Attack-mode campaign

With less than a year to go until the 2004 elections, the charges and countercharges have already lowered the tone of the candidates to non-problem solving, non-issue and attack mode. And these are just the Democratic presidential candidates who are trying to undermine fellow Democrat Howard Dean's possible breakaway.

We'll probably know the Democratic Party's presidential candidate by late March or April. Then (as in the past) they will change the rhetoric and focus on President Bush.

I would be a lot more comfortable if I felt the national legislative debates and votes on the energy and medical bills were untainted by the presidential election campaign strategies of both parties.

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If you expect people to be ignorant and free, you expect what never was and never will be. -- Thomas Jefferson

nWit and wisdom of "Never":

Never say "Oops" in the operating room. -- Dr. Leo Troy

Never kick a fresh cow pie on a hot day. -- Harry S. Truman

Never drive through a small Southern town at 100 mph with the local sheriff's 16-year-old daughter on your lap. -- Anonymous member of a chain gang

Never ruin an apology with an excuse. -- Kimberly Johnson

Never criticize a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes. If he doesn't like what you have to say, it will be OK because you'll be a mile away and have his shoes.

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right. -- Salvor Hardin

Never try to out-stubborn a cat. -- Lazarus Long

Never argue with a fool. He may be doing the same thing.

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One of the great pleasures of working in the theater lies in establishing relationships with other artists. In contrast to painting, sculpture, novel writing and composing music, theater is a collaborative art. Nothing can happen unless many people with varied skills assemble to produce a single work of art. Along the way in one's career, one encounters fellow artists with whom a close rapport develops. It doesn't happen all the time, but when it does, there's nothing like it. To work with someone who shares your artistic sensibilities and dreams, with whom there is mutual respect, admiration, a common vocabulary and set of values, whose professional discipline is similar to your own -- this can be a most rewarding experience indeed. -- John Going, Director, Webster Repertory Theater

Communism was "pure propaganda": Mikhail Gorbachev was the final president of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 to 1991. His policies of perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness) led to the end of communism in the USSR and the birth of a new, democratic Russia.

Currently, he heads the Gorbachev Foundation, an international think tank.

Gorbachev says the Soviet communism he served most of his life was "pure propaganda." The former Soviet leader told a Columbia University audience that by the time he rose to power, with Soviet satellites in space, the ruling politicians "were discussing the problem of toothpaste, the problem of detergent, and they had to create a commission of the Politburo to make sure that women have pantyhose." Gorbachev offered his views a decade after he helped topple this "unreal system" with reforms dubbed perestroika.

Before that, he said, Soviet politicians operated with lies.

"We, including I, were saying, 'Capitalism is moving toward a catastrophe, whereas we are developing well.' Of course, that was pure propaganda. In fact, our country was lagging behind," Gorbachev said.

Change didn't come easily either.

Gorbachev said perestroika spun out of control after Boris Yeltsin took over in 1991. Instead of a gradual shift to democracy, Yeltsin promised Russians that they "would start moving toward paradise quickly, directly," Gorbachev said.

"Well, we did move directly -- but into an abyss," with the economy collapsing and many former Soviet republics declaring independence, he said. "It is chaos that (Russian President) Vladimir Putin inherited. Chaos in the economy, chaos in the social sphere, chaos in the federation, chaos in the army, chaos everywhere." Now, Gorbachev said, Putin must create new economic incentives.

"Today is our last hope. If it fails, we could see a very difficult situation in Russia," Gorbachev said.

The former Soviet leader said his Moscow-based Gorbachev Foundation is making a contribution by developing ties between Russian and foreign high-tech companies. He said such business would help slow his country's "brain drain."

Still, he said he feels "hopeful." "Putin has achieved a great deal," he said.

And he said the new Russia has made progress by strongly supporting the United States twice in recent years: after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and during the Gulf War. -- Verena Dobnik, The Associated Press

Gary Rust is chairman of Rust Communications.