesbi- an pickets or endanger a species There’s no e or way partisans can connect it to abortion It doesn’t discriminate against the handicapped or raise taxes or hurt the environment Broccoli is one of the few things left that’s safe to joke about in a nation where taking umbrage has become as natural as eating and almost as common and where the penalty for an offhand remark can be loss of a job or an election Broccoli is also safe to hate unlike even Willie Horton as Bush discovered to his dismay during the 1988 campaign Fortunately for Bush being against broccoli does take a certain derring-dMost people are still a tad skittish about defying their mother especially in public lest they be forced to stay at the table until they dean their plate or sent to bed without dessert Yet Bush is taking on his mother his wife the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association and the whole nagging passel of masochistic nutrition activists What’s politically courageous is that Bush didn’t wait for a public opinion poll or try to build a consensus or float some trial balloons n or even appoint a broccoli commission He simply barged ahead “I am president of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli" Except for Barbara Bush the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association and Julia Child no one — not even a mother — has reacted to the president’s declaration of independence from broccoli except with glee The association politely — and with plenty of public relations finesse — sent around a heap of the green stuff for photos on the pro-choi- pro-lif- o blue-ribbo- White House lawn en route to kitchens that feed the homeless Childs suggested a recipe that smothers broccoli with garlic as if that could possibly be considered an improvement And the First Lady known as the Silver Fox for good reason tactfully said if George’s mother couldn’t get him to eat broccoli anymore she couldn’t either but that she and Millie the First Dog would It’s no wonder politicians and candidates are already trying to stake out vegetables for 1992 gambling that millions of people are sick of health food and health food nagging Their campaign managers are gearing up to crank out reams of appropriate press releases (“Roger Jones candidate for county clerk today said if elected he is not going to eat lima beans anymore") Some possible Democratic challengers to Bush are already practicing new lines “I am a candidate for president of the United States and I am not going to eat cauliflower" Or “Read my lips If I am elected president I promise you that I will never ever eat aspar- agus" But some analysts caution that the gimmick could backfire They note that historically one requirement for political candidates has been that they must be able to go to ethnic festivals and eat every kind of ethnic food pressed upon them Refusing to eat something could be politically risky they say Analysts also caution that to avoid alienating vested veggie interests a politician must have a wife like Barbara Bush and a dog like Millie so he can say “I am mayor of this town and I am not going to eat carrots But my wife and my dog will" The truth is most wives are likely to say “I hate broccoli and I always have If my husband isn’t going to eat it you can darn well bet I won’t either" And chances of finding a dog that into veggies are zip Chicago Tribune Bush’s counsel easy to understand Speaker of the House Thomas Foley we are advised was shaken from his pristine resolution on how the United Stales should react to a repressive Soviet maneuver in Lithuania after his conference with the president We are not told what it was Mr Bush said to Mr T oley but we must assume that it was on the order of Don’t push Gorbachev considering the difficulties he is in already Now this counsel is easy to understand A small creditor is not advised to stress his claim against a debtor struggling to reconstitute his falling house Paying last month's gas bill could trigger bankruptcy No doubt Mr Gorbachev through his emissaries is making a point of that kind at this moment or perhaps Mr Bush and his advisers are making the inferences What they say is: If you punish Gorbachev too drastically for resisting by force the secession of Lithuania you will run the danger that reactionary forces within the Soviet government fearing sympathetic detonations of Lithuanian independence in Georgia and Armenia and here and there will topple Gorbachev Or failing that that GorWill what? Start a nuclear war? bachev will President Bush's problem is not unrelated to the scrambled signal he sent out when he dispatched Brent Scowcroft and Lawrence Lagleburger to Peking to drink champagne with Mr Deng The signal inevitably went out: The United States is less than seriously concerned for the cry within China for freedom Coming as those two visits to Peking did just before and just after the stunning events of last fall Eastern Europeans wondered to what extent was the United States committed to freedom for the captive peo- - William F Buckley Jr pies Add to this the singular complication that we never jecognized the annexation of the Baltic states by the Soviet Union Moreover as recently as last sear under glasnost the Soviet Union disclosed a secret agreement be- tween Stalin and Hitler to divide up Poland and the Baltic states after the Nazi invasion of 1939 So that although the Russians have an antique claim to the area we are dealing with a small nation that (a) was annexed against its will by the Soviet Union in pursuit (b) of a secret pact with a Western totalitarian the legitimacy of which (c) was never recognized by the West Moreover only 9 percent of the residents of Lithuania are Russian and therefore there are no tangled questions having to do with the people’s will It is: To be free of the Soviet Union We are required to ask ourselves: What might the United States do if we resolved to do everything in our power to protest? Suppose we reacted as President Carter did to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979? Mr Carter froze all credits he forbade the exportation of agricultural goods he mobilized much of the West to boycott the forthcoming Soviet Olympics And he sat by while the Senate killed his beloved Salt 11 Treaty Now the aftermath of all this thunder was not entirely intolerable to the Soviet Union A year later President Reagan soon after assuming office repealed the agricultural embargo and promised that never again would we use the agricultural sanction As for Salt II we didn’t ratify it but we did observe it Moreover we observed it beyond the five-yelength it was designed to Last As for the Olympics we had a good cathartic national pout which the Soviet Union four years later reciprocated and before long any thought of ar punishing the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was completely gone The only punishment the Soviet Union experienced in that part of the world was from downed fighter planes hit by the mujahedin using American Stinger missiles What is different this year is the whole international scene If the United States takes the position that recognition of the sovereign state of Lithuania is not appropriate because g it is not de facto then we slither into one of those nice little technicalities that in plain English say: The United States is not going to step in and tell Moscow that its constitution which does not permit secession is invalid because of the events of 1939 In which case: Why haven’t we recognized Soviet sovereignty over the Baltics for all these self-rulin- years? But that international scene is one in which the good faith of the born-agai- n Soviet Union is in question What the Soviets do in Lithuania will affect elections in East Germany Poland Romania Bulgaria Czechoslovakia — and indeed elsewhere Moreover what the United States does or does not do will affect the mood of voters who ask themselves whether dependence on the United States is something on which they arc willing to bank their future Universal Tress Syndicate 1 |