     C O N S E R V A T I V E   C O N S E N S U S(tm)
     *****************************************************************
      Events * Analysis * Forecasts * Commentary * Readers' Opinions
     *****************************************************************
     I N T E L L I G E N C E   :::                       Editor's Desk
     B R I E F I N G   :::                         Distribution: World
                                                 For Immediate Release

     Copyright 1995 by Conservative Consensus, ISSN 1074-245X.
     QUOTATION AND REPOSTING ARE ENCOURAGED, provided
     our name & address are credited. V1XIX36


     D E A T H   C O M E S   F O R   T H E   R E P U B L I C A N S ?

     by Craige A. McMillan, Senior Editor

                    Predicting the end of the world has always been an
     occupation fraught with risk. David Koresh paid the ultimate price for
     his error in judgment: his flock perished in the fiery inferno at
     Waco, Texas, a scene now burned indelibly into the collective American
     mind.

                    In ten days of Congressional hearings, the nation has
     been treated to a parade of law enforcement officials who sought to
     justify their fulfillment of Mr. Koresh's apocalyptic vision. We have
     seen Congressmen who purport to represent the People of the United
     States unabashedly defend death by asphyxiation with CS gas for the
     Davidians, followed by incineration of their bodies; the lives of over
     80 men, women and children snuffed out while the tiniest victims
     huddled in a concrete bunker to escape the roving armored tanks of
     their own private Armageddon.

                    Members of the media, who achieved fame and stature
     during the days of Watergate when their investigations brought down a
     president who lied to the nation, have chosen this day to cast their
     lot in the Waco tragedy with the forces of wealth and power. Chiseled
     in the stony expressions of Attorney General Janet Reno and
     Congressman Charles Schumer, we learn that there is nothing for law
     enforcement to repent of, no cause to discipline those whose misdeeds
     brought about the deaths of their fellow agents and citizens, all of
     whom were still under presumption of innocence. We hear the most
     bizarre and unsubstantiated allegations presented as fact in the
     person of young Kiri Jewell, who overseas reporters suggest was not
     even in the Davidian compound at the time of her abuse; we see the
     most intricate and inexplicable parliamentary maneuverings to prevent
     analysis of the physical evidence, as Failure Analysis Associates is
     denied access to x-ray the burned firearms.

                    Not all of God's prophets have been saints. Truth is
     not always privileged to choose her messenger; she has in times of
     desperation escaped through the lips of some rather ugly personages.
     It was king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon who overran the Jews in 605 BC
     and carried off Judah's brightest men, most beautiful women, and sacks
     full of treasure. Yet it was also king Nebuchadnezzar to whom God
     revealed the future kingdoms of the earth -- although the
     interpretation of his dream was through Daniel, an exiled Jew. In 539
     BC the king's grandson, Belshazzar, witnessed the fulfillment of his
     father's dream. Engaged in a drunken orgy with a thousand of his
     nobles, the king saw the "handwriting on the wall" (Mene, Mene, Tekel,
     Parsin). That night the armies of the Medes and Persians joined forces
     and destroyed his kingdom.

                    If forecasting the end of the world is a risky
     business, forecasting the fortunes of political parties is a close
     second. Six weeks prior to the 1994 elections, this newspaper forecast
     the end of Democratic control of the US Congress. Our figures were
     greeted with amusement by our friends and indifference by our enemies.
     They were ignored by the mainstream press. Yet the voters agreed with
     our assessment and they came to pass.

                    Are the Republicans now poised for extinction? In the
     aftermath of the recent Waco hearings, Associated Press polling
     figures showed that 75 percent of the American public distrusted the
     government. Three-quarters of the electorate. Three out of every four
     people one sees on the street. At the height of Watergate, that figure
     was only 69 percent.

                    Washington insiders believe they can trot out a series
     of carefully picked witnesses, play their rehearsed soundbites in
     front of the nation, control the direction and scope of the questions,
     and put the matter to rest with a thick report two months hence. They
     could not be more wrong.

                    David Koresh's fiery demise and the terrifying deaths
     of the innocents who perished with him at the hands of the US
     government has not yet run its course. Americans want action and
     accountability; the hearings have revealed a corrupt and incompetent
     bureaucracy that sacrificed the lives of a hundred innocent Americans
     on the alter of political expediency and bureaucratic rear-covering.
     Its practitioners, consummate insiders drunk with their own power,
     their heads swollen with imagined prestige, do not see the handwriting
     on the wall.

                    The white Los Angeles policemen who beat Rodney King, a
     black felon who attacked them in a drug-induced stupor, are serving
     time in jail. Agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms,
     the FBI's crack hostage-rescue team, and high public officials -- all
     of whom have sworn a sacred oath to preserve the constitutional
     liberties of all Americans -- have enjoyed the praise of the media and
     the support of their colleagues for their murderous activities at
     Waco.

                    You can't have it both ways. The American people
     recognize that the media, once the eyes and ears of the nation, have
     become instead pimps and callgirls of the political elite. The country
     is angry, and the anger is building. David Koresh was no saint, but he
     was head and shoulders above the people who now stand in judgment of
     him and his followers.

                    The American people know in their heart that a hundred
     of their countrymen and women died -- cultists and agents alike -- for
     no better reason than to preserve the mantra of bureaucratic
     infallibility. Innocent children suffocated on gas ruled unfit for
     military action, tanks crushed buildings, shelters and evidence while
     bullhorns blared out the reassurance, "this is not an attack." Right
     is wrong, truth is a lie, death is life.

                    Early in Genesis, the Bible records one of the Lord's
     visits to earth. "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great
     and their sin is so grievous that I will go down and see if what they
     have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will
     know." On his way there, the Lord visits with Abraham. The great
     patriarch of the Jewish people had family living in the cities slated
     for destruction. As the angels left for the fated cities, Abraham
     confronted God with an eternal question: "Will you sweep away the
     righteous with the wicked? ...Will not the Judge of all the earth do
     right?"

                    In building his case, Abraham suggests that there might
     be fifty righteous people living in the cities; the Lord agrees that
     if that is so, he will not destroy the cities. Working his way down by
     fives and tens, "what if the number of the righteous is five less than
     fifty? Will you destroy the whole city because of five people?"
     Abraham bargains God down to ten righteous people, all that was
     necessary to preserve the cities from destruction. History records
     that God did not find the ten righteous people in Sodom or Gomorrah.

                    One hundred innocent Americans died at Waco. Those who
     brought about their deaths have been elevated in power and prestige
     over other Americans. The question for those living in modern-day
     Sodom-on-the-Potomac is simple: are there ten righteous men or women
     in either political party? Or is two party politics in America dead?

     =========================
     NEWS FLASHES AND MORE COMPREHENSIVE MEMBER BRIEFINGS are prepared by
     the editors of Conservative Consensus(tm) on key events affecting:
                                      ***
     The US Constitution *     US & World Security   * Political Corruption
     Individual Liberty  *   World Financial Markets *    Religious Freedom
                                      ***
     MEMBERSHIP is only $14.95 annually. For more information about us,
     simply send us an email. Put "send catalog" as the subject.
     _________________________________________________________________

     MEMBERSHIP SERVICES    EXPANDED RELEASE SERVICE     LETTERS TO LEADERS
     FUNDWATCH                ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER         MEDIA CRACKDOWN
     CLEARINGHOUSE           INTELLIGENCE BRIEFINGS        MEMBERSHIP FORUM
     _________________________________________________________________

      72253.1544@compuserve.com * POB 17912 * SEATTLE WA 98107 * USA
                           * jinks@u.washington.edu *
     _________________________________________________________________

