Page 2 THE BATTALION
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1976
Opinion/Commentary/Letters
Congress
The second biggest story in the
1976 election — ranking right be
hind the selection of the president —
is the further consolidation of Dem
ocratic power on Capitol Hill.
Once again, as has been the case
for all but four of the past 44 years,
the Democrats will organize the
Congress, elect its leaders and
committee chairmen and set its
agenda of legislation, investigation
and oversight. No such nearly con
tinuous period of one-party control
has been seen in the post-Civil War
period.
Not only have the Democrats had
control, but they have enjoyed it by
large margins. The Senate has had
close to a 3-to-2 Democratic ratio
since the election of 1958 — when a
recession sparked a 17-seat Demo
crat gain and ended the old “con
servative coalition” control of Re
publicans and Southern Democrats
with an infusion of younger North
ern liberals. Since then, the ratio has
hobbled a bit, but the Senate power
has been securely in the hands of a
Battalion
Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the
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MEMBER
The Associated Press,
Southwestern Journalism Congress
Editor Jerry Needham
Managing Editor Richard Chamberlain
Campus Editor Lisa Junod
City Editor Jamie Aitken
Sports Editor Paul Arnett
Photography Director Kevin Venner
News Editor Lloyd Lietz
Asst. News Editor Debby Krenek
Features Editor Tammy Long
Assistant to the Editor Dan Fontaine
Reporters Carolyn Blosser, Rusty Cawley,
Lee Roy Leschper, Paul McGrath, Martha Mugg,
Le Ann Roby, Lynn Rossi, Dan Sullins
Photographers Cathy Ruedinger, Mike Willy
Members of the Student Publications Board are: Bob
G. Rogers, Chairman, Joe Arredondo, Tom Dawsey,
Dr. Gary Halter, Dr. John W. Hanna, Roger Miller,
Dr. Clinton A. Phillips, Jerri Ward.
Director of Student Publications: Gael L. Cooper.
Assistant to the director, Scott Sherman.
seeking leaders
David S.
Broder
different bipartisan coalition — of
Northern liberal and younger
Southern and Western moderate
Democrats, allied with a strategic
handful of progressive Republicans.
This group passed the civil rights
laws, expanded domestic spending
and spearheaded the fight to bring
the Vietnam War to a close.
For most of the past 18 years, the
House was the more conservative
body, with Democrats only rarely
enjoying so large a majority that the
blocking power of the “conservative
coalition was eliminated. Northern
liberal Democrats won a working
majority in the 1964 landslide, used
it to legislate the “Great Society,”
and then lost effective control in
1966.
They regained that power in the
Watergate election year of 1974 and
they retained that control on Tues
day.
The institutionalization of liberal
majorities in both the House and Se
nate is of enormous consequence.
Senate control is securely with the
Democrats for at least four years.
The power of incumbency makes 'a
twice-elected House member al
most proof from defeat in future
years, so the Democrats may now
operate as if they had a long-term
mandate for what Rep. John
Brademas, D-Ind., one of their
leaders, says can honestly be de
scribed by the Wilsonian phrase,
“congressional government.
The Democrats have been prepar
ing for that kind of government dur
ing the years of conflict with Richard
Nixon and Gerald Ford. They have
steadily improved the institutional
capability of Congress. They have
given Congress its own budget
making process, and seen that pro
cess work well in its first tests. They
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Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 5-10 p.m.
Parking system
needs revisions
have asserted an ever-greater role
for Congress in foreign affairs and
strengthened the membership and
capacity of the relevant committees,
particularly in the House.
They have begun to move — al
though too timidly — on reforming
the overall committee structure, in
order to focus attention on key issues
of energy, economic and resource
policy.
But if “congressional govern
ment is, indeed, what we have in
store, then it is terribly important
who is going to be doing the govern
ing. And that is why, weary as voters
may be with political campaigns, at
tention will have to be paid to the
coining contests for the leadership
positions in the House and Senate.
With House Majority Leader
Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill of Massa
chusetts moving up to succeed retir
ing House Speaker Carl Albert,
there will be a battle among four
claimants to the important post of
majority floor leader.
With the retirement of Senate
Majority Leader Mike Mansfield of
Montana, there is an equally impor
tant struggle to see who takes over
that responsibility.
The personalities involved, except
for Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey of
Minnesota, are not well-known na
tional figures. But Sens. Robert C.
Byrd of West Virginia and Ernest F.
Hollings of South Carolina represent
very different styles and policies
from Humphrey’s. And there could
not be more diverse legislators than
the rivals in the House contest.
Reps. Phillip Burton of California,
Richard Bolling of Missouri, Jim
Wright of Texas and John McFall of
California.
Those contests will be settled by
secret-ballot voting of the Demo
cratic members of the new Senate
and House before Congress returns
next January. And the outcome
could he as important as the decision
the voters have just made, for the
power will be exercised at least as
much on the Capitol Hill end of
Pennsylvania Avenue as in the
White House for the next four years.
©1976, The Washington Post
Editor:
In the beginning there were rules,
regulations and laws developed to
protect the innocent, regulate soci
ety and punish the guilty. Everyone
was to be treated equally under this
system. Then came college students
and automobiles and as you are
aware the system broke down and
only the favored were exempt from
the rules.
Lately there have been some let
ters in the Battalion complaining
about what the students felt were
unjust traffic tickets. And rightly so
the students are to complain as they
fall into the above category of the
unfavored. Just think that without all
of those students and their au
tomobiles the campus police would
not have a job or a source of funds.
In the paper, a motorcyclist was
complaining about receiving a ticket
while parked at the Rudder Center
(Lot 60) because he did not have a
“Nite Permit.” According to the
regulations the students receive
when they buy a hunting license for
on campus parking (and God only
knows why we only get an abridged
addition of the Holy book kept in
Maddox’s office) lot 60 is designated
as a “Visitors Parking Area. First
priority goes to off campus patrons of
the university center facilities.
However, day students may park at
random in unreserved portions of
the lot. Since when does a university
give more priority to off campus per
sons who only come on campus occa
sionally to use the facilities. For
whom does the Aggie cinema show
their films? Students or visitors?
The regulations specifically state
NO PARKING ON ANY CURB,
SIDEWALK AND LAWN and in
any place marked NO PARKING.
How many cars during home football
games are seen violating this law and
do not get ticketed for it? Equal and
fair?
Heavens no! We can not afford to
offend any alumni, distinguished or
otherwise, which might be a lucra
tive source of hinds for the athletic-
department or the alumni center.
Furthermore, all of you students
that pay for the privilege of being
able to park across the railroad tracks
in never never land and are THEN
WARNED TO MOVE YOUR VE
HICLE SO VISITORS CAN PARK,
by warning or order of Chief O. L.
Luther are getting slapped in the
face. Have you ever thought of what
what would happen if all the stu
dents parked in those lots, forcing
the “visitors’ to park in Lot 50 and
walk to the game.
Has it ever crossed your mind as to
why a university charges $5.00 for a
parking ticket while the local city
charges only a few dollars?
An article written by the campus
police chief of Georgia Tech stated
that any time a university gave out
more tickets than 10 per cent of the
total vehicle population on campus
then something is wrong with the
system. Agreed? In this election
year with all the candidates making
promises, wouldn’t it be nice if
somehow, somewhere a group of
people, knowledgeable in traffic
situations and problems, would get
together and upgrade the traffic reg
ulations at this university.
Allan Stern
Slouch
by Jim Earle
“I m sick to death of talking politics; and furthermore,!
eat peanuts in my room!”
Ever-present
student rip-off
Editor:
The time has come for Texas A&M
University students to he reim
bursed.
With Texas A&M now bursting its
seams with 28,000 students, it would
seem to be the case that the sur
rounding community would attempt
to provide outside activities and fair
prices for the students.
In a September 16 Battalion arti
cle, Texas A&M students are listed
as contributing $39 million to the
area’s economy for 1975 alone.
But where are the community’s
contributions to the contentment of
its inhabitants?
The students are living in a com
munity which has almost nothing to
do, and in the places where there is
something to do, the students re
ceive the ever-present rip off.
From mixed drinks in the discos to
rent in the apartments, the students
pay ridiculously high prices.
Student discounts are obscure, if
not nonexistent. Special off campus
student activities are few and far be
tween.
Texas A&M does not exist as a
community within a community, but
rather as a city shut off f rom the sur
rounding area. The culmination of
the alienation of university from
community came with the erection
of the great wall.
Texas A&M has grown weary of a
city that has alienated the heart from
which it grew, so the university has
alienated itself.
Since Texas A&M students have
contributed $39 million to the com
munity within one year, they should
As
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Readers' forwii
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