Opinion
We re just mad about Eddie
Another figure is making a bid to enter the Hall Of Fame
of the Untalented.
The Hall of Fame of the Untalented is a place where they
stick famous people who shouldn’t have ever been famous.
These are the people who have reached the pinnacle for
success in show business simply becasue they had good
managers.
Election to the Hall is usually reserved for televsion
“personalities” like Allen Luden, Durwood Kirby, Farah
Fawcett-Majors, Howard Cosell, Ed Sullivan.
The new addition to the Hall is a man who touched the
hearts and stomachs of all of us — Eddie Chiles.
Eddie Chiles is an oilman. He was well-known, but he
wasn’t that famous. At least, not until his radio ads started.
Eddie wanted others to hear his opinions on the state of
the nation, the economy and the world.
Using his own money (which he has a lot of, I’m told) he
paid for a series of radio messages.
The first line of an Eddie Chiles ad is always the biggie:
“Hi, I’m Eddie Chiles and I’m mad as hell.”
Catchy, isn’t it? Well, someone thinks so. By now, most
people — even those who don’t go along with his conserva
tive approach to most issues — know who he is. There’s
even an “I’m mad as hell, too Eddie” bumper sticker avail
able.
So now, Chiles is the star of oil wells, car radios and
bumper stickers everywhere.
All of this notoriety and hoopla just because he spoke his
opinion. And sunk several hundred thousand dollars into an
advertising campaign to carry this opinion everywhere.
It doesn’t sound like something that should make a guy
famous, but look what “Excu-u-use Me!” did for Steve
Martin’s popularity.
Move over Farrah — here comes Eddie.
the small society
by Brickman
OFF&etV TH &
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Viewpoint
The Battalion Monday
Texas A&M University February 4, 1980
Nomination pursuit erratic at best
Baker campaign self-destructing
By DAVID S. BRODER
There were about 320 diners at the Maine
Republican Party’s $20-a-head dinner in
the Augusta Civic Center, and about 6,000
empty seats in the stands surrounding
them.
The setting — the half-filled floor, the
yawning stands — was discomfiting
enough. The invocation was a little strange,
a presumably humorous prayer to “free us
from our Georgian bondage. ’ The program
had been rearranged to accommodate the
schedule of the visiting speaker, so Sen.
Howard H. Baker Jr. was called on to deliv
er the address while the party faithful sat
staring, a bit hungrily, at the salad bowls,
the plastic containers of dressing, and the
pie that would, in time, be their dessert.
All of those unsettling elements must
have gotten to Howard Baker, for he sud
denly heard himself saying: “I am 5 feet, 7
inches tall, have green hair and brown
eyes, and . . . you’ll just have to take me as I
When Howard Baker reaches the point
that he declares himself The Boy with
Green Hair, you can be sure that some
thing weird has happened. But that is the
way it is as the Senate Republican leader
carries on his erratic pursuit of the GOP
presidential nomination.
Of all the campaigns in this year, none
has so squandered the talents of its princip
al as that of the senior senator from Tennes
see. The Howard Baker that Washington
knows is a capable legislator, a skillful lead
er of his party, a man with a grasp of issues
and a talent for articulating them — and a
man of considerable charm, besides. The
man on the stump in this presidential cam
paign is a double who invites ridicule.
Occasionally, Baker shows his true form.
His characterization of President Carter’s
State of the Union speech as “a full-scale
attack on the Carterism of the last three
years’’ is a neat partisan shot and drew
applause here and in New Hampshire.
But, from the beginning, Baker’s campaign
has been characterized by organizational
ineptitude and missed opportunities.
Those problems continue.
Baker had been sent off to the dismal
event in Maine on a night when he had a
longstanding commitment to address a din
ner of Maryland Republicans. Maryland is
natural Baker country — a neighboring
state with a long tradition of supporting
Baker’s brand of moderate Republicanism.
By canceling the date in Maryland, Bak
er earned a widely publicized attack from
the state’s GOP chairman and clouded his
prospects of gaining his support. The visit
to Maine did nothing but revive memories
of Baker’s unexpected humilitation at
George Bush’s hands in the convention last
fall. Since then. Bush has consolidated his
support here, and Baker did nothing to
recoup by his performance the other night.
But the candidate professed ignorance
about why he was here. “I just go where
they tell me,” he said.
Earlier on the day of the Maine dinner.
Baker had addressed a convention of New
England broadcasters in Boston. The
speech, which was important enough to be
filmed by his own crew of commercial-
makers and touted as a major policy
address, was built around this proposal:
“Twenty years ago, President Kennedy
challenged America to put a man on the
moon by the end of the Sixties. As Presi
dent, I will challenge America to put a man
in a car not powered by gasoline by the end
of the decade. ”
That supposed clarion call left the broad
casters so unmoved that in 20 minutes of
"Tl
tion i
viola!
able
“If l
n
rials,
that vs
irobh
questioning, not one of them cared to ask
what would power the Bakermokilt
lucky thing, too, for when the senaton
asked, he rattled off a list of altenm
fuels long enough to suggest he had noil
which one it might be. And his coniii
assertion that the car could be
lower cost than today’s gas-guzzlerstu*
out, on examination, to be based oi
discussions with anyone in the ante ^
dustry.
It is hard to know what to think
man who has demonstrated his ability
variety of challenging situations as astrj ^ out
tor for 13 years runs such an inept®
paign for President.
The manager of one of Baker’s rivalssi
that Baker is the "worst-served byhisor)
nization” of anyone in the GOP field,11
Howard Baker has had at least tlireeyea
since the 1976 convention, at whichki
passed over for vice-president in lava
Bob Dole, to think about how he wouldr
for President and who he wantedworb
for him.
At this point, the rcsponsibiltiy
the consequences — are his.
(c) 1980, The Washington Post On
pany
Speci
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rary 1
day
meet
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leave
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Letters
31
• • J As?ftf/i
U.S. needs draft
Editor:
This letter is written in reply to Robert
Zahray’s letter which appeared on January
30. I want to go on record, for myself and
many other Aggies, as one who firmly be
lieves that both draft registration and possi
ble reinstitution of the draft are very neces
sary actions.
The draft is basically a method of meet
ing manpower needs of our armed forces.
The draft is practically useless if instituted
after a war has begun. In that event we
would be caught with our pants down and
would be unable to react in time to pre
serve vital national interests. The time to
prepare an adequate size army is now. We
must build an Army that is trained, ready,
and able to fight.
Mr. Zahray call the draff: “a form of in
voluntary servitude, not in keeping with
the ideas of a free people. ” May I point out
what involuntary military service really is.
It means being taken from your home and
family, in the middle of the night, to spend
eight years guarding a missle silo in Siberia;
it is being 40 years old and taken from your
job to stand in a guard tower on the Iron
Curtain; it means being told “yes”, you can
attend college provided you become a
Soviet pilot or KGB officer. No Mr.
Zahray, our draft is not a form of involun
tary servitude, it is a necessary function to
preserve that hallowed ground you now
stand on. It means protection of your job,
your home, your family and friends. It
could preserve your very way of life.
Mr. Zahray further states that in case of
an actual attack on the U.S., volunteers
would meet our manpower needs. Just who
is going to volunteer if everyone possesses
Mr. Zahray’s ideologies?
We take so many of our freedoms, such
as speech, religion, and assembly for
granted that we never give thought as to
why we enjoy these privileges. No, a
strong military does not guarantee us our
rights; but it does guarantee that we have a
chance to defend these rights.
So sleep easy tonight Mr. Zahray, your
freedoms are still yours . . . for now.
Kenny Ray ’82
(This letter was accompanied by 15 other
signatures.)
As a Taiwanese student in Texas A&M,
we are really amazed at seeing an entirely
untrue report regarding our country in Fri
day’s Battalion. We are all from Taiwan and
we firmly believe we know our own coun
try much better than Susan Arigo, Jim
Leach or any one else who has never been
in our country. Our country is not only a
democratic one, it is a country totally of the
people, for the people and by the people.
But that does not imply one may endanger
any other person at his will.
Is there any freedom ol attacking police
men in this country? I am afraid theani®
is “no.” However, under Shih Ming-®
scheme, a small group of mob with vari*
kinds of weapons attacked the freeham
policemen in Taiwan, which cause®
people wounded — 200 policemen, notlk
rioters. It is not Shih but all those pin
men that are real heroes. They prote®
citizen’s lives and safety at the risk of thee
own lives, they arc not only brave, hutalst
respectable. As a matter of fact, we, aswei
as most people in that beautiful island an
really happy to know that Shih has licff
arrested. He should have been put in jail
along time ago.
Please tell Susan Arigo that our govene
ment and all friendly people there ahvafi
heartily welcome visitors to our countiji
but not rioters, and one more thinglsk
should really be ashamed of having sucht
brother-in-law.
Shirley Din.!
(This letter was accompanied by 90 othei
signatures.)
Story called ‘unfair’
Editor:
THOXZ By Doug Graham