Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Headline Article Date: Thu, 29 Oct 92 14:38:17 EST Message-ID: \SE A;NATION;INSIDE THE BELTWAY \BY John McCaslin \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES NEW REASON TO PRAY Now I sit me down in school, where praying is against the rule: For this great nation under God finds public mention of him odd. Any prayer a class recites now violates the Bill of Rights; All I ask is a minute of quiet, and if I feel like praying I'll try it; If not, O Lord, one plea I make: If knifed in school, my soul You'll take. - An anonymous student A poll commissioned by Reader's Digest shows overwhelming support for voluntary prayer in public schools that "may well be heard in the voting booth," said senior editor Eugene Methvin. Most of those surveyed - 59 percent - say they would be more likely to vote for a candidate for president or Congress who favored school prayer; 23 percent said it would make no difference. The poll found that 80 percent disapprove of this year's Supreme Court ruling that banned prayers at graduation ceremonies. GETTING A HANDLE Morale must be really shaky over at the Department of Commerce, or else employees are bored. No one has noticed - or bothered to remove - a poster on the fourth floor that has an altered photograph of Commerce Secretary Barbara Franklin. The smiling blonde sports a thick, black, curly mustache on one side of her mouth. Perhaps the artist had to flee before finishing the job? GOOD MORNING VIETNAM Maryland's VFW state quartermaster, John Noble, is one person who won't be waving a Clinton-Gore placard at this afternoon's War Memorial Building rally in Baltimore featuring Democratic vice presidential candidate Al Gore. Mr. Noble is fighting mad after the disclosure in an editorial in this newspaper that David M. Ifshin has been mentioned as a possible candidate for attorney general in a Clinton administration. For those who might not have known, Mr. Ifshin, a Washington lawyer who serves as senior domestic policy adviser to Bill Clinton, traveled to North Vietnam in December 1970 and, speaking over Radio Hanoi, urged U.S. soldiers in South Vietnam to lay down their weapons. Mr. Ifshin, shown here with North Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Van Dong (in a photo found in a 1971 congressional hearing book on internal security), told his communist radio listeners that the United States did not enter the war to fight for democracy, but to "murder the people of Vietnam in order to make South Vietnam into one large U.S. military base." At the time of the broadcast, Mr. Ifshin's draft classification was 1-A (draft available), and according to press accounts at the time he was expecting to be called to active duty. Later, however, he obtained a deferment and attended Stanford University Law School, possibly on his way to becoming the nation's next chief law enforcement officer. LATE AGAIN Motorists driving along Interstate 295 through the District can't help but spot the modern overhead electronic message board near the exit for South Capitol Street. In Virginia and Maryland, similar new message boards above highways are updated continually to warn drivers of traffic hazards ahead, whether accidents, heavy congestion or scheduled openings of the infamous Woodrow Wilson Bridge. The District, on the other hand, sees fit to use its sign above 295 to inform motorists of the exact time, which for several months now has been 30:02 p.m. A supervisor for the D.C. Department of Public Works, when alerted yesterday to the actual time, cited "an oversight of some sort." HOME FOLKS SAY The largest newspaper in Bill Clinton's state, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock, said yesterday that President Bush has been "less than successful," called Ross Perot a "strange man" and said Bill Clinton "is a master politician, but what principles, if any, inform his politics?" To make a long "non-endorsement" short, the newspaper said it could not recommend Mr. Clinton: "There is something almost inhuman in his smoother responses that sends a shiver up the spine," the editorial said. "It is not the compromises he has made that trouble so much as the unavoidable suspicion that he has no great principles to compromise." Mr. Clinton has won or will receive the endorsement of five of his state's 10 largest newspapers, but the support relates more to dissatisfaction with President Bush than to the history, appeal or future plans of the Arkansas governor. The Southwest Times Record, the state's third-largest newspaper, for example, endorsed Mr. Clinton this week, saying that while some voters believe he is a "less-than-ideal choice for president . . . unfortunately, George Bush leaves even more to be desired." The other five papers will not endorse Mr. Bush or independent candidate Ross Perot, opting instead to take a pass. J.R. Dunlap Jr., editor of the Harrison Daily Times, said his newspaper did not plan to endorse anyone in the 1992 campaign because "it just doesn't matter anymore." HOLE ABOVE THE POLLS When referring to the opposition, President Bush has found a line that his audiences love: "Governor Clinton and the Ozone Man." If he didn't make his point clear, Mr. Bush and Sen. Al Gore, to whom the president refers, have sharp differences on the environment. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. 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