The Press: King Storke

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God & Constitution. Today Tom Storke has things so much his way in Santa Barbara that he has little left to fight. Few men dare oppose him: "If I was ever quoted as saying something against T.M.," said an understandably anonymous Santa Barbara businessman, "I'd lose my job the next day."

One night last week, Tom Storke's subjects crowded into the ballroom of the neo-Spanish Santa Barbara Biltmore for a testimonial dinner for their cantankerous king. For his "defense of civil liberties," for being the first to raise an editorial fist against the Birchers. Editor Storke received the Richard E. Lauterbach Award from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism. He heard congratulatory messages from all over the U.S.. among them one from an admirer named John Kennedy (who praised Storke's "sturdy conviction and judgment''). "For 61 years I've been dodging brickbats." said Tom Storke. "Tonight it is a little difficult to accept these orchids. What I did was not a courageous gesture. It should not be considered courageous to stand up and defend what God and the Constitution have given us."