Capitol Ideas/ Smithwick and the Hive

...Allen In Two Volumes Fisher Ames was not only the Federalist leader in the House during Washington's presidency, he was his party's greatest orator, a brilliant essayist, and perhaps the most accomplished man of letters among his contemporaries in public service...

...8 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR MARCH 1984 They advocate the "expanded" definition of civil rights according to which the government takes the side of some citizens against others, like a referee who joins up with one of the teams in the middle of the game...

...to credential them so that they can move up within future Administrations...

...It has been one of Ronald Reagan's most serious weaknesses as President that he has appointed a number of such people to important jobs in his administration...

...Ed Meese, don your beekeeper's mask...

...One also thinks, for example, of his appointment of Charles Wick to head the U.S...

...In the end he had lost practically everything but the fidelity of his family...

...We also could use them to assist the political appointees...

...As a Washington Post editorial candidly warned on Day One, "Nothing about this transfer is likely to be tranquil...

...Precocity and intelligence had been with him from grade school through college and his early days in business...

...Why my old friend turned to cocaine I cannot say with certitude...

...Ed Meese, on the other hand, does not really fit this description...

...Hardcover $30.00 the set...

...The Naderite reformers of the 1970s pushed through so many financial-disclosure, blind-trust, and "conflict-of-interest" requirements that they made government employment less attractive for the very seniorcitizen corporate types who are the most easily bullied into submission once they arrive in Washington...

...So you can see why the Washington Post newsroom, or some other such hornet's nest, consisting of people who grumble in a purely pro forma way about Reagan's kitchen cabinet and his millionaire friends, in fact have little quarrel with such pliant, malleable appointees--people who will essentially take orders from their subordinates, and from the next day's newspaper headlines, as long as they can be persuaded that such a course of action will help re-elect the President...

...community as the American equivalent of a knighthood...

...Fpr all it is a sweet escape...

...Through much of his youth he had been one of America's great athletes...

...If you don't mind, please, Rt...

...The young Democrat will have had Washington experience," serving as a deputy counsel or an assistant to a commission or whatever...

...This edition is basedon the edition published in 1854 by Seth Ames...

...When his friends and relatives paid their last respects they kept repeating "He had everything...

...Ames' letters, speeches, and essays offer an excellent sustained commentary on the American founding from the time of the Constitutional Convention through Jefferson's reelection as president...

...By accepting socialism in principle Reagan invites his adversaries to claim that it is legitimate and to push for more of it...

...At the moment, as it happens, he is on a golf cart in Palm Springs and when he gets back to THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR MARCH 1984 7 Washington he'll be in his limo, dictating very important memos...

...On Day One I read, also in the Washington Post, that Smith "has been praised by many in the administration and in Congress for his stewardship- of day-to-day operations...

...dollars...

...Yet, as with so many crucial matters about which Americans should be in accord and resolute, we remain ambivalent about eliminating drugs...

...Okay, but were there no actual policy goals to aim for--government programs to be developed, changed, or abolished...

...Besides, isn't there a bureaucracy, lawyers, civil servants and so on, White House staff, to take care of all that policy business...

...Nancy Reagan and other worthies campaign against drugs...

...The ardors have now been spent...

...I personally recall a distinguished professor--so distinguished in fact that Playboy magazine quoted him regularly--who pontificated to his students on the benign qualities of LSD...

...J104 Indianapolis, IN 46250 called the American Civil Liberties Union a "criminal's lobby," which marked him off as a Public Enemy the minute he said it...

...As a nation we are not serious about drugs...

...Smithwick is too busy for such details...

...By the way, there's an interesting paradox here...

...academics, it is to be hoped--people like Donald Devine at the Office of Personnel Management and William Bennett at the National Endowment for the Humanities...

...The drug laws are erratically enforced, and some are not very stringent...

...That conservative, or better, nonsocialist principles can be invoked and re-established in Washington was shown recently by the new Civil Rights Commission which, it appears, will attempt to restore the idea that civil rights are specified limitations of government power, not opportunitites for government to expand its power in the guise of expanding civil rights...

...Some consider it glamorous, and some resort to it when the spirit seems to flag...

...Of course the salary wasn't so hot, but they already had more than enough money, most of them...

...Softcover $15.00 the set Prepayment is required on all orders not for resale...

...In the Civil Rights Division there were maybe seven Reaganites, as against 150 lawyers who are 'career.' They came in during the Carter Administration, most of them, a n d . . . " "Are you sure they can be fired...

...From the perspective of middle age I now look back and recognize that he was from the start "elevated above his peers by extraordinary charm...

...The Naderites should have left well enough a l o n e . . . I called someone I know slightly at the Justice Department, a Reagan ap= pointee...

...Because basically you learn the law by experience, not from books...

...His description comports with the dozing lumps of blissful stupidity so clearly observable among today's habitues of cocaine and all t h e other less celebrated drugs...

...I t all gets back to the point I have made before, about Republicans not really believing that they have a legitimate role to play in Washingtonmthought of as a privileged enclave reserved for those who would continue in the FDR tradition and expand government's reach still further...

...It is not the government's job to take care of people...

...Such diffident Republicans tend to think of themselves as little more than good citizens, dutifully adjusting to such changes as may be forthcoming from the powers that be, and perhaps keeping a self-protective eye OUt for various loopholes in the encircling net of ~overnment...

...All were left pondering how and why so gorgeous a life could end so tragically...

...Yet you have to be somewhat of a fool not to notice that it is also a cer(continued on page 44) C A P I T O L I D E A S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ed Meese is once again in the news, having been nominated to replace William French Smith as attorney general...

...He was called "something of a police buff" by the New York Times, and of course he hbertyPtess L szs Works of Fisher Ames As Published by Seth Ames Edited and Enlarged by W.B...

...Things cannot be changed structurally, however, because such Republicans (especially if they are businessmen) have already conceded the philosophical high ground to the Democrats, and are not really even aware that there are legitimate, rival arguments to make (even if they did feel like making them, which of course is not frequently the case...

...It is ridiculous when you have to sit here and do half the legal work yourself...

...and to train them in areas of law where we need people with expertise in law...

...Fasten your seat belts...

...They will of course squawk to the media at the first sign of change, and the media will give front-page amplification to these squawks (the adversary press in action), but if conservatives are not prepared to put up with a bit of flak from the increasingly left-wing, increasingly unpopular press, then they don't deserve to win a thing...

...Schedule B - - t e m p o r a r i e s ; and Schedule A--experts such as lawyers, doctors, and accountants...

...In fine, as with So many other progressive enthusiasms that came out of the 1960s, though we have learned from experience the progressives are still around to prevent us from acting upon our bitter knowledge...

...I thought of this the other day when he said: "We are taking care of more people than we've ever taken care of before...

...Once again we have Mr...

...What is more, he could orchestrate brilliant moments of hilarity, for his sense "of humor, too, was uncommon...

...Bees act in a concerted way, but they are not conspirators...

...I never saw him blow any challenge...

...It is Reagan's weakness that he has so regularly tried to govern according to the rules established by his adversaries...

...Reagan seemed to regard the filling of such important posts as nothing more than a chance by Tom Bethell to reward some of his rich California friends...

...Certainly not the Olympics, though he was the youngest boy ever to win his event...

...Anonymous quotations are annoying, I know--one can't help wondering how many of them in the media are made up--but this fellow does like his job and he wants to keep it...

...Recalling the widespread drug addiction that he witnessed at the Egyptian University in the late 1920s, the illustrious English journalist Malcolm Muggeridge writes in his memoirs of "the stupefied faces and inert minds...

...With the young Republican, all too often you will find that he has been a small-town lawyer for ten years and that's it...

...At the beginning, charm was one of his calamities...

...It does not respond to orders, or instructions...

...But many of them are advocates and fanatics...

...And in fact, there was no assault on William French Smith in the course of his three-year tenure--a sure sign that he was doing little to implement what should have been a conservative agenda...

...Ultimately he became the greatest springboard diver in the world...

...As a result, more and more Republican slots are likely to be filled in the future by serious people with an agenda and a real understanding of the issues...

...Read your Civil Service regulations," he replied...

...There are three categories without Civil Service protection...

...Meese to thank for playing an important role in the transformation of the Commission...

...This is still only Day Two, as I write, but one senses a hostile media swarm shaping up in the coming weeks...

...He said of William French Smith: "He behaved like a senior partner of a large law firm rather than a reformer coming into a nest of vipers...

...Schedule C--political appointees...

...We pay book rate postage on prepaid orders...

...Governments are meant to ensure that THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR MARCH 1984 9...

...Was there no political goal to be attained, in the mind of his Cronyship, Lord Smithwick, you may wonder...

...It was not a judgment but a question...

...One of the cant terms used to sanitize the drug issue was "victimless crime...

...I said...

...I hope my friend never lost his charm and his laughter, but I know better...

...My source continued: "There are plenty of young Republican lawyers in this town--some of them waiting on tables...

...I'm sure that William French Smith is an awfully nice man, but he is unfortunately the kind of fellow who tends to undermine .interest in the Republican party among the educated classes: the country club lawyer who earns a ton of money, spends an inexplicable amount of time on the golf courses of Palm Springs, and thinks of Washington as a place where you have an opportunity to drive about in a chauffeur-driven limousine if you have the right White House connections-this being thought of in the corporate Tom Betheil is The American Spectator's Washington correspondent...

...their wives might even make the [,'ten best-dressed" list...

...He is interested in law enforcement, and supports the notion more strongly than is currently fashionable within the progressive consensus...

...Most of the lawyers in the Civil Rights Division are Schedule A, and there are many more throughout the Justice Department...

...Therapy centers are established to rehabilitate the basket cases...

...I doubt that the charm and humor were there in the end...

...So they will attack, unless I am much mistaken...

...These people in turn understood that this meant they would have a deferential retinue and a limousine, and photographers from the society pages would take pictures of them as they set off for the theater in the evening...

...Perhaps he will now have an opportunity to do something about the Civil Rights Division at Justice, specifically the Schedule A appointees...

...All orders from outside the United States must be prepaid in U.S...

...Today his family is baffled and grieving...

...Why yes, an important one: the reelection of the President...

...Professor Allen has added many pieces, which have come to light since the original publication or were omitted from it...

...To order, or for a copy of our catalogue, write:" LibertyPress/LibertyClassics 7440 North Shadeland, Dept...

...There should ha~e been more of an effort to change the personnel...

...I n late December one of the most gifted men I have ever known died tragically and mysteriously in California...

...The victims of the socalled victimless crimes pile up, but our attempts to eliminate the drug culture are rendered futile by the same people who liberalized our views on drugs years ago...

...Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery...

...Nonetheless drugs are used widely and with a certain social cachet...

...Information Agency...

...The Justice Department has been and has largely remained under Mr...

...That was Mary Thornton's way of telling us that Smith, his cronyship notwithstanding, had been considered Hive-harmless...

...We should be using our Schedule A hiring capacity to reward good Republicans...

...He further noted the striking difference between the average young Republican's rdsumd, and the young Democrat's...

...He and they are just so many more victims of the last decade's victimless crimes: Cocaine had been one of the small congeries of calamities associated with his name toward the end of his life...

...Smith's tenure a strategic cell of the Hive, and the bees certainly don't want it to be occupied by someone who "sends the wrong signals...

...Remember: The Hive acts instinctively, in response to signals publicly transmitted in print or across the airwaves...

...all are treated alike, and that some citizens don't infringe upon the rights of others...

...as though he had no idea there is a war in progress--an ideological one...

...The Hive instinctively knows that it has to attack him...

...In everything he was a success, and he was rarely frivolous, for under his charm and All-American good looks there was grit...

...Some of them are legitimate experts...

...This was the precise political equivalent of the "bottom line" of profit and loss that the chairman of the board would be worrying about in the corporate sector...

...That is the job of individuals, families, neighbors, churches, and voluntary organizations...

...As Bennett demonstrated with his recent principled attack on the reverse discrimination that is now called an "expansion" of civil rights, these people are a far more serious threat to the liberal apiary than emeritus millionaires from Southern California...