For the Record

Said Speaker Tip O’Neill right after President Reagan’s speech on the KAL massacre: The Soviets may have guaranteed congressional approval of the MX, which was “in deep trouble before this.” . . . Last Tuesday, the Senate passed a $185.5 billion defense budget, including the MX and a new nerve-gas production program, 83 to 8. Same day, appropriations for Radio Mlarti, which will broadcast an additional 14 hours to Cuba daily, flew through by voice vote after being held up a year. . . . Reagan was applauded by Washington Post political columnist David Broder for having demonstrated “Jacksonian” (as in Scoop) qualities of “steadiness, strength, and clarity at a time when we needed them most.” . . . Implacably liberal columnist Mary McGrory, in possibly toughest anti-Soviet column she has ever written, asked whether Andropov doesn’t seem to be acting as “chairman of Reagan’s re-election committee.” . . . Even Walter Mondale said an anti-Soviet word. . . . Rep. Samuel Stratton (D., N.Y.) urged the Democratic leadership and liberals in Congress to “put away the rose-colored glasses that [they] have been viewing the Russians with.” . . . Voice of America beefed up its coverage into the USSR as best it could, which wasn’t very good given it has only six 500-kilowatt superpower transmitters— Britain has eight, Germany nine, France 11. . . . That narrow Security Council vote condemning the Soviet outrage should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with UN voting patterns. Take as a base line that 20 per cent of the time even the Soviet bloc votes with the U.S. (They both, for instance, deplored the death of Albert Schweitzer). So how do other nations stand? Our NATO allies pretty well: They support the U.S. 68 to 80 per cent of the time; but how about our Latin American “friends”? Chile supports us just 35 per cent, El Salvador 33 per cent, Mexico 20 per cent. Other allies and beneficiaries: India votes with the U.S. 17 per cent, Pakistan 29. At the bottom of hate-America list are Albania, 8.8, Grenada, 9.3, Cuba 10.5 per cent.

The only Democratic presidential candidate present and voting on the defense budget in the Senate was Fritz Hollings (S.C.) who joined Democrats Kennedy, Tsongas, Leahy, Levin, Metzenbaum, Pell, and Proxmire in opposing it. . . . First reading on George McGovern’s entry into the Democratic steeplechase is that he will help fragment already fragmented liberal vote (Mondale, Cranston, Hart), and therefore help Glenn. McGovern’s timing was, as usual, awful. The day Reagan spoke to the nation on 007, a McGovern interview with T. R. Reid appeared in Washington Post, in which McGovern said: “We ought to be very thankful that this man Andropov seems to be a reasonable guy and somewhat restrained [given that] the Reagan-Weinberger approach is one of intense confrontation.” . . . In other races: Kathy McDonald, Rep. Larry McDonald’s widow will almost certainly win his seat … In Texas, the smart money is now on Rep. Phil Gramm, the Boll Weevil who changed parties when the Democratic leadership sought to punish him. He is said to have best chance to retain John Tower’s seat for the Republicans next year. Also running is conservative Texas Rep. Ron Paul, a libertarian whose American Security Council rating is 10 to Gramm’s 100 per cent.

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Said Speaker Tip O’Neill right after President Reagan’s speech on the KAL massacre: The Soviets may have guaranteed congressional approval of the MX, which was “in deep trouble before this.” . . . Last Tuesday, the Senate passed a $185.5 billion defense budget, including the MX and a new nerve-gas production program, 83 to 8. Same day, appropriations for Radio Mlarti, which will broadcast an additional 14 hours to Cuba daily, flew through by voice vote after being held up a year. . . . Reagan was applauded by Washington Post political columnist David Broder for having demonstrated “Jacksonian” (as in Scoop) qualities of “steadiness, strength, and clarity at a time when we needed them most.” . . . Implacably liberal columnist Mary McGrory, in possibly toughest anti-Soviet column she has ever written, asked whether Andropov doesn’t seem to be acting as “chairman of Reagan’s re-election committee.” . . . Even Walter Mondale said an anti-Soviet word. . . . Rep. Samuel Stratton (D., N.Y.) urged the Democratic leadership and liberals in Congress to “put away the rose-colored glasses that [they] have been viewing the Russians with.” . . . Voice of America beefed up its coverage into the USSR as best it could, which wasn’t very good given it has only six 500-kilowatt superpower transmitters— Britain has eight, Germany nine, France 11. . . . That narrow Security Council vote condemning the Soviet outrage should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with UN voting patterns. Take as a base line that 20 per cent of the time even the Soviet bloc votes with the U.S. (They both, for instance, deplored the death of Albert Schweitzer). So how do other nations stand? Our NATO allies pretty well: They support the U.S. 68 to 80 per cent of the time; but how about our Latin American “friends”? Chile supports us just 35 per cent, El Salvador 33 per cent, Mexico 20 per cent. Other allies and beneficiaries: India votes with the U.S. 17 per cent, Pakistan 29. At the bottom of hate-America list are Albania, 8.8, Grenada, 9.3, Cuba 10.5 per cent.

The only Democratic presidential candidate present and voting on the defense budget in the Senate was Fritz Hollings (S.C.) who joined Democrats Kennedy, Tsongas, Leahy, Levin, Metzenbaum, Pell, and Proxmire in opposing it. . . . First reading on George McGovern’s entry into the Democratic steeplechase is that he will help fragment already fragmented liberal vote (Mondale, Cranston, Hart), and therefore help Glenn. McGovern’s timing was, as usual, awful. The day Reagan spoke to the nation on 007, a McGovern interview with T. R. Reid appeared in Washington Post, in which McGovern said: “We ought to be very thankful that this man Andropov seems to be a reasonable guy and somewhat restrained [given that] the Reagan-Weinberger approach is one of intense confrontation.” . . . In other races: Kathy McDonald, Rep. Larry McDonald’s widow will almost certainly win his seat … In Texas, the smart money is now on Rep. Phil Gramm, the Boll Weevil who changed parties when the Democratic leadership sought to punish him. He is said to have best chance to retain John Tower’s seat for the Republicans next year. Also running is conservative Texas Rep. Ron Paul, a libertarian whose American Security Council rating is 10 to Gramm’s 100 per cent.