The Week

■ Yuri Andropov is furious over President Reagan’s proposed “Star Wars” missile-defense system. He is convinced it will never work, and resents Reagan’s wasting the taxpayers’ money on a futile boondoggle.

■ Amazingly, the fight over the nomination of Kenneth Adelman for the top slot in the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency drags on. The latest nonissue raised by Senator Tsongas and other guardians of our weal concerns a memo sent to Adelman by Edward Rowny. Rowny, who is our chief strategic- arms negotiator, jotted down a list of his colleagues, with thumbnail evaluations (“left-leaning”; “OTL” [out to lunch]; “the best”). And what did Adelman do with this portentous document? He passed it along to a friend, experienced in personnel matters, whom he had asked to make a preliminary study of the agency. So why does this make new trouble for Adelman? Because he had told the Senate, in his first appearance, that he had “not addressed” the personnel situation; and because he is now accused of plotting a purge. Which raises the following questions: 1) How else, short of throwing it into the wastebasket, does one “not address” the issues raised in a memo? 2) Maybe there should be a purge, starting with the Senate, half of whose members suffer from terminal hypocrisy. If Senator Tsongas doesn’t like the Administration’s policies, let him gird up his loins like a man and say so. Meanwhile, confirm Kenneth Adelman.

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■ Yuri Andropov is furious over President Reagan’s proposed “Star Wars” missile-defense system. He is convinced it will never work, and resents Reagan’s wasting the taxpayers’ money on a futile boondoggle.

■ Amazingly, the fight over the nomination of Kenneth Adelman for the top slot in the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency drags on. The latest nonissue raised by Senator Tsongas and other guardians of our weal concerns a memo sent to Adelman by Edward Rowny. Rowny, who is our chief strategic- arms negotiator, jotted down a list of his colleagues, with thumbnail evaluations (“left-leaning”; “OTL” [out to lunch]; “the best”). And what did Adelman do with this portentous document? He passed it along to a friend, experienced in personnel matters, whom he had asked to make a preliminary study of the agency. So why does this make new trouble for Adelman? Because he had told the Senate, in his first appearance, that he had “not addressed” the personnel situation; and because he is now accused of plotting a purge. Which raises the following questions: 1) How else, short of throwing it into the wastebasket, does one “not address” the issues raised in a memo? 2) Maybe there should be a purge, starting with the Senate, half of whose members suffer from terminal hypocrisy. If Senator Tsongas doesn’t like the Administration’s policies, let him gird up his loins like a man and say so. Meanwhile, confirm Kenneth Adelman.