Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 45

Thursday. April 10. 1986 PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS Page 45 OPINION The Philadelphia Daily News 1 6fc feces X)AU4S Sam S. McKeel President Thomas E. Livingston Managing Editor Chuck Stone Senior Editor Zachary Stalbarg Editor Jay Harris Executive Editor Richard Aregood Editor.

Editorial Page -SfJiFf- ft yjiPfrJiMb TWice THE PoRS. ky6eririSAvDis lofrPOPlWOlLFfclCfS MUPr3DP0P foVR CAMPAIGN. Snake-bit and Foolish An old folk tale says it's an accident if a snake bites you once, but you have to be a damn fool to let the same snake bite you twice. The proposed Philadelphia convention center has been rejected twice in less than a month by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. The only optimistic comment from convention center supporters was that Tuesday's 108-90 vote against establishing a governing body for the center was not as bad as the 128-68 snakebite the city got on March 11.

This second defeat came in spite of serious lobbying by the Democratic mayor of the state's largest city, the Republican governor, the Republican lieutenant governor (who may be the next governor) and well-heeled business types from both parties who help pay for legislators' campaigns. Now there's talk about a third run through the Harris-burg snakepit. No folk adages exist about a third bite by the same reptile, but given the lack of good sense and statecraft that seem to dominate the Legislature, the third time could require a snake charmer. It also could be a major setback that would waste time, further increase construction costs, and sour many more Philadelphians on the whole idea. Before that happens, someone should listen to Councilman Lucien Blackwell, who's fought more than a few snake wars.

He says it's time for the city to stop begging Harrisburg to help build a convention center. He may be right. Even if the proposed center's governing authority is approved, another vote is needed to appropriate the $141 million in state money sought under the current plan. The current plan may be pumped so full of snake venom there could be no way to suck all the poison out. It's too much of a giveaway to relinquish control of the center to suburban interests and to give up the ultimate say-so on construction and vending contracts, and still be stuck with the tab.

Plus, the question of minorities and women getting their fair share of contracts shouldn't be left in doubt. The real reason state money is needed is the cost of acquiring property around Reading Terminal. If another site were chosen such as the Civic Center area acquisition costs would be less, and all of the Harrisburg groveling could be avoided. Philadelphia needs a bigger convention hall but not at any cost, and not if it means a third snakebite that makes this city and its leaders look foolish. JK.BM1MG Ortega, Like Fidel, Snows 'Beautiful People' ffafiy ull as dishwater, Comandante Daniel Ortega.

II 11 Even when Daryl Hannah, the curvaceous star limr of "Splash," is around, he looks glum. Imagine, glum with the fetching Ms. Hannah hanging on your every dreary Marxist-Leninist word. After that, how could anybody think that unripe brie and tepid chablis would turn him on? But the beautiful people keep trying. Grooming a Central American comandante for introduction to the VS.

public has changed since the New York Times presented us with Fidel Castro. No "radical chic" then, of the kind that distinguished the Washington reception for Ortega colleague Nora Astorga a while back. Lining up to congratulate Ms. Astorga on her signal contribution to the Nica Found Money ADRIAN LEE day but two Castro unmasked himself and undid reporter Matthews. He was hot the "democrat" of the Matthews introductory to the which had charmed, not just the beautiful people, but the VS.

churches, a goodly number of Latin "experts" in the State Department and the liberals generally. Less the experts (who by now are pretty wary), it's the same gullible aparat that fawns on Ortega and Ms. Astorga, now Nicaraguan ambassador to the UN. Castro was now and he paused for effect that crisp day in December 1961 a Marxist-Leninist. A lesser man than Matthews would have been destroyed by it The amigo of the "thee and thou" days in the Sierra Maestra, the "Fidel" he had shared ham and crackers with as they dodged Batista patrols that amigo, that Fidel, had sold him down the river.

Matthews must have winced as he thought of the big abrazo, the bear-hug, he had gotten from the triumphant Fidel as the latter entered Havana on the heels of the departing Batistanos. And his thoughts must have strayed further, to the outsize press pass Fidel had ordered for him: Written on it in big capitals was, "Herbert Matthews, Editorialista Especial." The most searing memory of all must have been the honor he had received from EI Supremo himself. An honor theretofore bestowed only on the barbudos the "Sierra Maestra Decoration." All over and how the conservatives gloated. Some, the more charitable among them, thought he was just plain dumb. Many, as Professor Welch notes, thought he "must have known that Castro was a dedicated communist" And still others, with a passion for reducing everything to a conspiracy, saw his "depiction of Castro as a jolly Robin Hood tenting in the Sierra Maestra" as a Commie plot No reporter in modern memory has been chastised the way Matthews was.

But then again, no reporter in recent memory was bamboozled the way Matthews was. For every comandante, whether he declares himself a communist early or late, there are media to vouch for him and the beautiful people to welcome him. As the man said, there's one born every minute. Adrian Lee's column appears Tuesdays and Thursdays. Maurice McDonald is very honest.

He's the SEPTA bus driver who returned the bag that fell from the back of an armored truck; it had $95,000 in it. Maurice McDonald is also very generous. He said he'd "hate to see the armored truck drivers lose their jobs." There we part company, Mr. McDonald. Whoever was responsible for the mishap whether it was the drivers or someone else should be penalized.

That wasn't just a little error it represented money entrusted to that company to deliver safely. Not everyone is as honest as Maurice McDonald as all of us who remember Joey Coyle can attest to. A Day Unmade ragua revolution luring a Somoza general to her bedroom to have his throat cut one female admirer gushed, "To try to get the guy to bed, and then kill him? Fantastic. That's my dream, to do it to Reagan, George Bush, go down the line Well, anyhow, bringing Fidel up to speed for a run past the beautiful people in the mid-1950s was serious business. How serious is suggested by a Lafayette College history professor's study of how New York Times reporter Herbert L.

Matthews portrayed Fidel and his bearded veterans (the barbudos) as they emerged from the Sierra Maestra to take over from the fleeing Fulgen-cio Batista. As professor Richard E. Welch Jr. details the Matthews pitch, a "new day" was dawning for Cuba; a "democratic" and "therefore anti-Communist new deal." A notion that Matthews was to cling to for more than four years, long after the State Department people he had swayed to Castro's cause had recanted and tiptoed away. Not until Castro's speech on an uncommonly crisp day in December 1961, with the sickeningly sweet smell of rotting sugar cane drifting in from the uncut fields Havana, was Matthews finally to be disillusioned.

In his long, rambling oration it lasted not one When Clint Eastwood says "make my day" in those dreadful shoot-'em-ups he stars in, someone else's day is unmade. The voters of Carmel, unmade Charlotte Townsend's day Tuesday when they elected Eastwood to replace her as mayor. This could be "Dirty Harry's" first tough role. Aq atterpoon rjetvspaper published by Philadelphia Newspapers, tnc. 400 Broad P.O.

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