FROM ARIAS TO WALL STREET: QUESTIONS WITHOUT ANSWERS

Author: By David Nyhan, Globe Staff

Date: Thursday, October 15, 1987
Page: 17
Section: OP-ED PAGE

Can they be singing any Arias for Oscar in the White House? Do you get the impression the Nobel Prize Committee just decided to stick it in the ear of those siding with the contras? Don't you think the Nobel Peace Prize for Costa Rica's Oscar Arias is a pointed rebuke to El Gippo, commander in chief of those noble freedom fighters in Honduras, Miami Beach and assorted mail drops in rural Nicaragua?

Don't you surmise our president would like us to forget this year's peace laureate? The way he tried to forget Bishop Tutu?

Would the president like us to change the topic? Why do I have this persistent suspicion that the Gipper is on automatic pilot, that our president is just going through the motions, that there's no one home at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?

Is it because we've drifted into an incredibly vulnerable military situation in the Persian Gulf, to no obvious end, with no relief in sight, and no way to win? Or was it because Caspar Weinberger got it together enough to say no, we're not going to send the Coast Guard, as the Pentagon wanted? Do you honestly think the administration knows what it's doing there?

Did Ronald Reagan really want Bob Bork to hang in? What kind of White House is this, where a fatally damaged judicial nominee tells Reagan what he wants, and the president doesn't dare tell said nominee what the president wants?

Why do the right-wingers keep insisting that it was the liberals who smeared Bork? Don't they realize it was Bork -- in his writings, his opinions, his utterances on TV -- who croaked Bork? Wouldn't he have won more support if someone told him, "Hey, Bob, why not get rid of the beard and get a haircut?"

Shouldn't someone remind the Gipper that Republican presidents nominated seven of the last nine justices on the Supreme Court? Isn't this prolonged agony over Bork just going to make it harder for Reagan's next conservative to be confirmed?

Hasn't the right wing snatched the wreckage of the Second Reagan Term? Do the arch-conservatives want Reagan to retire with any semblance of dignity and control? Or do they want to squeeze every last ounce of blood from this shopworn presidency?

Does anybody really want to read the Iran-contra committee's forthcoming report? Do we need to know more? What can it tell us that's worth hearing? Are we going to have go over the whole mess again if Ollie North gets indicted?

Wouldn't it be a good idea to change the subject? Say, to something such as: How are we doing in space? Are the Russians back ahead of us? Will the Russkies let American corporations rent space on their rocketships? Should we ask the Chinese?

Not going so hot, our space effort? What's going even worse than our space exploration? The battle against AIDS? Has there ever been a presidential
commission that bollixed its mission as badly? Would you say that the administration's handling of the AIDS epidemic is every bit as effective as its efforts at counterespionage? Should our national motto be something like: ''Catch more spies and less AIDS?"

Wanna bet that the Congress won't do anything about the deficit? How do you figure the odds against a recession next year? How long has it been since we've had an economic expansion that lasted five years?

How long do you figure the Japanese will keep buying our debt and fueling our expansion? Will they get mad at us over the trade bill? Are we really sending our Navy to the gulf to keep the Japanese funding our deficit?

Does anybody doubt that the stock market is overripe for a tumble? Is there a shortage of greed on Wall Street? How low do you think the Dow Jones Industrials can plunge, in any given month? What would happen if the Dow goes into the hopper by about 500 points? Can't happen here, you say?

Why do these presidential candidates keep reminding us we have to marry one of them by this time next year? Couldn't we just hire a caretaker for a while, instead of anointing one of these guys? Don't they understand that hard times are coming?

How long can the media get away with bashing these politicians? Weren't you convinced that nobody could turn Pat Robertson into a sympathetric figure, and then, bang, the press goes and does it, within two days of his announcing for president? How can journalists get away with asking politicians the kinds of personal questions that, if any of us were asked them in a job interview, we'd find mighty offensive?

You got me.

NYHAN ;10/14 LDRISC;10/15,14:45 NYHAN15