Economic Security

Bereano not the best spokesman for Bissett I read the newspaper's coverage of ex-Delegate and lobbyist Phil Bissett's announcement to enter the Anne Arundel county executive's race ("Bissett enters race for executive," April 14). One of his supports said he is "sharp." Maybe he is; however, I've got to question his choice for a spokesperson to validate his candidacy. Lobbyist Bruce Bereano, who is backing Mr. Bissett, was quoted as saying Bissett "doesn't talk out of both sides of his mouth."

WASHINGTON -- New Hampshire's primary has defined the Republican Party's most pressing task, that of self-defense against Pat Buchanan's redefinition of it. Mr. Buchanan, the brawling barkeep from the Bowery of American politics, mixes a cocktail of resentments and ignorance unmatched since George Wallace went marauding.Governor Wallace, whose program was to pitch into the Potomac the briefcases of pointy-headed bureaucrats, was agreeably free of the pretense of intellect. Mr. Buchanan, whose protectionism is to serious economics as creationism (another of Mr. Buchanan's superstitions)

There is some question whether the geographical proximity of the Orioles and Washington Nationals - and their annual home-and-home interleague series - combine to create a dynamic rivalry, but there is no denying that one has developed between the ownership of both franchises. The long-running dispute over the value of the Nationals' television rights has done more to ramp up anti-Oriole emotion in Washington than anything that has happened between the two teams on the field, and this Mid-Atlantic misunderstanding has led to all kinds of speculation about the future of their unhappy cable partnership.

Join us. Social Security's future is being debated, and President Clinton has begun a nationwide bipartisan dialogue. That's why Economic Security 2000 and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare have scheduled a forum in Baltimore on June 22. We want you to join us.Social Security is one of America's most successful social programs. It has lifted 16 million senior citizens out of poverty. It protects against what President Franklin D. Roosevelt called the "hazards and vicissitudes of life" - disability, old age and the death of a family's breadwinner.

One of the most powerful undercurrents of the 1994 election could be found one week after the vote in a front-page story in The Evening Sun: Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point mill was taking job applications for the first time in 15 years.People can search for all sorts of meanings and motives in last week's political shift -- about "angry white men," the conservative tide, a Clinton backlash, a longing for bedrock values. But it's the seismic diminution of the industrial base over the past generation that has helped shake the underpinnings of many middle-class families.

WELL MIGHT British Prime Minister Tony Blair warn Scots against the Scottish National Party. Should it win the Scottish election next May, he said, the new Scottish parliament could become "a battering ram for separatism." So it would.That would be the last thing his government intended when enacting state governments for Scotland, Wales and Greater London on the model of Northern Ireland.Mr. Blair's British Labor Party should have worried about this earlier. During a revival of the Scottish Nationalists in the 1970s, Labor advocated a middle way, "devolution" of some power to a Scottish assembly in Edinburgh, and has never reconsidered the policy.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- President-elect Bill Clinton and his top advisers intend to make final selections for the incoming administration's economic team over the weekend with the expectation that Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, D-Texas, would get the first offer to become secretary of the Treasury, according to Democratic sources."

"Up at the Villa" is genteel but ultimately unnecessary entertainment, one that's at least easy on the eyes before it vanishes entirely from the filmgoer's consciousness. Philip Haas, whose pictorial sense of period is as lush as Merchant and Ivory's with a bit more zest, has adapted W. Somerset Maugham's much-loved novella with an eye toward capturing the simmering sensuality of Italy just before World War II. He's done this with taste and refinement, but without the sexual heat or tautness of a juicy crime thriller that has made Maugham's book a favorite over the years.

THAT OLD bugaboo -- Maryland's hostile business climate -- has returned, thanks to James Brady's resignation as state economic development secretary.Despite making considerable progress in his job, Mr. Brady grew frustrated by the lack of a consistent pro-business fervor from the governor and General Assembly.It is a mixed record. Gov. Parris N. Glendening brought in Mr. Brady to jump-start economic development, but support from the executive office ebbed and flowed. For every pro-business step, there was a step to appease other interest groups, especially labor unions and environmentalists.

Growing up is hard to do, but it's harder when the context in which young people grow is tattered. Families are unquestionably the single most important influence on a child's life, yet no family, however stable and functional, can meet all the FTC needs of a growing adolescent. Education, health care, job training and community institutions also play a role in molding future generations.Last week, the National Research Council released a three-year study of the institutions and settings that have traditionally nurtured young people.