On the Record

Would-be Democratic presidential candidates remaining very quiet these days as George Bush ratings continue to soar. Market Opinion Research’s monthly check of approval ratings shows Bush at 71 per cent in February (before Violeta Chamorro’s stunning victory in Nicaragua), down from 80 per cent in January (post-Panama), up from 66 per cent in December (post-Malta). Significantly, poll shows Bush particularly strong with 18-to-24-year-olds, and getting 54 per cent approval rating from blacks. (A New York Times poll shows 70 per cent of blacks approve Bush’s handling of job.) . . . George will, on Democratic move to push California primary ahead to March, comments: “Ideas matter more than mechanisms in politics, and no noodling around with the nuts and bolts will save the Democratic Party until it makes up its mind to have a mind.” . . . Lines are drawn ideologically in Illinois March 20 primary, where establishment Republicans, from Lee Atwater on down, support Secretary of State Jim Edgar to succeed moderate GOP Gov. James Thompson despite Edgar’s pro-choice, pro-income-tax positions. Most conservatives in state, from Phyllis Schlafly on down, support Steven Baer, a former executive of anti-tax United Republican Fund. . . . In Massachusetts gubernatorial race (convention March 10), conservative candidate Steve Pierce rounded up 598 delegates to 414 for former Justice aide William Weld. … In North Carolina, John Ingram is fourth Democrat to throw hat in senatorial ring to oppose Jesse Helms. (Helms, incidentally, is rather pleased with latest award from the Susan B. Anthony Committee, a ball and chain, given annually to the person “judged the most detrimental to woman’s progress.” More specifically, Helms is attacked for opposition to ERA, abortion, and affirmative action.) . . . Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is having field day passing out contradictory statements by Rep. Jim Courier (R., N.J.) on abortion. Courter was pro-life until he ran (and lost) gubernatorial race against Jim Florio last November. Now he’s vociferously prochoice.

Galloping developments in Europe have seriously affected fund-raising operations in the U.S., Left and Right, reports the New York Times. Nuclear Times, bible of the peace movement, has folded. “Basically Gorbachev put us out of business,” says former editor Elliott Negin. . . . William Sloane Coffin’s SANE/Freeze has had to cut its staff by a quarter. . . . Paul Warnke, Jimmy Carter’s chief arms negotiator, compares what the outbreak of peace has done to peace groups with what discovery of Salk vaccine did to March of Dimes. . . . On the right: The American Security Council has lost half its members, says the Times, and membership in David Keene’s American Conservative Union is down to fifty thousand from one-time high of 750,000. . . . The hard Left is responding by shifting targets to Central America and a “Get the U.S. Out of El Salvador” campaign. A monster set of demonstrations is planned in Washington, San Francisco, Austin, Tex., and Los Angeles on March 24—tenth anniversary of the murder of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero. All the usual suspects are involved: Nicaragua Network, SANE/Freeze, CISPES, Mobilization for Survival, Rainbow Coalition, plus new entries: Quixote Center/Quest for Peace, Building with the Voiceless of El Salvador, and D.C. Student Coalition against Apartheid and Racism. . . . Arrested in demonstrations, actor Martin Sheen, at Capitol rotunda, and Daniel Berrigan in New York City. . . . TV etc., Media Watch’s Hollywood watchdog organization, finds filmmaker Oliver Stone (Born on the Fourth of July) going off the deep end rhetorically in recent statement: “The vandals are at the gate. We have a fascist security state running this country. . . . Orwell did happen. But it’s so subtle that no one noticed. If I were George Bush, I’d shoot myself. Existentially, there’s no hope. His soul is dead.”

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Would-be Democratic presidential candidates remaining very quiet these days as George Bush ratings continue to soar. Market Opinion Research’s monthly check of approval ratings shows Bush at 71 per cent in February (before Violeta Chamorro’s stunning victory in Nicaragua), down from 80 per cent in January (post-Panama), up from 66 per cent in December (post-Malta). Significantly, poll shows Bush particularly strong with 18-to-24-year-olds, and getting 54 per cent approval rating from blacks. (A New York Times poll shows 70 per cent of blacks approve Bush’s handling of job.) . . . George will, on Democratic move to push California primary ahead to March, comments: “Ideas matter more than mechanisms in politics, and no noodling around with the nuts and bolts will save the Democratic Party until it makes up its mind to have a mind.” . . . Lines are drawn ideologically in Illinois March 20 primary, where establishment Republicans, from Lee Atwater on down, support Secretary of State Jim Edgar to succeed moderate GOP Gov. James Thompson despite Edgar’s pro-choice, pro-income-tax positions. Most conservatives in state, from Phyllis Schlafly on down, support Steven Baer, a former executive of anti-tax United Republican Fund. . . . In Massachusetts gubernatorial race (convention March 10), conservative candidate Steve Pierce rounded up 598 delegates to 414 for former Justice aide William Weld. … In North Carolina, John Ingram is fourth Democrat to throw hat in senatorial ring to oppose Jesse Helms. (Helms, incidentally, is rather pleased with latest award from the Susan B. Anthony Committee, a ball and chain, given annually to the person “judged the most detrimental to woman’s progress.” More specifically, Helms is attacked for opposition to ERA, abortion, and affirmative action.) . . . Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is having field day passing out contradictory statements by Rep. Jim Courier (R., N.J.) on abortion. Courter was pro-life until he ran (and lost) gubernatorial race against Jim Florio last November. Now he’s vociferously prochoice.

Galloping developments in Europe have seriously affected fund-raising operations in the U.S., Left and Right, reports the New York Times. Nuclear Times, bible of the peace movement, has folded. “Basically Gorbachev put us out of business,” says former editor Elliott Negin. . . . William Sloane Coffin’s SANE/Freeze has had to cut its staff by a quarter. . . . Paul Warnke, Jimmy Carter’s chief arms negotiator, compares what the outbreak of peace has done to peace groups with what discovery of Salk vaccine did to March of Dimes. . . . On the right: The American Security Council has lost half its members, says the Times, and membership in David Keene’s American Conservative Union is down to fifty thousand from one-time high of 750,000. . . . The hard Left is responding by shifting targets to Central America and a “Get the U.S. Out of El Salvador” campaign. A monster set of demonstrations is planned in Washington, San Francisco, Austin, Tex., and Los Angeles on March 24—tenth anniversary of the murder of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero. All the usual suspects are involved: Nicaragua Network, SANE/Freeze, CISPES, Mobilization for Survival, Rainbow Coalition, plus new entries: Quixote Center/Quest for Peace, Building with the Voiceless of El Salvador, and D.C. Student Coalition against Apartheid and Racism. . . . Arrested in demonstrations, actor Martin Sheen, at Capitol rotunda, and Daniel Berrigan in New York City. . . . TV etc., Media Watch’s Hollywood watchdog organization, finds filmmaker Oliver Stone (Born on the Fourth of July) going off the deep end rhetorically in recent statement: “The vandals are at the gate. We have a fascist security state running this country. . . . Orwell did happen. But it’s so subtle that no one noticed. If I were George Bush, I’d shoot myself. Existentially, there’s no hope. His soul is dead.”