Show — The Salt Lake Tribune COMMENTARY Tuesday August Will Presidential Debate Cause Lovers' Spat? CHICAGO TRIBUNE SERVICE CHICAGO — Most of us have been in the uncomfortable position of being unwilling witnesses to a domestic quarrel It can happen at a party with a couple suddenly snapping at each other Or maybe the pair at the next table in a restaurant with him snarling and her bursting into tears Or her snarling and him bursting into tears Or both snarling and burst ing into tears As a philosopher once said: "Who needs it?" But who would think that we would have to be exposed to this sort of embarrassing stuff in a presidential campaign? I'm referring to the relationship between Mary Matalin who is deputy manager of President Bush's campaign and James e a top strategist in Gov Bill Clinton's campaign In their lives Ms Matalin and Mr Carville are significant others Or as President Bush might put it: "The romance Car-vil- non-politic- al thing" But currently they are tending to business which means they are working mightily to elect their chosen candidates And that has created a highly distasteful situation A few days ago Ms Matalin known for her sharp wit dashed off an unflattering statement about Clinton and "sniveling hypocritical Democrats" Apparently she was upset about all the unkind things the Democrats have been saying about Bush She really zapped Clinton even getting in digs about his ample I 1 I Mike Royko t 7) waistline by saying: "You feel like a landfill? No Willie it's not those Wendy's burgers or Dunkin' Donuts or even those cookscrumptuous ies It's that feeling you get when you're the leader of the 'garbage load" And she tossed in a dig about one-ma- n home-bake- d Alka-Seltz- "bimbo eruptions" This of course was to jog our memories about that blond creature who claimed Clinton was her lover boy Ms Matalin's outburst was kind of fun if you enjoy oldtime political mudslinging And down deep most of us do But President Bush ever the blab-for-prof- it proper preppie had already vowed that there would be no "sleaze" in his campaign So Bush had to disavow her statement saying: "This is not how I want to run the campaign" And Ms Matalin had to fall in line and write a statement expressing halfhearted regret at her outburst (However most observers suspect that she didn't regret it at all and wrote the apology with her fingers crossed) But the most discomfort was exhibited by Mr Carville The poor guy didn't know what to say There he is loyally working for Clinton At the same time his main squeeze is ridiculing Clinton as a junk-footubbo and a philand derer And the situation led to The New York Times writing: "Was Ms ?data lin overly tough on Mr Clinton to compensate for her romance with Mr Carville?" If they should ever wed what kind of thing is that to put in the family scrapbook? "Look kids this is what they wrote when your mom chopped up the fellow I was " working for So Carville after a long period of speechlessness finally said: "This has nothing to do with Mary Matalin It's all about George hah-hah- Bush" Of course that didn't make sense because it was his very own sweetie not Bush who suggested landthat Clinton was a "one-man fill" And instead of standing around like a mope what Carville should have done was say something to diffuse the tension Since I'm older and wiser in the ways of female creatures I'll give him some free advice The next time she cuts loose that way Carville ought to just chuckle and say: "Well you know my Mary She's a feisty thing with lots of spunk That's why I love that gal Says whatever pops into her cute li'l head And I'm gonna send her a fax right now saying: 'Did anyone ever tell you that you're real pretty when you're mad?" It works every time 11 The Motor Voter Override The US Senate is expected to vote on whether to override President Bush's veto of S 250 the national Voter Registration Act also known as "motor voter" This measure is critical in extending voter registration rights to all Americans It allows the of Americans with driver's 90 licenses to apply to register to vote when they apply for or renew their licenses It also gives Americans with disabilities and others who are shut out of the registration process the opportunity to apply to register to vote at the agencies which serve their individual needs making the entire process much more accessible Among the 29 states using this uniform voter registration system there have been no reported cases of fraud In fact protections have been strengthened by the bill Motor voter is supported by a coalition of more than 65 diverse organizations who represent people who believe that the constitutionally-protected right to vote is the foundation of our nation's democracy This right is issue If our truly a government values representative democracy it must pass this legislation over the president's veto When submitting letters to the Public Forum please include your full name signature address and daytime telephone numbers Information other than your name will be kept confidential Preference is given to original letters of 300 words or less that are typewritten and permit publication of the writer's true name (Names may be withheld for good reason) All letters are subject to editing Mail to Public Forum The Salt Lake Tribune PO Box 867 Salt Lake City double-- spaced Utah 81110 Andrews No Saint The eulogy The Salt Lake Tribune printed Aug 1 about William Andrews cries out for rebuttal Is he to become a martyred saint without even one dissenting anti-frau- d non-partisa- Kind caring dignified? Innocent and unjustly accused? Decent? Likened to Martin Luther King Jr or to our heavenly father? This goes way beyond blasphemy and one can only be thankful he was not standing close to Steve Hawkins National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Defense Fund lawyer when he said it Composed smiling and brave as he faced his long overdue and n ELIZABETH SULLIVAN PAT BRIM Salt Lake City League of Women Voters much-deserve- d hear this reverent and solemn group tell it all Andrews did was drive the car According to their version he even tried to stop Pierre Dale Selby My heart goes out to the surviving victims of the Ogden Hi Fi robbery and their friends and relatives who are deserving of our tears our sympathy and compassion Especially so while they are forced to read and to listen to this tripe from a bunch of adults who should know better get-awa- self-servin- ANNE B PETTY Salt Lake City - 4 I i I younger and more vibrant days Muhammad Ali observed: "Wars against nations are fought to change maps wars against poverty are fought to map change" This sunimer's most talked-abou- t road map out of poverty's quagmire may be The End of Equality (Basic Books) by New Republic senior editor Mickey Kaus It is an important Washington book because important Washington people are reading it And ideological opponents are agreeing that they like it even when they don't agree on much else Rob Shapiro vice president of Bill Clinton's favorite think tank the Progressive Policy Institute calls its author "brilliant" James P Pinkerton who advises President Bush on domestic policy calls it "an important contribution to the debate" That pretty well hits the mark Kaus' book benefits from his years of experience among Washington's deep thinkers Unfortunately it also suffers from it Kaus assails the failures of "money liberalism" his term for policies that try to redistribute income from the rich to the poor He prefers "civic liberalism" which would expand and strengthen the "public spheres" where the social classes rub shoulders with each other and share the common good as they do in public schools libraries highways parks jury duty and the military draft Kaus would restore the draft create a national service requirement as an alternative and institute a national health-carplan that would leave no American uncovered He would replace welfare with a national guaranteed jobs program and other supports like communal day care (where the children of corporate executives would mingle with those of e secretaries and mail-roo- m jobless clerks) so men or women would have little excuse not to work With that Kaus has figured out an important characteristic of the American temperament We like inequality at least some of the time We may gripe about the aryuprogance of pies but we are not troubled by income differences as much as we are troubled by inequities in op JL able-bodie- d Rolex-flashin- g f'Pl8 tz t "'") ! tot-3127:: Clarence Page portunities to earn an income The yuppie does not trouble us as much as the homeless beggar does As John F Kennedy once said "All of us do not have equal talent but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talent" Unfortunately even as Kennedy spoke terrible fault lines of unequal opportunity were opening up between the upwardly and outwardly mobile middle class and the poor who lacked the bare minimum in schools libraries and values that a truly equitable society would guarantee Such were the conditions Mickey Kaus hoped to improve when he came to Washington as a Caryoung idealistic 1977 in administration ter lawyer But he smacked up against the cruel realities of how things really work in the capital city He saw "the best minds of the Democratic Party put liberalism on the side of welfare rather than work" He saw tons of money public poured into housing projects He saw billions funneled to mayors who parceled it out to politically connected developers of useless downtown shopping malls He saw the Education Department banded over to the teachers' unions and the Labor Department handed over to the construction unions Kaus hits dead on target when he describes the liberal tunnel vision that eventually caused fed-u- p voters to elect Ronald Reagan as a change agent just as he would be right to say a similarly detached Bush administration is driving many of those swing voters back across the line to support Bill Clinton But as much as Kaus seems to have figured out what makes say welfare mothers tick his book offers no evidence that he ever has actually talked to one He might be surpriied to find how many are left-behin- d left-leanin- hell-on-Ear- th big-cit- y It g not as lazy as he seems to think they are He also might find that others would be considerably more clever than he figures in avoiding his efforts to force them to go to work The same holds for welfare dads and for that matter the young people Kaus would draft into military and other public services Bill Clinton has what I think would be a more acceptable and probably less costly idea: Offer national service as a way to pay back college loans After all people don't like to be told what to do especially by the government no matter how noble the purpose They like to be persuaded "The best way to inculcate values is to convince people that they thought of it themselves" the Bush administration's Pinkerton agrees "That's easy to do because people basically do want strong families a good income and the other benefits good values bring" Yet Pinkerton praises Kaus' book for its resonance with Pinkerton's "new paradigm" which calls for transferring power and money from centralized bureaucracies (Kaus' massive jobs program would build it up) to directly "empower" the poor with school vouchers housing vouchers tenant management of public housing and other options Perhaps history has overtaken Kaus Civic liberalism appears to be in vogue in both the Bush and Clinton camps Shapiro at the Progressive Policy Institute a think tank established by the centrist Democratic Leadership Council when Clinton was chairman praised Kaus although PPI and Clinton believe the culture of poverty can be best broken up through opportunities mechacreated by "market-basenisms" not through Kaus' massive public jobs program Such mechanisms include public works programs enterprise zones expanded earned income tax credits e and partnerships Still it is encouraging to see so Much agreement between the opposing camps in this year's campaigns over the map America needs to follow Now all we need is a national leader who is willing to make the journey We have nothing to lose but our inequality ¼ DAMON G ROBERTS Salt Lake City g Sandy hum(' for Wayne 14— In the weeks since the Utah Democratic Convention there has been a flurry of letters from Ogden to St George from a handful of disgruntled Democrats These moaners are imploring Douglas Anderson to withdraw from the US Senate race so their champion Rep Wayne Owens won't have to struggle through a primary election contest with Mr Anderson One writer said Mr Anderson's staying in the race wasn't "just" or "fair" to Mr Owens Another said Mr Anderson's determination to run was "disgusting" A third said a contest between Mr Anderson and Mr Owens was not "healthy" Mr Anderson won the right to oppose Mr Owens in the Democratic primary election in accordance with established Utah elec- tion These writers laws demonstrate an adolescent disregard for adherence to the rules of the game This "whining for Wayne" will have no effect on Mr Anderson who was campaigning vigorously for the US Senate seat being vacated by Sen Jake Garn while Mr Owens was claiming to be content in his 2nd District House seat PAUL L YOUNG Helper 110TICE OF TAN 011C?'EISE The Salt Lake County Library Fund has proposed to budget an increase in its property tax revenue from $7669664 to $9372825 or 222 and to increase its total budget from $10579087 to $11519778 or 889 The proposed increase in property tax revenues will come from the following sources: (a) $1403915 of the proposed increase will come from an increase in the property tax rate from 000653 to 000789 and (b) $9730 of the proposed increase will come from factoring and reappraisal (c) $289516 of the proposed increase come from natural increases in the value of the tax base due to new growth will home valued at $75000 in Salt Lake County Library District which based on last year's property tax rate and budget paid $3269 in property taxes would pay the A following: (1) the Salt Lake County Library District does not budget an increase in property tax $3365 if revenue exclusive of new growth and (2) d public-privat- y I do agree with one thing they so piously intoned: Andrews did indeed make the world a better place when he left it TC RABUN it offers apologies and incentives after the fact — Back in his punishment? Why not? He felt less pain than a visit to the dentist His innocent victims were not so fortunate To vice And like the Encore fiasco CHICAGO TRIBUNE SERVICE This is in response to Gene Warr (Forum July 30) Humans have no more right to live on this Earth than any other living thing The bear population increase is not the problem it is the human population that is out of control People need to understand that in the wilderness and I use the term loosely we are the intruders For the animals it is their home and they will protect their home just as we will The minuscule number of bear attacks on humans does not begin to compare with the slaughter of wild animals we are responsible for It makes me ill to think that some people believe bear hunting is a sport If hunters throw away their traps give up their dogs and lay down their rifles maybe I will consider bear hunting a sport In the meantime leave the bears and their world alone voice? corporate giant without asking its customers' permission arbitrarily decides to stop broadcasting certain cable channels in order to profit from the Olympics Two years ago this company raised rates in order to "provide better customer service" Last year it incorporated a franchise fee This year it sells Olympic broadcasting and disregards the fact that I pay a monthly amount to receive an Expanded Basic Ser- WASHINGTON Human Intruders Where to Write Once again the mighty giant TCI ignores the consumer The Let Americans Choose 'Civic Liberalism' Palk Form Tribune Readers' Opinions TCI Strikes Again 'a All 1992 the proposed increase in proposed property tax revenues exclusive of new growth is adopted $3963 if concerned citizens are invited to a public hearing on the tax increase to be held on August 17 1992 at 10:00 AM in the Salt Lake County Commission Chambers at 2001 South State Street Salt Lake City Utah All lt t |