Supreme Court Nomination of Judge Robert Bork

Benson is right on the mark: The U.S. Supreme Court, like the California Supreme Court, has been politicized, and it is right to recognize it, and stop pretending that it is not. The only thing that seems appropriate is to accept this fact of life and fight out the politics where it ought to be fought out, in the political arena.

The conservative reactionaries have been doing this for years. They fought very hard to try to defeat Louis Brandeis in 1913. They failed then, but last year they deliberately politicized the elections of California Chief Justice Bird and Associate Justices Cruz Reynoso and Joseph Grodin, this time successfully. The B-R-G group tried to steer the contest away from politics--a mistake, and politics was what it was about--but naturally they came up short.

It would be a great pity if the Democrats in the Senate fail to make this the remaining fight of these dreadful Reagan years. The Reagan presidency is in tatters, ruined by the Iran- contra scandal which is the outward manifestation of its essential rottenness. The coup de grace should be the defeat of this blatant attempt to further his reactionary schemes on future generations of Americans who will be trying to climb out from under the debris of his years in office.

STANLEY D. METZER

San Diego