DANFORTH EMBODIES BEST OF WHAT THIS STATE OFFERS

John Danforth has been in the U.S. Senate since 1977. For the most part, his approach to this position has been low-key, with the senator carrying the banner on a few issues while keeping quieter counsel at other times. Recent events have found him in the Senate spotlight, a place where he appears quite at ease. We applaud Danforth's stewardship of the Clarence Thomas nomination and his leadership in the Senate. He is an outstanding representative for Missouri.

It is not Danforth's custom to place himself on the front burner of the national political scene. He doesn't specialize in floating trial balloons about presidential aspirations, an exercise many of his colleagues have mastered. While it puts on the nightly news less often, it might make the senator even more effective when he stands to express his well-reasoned and earnest positions.

None of this is to suggest Danforth has been an invisible man in the Senate: his voice has been a forceful one on issues such as transportation safety and cable television regulation. His insistence on fair trade practices purportedly made Danforth's name a household (and feared) word in Japan, where those practices have flourished.

In choosing his issues, Danforth chose well in promoting and ferrying Thomas through the Supreme Court confirmation process. Thomas is a jurist of proven ability and sound philosophy, and Danforth's belief in him should carry a lot of weight in the Senate. Thomas, whose approval by the full Senate is expected to come next week, follows in the footstep of others who have learned at Danforth's hand (U.S. Sen. Christopher Bond, Missouri Gov. John Ashcroft, FCC Chairman Al Sikes) and risen to influencial levels of government. If a man can be measured by what he teaches others, the senator has set a high standard.

Of his recent legislative pursuits, Danforth has also taken a leading role in fashioning a compromise on controversial civil rights legislation. While we disagree with his position in this case, we admire the honesty and sincere beliefs he brings to the debate. He is the type of politician we wish all politicians would aspire to be.

If our hope is that elected officeholders go to Washington to represent the best of what a state has to offer, Missouri has done well by sending John Danforth to the Senate.