SELECTING JUDGES AND DUMPING JUAN

By H. N. Burdett

Since leaving the United States Supreme Court four years ago, Sandra Day O'Connor has been the honorary chairman of a movement in Nevada urging that judges in that state be appointed rather than elected. The cause O'Connor passionately advocates recalls a fierce debate over that very issue at the 1967 Maryland Constitutional Convention and an appearance by former state governor Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin before the committee responsible for writing the executive branch section of the draft document.

A member of the panel, Judge Philip Dorsey, an avowed opponent of appointing judges, tried to nail down McKeldin on the question. "Now, Governor, wouldn't you say that the election of judges has worked quite well here in Maryland over many, many years?" Dorsey asked.

"Well, Judge Dorsey," McKeldin responded, "on that matter my answer will be the same as what the Irish cop told the drunk he found leaning against a lamp post, 'Paddy, if you're going to stand here, you're going to have to move on.' "

As the color rose in Judge Dorsey's craggy countenance over the unexpected response, McKeldin elaborated, "There's but one way I can think of to select judges to ensure that they will be of the highest quality." Committee members who had long wrestled for a solution to the judge selection quandary leaned forward in their seats to hear the former governor intone, "Immaculate conception!"

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National Public Radio is understandably and perpetually concerned about the flow of taxpayer dollars that keep its programming on the air. There are those in the Congressional paranoia caucus who are convinced that NPR is a thinly disguised tub-thumper for the so-called socialist state and would excise its funding quicker than one can shout 'red channels.' Some would eagerly substitute reliably conservative Fox News for NPR and be done with the matter.

The constant fear of having the plug pulled on the most informative, educational and politically unbiased organ within the entire American media spectrum is clearly behind the misguided firing of news commentator Juan Williams.

Sure, Williams's comment about his nervousness when people wearing "Muslim garb" board an airplane was excessive, unfortunate and deserving of a reprimand. But it was hardly in a class with the detestable venom spouted by unmitigated hatemongers who foul the airwaves of one of the few nations where free speech is a constitutional right. I don't know Williams personally, but I know and trust people who do and who tell me he does not have a prejudiced bone in his body.

Over the years, I've admired Williams as a reporter and can recall nothing to suggest that he is biased. Though I'm less familiar with his television news commentary, it is difficult to imagine Williams as a latter day Archie Bunker. As conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer pointed out on the television program Washington Week, Williams is not a reporter, he's an analyst and as such is expected to voice his opinions rather than demonstrate objectivity and restraint.

I can probably count on one hand with fingers to spare the number of times I can recall agreeing with the fiesty Krauthammer, who could probably put a neoconservative spin on the recitation of a weather report. But his defense of Williams was honorable and laudable.

The most that Juan Williams deserved from the suits in the NPR boardroom was a slap on the wrists. Williams regretted his remark and said as much over the air soon after it left his lips; to view his momentary indiscretion as a firing offense is over the top and smacks of bending over backwards to demonstrate NPR's impartiality.

There are vultures perched on Capitol Hill who would like nothing better than to swoop down on a moderate news analyst, of all people, as an example of what they perceive to be NPR's bias. The lack of courage on the part of NPR management to defy the forces that would use any excuse to remove this valuable media entity from the airwaves is far more troubling than Williams's political incorrectness. One can imagine Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, those icons of electronic media integrity, pinwheeling in their graves over Williams's treatment.