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The Battalion • Texas A&M University
Aggressive workers
back Bush campaign
By CLAY F. RICHABDS
United Press Internationa]
WASHINGTON — Talk to the crack
campaign team assembled by former CIA
Director George Bush and they will tell
you the way their man is going to win the
1980 Republican presidential nomination
is to get a fast start.
If the former Texas congressman doesn’t
show well in the early Iowa precinct cau
cuses and the New England and Florida
primaries, it could be all over. Campaign
political director David Keene also admits
that along the way, something has to hap
pen to Ronald Reagan.
It’s not unexpected then that this early
in the race, Bush is busy raising money,
assembling a staff, and making frequent
visits to the states which pick the first del
egates next year.
Bush, the most moderate of the leading
GOP contenders, has one of the most for
midable campaign staffs assembled for
1980 — perhaps better than Reagan’s.
It includes campaign manager James
Baker, who did the same job for Gerald
Ford in 1976; Keene, formerly Reagan’s
southern coordinator; Peter Teeley and
Susan Morrison, the former press direc
tors of the Republican and Democratic Na
tional Committees respectively and part
timers like Vic Gold, Spiro Anew’s speech
writer, and Robert Teeter, the GOP’s
leading pollster.
The Bush campaign has a staff of 40 —
about a third in Washington and the rest in
Houston — and a monthly payroll of al
most $60,000.
Congress
vetoes
Carter
Oil and the nation
Teeley said money has been flowing in
well, with about $1 million already raised.
The money men are Robert Mosbacher,
Ford’s top fundraiser and Fred Bush, no
relation to the candidate, who was Illinois
GOP finance director.
The first money came in $1,000 chunks
from contributors close to Bush, former
Ford backers, or other regulars in the
GOP eastern establishment. Now he is
going more to direct mail fundraising —
using everything from his personal
Christmas Card list to the roster of the
1976 GOP convention delegates.
Bush had been running for president
about a year before he formally announced
May 1. Since then he has been on the road
six days a week, mostly in the early states.
Teeley and Keene believe they have a
candidate with low name recognition, but
no other weaknesses, in a year when
others have major flaws — Reagan’s age,
John Connally’s indictment and recent
conversion to the GOP, Rep. Phil Crane’s
ultra-conservatism and Howard Baker’s
time-consuming job as Senate GOP
leader.
“Name recognition isn’t crucial at this
stage,” Kenne said in a recent interview.
“This is an interim period when you get
your organization together, do your fun
draising, getting the political junkies on
board.
“More people can name the lineup of
the Balitomore Orioles than the list of Re
publican presidential candidates, and
By HELEN THOMAS
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President Carter
has his ups and downs with Congress. For
whatever the reason, the president has
failed to command loyalty from Democrats
whose support he needs to achieve his
legislative goals.
He came to Washington as an outsider
— not up through the ranks of Capitol
Hill. He is not one of the boys. And de
spite the hours he has spent consulting
and briefing the Democratic lawmakers,
he cannot count on their votes.
The ability of special interests to get
through to this Congress is well known.
Their power, much to Carter’s frustration,
is greater and more concentrated than the
power of the White House.
Administration lobbyists are criticized
for not being professionals who know
where the bodies are buried. Often, the
administration’s legislative compromises
come so late they are viewed as surrender.
Carter counts on Speaker Thomas
O’Neill and Senate Democratic leader
Robert Byrd to fight for him. They often
do. But sometimes they don’t and their
own leadership qualities have come into
question.
Part of the divisiveness may be due to
the times. Most of the lawmakers made it
on their own. They did not ride the party’s
coattails, nor the president’s. Con
sequently, they do not feel obligated to
support him.
Carter and his top aides have indicated
that he may wind up by making an all-out
campaign against a Congress that is not
responsive to what the president considers
the will of the people.
Democrat Harry Truman did this suc
cessfully in 1948 when he campaigned
against the “do nothing” Republican 80th
Congress. In another case of frustration
that’s probably to their great credit, ” he
said.
“Name recognition will be our most im
portant problem,” he added. “We are try
ing to create a sort of broad acceptance of
the candidate — and find we are succeed
ing in making him the second choice of
most. ”
Keene says, Reagan is the “most ad
mired and loved figure” in the Republican
party. He concedes the former California
governor could run off with all the marbles
early next year, leaving Bush and the
others behind.
“We have to get people to say ‘Ronald
Reagan’s a wonderful guy, but he can’t
win, or he can’t beat Carter, ” Keene said.
“But we can’t attack Reagan. Reagan’s
got to defeat himself— he’s got to slip,”
Keene said.
“If Reagan fades, people are going to say
— at worst — ‘Bush is the worst of the
evils’ — or hopefully — ‘Bush is the best
alternative,”’ Keene said. “George has the
best chance of becoming the beneficiary of
the other’s weaknesses.”
Keene says Baker is Bush’s chief com
petitor if Reagan goes out.
The record Bush is running on includes:
a former Texas congressman with a strong
civil rights voting record; a Republican
National chairman who held the party to
gether during Watergate; a CIA director
who favored a strong intelligence and na
tional defense; a UN ambassador and
liaison to Peking who pioneered renewing
ties to China.
with a ongress of the opposite party. Pres
ident Gerald Ford governed by veto.
The Truman strategy would be difficult
for Carter because this is a Congress
dominated by his own party. And the Ford
stance is not one that would ingratiate Car
ter with the Democrats he is trying to
woo.
“We re just going to call the shots as we
see them,” Press Secretary Jody Powell
told reporters. “The question of whether
the government is doing the job goes be
yond the question of party and one of the
reasons that it too often fails to act in the
public interest is that the public doesn’t
know what’s been done until it’s too late.”
Carter has had some success in arousing
public opinion — and thus pressuring
Congress —- in the case of the windfall
profits tax on the oil industry.
As White House aides like to point out,
when Carter first suggested the tax, con
gressional leaders doubted it would ever
pass. Presidential aides say that as a result
of Carter beating the drums, the
homefolks made it clear to the lawmakers
that they support a tax on the oil revenues
which will result from price decontrol.
On the strategic arms limitation treaty,
some of the public opinion polls show
Americans favor its ratification. Carter has
hammered away on the subject, seeking
its approval at every opportunity. But the
Senate so far does not reflect the showing
in the polls. And as time goes on, the pub
lic appears to be getting more skeptical of
the arms control process.
Hospital costs containment and other
measures proposed by Carter also face
toughsledding in Congress.
The time may yet come when Carter
and Congress agree that they are all in this
together. But until that time, the impres
sion remains that each is going off in a dif
ferent direction, all the while blaming
each other.
Foreign policy, dollar suffer
By JIM ANDERSON
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Motorists are not
the only Americans concerned about
gasoline shortages. Official sources say the
oil problem undermines efforts to
strengthen the dollar and even has a
damaging effect on U.S. foreign policy.
Administration sources say key advisers
have warned President Carter that while
the U.S. bill for petroleum imports origi
nally was expected to be around $42 bil
lion this year, it instead will be at least $52
billion and will revive fears that America’s
economic position is crumbling.
The higher costs also will drive up the
U.S. balance of payments deficit, a major
factor in determining international confi
dence — or lack of it — in the dollar.
And it comes at a time when the admin
istration’s defense of the dollar was begin
ning to take hold. The dollar had generally
increased by about 7 to 10 percent in aver
age foreign exchange value this year.
Experts say much of the inflated price
problem is caused by international compe
tition for available supplies, bidding up
the prices. They say they have heard of
one country, believed to be Israel, paying
a spot price of $32 a barrel for one ship
ment, well above official prices.
Saudi Arabia, which had helped to re
strain oil price increases by increasing
production in past crises, has instead been
playing a neutral role since the signing of
the Middle East peace treaty, which it op
posed.
It has held its production steady at
about 8.5 million barrels per day. In past
crunches, it raised production to more
than 10.5 million barrels per day, partly as
a favor to the U.S. administration.
The increased U.S. oil bill, and the
damage it will cause to the U.S. balance of
payments, is likely to be the principal
agenda item at the Tokyo economic sum
mit late next month.
The other summit participants — Japan,
Britain, Canada, West Germany and Italy
— are warning America’s appetite for oil is
upsetting the international economy,
creating conditions for a wordwide reces
sion and weakening Western efforts to
help reduce Third World poverty, sources
say.
The United States is expected to plead
the diplomatic equivalent of guilty, but
with extenuating circumstances.
Carter is expected to argue that while
the energy conservation program has fal
len well short of its goals, it has succeeded
in one important measurement — con
sumption of petroleum compared to the
increase in gross national product.
He is expected to say the price increases
laid on by oil exporting nations are unjus
tified by production costs and to ask his
summit partners to join in trying to influ
ence oil exporters to hold the price line.
Wednesday • May 30, 1979 -i
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64th - Kill at will
By ROLAND LINDSEY
UPI Capitol Reporter
AUSTIN — Texas Legislators have ap
proved a record $20.17 billion state
budget and adjourned a 140-day session
that is destined to be known as much for
bills killed as for those passed into law.
Before adjourning at midnight Monday,
they approved a $988 million school fi
nance bill, an additional $200 million in tax
relief reimbursements for local school dis
tricts and raised the interest ceiling on
home mortgage loans in Texas from the
historic 10 percent level to a floating ceil
ing that could rise as high as 12 percent.
But the proposal that caught the eye of
the public — and one which could have
long term political significance — was a
five-day flight of the “killer bees, ” a dozen
senators who hid in a cramped one-room
apartment rather than allow the Senate to
pass a presidential primary bill favoring
the presidential ambitions of former Gov.
John Connally and the 1980 re-election
bids of conservative Democrats in the
Legislature.
Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby and Speaker Bill
Clayton had pushed for creation of a
March presidential primary separate from
the May primary for state offices that
would have allowed Texans to vote in
March for Connally in the GOP presiden
tial race, then return to the Democratic
primary in May to vote for conservative
Democrat officeholders.
The killer bee antics killed that bill,
however, and the unsuccessful search for
them by the state’s top police rivaled a
Keystone Cops adventure cartoon. The
Texas Rangers and Department of Public
Safety came close to finding one of the
killer bees, but found they had taken his
brother into custody instead. The senator,
meanwhile, had scurried out the back door
and over a fence.
Gov. Bill Clements, who earlier had
told reporters the Legislature deserved a
grade of “F” for its performance in the
140-day session, Monday raised his rating
of the Legislature to a “B”, but said he still
plans to call them back into special session
sometime in the next 18 months to con
sider his proposals for initiative and re
ferendum, wiretapping and other issues.
“I appreciate the efforts you put forth on
certain programs of mine, ” Clements told
legislators minutes before the mandatory
midnight adjournment. “On those pro
grams of mine that you didn’t support, we
will try it again.
“Those of you who have apartments
under long term lease, go ahead and give
them up because we’re not going to have a
quick special session, but I will see you
back in Austin before too long,” the gov
ernor said.
The budget includes a 5.1 percent per
year pay raise for state employees, the
same increase granted public school
teachers in a $988 million school finance
bill approved in the closing hours by both
houses.
gnat
Both houses intially had voted f°
cent pay raises for teachers, b #nts
and Senate negotiators reduced Rcoll
crease to 5.1 percent because {Bble
they were convinced the goveraSpaj
veto any larger pay increase. ®coi
The Legislature also passedai Its li
the governor a bill establishiisBofii
documentary fee auto dealers
for handling the paperwork iMMoi
with new car purchases, approvepts th;
first time a proposed consti® no
amendment giving the goveraoPs r
power to control spending pngethii
state agencies and passed lepBEy, a
establishing a single tax appraisal* Bn
in each of the state’s 254 countie ,r ed nu
“With the passage of the bifl^Vt h:
for a single county property app (fcts <
tern, which I have recommenifj't'igi
Legislature took one of the meuBe p
cant steps in history toward efeed
property taxation,” Clements saic|ei'gei
The same legislation eMngly
abolishes the state’s 10 cent perS *orex;
ation property tax by reducingtlBnane
ment ratio to .0001 percent—as® are
reduces the state’s income frouw-HO
from $50 million annually to JKWesei
nually. Bwei
Although Clements assuredl™ v du
makers he will call them backintlpoth
session to consider initiative andL
dum and other of his proposals Whan*
defeated, he decined to say when®, foi
sion might be.
He h:
Black progress: one man’s
bitter government struggle
ertaii
r to tl
fami
Uar oi
By ARNOLD SAWISLAK
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The 25th anniver
sary of the Supreme Court’s school de
segregation decision on May 17 was the
occasion for widespread comment on
minority progress or the absence thereof
since 1954.
Some marveled at the educational, eco
nomic and political advances made by
blacks and other minorities in the last
quarter century. Others said there had
been little movement and less sign of a
real commitment to equality by the white
majority.
A voice not heard was that of A. Philip
Randolph, a man who was personally re
sponsible for or involved in much of the
progress of blacks in this country in this
century.
Randolph was a man who did not mis
take progress for victory and he probably
would have been among those who
stressed the slow pace of improvement
since the Brown decision.
When he died, aged 90, his associate,
Bayard Rustin, put only W.E.B. Dubois
and Martin Luther King Jr. ahead of Ran
dolph in 20th Century civil rights leader
ship. And, considering some of the things
Randolph did in his long career as a social
activist and labor union leader, Rustin had
some substantial evidence on which to
base his statement.
Randolph began in the streets, but he
made his mark standing up to presidents.
In the years just before World War I,
when Jim Crow restrictions were being
imposed on Washington, D.C., blacks,
Randolph and an associate laid the blame
in their newly launched magazine where
historians now agree it belonged — on the
doorstep of Woodrow Wilson.
Randolph’s first personal runin with a
president was in 1941, when Franklin D.
Roosevelt tried to talk him out of leading a
black “March on Washington” to protest
job discrimination.
FDR couldn’t make Randolph budge, so
six days before the march, the president
issued an order effectively opening de
fense plant jobs to blacks and setting up a
fair employment practices commission to
enforce it.
Harry Truman was next. The military
services were as effectively segregated as
any southern town during World War II,
but it wasn’t until 1948 — with a
peacetime draft looming — that Randolph
and other civil rights leaders were able to
demand action against Jim Crow in uni
form. Again a White House meeting; again
a firm stand and a presidential order ban
ning practices that had gone on for dec
ades.
It wasn’t just presidents in the White
House who Randolph defied. He fought
the discriminatory practices of his own
labor movement and in a 1959 so angered
'N THE
George Meany with a hell-raisin? Id te
tion speech that the AFL-CK FJGht
dressed him down right on the pi E R |° F
By the 1960s, new black leaden The sec
stepping out, but Randolph also
part in the gigantic 1963 march oi
ington to demand jobs and
legislation. Like his predecessor
Kennedy was not enthusiastic abo
ing host to a half million marchic!
(city officials closed the liquor ste
prepared as if for a siege) but
welcomed representatives of the
his office. Randolph, of course,
them.
In the Washington sense, Rani
not a “reasonable” man. He inb
things that obviously would be hat
complish. He saw some of the®
plished, but he never would have
job was finished.
The Battalion
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