RUST COMMENTARY: LOTS OF LOOKERS, BUT NO FRONT-RUNNERS YET

The race for 2000 begins:

One thousand GOP party activists met in Indianapolis over the weekend and heard from a dozen presidential hopefuls. This may be the earliest start to an election in the history of the republic -- November 2000 is 39 months away. Some observations:

* There is no front-runner in the race. As many as 20 individuals are considering throwing their hats in the ring. All of them have considerable problems to overcome.

* Nearly all the major candidates continue to run away from the most compelling values issues -- particularly the sanctity of human life. Several reporters called me this morning to say they were struck by how leading contenders avoided talking about abortion, religious liberty and related matters.

* Unbelievably, according to the New York Times, my friend Dan Quayle ridiculed the $500 child tax credit as "social engineering at its worst." Keep in mind the child tax credit is the most popular provision in the recent tax package -- supported by 60 percent-plus of the public. In addition, families with children have suffered the biggest increase in taxes of any group since the end of World War II. That's why Ronald Reagan doubled the child exemption as soon as he took office in 1981. Today's GOP leaders ought to go back and read his speeches if they hope to get more than the 40 percent vote the party received in the 1992 and 1996 campaigns.

* Biggest mystery: Speaker Gingrich gave a barn-burner speech in which he accused Clinton of undermining welfare reform and promised to fight him. But the undermining to which Gingrich referred was in the budget deal that he called a great accomplishment just a few weeks ago!! Which is it -- a disaster or a wonderful compromise? I think Newt may be discovering that the compromise budget deal is a lot less popular among party activists than he thought. -- Gary Bauer, American Renewal

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And U.S. Rep. DICK GEPHARDT is being pushed further to the left by one whose voting records, speeches and book make him one of the most LIBERAL (known to too few) senators in U.S. history ... Vice President AL GORE.

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Gore troubles mount: The Washington Post reported on its front pages that between November 1995 and May 1996, Vice President Gore telephoned 46 people from his White House office seeking contributions between $25,000 and $100,000 for the Democratic National Committee. Once again, Gore has been caught telling half-truths. In March of this year at a press conference he said he made such calls only on a "few occasions." But the documents show he attempted to reach 70 people on 10 occasions. You can bet that these new disclosures will be examined in the Senate hearings that will begin again next month. Between this issue and the bizarre and illegal fund-raiser at the Buddhist Temple in California, Gore is beginning to develop a credibility gap.

School reform: A new Gallup poll out last week shows that for the first time, a majority of public school parents endorse taxpayer support for children to attend any school, including religious institutions. The margin of support is substantial -- 55 percent to 43 percent. Three years ago parents opposed the 51 percent to 48 percent. Perhaps most significantly, 72 percent of black Americans supported the idea. This growing support puts Washington's educational establishment and the liberal elites in a tight spot. The teacher unions will not tolerate educational choice, but minority Americans increasingly see it as a way to solve the educational crisis in our urban areas. -- Washington Update

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According to Jack Stapleton, Missouri has the second largest number of farms in the nation ... 102,000 (down 2,000 from one year ago).

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EPA-icide: President Clinton has endorsed the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed new stringent clean-air standards because they will supposedly save the lives of asthmatic children by reducing ground-level ozone. But data presented by the National Center for Policy Analysis show that ozone levels have fallen 18.5 percent since 1974. The EPA also first dubiously claimed its new standards would save 40,000 lives, then lowered the estimate to 20,000, then to 15,000.

Meanwhile, the former senior adviser on air quality at the President's Council on Environmental Quality has concluded that new standards would save about 840 lives. The Department of Energy, however, has determined that the new standards would increase malignant skin cancer deaths, and former OMB Office of Regulatory Affairs administrator Dr. Wendy Gramm has found that lower ozone "could result in 7,000 deaths per year." -- Human Events

~Gary Rust is president of Rust Communications, which owns the Southeast Missourian and other newspapers.