DANFORTH: COURAGE, CHARACTER, CONVICTION

The Founding Fathers never envisioned governmental service as a permanent career. The system would function best, as they saw it, if citizens would devote some years of their lives to public service and then return to whence they came and use their governmental experiences for the greater local good. The Founding Fathers would be very pleased with Sen. Jack Danforth - in how he performed in public life and in his approach to the governmental decision-making process.

Danforth, the politician, was a three "Cs" man: courage, character and conviction.

Courage. This trait was apparent from the outset in such issues as the Panama Canal Treaty and the sale of F-15s to Saudi Arabia. Danforth entered the Senate as Jimmy Carter became president. In political terms, he owed nothing to Jimmy Carter. Yet, on two of the most politically incendiary Senate votes of the Carter years, Danforth supported Carter - because he thought Carter was right.

On the Panama Canal Treaty, the political right and the veterans groups were on the war path. "We stole it fair and square," said one Republican Senator. "It's ours. We built it. We paid for it. We'll keep it", was the battle cry. Never mind that the Joint Chiefs of Staff said it could not be defended against sabotage. Despite the political risks, the freshman Senator Danforth voted for the treaty because he believed it was prudent public policy.

The F-15 sale to Saudi Arabia was another profile-in-courage vote. The position of the pro-Israel lobby was that Saudi Arabia faced no threat from any of its Arab neighbors, neither Iran nor Iraq. Arabs do not attack Arabs, if it was argued. Thus, selling F-15s to Saudi Arabia served no purpose other than to pose a threat to the Jewish state.

Saudi Arabia, we now know, faced serious changes from its Arab neighbors - and still does. Danforth knew it in the '70s and cast a gutsy vote.

Character. In the summer of 1990, the Senate was considering President Bush's proposal to amend the Bill of Rights so as to prohibit flag burning. In the 200 years since it was enacted, the Bill of Rights had never been amended. Danforth pointed out that flag burning was, to him, a repugnant act, but that it clearly was a form of political expression. He said, "We want our Constitution, not just a piece of it. We want all of it. And we want our Bill of Rights. We want our First Amendment." The now senior senator from Missouri concluded his speech with a warning to President Bush, "No election, no pocket of votes here or there, no percentage points in the polls justifies even the slightest nick in the Bill of Rights."

Conviction. Danforth took seriously that the Republicans were the party of Abraham Lincoln. He worried that his party had, over the years, drifted away from the historic concern about civil rights. Danforth worked to form a group of Republican senators who could cooperate with a like-minded group of Democrats to get rid of the poisonous, racially-charged quota controversy. Danforth was determined that his party not play the quota card in the 1992 election. President Bush kept his pledge to Danforth and signed Danforth's Civil Rights Bill in January, 1992.

Quite a career. Yes, indeed, the Founding Fathers would be very pleased with Jack Danforth.