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Viewpoint The Battalion • Texas A&M University • Tuesday • August 7, 1979 And the race is on... Candidates attract high-rollers By STEVE GERSTEL United Press International WASHINGTON —The presidential season is still in its earliest stages but a few gutsy politicians are already taking long-shot gambles and signing on now with a candidate. Win or lose, the stakes are high and those big-rollers looking for the early line are taking their chances. Politicians, especially presidential candidates, are no torious for remembering who was aboard in the un certain early going and who clambered on when it looked like smooth sailing to the nomination. It is generally agreed, however, that big-name poli ticians don’t carry the clout they once did. The days when a strong governor, senator or mayor could stack a delegation and deliver it to the candidate of his choice is gone. But endorsements, properly packaged and displayed, provide nice trimmings for a presidential campaign. Although most prominent office-holders are biding their time as the chase for the Republican presidential shakes down, there are exceptions. Predictably, Senate GOP leader Howard Baker is mining his backyard with the most success. Some time ago, he named Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana as his campaign manager and Sen. John Dan- forth of Missouri to head his issues program. Then last week. Sen. John Chafee of Rhode Island signed on with an endorsement and was given the chore of helping pull New England into the Baker camp. Baker, looking at his first three public catches, pro nounced them a “good mix” philisophieally. The balance of Lugar, a conservative, Danforth, a moderate, and Chafee, a liberal, was artfully designed to lead credence to Baker s claim that he can unify the party and that he is the most electable of the Republi cans. Ronald Reagan, going basically with the same team which came so close to winning the 1976 GOP nomina tion, has again nailed down Sen. Paul Laxalt of Nevada as his national chairman. The major difference is that in the pre-1976 effort, Laxalt was little known and lightly regarded. His work in the campaign brought him into high regard. There are a number of other senators who worked closely with Reagan — notably Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina — who are certain to join the Califor nian again but have not done so yet. Sen. Robert Dole, having trouble cranking up, fi nally broke through and named his Kansas colleague. Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, as national co-chairman, a catch of questionable value in a 50-state campaign. Most of the Democratic governors signed a resolu tion of support for President Carter at a recent confer ence of state executives. But four of them abstained and a fifth, California Gov. Edmund Brown, is going to run against Carter for the nomination. Many prominent Democrats, either dismayed at Carter’s performance or unwilling to get lined up with a potential loser, are being extremely careful. For instance. Senate Democratic leader Robert Byrd and his top aide, Sen. Alan Cranston of California, are giving Carter no encouragement in these troubled days for the president. They are staying neutral. Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota, the 1976 presidential candidate, wants Carter out of the White House. Sen. Henry Jackson of Washington, beaten by Car ter in 1976, nominally still supports the president but predicts that he will falter and bow out in the primaries. McGovern is an out-and-out supporter of Sen. Ed ward Kennedy. Jackson feels Kennedy will be the nominee. Kennedy, himself, has steadfastly insisted that he expects Carter to win the nomination and has pledged to support his campaign for a second term. Yet Kennedy, more than anyone else, could help Carter. A declaration by Kennedy that he will not seek or accept the nomination would dispel much of the president’s political problem. That kind of an endorsement would have an impact. Elections not good for what ails us By DAVID BRODER WASHINGTON — In the beginning, there was the Election, and that was good. The election let the people choose the President, and that was good, for the wis dom was in the people. And the election was in November. And that was good, because it gave the people something extra to be thankful for at Thanksgiving. They could be thankful that, for another four years, the election was over. After the Election came the Inaugura tion, and inauguration was in January. And that was good. January was always a bit of a drag, until God invented Super Bowl Sunday. And the inauguration gave the bands a chance to play and let the people cheer. And that was good, j j Before the Election came the Conven tions. The conventions were in the sum mer. The conventions also let people cheer and bands play. And before God in vented conventions, no one had been able to figure how to get 30,000 out-of-towners to come to Detroit or New York for a week in July or August. So that was good. Before the Conventions came the Primaries. And that was good — for a while. There was a spring primary in Ore gon, and that meant salmon and sunflow ers and long stretches of Pacific beach. And there was a winter primary in Wis consin, and that meant German dinners and beer, and schnapps to help ward off the danger of catching cold. And that was good. And then God got a little carried away with a good thipg and gave us 34 primaries. There was a primary in Florida in March, when the hotels didn’t need the business. There was a primary in Illinois when the Cubs were still off in Arizona at spring training. There were primaries in places like New Hampshire and Nebraska and Ohio and New Jersey, where you really had to want to be President awfully bad to run. And that was not good, be cause it cluttered the air with political commercials and disrupted TV schedules all the way from February to June. And then God invented the state- convention - party - dinner - all - candidate - cattle - show - and - preference - poll, and things started going to Hell in a handbas ket. According to the Book of John (Apple), confirmed by the Gospel of Jules (Wit- cover), the first of these phenomena oc curred in Ames, Iowa, in November of 1975, where God commanded the Demo cratic presidential candidates to appear, in a herd, and emit sounds of different regis ter. And after their sounds had died away. God commanded the Des Moines Register and Tribune to take a poll of the diners at the state committee dinner, and He caused the results to be published in The New York Times also, and thus it came that a great new star, named Jimmy Car ter, was discovered. And now, God help us, they are spring ing up everywhere. Iowa Republicans are having a cattle-show-dinner-poll in November. Massachusetts Republicans are promoting one on Cape Cod in Oc tober, but a fear of hurricanes (or perhaps impoundment at Hyannisport in a sudden Kennedy coup) is keeping many conten ders away. God knows where it will end. And so do I, so you do not have to wait until you hear it from Him. Or Her. Eventually there will be another election. And between the Election and the Inauguration, the mem bers of the electoral college will meet, in their state capitols. And God will cause there to come among them, in each of their meeting places, correspondents of CBS and The New York Times, who will ask: “Now that the 1980 election is over, who would you like to see chosen for President in 1984?” And they will answer (because God has his way of dealing with those who decline to answer) and there will be tables and charts, broadcast and published, and the whole process will begin again. And that will be good — but not for what ails us. (c) 1979, The 'Washington Post Com pany The longer it chetvs, the sweeter the milk Next step in technology: low-fat cows By DICK WEST United Press International WASHINGTON — Some of the boys at the Agriculture Department have figured out that the longer a cow chews a mouthful of hay, the richer her milk will be. I swear to you I’m not making this up. It’s right here in a department press release. What they did was outfit some test cows with chin straps that were hooked up to an electric counter that recorded chewing movements. When the cows were fed long-fiber hay that required a maximum amount of masti cation before being swallowed, the butter- Humor fat content in the milk went up. But when fed chopped hay, which could be gobbled down with relatively little jaw power, the cows gave low fat milk. Establishment of a correlation between bovine chin work and butterfat production strikes me as a genuinely remarkable scien tific achievement. I would never have sus pected such a connection existed. When I was a lad growing up on the plains of Texas, a popular song of the day bore the title “You Cain’t Never Tell the Depth of a Well by the Length of the Handle on the Pump.” I have always regarded that sage obser vation as one of the eternal verities — truly words to live by. And I would have as sumed it was equally impossible to tell the richness of the milk by the length of the fiber in the hay. The press release does not make clear, and the department spokesman I talked with was uncertain, what it is about prot racted chewing that promotes butterfat. Researchers still are studying that aspect of the experiment, the spokesman said. However, they are proceeding on the remise that the amount of saliva produced y chewing raises or lowers the butterfat content. The beauty of the discovery, I gather, is that it makes it possible to program a cow to give pre-skimmed milk. As it stands, most raw milk must be pro cessed to bring it down to the butterfat level demanded by consumers on low cholesterol diets, consumers with weight problems, and assorted health nuts. That extra step presumably can now be eliminated. Just feed the cow the right length of hay and you get dietary milk di rectly from the udder. The department does not suggest the chewing-butterfat ratio has any application outside a cow. However, that possibility would seem important enough to warrant investigation. Correction It was incorrectly reported in the Au gust 2 Battalion that there were no Hous ton Fire Department emergency medical technicians present at the Woodway Square apartment fire last Tuesday when the Texas A&M University Emergency Care Team arrived. The article should have stated that all Houston emergency care service vehicles were called away dur ing the course of the fire, but Houston emergency care technicians did stay at the scene of the fire with a Houston emergency care equipment truck. The Battalion regrets the error. , i tolt> you rr Would FUhi TV HAM& AfioUNP THE SuPEftMAR/bSETY "CHECK OUT" COMTEK News Capsules th STATE Judge disallows confession in trial A judge in Beaumont Monday refused to admit into evidences ex-policeman’s oral and written confessions to the 1975 kidnap-slaying of a 16-year-old Amarillo girl. Prosecutors and defense lawyers never theless proceeded with jury selection for the trial of Jimmy Paul Vanderbilt, 26, in the death of Katina Moyer. Lawyers said jury selection likely will take 10 days to two weeks. Vanderbilt was con victed and sentenced to death in 1976 for Miss Moyer’s killing, butthe Texas Court of Criminal Appeals voided the conviction last February on grounds the original Amarillo judge admitted a partial confession. Ui GENE Spanish vho hija Jetliner i flay free Monday L Swiss NATION The Sj blot and lages, ar lugal, at •“ Ind the t Murder closes town, crab packers A 9 p. m. curfew was ordered and a crab-packing plant in Seadriftwas closed Monday because of a weekend killing and the bombing ofa home, blamed on three years of feuding between Vietnamese and other fishermen. Billy Joe Aplin, 35, was shot to death Friday night and Chinh Van Nguyen, 20, and his brother, Sau Van Nguyen, 21, were accused of murder. Chinh was in custody in lieu of $75,000. Sau remained at large. Calhoun County Sheriffs Investigator John Sexton said a house occupied by unidentified Vietnamese residents was firebombed over the weekend but damage was slight. He said three Vietnamese fishing boats had been burned recently. Sexton said he had no suspects in the burnings. The city council held an emergency meeting Saturday and imposed the 9 p. m. curfew. Counciman Walter Futch said the curfew would continue at least until Tuesday to avoid trouble associated with Aplin’s funeral Monday. Officials said trouble began when Bo-Brooks Inc. of Baltimore, Md., opened a crabpacking plant in the town of 900 three years ago and 25 Vietnamese women “crab-pickers” and their families — a total of about 100 persons - moved to town. Munson s peers, fans say farewell Over 500 persons, including teammates, baseball officials and friends, packed a room in the Canton, Ohio, Civic Center Mondayfdr the final farewell to Thurman Munson, the scrappy New York Yankee catcher who died in a plane crash last week. Another 1,000 fans waited outside the Civic Center to pay their last respects and hundreds more lined the five-mile route to the Sunset Hills cemetery where Munson will be buried. The crowd began gathering early today under partly sunny skies and temperatures in the low 70s. The funeral procession to the cemetery was escorted by about a dozen motorcycle poicemen from the Canton City Police Department and Stark County Sheriffs office. WORLD Bolivian Congress looking fork Ui LUSAi ihodesi; Muzorev British-b lement wwer in ailing it The Bi mit me< iinanimo peace pa ;uerrilla rs of tl nent. The s ailed fo reform t tees for the econ tions anc of blood; as and g In Sal: settle me md in f; rate” tha Muzoi think its of reject sals. “"Bolivia’s Congress, fearful of a military coup that would end its new democracy, adjourned early Monday in La Paz hours before the presi dential inauguration, unable to decide who the president would be. Legislators voted to return to resume negotiations Monday just one hour before Gen. David Padilla, the military president, was scheduled to turn over power to a civilian president. Inconclusive July election results led to a standoff in congress between the two strongest candi dates, Hernan Files Zuazo of the leftist Popular Democratic Union, and rightist Victor Paz Estenssoro of the National Revolutionary Movement Alliance. As the deadline neared, legislators turned to the idea of an interim president, senate president Walter Guevara Aruze, until new elections could be held within a year. Congressmen said they feared Gen. Padilla would decide to stay in power if they did not solve the political crisis. "At 11 a.m. today the military junta by its own decision is going to turn over power,” one representative said to the chair. “My question is, to whom?” Mass marks Pope Paul s death Pope John Paul II marked the first anniversary of the death of Pope Paul VI Monday with a private mass in the summer palace apartments in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, where the late pontiff died. The Mass was attended only by the late pope’s private secretary, Monsignor Pas- quale Macchi, a limited number of relatives and Vatican officials. Paul VI died at Castel Gandolfo on Aug. 6 of last year six hours after suffering a heart attack. He had been pope for 15 years. On Sept. 28the pope will celebrate a Mass at the Vatican marking the first anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul I, the former Cardinal Albino Luciani, who succeeded Paul VI and reigned as pontiff slightly more than a month before dying of a heart attack. Israelis will not discuss U.S ideas Israeli officials in Haifa, Israel insisted Monday they will not discuss U.S.-backed proposals that the Israelis say would encourage creation of an independent Palestinian state. The Egyptian proposals, made at the previous round of discussions in Alexandria, Egypt, are aimed at giving Palestinians governmental authority, allowing Arabs in East Jerusalem to take part in the autonomy plan and permitting repatria tion of Palestinians living outside the occupied territories. Israel says instituting those proposals could lead to the creation of a Palestinian state, which it adamantly opposes. The Battalion US PS 045 360 LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words and are subject to being cut to that length or less if longer. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit such letters and does not guarantee to publish any letter. Each letter must be signed, show the address of the writer and list a telephone number for verification. Address correspondence to Letters to the Editor, The Battalion, Room 216, Reed McDonald Building, College Station, Texas 77843. Represented nationally by National Educational Adver tising Services, Inc., New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. McDonald Building, College Station, Texas 77WJ United Press International is entitled exclusive!) 1 use for reproduction of all news dispatches erf Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein Second-Class postage paid at College Station, TC The Battalion is published Monday through Friday from September through May except during exam and holiday periods and the summer, when it is published on Tuesday through Thursday. Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester; $33.25 per school year; $35.00 per full year. Advertising rates furnished on request. Address: The Battalion, Room, 216, Reed MEMBER Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Congress Editor Karen# News Editor Debbie Pi 1 Sports Editor City Editor Campus Editor KeithTi Staff Writers Robin Thou!i Louie Arthur, Carolyn Blosser, l Boggan Photo Editor ClayC Photographer LynnBI Cartoonist GregSpU Tl Tl , Opinions expressed in The Battalion are • those of the editor or of the writer of the ' article and are not necessarily those of the i University administration or the Board of Regents. The Battalion is a non-profitJ supporting enterprise operated by as a university and community newsfuf Editorial policy is determined by the el® Nf