Where I stand -- Brian Greenspun: Starr's accomplices failing test of their brains, backbone

BRIAN GREENSPUN is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.

ARE WE brain-dead or just plain brainless?

What has happened to common sense in this country? What has happened to "rally 'round the flag" and "proud to be an American?" Have we really lost our minds, or just our willingness to do what is right?

The nightly farce that attracts millions of television viewers to the day's Starr chamber proceedings is having a field day with the special prosecutor's latest legal maneuver, which is an effort to bust through the one protective service in this country whose sole responsibility it is to protect the lives of the president, vice-president and their families.

Kenneth Starr's latest attempt to drag before the grand jury the members of the Secret Service, who lay their own lives on the line every day to prevent the assassination of our president, is a national disgrace. And no clear-thinking American who can rise above the political muck should disagree. What kind of country and what kind of Americans have we allowed ourselves to become when we, for even an instant, consider appropriate dragging into the grand jury the men and women who swear an oath to place themselves between the president of the United States and a bullet meant for him?

I have watched with increasing anger and frustration the various federal courts pass this issue back and forth among themselves, each one fearing some unforeseen wrath for doing the one thing they have sworn an oath to do -- protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. And don't give me that "courts don't make privileges" crap --they've done it before and they'll do it again because that is what courts are supposed to do.

It is the judicial branch of government, after all, that is supposed to protect Americans from the tyranny of the executive and legislative branches. Well, now is a good time to declare a tyrannical state of political affairs in America. So our president, having been declared by the Supreme Court -- in another bonehead decision -- to be just another American, deserves the same protection as the rest of us.

I didn't hold out a whole lot of hope for those Ivory Tower sitters who haven't a clue what goes on in the real life of late-20th century Washington politics and proved as much Friday when the chief justice thought it was better not to get involved. Life -- and the risk to it at the White House -- has changed, forever. It is Starr's fault and it is the federal judiciary's fault. Most, importantly, though, it is our fault because we have stood silent long enough to let this happen.

Whether it be for some short-term political advantage, or a belief that there is nothing we could do, or a feeling that those in charge would make it OK (shame on us for that), the fact remains that we did nothing and now must face the spectacle of decent, brave and honorable people having to be dragged forward to do what they are trained never to do -- give up the president, even when there is nothing to give!

There is something dramatically wrong, wouldn't you agree, with forcing a man such as Larry Cockell -- who has sworn an oath to give up his life to save the president's -- spend his day hiring a high-priced lawyer in Washington to protect him against the ravages of the Starr grand jury? And there is also something wrong with that same man having to take time off from his solemn responsibility of being the president's "body man" in order to answer questions about the president's personal habits, when he would have never known them if it weren't for Cockell's life-and-death job description.

For it is proximity to the president that will dictate whether the world's most powerful man survives an attempt on his life. It is that same proximity that allowed Secret Service agent Jerry Parr to shove President Ronald Reagan into his car and out of serious harm's way when John Hinckley went nuts. It was a selfless act that saved Reagan's life and could only have been done because of proximity. And it is that same proximity that an insensitive and malicious Kenneth Starr is trying to destroy.

But Starr is not the only person playing politics with our president's life. What is probably most disturbing in this whole matter is the respect I have lost for Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a normally sensible and rational man who has always seemed to care more for his country and his president than his party or his own political aspirations. Not so any more. Last Sunday he was asked to comment on the Secret Service's demand for a protective privilege to be established so that the agents can do their jobs of saving our leaders' lives. His answer was simple and clear.

Let Lewis Merletti, director of the Secret Service, come to Congress and testify about what Hatch wants to know, he said, and we'll create such a privilege -- next year! There was no confusion in his answer. He, like most Americans who don't want to live through another presidential assassination, recognizes the need for such a privilege. Decent people who are honest with themselves can't argue that point. But what was most telling and what gave Hatch up as just another partisan caring not for what was right was his insistence on doing the right thing -- next year.

That just doesn't cut it, senator. This is the time for action. Now is the time when the Secret Service will be put to the test, and now is the time for Congress to finally do something to end this debacle. If there is no privilege to be recognized by the courts, then do it yourself, senator. That's the oath you took, not to protect and defend your party's fleeting political fortunes but to stand as a bulwark against any threat to the democratic institutions that make this country of ours so great. If it were a Republican president, you'd be first in line to make sure the Secret Service could do its job. Bill Clinton is a Democrat, but he is still our president.

One thing this entire Starr chamber investigation has created has been an us-vs.-them mentality, in which we sometimes reach a point where us is them and the difference is hard to discern. Messing with the ability of Secret Service agents to do their jobs -- which is keeping our leaders alive, as much for us as for themselves -- is one of those times when the lines of decency, civility and sanity are crossed and the country suffers as a result.

What the Secret Service is asking for is a no-brainer because no one can make a compelling argument on the other side. The problem with those in a position to do something is that their brains and their backbones have taken a vacation.

Perhaps what we'll need to see is a man such as Larry Cockell so incensed with having to testify against the oath he has sworn to uphold that, as a matter of conscience, he decides not to say a word. And when Starr leads a hero such as Cockell and the people with whom he serves off to jail, maybe then the backbones will stiffen and the Supreme Court and the Orrin Hatches of the world will find the brains they have temporarily misplaced.

Then some sanity will be restored. And Starr can continue with his games, but not at the risk of the life of the president of the United States.

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