Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Thursday • June 21, 1979
66th session:
best of worst
The biennial fiasco known as the Texas Legislature ended its 66th session a few
weeks ago and now it is time to sit back and assess the damage.
It would seem the congressmen Texans sent to represent them were more in
terested in representing the companies that greased their palms through lobbyists
and campaign contributions.
One of the most obvious examples of business before the people was the raising of
the interest rate ceiling on home mortgage loans from 10 to 12 percent. The loan
companies stand to make about $25,000 more in interest on the sale of an average
home.
Another goodie was Senate Bill 359 that will allow auto dealers to. charge $25 to
take care of the paperwork needed in buying a car.
Now let’s assume your friendly local auto dealer has a really incompetent secretary
and it takes her the whole working day to do the paperwork on one car. This means
you are paying $3.12 an hour for her to transfer title and all the other sordid things
that have to be done to buy a car.
More than likely the secretary is not incompetent and can do the whole shebang in
an hour. This will eventually put a lot of money in the pockets of the auto dealer.
There was no compassion for old people or anyone dependent on daily medication
in the 66th legislature. They had a chance to allow pharmacists to fill prescriptions
with the cheaper generic drugs instead of the expensive brand-name drugs. The bill
bit the dust.
Getting a little closer to home, the legislature passed a bill making dock-side sales
of beer illegal. This means no more kegs from the distributorship. Now you will have
to go to a grocery, liquor, or convenience store for a keg. And pay a lot more for it.
This bill also stands to close down the Spoetzl Brewery, the makers of Shiner Beer.
Spoetzl is the only Texas-owned brewery left in Texas. The brewery depends on
dock-side sales to stay in business.
The bill will also allow beer companies to market beer in eight-packs of eight ounce
bottles. This will give them more shelf space, and let them charge more for less beer. :
The legislature also passed a bill to allow state universities to raise their student
service fees to as high as $60. Texas A&M raised its fee from $20 to $23.
Another bill that did not pass is nothing to laugh at, especially if you have to relieve
yourself. The legislature killed a bill that would have done away with pay toilets in
Texas. Keep your nickels ready.
Of course, not everything the congressmen did was bad.
They did have the foresight to kill a bill that would let construction companies
literally get away with murder. The bill said construction companies could not be
held liable for defects in bridges.
The 12 Killer Bee senators managed to stop a bill that would have allowed a special
presidential primary.
This bill would have allowed Democrats to vote for former Gov. John Connally, a
Republican, and still vote in the democratic primary. In Texas you can vote either in
the democratic or republican primary, but not both.
All in all, though, we should go to church Sunday and pray Gov. Clements does not
call a special session. —K.A.T.
A busy week at
the White House
By HELEN THOMAS
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President, Carter
recently solicited the views of leading con
sumer groups on energy problems and got
an earful. Several of the delegates
criticized his decision to decontrol oil
prices, but Carter told them his mind was
made up.
When they left the White House, some
of the delegates disclosed that it had been
a hot and heavy meeting. Carter’s con
sumer adviser Esther Peterson was so dis
turbed at the outcome of the meeting that
she wrote a letter of apology to the presi
dent, accusing some of the consumer ad
vocates of “stubbornness.”
In response, several of the delegates
wrote a joint letter to Carter, saying:
“We want to reaffirm our belief that
civility and respect for the opinions of
others must be observed in public life if
open dialogue is to flourish.
“Because the meeting was dominated
by opponents of decontrol, you may not
have been aware of the opinions held by
those of us who were unable to speak at
length.”
They said the delegates had different
opinions on the question of decontrol and
the windfall profits tax, but they all be
lieved energy conservation is of vital im
portance.
They also said they hoped they would
be invited back, working together where
they agree with the president “and dis
agreeing where we must.”
The letter was signed by representatives
of the Sierra Club, The League of Women
Voters, The National Audubon Society,
the National Wildlife Federation and the
Natural Resources Defense Council,
among others.
—Press secretary Jody Powell hails from
Vienna (pronounced Vy-anna), Ga. Re
porters covering the Vienna summit have
teased him about the pronunciation and
wondered whether he would switch to the
Yankee style for the summit.
The president boned up for his meet
ings with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev
by reading briefing books detailing
Brezhnev’s qualities and shortcomings and
his style of negotiating.
But Powell also has primed himself with
facts about his counterpart, Leonid
Zamyatin, the Soviet spokesman who
knocked heads at past U.S. Soviet summits
with former press secretaries Ron Ziegler
and Ron Nessen.
Powell looked over the transcripts of the
joint press briefings conducted with
Zamyatin and got the impression quickly
that he is as tough as his Kremlin boss.
—A three-letter word recently attrib
uted to President Carter on his ability to
defeat Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massa
chusetts in a race for the Democratic pres
idential nomination got a few laughs
around the White House. Carter himself is
not known for using cuss words, but a lot
of his predecessors did with regularity.
Harry Truman had been known to de
scribe newspaper columnists as “S.O.B.s,”
but in that department Lyndon B. Johnson
was no slouch, and his obscenities were
more imaginative and colorful.
Richard Nixon’s private use of
obscenities was given full exposure when
the Watergate transcripts of his taped con
versations were published — many of
them as expletives deleted.
But in public most presidents mind
their p’s and q’s and use backroom lan
guage only in the backroom.
—Carter will be back from the Vienna
summit only for a few days before taking
off again on June 23 for the Tokyo Eco
nomic Summit and state visits to Japan and
South Korea. He also is expected to make
a two or three-day rest stop in Hawaii.
When he returns from his foreign
travels he will hit the road again, repor
tedly traveling to different parts of the
country every weekend in July, starting
with the National Governors Conference
in Louisville, Ky., on July 8.
Slouch
['STUPIE
by Jim Earle
AFTER LOOKING AT YOUR SCHEDULE, JETHRO, I CAN MAKE A
COUPLE OF SUGGESTIONS AS TO HOW YOU CAN IMPROVE YOUR
GRADES. I THINK I’D REDUCE FRISBEE THROWING’ FROM THREE
HOURS PER DAY TO LESS, REDUCE BANJO STRUMMING’ AND DO
AWAY COMPLETELY WITH FOUR HOURS OF GUM CHEWING.”
Carter should try
Truman comeback
By ARNOLD SAWISLAK
United Press International
WASHINGTON — We are now start
ing to see published suggestions that
Jimmy Carter take the Lyndon Leap —
announce that he will not be a candidate
for reelection.
The logic behind this friendly advice
(mostly from ultras of the conservative and
liberal stripe) is that Carter is so low down
in the polls and so far over his head trying
to deal with the nation’s problems that his
best move would be to step aside and let
both the Democrats and Republicans put
forward their best candidates for 1980.
The first impulse of the president and
his friends upon hearing such suggestions
probably is indignation, but perhaps they
should recall the response of Marine Maj.
James Devereaux when asked during
World War II what his besieged and out
numbered Wake Island garrison needed.
The doughty leatherneck was reported
to have said, “Send more Japs.” Carter
might say, “Send more critics.” Why? Be
cause it looks from here as if there is a
small but growing wave of public sym
pathy for Carter forming.
Americans certainly are unhappy about
inflation and the energy crunch. But that
does not mean, as Carter’s opposition in
Congress and in industry seems to think,
that the president will get all the blame
from the public.
The public, with reason, probably is
hopelessly confused by the continuing bat
tle between the White House and Capitol
Hill over energy. But it is a good guess
that Americans are aware that Carter at
least has offered a series of proposals,
while Congress can’t seem to come up
with anything.
The same situation prevails on inflation.
Carter has offered proposals for reducing
the federal deficit and trying to persuade
both business and labor to hold down price
and wage increases. But liberals say more
must be spent for social programs and con
servatives demand more for defense
hardware. And both unions and businesses
seem to be looking for ways to evade the
wage-price guidelines.
There is in this a perfect chance for Car
ter to run a Harry Truman type campaign
— an appeal to the people to support the
one person in Washington who is trying to
represent them rather than some special
interest. If people are starting to feel sorry
for Carter, he might be able to convert
that feeling into votes for the lonely little
guy standing up to the big boys and catch
ing a lot of flak for his efforts.
It would be strange to see Carter, after
four years in the White House, running an
“outsider” campaign once again. But Tru
man, who came to the presidency with
more than a decade of Washington experi
ence, managed to project the image of
himself as a decent sort of fellow who was
simply trying to do his job in the face of
overwhelming opposition.
What came of that was Truman’s 1948
“miracle” comeback. The conditions may
be shaping up for Carter to try to duplicate
it in 1980.
Warner’s wife, wealth
don’t seem unusual to
his Senate colleagues
By IRA R. ALLEN
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Freshman Sen.
John Warner, R-Va., is not generally
thought of as one of the Senate’s political
or intellectual heavyweights. But he is
rich.
The one assessment of his talents that
may remain beyond his term of service
was coined by “Doonesbury” cartoonist
Garry Trudeau who said he “lucked, mar
ried and bought his way” into the Senate.
It was a reference to Warner’s getting a
chance at the GOP nomination because of
the death of the original nominee, his fa
mous wife (Elizabeth Taylor) and his mil
lions of dollars — many of which came
from his previous wife,
Catherine Mellon.)
(banking heiress
DON’T WORRY, THEY - ’Rif JUST
SOME RESIDENTS OF THE
NEU/
Whatever merit Warner will yet show as
a senator, the circumstances of his arrival
point out the truth of Doonesbury’s caustic
commentary. Many of Warner’s colleagues
were helped to their position of high
visibility and power by marrying right or
being the sons or daughter of famous and
wealthy parents.
According to financial records already
made public, the Senate has at least 23 and
as many as 38 millionaires among its 100
members. And about a dozen of them, in
cluding Ted Kennedy, H.J. Heinz and
John Danforth, are multimillionaires sim
ply by virtue of their name.
Money and name seem to go hand in
hand, even among those not so fabulously
wealthy.
Consider these famous Senate names —
Ted Kennedy, Russell Long, Herman
Talmadge, Adlai Stevenson, Howard
Baker, Harry Byrd, Alan Simpson and
Nancy Landon Kassebaum.
They each had a famous father, mother
or brother precede them in national politi
cal life, and all but Simpson and Baker are
certifiable millionaires — and they are not
far from being one.
Kennedy’s heritage needs no explana
tion. Harry Byrd took over the Virginia
seat held by his father, whose fortune was
in apple orchards and newspapers. Dan
forth has as much as $17 million or so be
cause his ancestors had the foresight to
found the Ralston-Purina Co. Heinz,
worth as much as $20 million, has the good
luck of looking at his name on ketchup bot
tles in the Senate restaurant and millions
of other tables around the world.
To be sure, it takes some political acu
men to reach the Senate, but often it’s a
matter of accumulating the money first.
Top of the News
STATE
FBI denies search for killer
FBI spokesmen in Houston, San Antonio and Washington Wed
nesday denied reports they were searching for a “suspect’ in the
Houston area in the May 29 assassination of U.S. District Judge John
H. Wood Jr. in San Antonio. “There have been no arrests, and to my
knowledge, there will be no arrests today,’ said FBI spokesman Otis
Cox in Washington. One report said Houston police broadcast a bul
letin about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday ordering the apprehension of a man
described as a “suspect in the Wood murder. But Cox said it
amounted to a “routine” check by agents; that the man named in the
bulletin was not considered a suspect and no warrants were issued
nor arrests made.
List of Tech possibles growing
Less than two weeks after Texas Tech President Cecil Mackey
accepted the top post at Michigan State University, a list of possible
successors is growing. Texas Tech regents have yet to formulate the
criteria by which the new president will be selected, but the namesof (
two men figure prominently among those being discussed to replace
Mackey. Dr. John Bradford, dean of the university’s College of Engi
neering, and Dr. Gerald Thomas, president of New Mexico State
University at Las Cruces, have been suggested as possible suc
cessors, confidential sources say.
Bandido arrested in El Paso
A member of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club surrendered to federal
marshals in El Paso Wednesday and was released on $10,000 bondon
a charge he lied to federal officials in the investigation into the assas
sination attempt on U.S. Attorney James Kerr at San Antonio last
Nov. 21. James Eugene Hicks, 37, surrendered in the company ofhis
attorney, former El Paso Mayor Bert William. He was the secondEl
Pasoan arrested in the past week on perjury charges in the Ken
investigation.
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Estes' lawyer says LBJ got cash
An attorney for Billy Sol Estes told a federal judge in Dallas lues-i
day he had proof that the former Texas financier paid $10 million-
money the government claims he owes in back taxes — to late Presi
dent Lyndon B. Johnson. G. Brockett Irwin argued the government
was in error when it said Estes owed the back taxes as a consequence
of his fraudulent dealings of the 1950s and early 1960s. Irwin then
told District Judge Robert Hill his client had retired that debt by
making payments to Johnson. The government claims Estes con
spired with a business assoc-iate, Raymond K. Horton, to conceal
assets from the IRS at a time Estes still owed $10 million. Horton isa
codefendant in the case.
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beeks \
NATION
N.J. birth called medical first'
tie air.
Todd
Doctors at Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark, N.J. sayitsa
medical first. Patricia Isla, 30, suffered three heart attacks and shock
while pregnant, had her baby delivered by Caesarean section, then
suffered a fourth heart attack and underwent four coronary bypass
procedures. Mrs. Isla of Stanhope, and her two-pound daughter
Vannessa Lee, were in guarded condition Tuesday at the medical
center.
FBI captures wanted' fugitive
FBI agents Wednesday arrested Willie Foster Sellers, 45, one of
the bureau’s “Ten Most Wanted fugitives, at an Atlanta airport and
charged him with committing bank robberies in five states since
breaking out of jail in Atlanta two years ago. He had been brought to
the Atlanta jail from the maximum security federal prison at Marion,
Ill., to appear as a witness in a bank robbery trial. Since he and an
accomplice escaped the jail. Sellers has been charged with bank rob
beries in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri and North Carolina
The FBI said Sellers would be returned to a federal prison based on
his earlier conviction.
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McDonnell challenges order
The manufacturer of the troubled DC-10 will ask a National Trans
portation Safety Board judge next week to overturn a government
order grounding the wide-bodied jet. The hearing in Los Angeles on
June 25 will be the first of its kind involving an airplane grounding
order, the Federal Aviation Agency said in Washington Tuesday.
McDonnell Douglas Corp., manufacturer of the jet, may call witnes
ses and present evidence in its effort to reverse the grounding order
issued June 6 by the FAA.
WORLD
OAS ministers to meet today
Prompted by the United States, hemispheric foreign ministers will
meet in Washington today to seek a political solution that will stop
the bloodshed in Nicaragua’s civil war. A Dominican Republic-style
collective military intervention by inter-American peace-keeping
forces was ruled out Tuesday by the State Department, which
stressed the need for a “peaceful political solution.” At least a dozen
hemispheric foreign ministers were expected for the Organization of
American States meeting at U.S. request. It could result in a call on
the Nicaraguan combatants for a cease-fire, and may also include a
proposal for sending a high-level multi-nation peace mission to the
The Battalion
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