Confirmation of Meese

The year-long ordeal of Edwin Meese III awaiting confirmation to the office of attorney general of the United States has ended.

It seems appropriate that confirmation was accomplished under a threatened filibuster (the Wall Street Journal called it “blackmail”) by irate farm-state senators. No farm bill, no attorney general job for Ed Meese!

Standards of ethics and competence for the position were not seriously considered in the confirmation process.

California’s Republican Sen. Pete Wilson, citing the independent counsel’s finding that there was no basis for criminally prosecuting Meese, argues that Meese had done nothing “improper or illegal.”

Democratic Sen. George Mitchell of Maine, a former federal judge, reminded Wilson that he had dropped the qualifying words in the counsel’s report that limited Meese’s clean bill of health to “the bringing of a violation of a federal criminal statute.”

Democratic Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware responded to Wilson: “We have now concluded that if you’re not eligible for indictment, you’re eligible for appointment to the Cabinet of the United States.”

Pretty strong stuff.

What really bothers me about the Meese nomination and confirmation is that people who should have been upset weren’t.

I talked with several civic leaders. They were not disturbed, alarmed, upset, or outraged. They shrugged and said, “What do you expect? That’s politics!” One person went so far as to say that Meese was “picked on.!”

When citizens--especially leading citizens--become tolerantly amused by officials with flexible integrity our republic is in danger. Flexible integrity can rapidly become the norm throughout government.

On Sept. 17, 1787, as delegates of the Constitutional Convention left Independence Hall in Philadelphia, a woman in the crowd waiting at the entrance asked Benjamin Franklin, “What have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”

“A republic,” Franklin replied, “if you can keep it.”

Ed Meese now has the job he wanted. We can hope that he enforces federal law efficiently and evenhandedly. We can hope that President Reagan, his powerful and faithful friend, will never have cause to regret his choice for attorney general.

CLARA LINK

Pasadena

The confirmation of Ed Meese as attorney general is an insult to the people of the United States. Or as Reagan says, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

JULES FIELD

Los Angeles