‘Ed Meese: First Friend and Albatross Extraordinaire’

David Broder’s recent pronouncement calling for the resignation of Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III (Op-Ed Page, Nov. 10) is the first sign of a chronic disease that infects far too many opinion writers: disinformationitis. The symptoms are invariably an embarrassing lack of knowledge about the facts.

This time, it was the nomination of Judge Douglas Ginsburg that caused the ink to flow. A “comic episode,” states Broder. The fact is that Judge Ginsburg not only deserved nomination, but also confirmation. By his 41st birthday, his curriculum vitae boasted: a brilliant law student, clerk to a Circuit Court judge and Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall, highly respected professor of Harvard Law School (who divided his time as a legal consultant to major corporations), ranking government official at both the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Justice, and currently a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Broder dismisses these accomplishments as “an extremely sketchy record.” For him, it is more telling that the judge divorced and remarried, that both his former and present wives are strongly independent with legitimate interests of their own (albeit not of particular comfort to the writer), and that the judge had some years ago taken an occasional puff on a marijuana joint!--an acknowledged mistake for which he expressed regret and remorse.

But Ginsburg withdrew his name from nomination, sensing that the “clamor” over his life style by the likes of a Broder would once again drown out reasoned debate over the judge’s philosophy and judicial methodology. The search for a scapegoat was on, and Broder reflexively turned to the attorney general. “Towering ineptitude,” Broder asserts.

Baloney! Judge Ginsburg underwent close scrutiny at all quarters--and repeatedly. Four previous FBI background investigations and two prior confirmation proceedings (each ending in unanimous Senate approval) revealed no cause for reservation. Those of us who knew him both personally and professionally at the Justice Department, the White House and OMB know the judge to be an honest and honorable man.

There is, of course, disappointment over this turn of events; just as many of us were chagrined over the defeat of Judge Robert Bork’s nomination. But no one who knows the facts blames the attorney general or believes for a minute that the Ginsburg nomination failed because of Meese’s “incompetence.” To the contrary, the attorney general’s stock has justifiably risen within the Administration with the way in which he, in close (and always congenial) collaboration with Chief of Staff Howard Baker, has ably assisted President Reagan in the all-important task of filling the seat on the Supreme Court.

The President has now stated his intention to nominate another circuit court judge equal in stature and qualifications to Judges Bork and Ginsburg, a man with a similarly strong commitment to the principled philosophy of judicial restraint. Judge Anthony Kennedy was enthusiastically backed by his long-time friend Ed Meese and Chief of Staff Baker. He, too, will make a superb associate justice. And upon his confirmation most Americans--at least those who, unlike Broder do not finance their livelihood in part through character assassination--will join the President in thanking his two closest advisers once again for a job well done.

WILLIAM BRADFORD REYNOLDS

Assistant Attorney General and

Counselor to the Attorney General

Washington, D.C.