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by Steve Frezza

Ever since Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley announced their nuptial agreement, I've figured the end of the world can't be too far off.

Actually, this has been a year of strange bedfellows.

The Nobel Peace Prize goes to a terrorist. The PLO and Knesset kiss and make up. A Haitian priest without ecclesiastical endorsement who extends love to his enemies with the kind of necklaces which nobody wants gets cozy with America's liberal establishment. Jordan plays baseball. October passes without a World Series and nobody cares. Hockey doesn't even start and nobody notices. November's elections arrive and nobody wants to vote for who's running.

It's been a strange year.

So it hasn't been especially startling to see the decline of political loyalties. The out-of-the-ordinary has become commonplace in 1994.

Republican mayors in New York City and Los Angeles endorse Democratic candidates for senator. They claim principled motivations, but it looks like political--that's spelled m-o-n-e-y--maneuvering.

Pennsylvania's late and lauded Senator's wife undermines the candidacy of the choice of her husband's party as she forgets where she got the money which makes her so revered and quotable. If she weren't so rich and related, would anyone pay any attention to her?

Then there's Republican Senator John Warner, who questions the worthiness of Republican Oliver North to join him as a senator from Virginia. This, by the way, is the same John Warner who was married to Liz Taylor for a couple of years. He must have a lot of guts to question somebody else's judgment. But, then again, he's the same guy who said, "I'm pro-choice with limitations, pro-life with exceptions."

I'm reminded of the House member who yelled across the aisle, "We on this side of the House are not such fools as we look." Or, as one incumbent summarized his philosophy of public service, "You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time. Not bad odds!"

The whole thing is so foolish.

And yet it's good to see politicians crossing party lines every now and then. When Republicans endorse only Republicans and Democrats endorse only Democrats, it means partisanship has become more important than a candidate's qualifications. I'll never forget reading this horrifying quote out of the twenties from Kentucky Senator Augustus Owsley Stanley, "If Governor Fields is right, I am going to stand by him because he is right. If he is wrong, I am going to stand by him because he is a Democrat."

Unfortunately, that's the kind of bigotry which is ruining American politics and government. It's the kind of foolishness which has prompted me to think some Republicans and Democrats would vote for Satan if he were their party's choice.

So I'm glad to see the decline of political loyalties in America. Maybe it signals the rebirth of a higher loyalty.

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