Politicians

In rejecting PSA screening for prostate cancer, an influential federal panel has chipped a cornerstone of preventive medicine, declaring that it's not always best to catch cancer as early as possible. "At best, PSA screening may help only 1 man in 1,000 avoid death from prostate cancer," the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said Monday. "Most prostate cancers found by PSA screening are slow growing, not life threatening, and will not cause a man any harm during his lifetime.

Lewis H. Lapham's Dec. 13 Op-ed Page column, "Surviving the White House follies," was the best yet. It was also good for a few laughs - especially the closing line "On watching Reagan's bungling geopoliticians wander in and out of press conferences . . . at least it's reassuring that they didn't choose to become airline pilots or water engineers or surgeons. " Marilyn Fusfield Doylestown.

I have been wondering whom to invite to my Halloween party. Of course, I'll ask the usual passel of friends. But I want this year to be different. Special. Full of VIPs. So since I think and write about them all the time, I am writing up an invitation to the stars of our system, our wise and worldly politicians in that great pulsing hub of Washington. My only problem is, I can't see them doing Halloween. Sure, it's possible that they're not so different from the rest of us. Maybe those who have kids stock up on chocolates and jawbreakers, escort their kids around a familiar neighborhood, or take them to parties where everyone eats too much candy corn and the adults muse over the good old days of knocking on doors and saying, "Trick or treat!"

Neil Oxman was in mourning. His dismay had nothing to do with the winter rain that was drenching Center City as he dodged puddles and cars outside his Locust Street office. He was despondent because Jules Patt no longer wanted to be governor. Oxman, a lawyer by training, a professional golf caddy by avocation and a media consultant by trade, had been casting the unknown Patt as America's next Lee Iacocca, trying to televise the Altoona real estate developer into the consciousness of Pennsylvania.

As Hurricane Andrew gave its final shriek and retreated into the Everglades last week I knew we were really in trouble. Within minutes my worst fears were realized. The tiny screen of my battery- powered TV overflowed with the unctuous faces of politicians taking credit and assigning blame, promising and demanding comfort. The particulars varied but there were a few constant themes: Someone else should have predicted the hurricane earlier, prepared for it better, provided more aid for its victims.

Václav Havel was past president of the Czech Republic, and the author of 21 plays and the essays "The Power of the Powerless," "Living in Truth," and "The Art of the Impossible. " He wrote this essay in 1998. He died Monday/ Does an intellectual - by virtue of his efforts to get beneath the surface of things, to grasp relations, causes, and effects, to recognize individual items as part of larger entities, and thus to derive a deeper awareness of and responsibility for the world - belong in politics?

In his interview with Rolling Stone, Bill Clinton exploded at the claim that he had not honored his commitments. "I have fought more damn battles here for more things than any president in 20 years with the possible exception of Reagan's first budget and not gotten one damn bit of credit from the knee-jerk liberal press. I am damn sick and tired of it. " To the press, the outburst was the self-indulgent grousing of a thin- skinned politician. But Clinton was right that the press has been overly negative.

Former state Sen. James R. Lloyd Jr., named this week as Gov. Casey's adviser on eastern Pennsylvania matters, said that one of his tasks was to smooth relations with local politicians. So far, the appointment has had just the opposite effect. "This thing with Jim Lloyd upset the whole city," one Philadelphia Democratic leader said yesterday, asking not to be named. "Some of our guys don't even know him or like him, and nobody was consulted. Not even the mayor was called in on it. " Mayor Goode could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Here in the great United States of America, people often look down their noses at undemocratic third-world nations where the huddled masses can't get despotic rulers to consider what they think. Then there's Philadelphia, where the ruling elite also act as if there's no reason to fear the wrath of the public. In this city, apparently any action committed in the name of politics is reasonable, so long as no one dies. By that standard, several City Council members not only see nothing wrong with State Rep. Dwight Evans' using strong-arm tactics to get his way in awarding a charter-school contract; they are are angry at Mayor Nutter for having the gall to make public the findings of an investigation into the matter.

When the Northwest Summit convenes this weekend at Chestnut Hill College, it will bring together community leaders from neighborhoods poor and affluent, black and white and mixed in a search for creative solutions to problems that recognize no boundaries. The problems include crime, drugs and cutbacks in city services - issues that summit organizers say demand prompt and coordinated attention. "We call it a summit because at a summit you take care of business," said Horace Small, Northwest director of the Philadelphia Anti-Drug/Anti-Violence Network, one of the organizers of the event.

Is compromise a dirty word? House Speaker John A. Boehner spoke for many politicians running for office when he declared, "I reject the word. " In the past, political leaders in the midst of election campaigns could declare their intent never to back down — and then once in office turn their attention to the give-and-take that is a necessary part of effective governance. But something has changed over the last several decades. We've entered a new era of the permanent campaign, where every day is effectively election day. Classic compromise — where all sides sacrifice something in order to improve on the status quo from their perspective — has become harder to conceive, let alone to achieve.

BOSTON - Massachusetts may account for about 2 percent of the nation's population, but when it comes to nurturing White House dreams, the Bay State is a political boomtown. Since 1960, at least half a dozen Massachusetts politicians have launched serious campaigns for president, while a handful of others have toyed with the idea. Three captured their political party's nomination and one, John F. Kennedy, went on to occupy the office. The difference this election cycle is that the politician aiming to be the fourth major-party nominee from Massachusetts in the last five decades is a Republican, Mitt Romney.

Jabbed, jostled, punched, choked - that was 12-year-old Alex Libby's bus ride to school pretty much every day. Captured on camera, the boy dubbed "fish lips" by his Sioux City, Iowa, classmates sits limply, helplessly, as he is physically and verbally assaulted. This scene is one of the most heart-wrenching in the new documentary Bully , opening Friday in Philadelphia-area theaters. "I want all the kids to see it," says James F. Kenney, Philadelphia city councilman-at-large.

WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney hit an off note when he told a "humorous" story about his father shutting down a factory. Robert De Niro managed to get both Newt Gingrich and the Obama campaign riled up when he joked at an Obama fund-raiser that America wasn't ready for a white first lady. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, still nursing wounds from his failed presidential campaign, did himself a world of good with his self-deprecating jokes at a recent Washington dinner. Done right, humor can be a huge asset for a politician.

Norman St John-Stevas, 82, a politician noted for his wit, his extravagance, and for falling foul of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, has died. His family announced Monday that he died on Friday after a short illness. Beyond the affectations, which included writing in purple ink and lapsing into Latin, he was a lawyer, an expert on Britain's unwritten constitution, a former cabinet minister, former chairman of the Royal Fine Art Commission, master of a Cambridge college, and advocate of the canonization of Princess Grace of Monaco.

ALLENTOWN - Paul Sorvino might finally be over his trouble with The Trouble with Cali . With $500,000 in taxpayer funding, the first-time director and Goodfellas star shot the independent film in northeastern Pennsylvania six years ago. But the project ran short of cash, and Scranton politicians demanded to know what he did with their investment. Sorvino, in turn, was stunned and hurt that anyone would question his integrity. He's hoping all that's in the past now that his project is about to get its first screening, Tuesday at Arizona's Sedona Film Festival.

Home may be where the heart is, but in New Jersey, home is wherever politicians and judges say it is. From Congress to the Legislature, the quirks of residency laws have become the Garden State's latest political sideshow. Last week, Republican Gov. Christie's acting education commissioner, Christopher Cerf, seemed to be on the verge of getting a long-awaited confirmation hearing. The fact that Cerf lives in Essex County has allowed the Democratic state senator there, Ron Rice, to single-handedly block any Cerf hearing through a process known as senatorial courtesy.

Darrell L. Clarke never intended to run for public office, never thought he would have to. Over 20 years, he had worked his way up from answering phones in his councilman's office to serving as the Council president's chief of staff. He was comfortable behind the scenes as the man to see in John F. Street's office if you wanted to get something done in the Fifth District. But then his boss set his sights on becoming mayor - a decision that surprised Clarke - and "it was pretty much decided by everybody that I was the guy," Clarke said in an interview last week.

Manuel Fraga Iribarne, 89, a blunt-talking politician who founded Spain's ruling conservative party and ignited divisive reactions as the last surviving minister from Gen. Francisco Franco's right-wing regime, died of heart failure Sunday at his Madrid home, the Spanish news agency Europa Press reported, citing a family member. In a career spanning 60 years, Mr. Fraga served as Franco's information and tourism minister and as Spain's interior minister after the dictator died in 1975.

Bill Janklow, 72, a flamboyant politician who left a lasting mark on South Dakota politics by serving four terms as governor but resigned as the state's congressman after causing a fatal traffic accident, died Thursday. Mr. Janklow died of brain cancer after being moved to hospice care in Sioux Falls this week, his son Russ said. Mr. Janklow announced in November that he had inoperable cancer. Mr. Janklow, a Republican, dominated South Dakota government for more than a quarter-century, inspiring fierce support and criticism.