S LO U C H by Jim Ear,e
‘Before we settle in as roommates, could I talk you about a
subject that we need to resolve?’
Opinion
Wish we knew
Two moves by the University — charging for a “home-
away-from-home” football game and installing small car
parking areas — generated negative student reactions.
Charging $4.25 per student for the A&M-Brigham
Young University game in Houston tomorrow makes sense.
Many students who normally attend home football games
will not be in Rice Stadium, and including the ticket price
in the regular student book would penalize them.
But the University should have made the policy clear last
Spring, when students were buying the football tickets.
As it is — finding out only in the last few weeks — the
situation leaves students upset and feeling “ripped off. ”
The University failed to communicate.
In the other instance, communication continues to be
poor.
The special small car parking lot behind the Commons
carries no warning signs — only by driving up to the
entrance is it apparent that big cars cannot pass through the
concrete barriers.
At the lot behind Zachry Engineering Center, signs bn
poles warn large-car drivers of the danger.
The idea is wonderful — creating 88 new parking spaces.
But again, the lack of communication creates frustration.
Let us know what you’re doing, administrators, espe
cially if it’s for our own good.
Rabbit jump wrong
In the mishap involving President Carter and a hostile rabbit, it is too soon to
draw conclusions that would be fair to either of the principals.
We take the President’s word for it that an amphibious rabbit tried to attack
him while he was fishing earlier this year on a pond in Plains, and that he was
able to repel the boarder by thrashing at it with a paddle.
Unlike the President’s detractors, and they are many, we do not rush to the
gleeful conclusion that even the animals of the field have had it with Carter and
want to do him in.
There is no evidence whatever that the rabbit knew that its prey was the
President, or, if it did, that its criminous actions toward him were a form of
political protest.
It is known, however, that rabbits have a strong sense of territoriality, and
this one might have tried to scuttle whatever was splashing around in its
waterhole that day.
That strikes us as the most plausible, and the least prejudicial, explanation.
And we intend to let it go at that unless future revelations prove us wrong.
Los Angeles Times
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The Battalion
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Viewpoint
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The Battalion • Texas A&M University
Friday
September 7,19
Broder
Congress’ antics are more informative
than the news, more fun than musicals
by DAVID S. BRODER
Washington — It is unlikely that anyone
is going to syndicate a television show
called “Welcome Back, Congress. ’’ Or that
it would draw much of an audience if it
were tried.
Show business looks on Congress as an
institution whose only utility is to provide
a setting for dramas where people of am
biguous character are subjected to unusual
political pressures and sexual temptations.
And generally succumb.
The perfect movie or television political
drama is titled “Elizabeth Ray Meets the
Senator. ’’ Or maybe, “The Secret Life of a
Legislative Assistant. ”
It is only us inhabitant of the island
Jimmy Carter calls Washington who really
feel deprived when the occupants of the
Capitol disappear for their August — or
Easter, or Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or
Washington’s Birthday, Lincoln’s Birth
day, or Jefierson-Jackson Day — recesses.
But for us the loss is real, and our relief
at their return is genuine. Mostly, we are
too embarrassed to talk about it, except
among ourselves. But a real Congress-
junkie begins to get nervous and irritable
after going for more than 10 days without a
Congress fix.
So throwing caution to the wind, let me
say. Welcome Back, Congress. And before
you do anything to outrage me anew, let
me tell you why I’m glad you’re back in
town.
First, the Congressional Record is the
best unedited daily newspaper in the
country. Items of marvelous trivia that no
self-important publisher would ever allow
into print adorn its pages in rich profusion.
A lot of us would never know when
Lithuanian Independence Day was com
ing up were it not for the Congressional
Record. But there, we will be told at least
20 times, in as many speeches and state
ments, what its significance is.
Redundancy is the Record’s charm. And
in that context, it is a tragedy that it was
not publishing when Andrew Young re
signed. There will be no way to recapture
the prose that would have been printed
there on that subject. One can only re
joice, in anticipation, at the heights of un
restrained oratory the Pope s visit will
bring forth in its pages.
The second good thing to be said about
Congress is that it doesn’t change all that
much. Supposedly this has been a decade
of almost unprecedented upheaval in its
membership and operations. But it is still
the dithering, quirky, bemused and
often-baffling Congress it was in days gone
by.
Nostalgia buffs love Congress. While is
was away, we had to content ourselves
with revivals of “Oklahoma!” and
“Carousel,’’ those magnificent musicals of
a bygone day. The revivals were wonder
ful, hut when it comes to real corn, it’s
Congress’s brand — not the Kennedy
Center’s — that is as high as an elephant’s
eye.
The third good thing to be said about
Congress is that nothing that bugs Presi
dents as much as Congress does can be all
bad.
Presidents come to office thinking the
world was born anew on the day they were
sworn in. Congress knows better. It knows
the same inaugural stand has been built
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WASHINGTON — The White House
let it be known this week it has no inten
tion of making public a photographic
enlargement of President Carter’s
encounter with a “killer rabbit” in Georgia
last April.
It indicated it felt the incident had been
blown up enough already.
“We’re afraid if we release the photo,
the rabbit controversy over the next two
weeks will receive more ink than the
SALT treaty,” said press secretary Jody
Powell.
Perhaps the president’s belated renown
as a rabbit fighter has been overplayed.
But by stonewalling the matter, the White
House only lends credence to the charge
by Sen. William Proxmire, D-Wis., that
the bunny confrontation was subjected to
“a sensational presidential coverup.
To avoid a possible |labbitgate, the
White House should release the transcript
of an 18-minute tape recording of the pres
ident’s conversation with Mrs. Carter on
his return from the fateful fishing trip.
Here, according to my sources, is the
paraphrased version:
Mrs. Carter asked the president if he
had had any luck.
The president replied (expletive de
leted) that he had not caught anything to
amount to anything.
Mrs. Carter asked if they just weren’t
biting.
The president said he had had some
pretty good nibbles but had been unable
to land any big ones because of all the (exp
letive deleted) distractions.
Mrs. Carter inquired as to the nature of
the distractions.
The president replied that the main ex
traneous element had been a (expletive
deleted) rabbit.
Mrs. Carter said she thought the presi
dent had been fishing from a canoe or a
boat or something. She said that if the
president was out on the river, she did not
see how a rabbit could have disrupted his
Carter vs. the killer bunny: White Hm *
'J :en (
should release tape, avoid ‘Rabbitgate
fishing. An alligator maybe. Or perhaps a
water buffalo. But not a rabbit.
The president said it was an (expletive
deleted) rabbit all right. Of that much he
was certain.
Mrs. Carter asked what the rabbit was
doing.
The president said it apparenty was try-
ing.to get into the boat.
Mrs. Carter asked what lead him to that
conclusion. She said she was aware that
some rabbits were good jumpers but she
had never heard of one leaping that far.
The president said he had arrived at that
conclusion because the rabbit was swim
ming directly toward him.
Mrs. Carter said she should have been
able to figure that out for herself. She
asked how the president had averted
boarding.
The president said he had wwM
the rabbit with a boat paddle.
Mrs. Carter said she could certii
understand under the circumstances
the president had not brought 1
enough fish for supper,
they go out for dinner.
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Letters
America should look to its own people
before taking in Vietnamese refugees
Editor:
With this letter I would like to initiate a
discussion about that certain group of
South East Asian refugees known as The
Boat People.
Let me make it clear that I am com
pletely in favor of foreign aid and all ac
tivity that has made the American Red
Cross such an admirable organization. But
let us look at some interesting details be
fore we open our homes and businesses to
the boat people.
Who are the boat people? The vast
majority of them are Vietnamese. It seems
odd, and interesting, to note that some
30,000 Vietnamese refugees have fled to
Laos already. Taking into account the
modes of overland travel available to these
people (their feet) and the geograhical re
lationship between Laos and Vietnam, a
startling and ironic point is made.
land, Burma, China etc. doing for them or
their problems? After all, those countries
share racial, political or cultural likenesses
with the Vietnamese which westerners do
not.
These 30,000 plus refugees are North
Vietnamese! They spent 21 years fighting
the French and ourselves for a doctrine of
their own choosing. Now they are aban
doning it for our own. Why are France and
the United States the leaders in taking in
these people?
What are Russia, Laos, Cambodia, Thai-
It is true that there are Vietnamese ref
ugees fleeing Vietnam South of the 17th
parallel but remember - think back to the
recent unpleasantry which made irrespon
sible demonstration such a stylish thing for
sweethearts like Joan Baez and Jane
Fonda. (After all, nobody saw them in a
bunker at An-Loc.)
Think back to the thousands of VC
operating freely in South Vietnam. Wfj
remembered the Alamo, the Maine,
Harbor, and I’m sure not going to!
the Vietnam War. The boat people doll
in horrible surroundings and need lit
But do you want horror? Go to Arlinjl
Cemetery. Who will help them?
In closing, I would just like to
those American people who can
member grieving families to focus ont
own needy people — in Appalachia,
aged, sick, unemployed and so on —
fore we offer the Vieg Cong the foodonl
our mouths.
—Ronald C. Buccbi,
F
WASHINGTON buthe
Carter campaigns despite opposition,
assures us it’s no act of bravadk
by HELEN THOMAS
UP! White House Reporter
WASHINGTON — Sometime this fell.
President Carter will announce his plans
to seek re-election. The only uncertanities
are where and when.
And over on Capitol Hill, Sen. Edward
M. Kennedy’s aides are letting it be
known they believe their boss is running.
In fact, nothing the Massachusetts Demo
crat has done in the past several weeks has
served to detract from the growing im
pression that Kennedy has positioned
himself to oppose Carter.
Authoritative sources say Carter simply
got a smile from Kennedy when the Presi
dent informed him that he planned to seek
re-election and requested the senator’s
“absolute, aggressive and enthusiastic
support.”
The president publicly concedes he has
discussed in somewhat vivid terms how he
will contend with Kennedy if he runs —
“I’ll whip his ass.”
Carter also told a group of Florida
editors last week: “I have never let the
identity of... opponents in a political cam
paign deter me. And if I should be a can
didate and if Senator Kennedy or Gover
nor Brown or anyone else should decide to
run against me, then I believe that I would
triumph, to express it in more diplomatic
terms.”
Carter notes that in the last presidential
campaign he was not stopped by his belief
that Kennedy and former Alabama Gov.
George Wallace would be his opponents
for the Democratic nomination.
It’s apparently not an act of bravado. He
has said he originally decided to seek the
highest office after meeting Kennedy and
the late Sen. Hubert H. Humprey and de
ciding he was as “smart” as they were.
As Carter’s 1980 campaign style begins
to emerge, he seems to be rejecting the
notion that the Rose Garden and the
White House would provide a suitable
political platform. To run against Washing
ton, he has to at least get out of town,
although there are times when he will use
the Oval Office such as the two-hour tele
phone “call in” show on National Public
Radio on Oct. 13.
His trip down the Mississippi River
aboard the stemwheeler Delta Queen, an
eight-day voyage that included some 40
speech-making stops, was a preview of
Carter’s stump style.
The crowds, warm handshakes and the
overall happy atmosphere — people some
times waited for hours in the rain to see
him — were heady stuff for a president in
search of votes.
Carter also plans to continue his “town
meetings,” where he probably gives his
most impressive performances. (Some ob
servers believe he likes them because
often gets “soft ball” questions to slaiud
of the park.)
He also apparently has found sod
merit in knocking the “national press’ si
is stepping up his contacts with out-j
town editors whose questions he usual
praises for being more in tune witlitl
country.
In the past few weeks, he has tried
reach different constituencies and to
more conciliatory to their concerns. Atl
Labor Day picnic. Carter offered an old
branch to the big labor organizatioi
which are supporting the Kennedy n
tional health insurance program overC#
ter’s more modest and slower-paced goal
The popularity polls may have bottomj
out at their drastically low point as in tl
Truman tradition, but Carter seems toll
lieve that he can overcome the handled
of being the target for all the nation’s woes
c
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