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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 25, 1980)
S LO UC H By ,im Earle “I think your participation in Earth Day might be a little to the left of the mark, but you might be on the right track. ” Opinion Olympic Committee made difficult, responsible decision Delegates to the United States Olympic Committee who voted not to send a team to the summer games in Moscow deserve praise for their patriotism and good sense. It was a difficult decision; nevertheless, the committee hardly could have decided otherwise. It would have been unthinkable to defy their president and ecnourage communist traps by insisting on fun and games as usual in Moscow. It also would have damaged the Olympic movement’s future in this<country. The committee depends on public £ support and financing, which,,would dry up if it thwarted » the president on a question involving national security. But above all the sportsmen faced a moral question. One simply should not engage in friendly games with people who invade a helpless neighbor, murder its president, continue to execute prisoners nightly and use poison gas against backward tribesmen. It will be instructive to see if the allies in Western Europe and Japan follow Carter’s lead. If they do not, they will send two messages to Moscow: the democracies are divided in their response to aggression, so it is safe for the Kremlin to strike again. And they are so cowed by Russia’s arms they can be forced to shake a blood stained hand. It is better that Americans find out now than in some future crisis, closer to home and more dangerous than Afghanistan. Scripps-Howard Newspapers the small society by Brickman W&z UNH/APFY WlTM THe WH<? WAMTS The Battalion U s P S 045 360 LETTERS POLICY Letter* to the editor iKcmM not exceed 300 worth end err mbfr rt to betne cut to diet length or lea if longer The alttonal iteff retenet the right to edit mch Irtten end deet no! geerentee to pnhluh any letter Eech letter meat be ngned thow the eddrett of the writer end lot e number for lerificetion Addrem correepondnee to Letten to the Editor. The hetteUm Room 216. Reed UcDoneld Budding College Stetkm Ton 77M3 IWprrKntrd naftonaiN by Notional Educational Ad, rt two* Scrvtcn. lac . New Yori City. Cbaca«D and U» haggiet TW BoOtabno to pubktbrd Mcwdai tbrou«b Fnda, (row September themegh Hay ewept dorm* nan and holiday period, and the wanner when M to pubhdard on Taeadn thmw*h Thwndoy Hod ndiirnpttnii ere 116 75 per oemntot. H3 25 per odnai yew. 235 00 per (ufi year AdvertMnc ™tei farnahrd oa teqaert Addmt The Battalion. Boom 216. Bead McDonald Mdn*. Co»e*r Station Teen TTMJ Cawed Frees latarnatioail n entitled redusneK to the nw fee reprodaetton of all aews ditpatc her credited to * Rtghtr of rependnctian cdol other anttei herein rewrsed SacnadOwi pnitsw paid at Cnfcpt Stetmm. TX TT943 MEMBER Tem Freei Anoriation Southwest ]ounuliim Con*resi Editor Roy Bragg Associate Editor Keith Taylor News Editor Rusty Cawley Asst. News Editor Karen Comelison Copy Editor Dillard Stone Sports Editor Mike Bunichter Focus Editor Rhonda Watters Viewpoint Page Editor Tim Sager City Editor Louie Arthur Campus Editor Diane Blake Staff Writers Nancy Andersen. Tricia Brunhart.Angelique Copeland. Laura Cortez, Meril Edwards. Carol Hancock, Kathleen McElroy, Debbie Nelson. Richard Oliver, Steve Sisney. Becky Swanson. Andy Williams Chief Photographer Lynn Blanco Photographers Lee Roy Leschper. Ed Cunnius. Steve Clark Opinion! expressed in The Battalion are thote of the editor or of the tfritrr of the article and are not necestarilt/ thote of the Univernty A dmtnitl ratten or the Board of Regentt The Battalion is a non-profit, telf- tupporting enterprise operated by students as a unnernty and community newspaper. Editorial policy is determined by the editor, Viewpoint The Battalion Texas A&M University Friday April 25, 1980 Conservatives go for the kill in contests with liberal Senators By STEVE GERSTEL United Press International WASHINGTON — As expected in the spring of a political year, the scent is in the air and the hounds are in full bay. The prey is on the run and well it should be. When rightwing conservatives go on the hunt, they are after a kill. The chase does not end until the animal is treed. For this year s elections, the conserva tives have targeted five senators, all liber als, for elimination. The intended victims are Alan Cranston of California, Birch Bayh of Indiana, John Culver of Iowa, Frank Church of Idaho and George McGovern of South Dakota. These five are, without the possibility of dissent, ultraliberals. No matter what they say or do during their campaigns to ease the image, they are branded by their voting records. McGovern, the arch-dove, can come out for selected military strikes in Iran to put pressure on the Ayatollah, but he is not going to fool any hawks. And Church, very liberal in foreign affairs, can express his new-found horror at additional Soviet troops in Cuba, but no one is going to believe that he is any less the internationalist. In other times, an assault from the right could be viewed as nothing more than an inconvenience. But the conservative hit squad can no longer be dismissed as an impotent tool. The concept of targeting specific candi dates for extinction is a relatively new phe- nomonen for the conservatives. Organized labor and some liberal special interests have used it with varying degrees of suc cess. In 1978, the right-wing conservatives targeted two Republicans, Clifford Case of New Jersey and Edward Brooke of Mas sachusetts, both members in standing of the small liberal enclave of the GOP. They backed young Jeffrey Bell against Case in the New Jersey GOP primary and pulled it off. But Bell was beaten by the Democrat, Sen. Bill Bradley. Strangely, that did not seem to depress the conservatives. They would have liked, very much, to have Bell — one of their own — in the Senate but it was almost as sweet to get rid of Case who was much, much too liberal for them. There were many reasons for Brooke s defeat and one of them may have been a bruising primary against a conservative challenger. But the seat went to a Demo crat, the very liberal Paul Tsongas. No matter. Two liberal Republicans, Case and Brooke, had been purged from the Senate. But 1978 really was only a taste of what the conservatives are capable of doing. This year—for the first time — the effort against the five senators is being coor dinated by one committee. The committee’s name is the National Conservative Political Action Committee and the campaign against the five is known as “Target ’80.” It is well-financed with an active fund raising campaign and is taking out ads in an LETTERS Bait is in error on Clements’intelligence Editor: I take exception to the statement in your Opinion column that Governor Bill Cle ments is “as stupid as he is obnoxious.” He is twice as stupid as he is obnoxious. What you meant to say was he is as stupid as he is incompetent. Mark Matthews ’80 Alan Martin ’82 Vote 3rd party Editor: I would like to reply to Monday’s "Opin ion" column in which you stated that a vote for Ed Clark of the Libertarian Party or Barry Commoner of the Citizen’s Party would be a “waste.” The article implied that instead of voting for Clark or Common er for president, we should vote for a Re publican or a Democrat instead. I disagree that a vote for a third party candidate is necessarily wasted. Obviously, most people wouldn’t bet on Clark or Com moner being elected this year. However, third parties have greatly influenced Amer ican politics. A prime example of this is the election of 1972. With Nixon in the White House, the liberal wing gained control of the Democra tic Party (partially because of the “McGovern rules,” an election reform of 1969). This alienated the "conservative" Democrats, who found a leader in George Wallace, the Democratic governor of of Alabama. McGovern was nominated by the Democrats. Wallace and a substantial num ber of conservative Democrats defected to the American Independent Party, which broke the traditional Democratic hold in the South. After McGovern lost in Novem ber, Wallace and the conservatives re joined the Democratic Party, which nominated a centrist (Jimmy Carter) in 1976 Other third parties have had similar suc cess. The Democratic Party has absorbed the ideals of the Progressives and the Populists. The GOP likewise absorbed the ideals of the Bull Moose and Abolitionist Parties. It is clear that a large third party- vote (Wallace got 14 percent of the popular vote in 1972) indicates to major party- leaders that voters consider both major candidates unacceptable. Politicians tend to ignore the most im portant issue in politics — government interference with individual liberty. Gen erally, “liberals” advocate hampering the economy (through price controls, axation, and regulation) while paring lip service to civil liberties. Conversely, conservatives tend to advocate intrusions of civil liber ties (with wiretapping, etc.) as well as a relatively free market. Only the Liberta rian Party consistently advocates personal freedoms. L. Alam Pyeatt, ‘81 Greed hurt Casino Editor: On April 18th I attended “Casino ’80” sponsored by the Residence Hall Associa tion. I payed three legal tender dollars each for myself and my date, and we were each issued three thousand play dollars. We then proceeded to struggle from crowd to crowd looking for a place to wager it. Surely a turnout of that kind is commendable of the Aggie student body, but the appalling mismanagement of the event led to many a discouraging moment. I feel they were too concerned about taking your money out side and not about what was happening inside. Surely the dealers and casino girls did a commendable job, hut when the man agement staff sold at least twice as many tickets as there were places to wager, not to mention stand or even breathe! There is bound to be difficulties when greed, even for a good cause, plays this large a part. Enjoyment is bound to be crowded out. Christopher H. Meakin, ‘83 Vote conservative Editor: In regards to the letters of John Cherry III and Ted Arnold, they must be as liberal as I am conservative. When the peanut man was elected three years ago (doesn’t it seem like thirty), our inflation rate was 4.8 percent and our un employment rate was 7 percent. Carter has kept unemployment lower during his administration than during Ford’s; howev er, inflation has skyrocketed to a 16 percent annual rate in the last three months. As Cherry said, some of our inflation woes are being caused by OPEC, but most is caused by the liberal Democrats and Re publicans. Sorry, but I did make the mistake of saying only Democrats. In addition, John Cherry delights in hav ing the oil companies being taxed heavily by Congress. Well, why don’t we put a windfall profits tax on every industry that makes “obscene” profits? Also, in regards to Iran, Carter has politi cized this event in order to regain some popularity, but I dislike his weakness in not trying to get our hostages out sooner. I believe five months ago Carter should have told Iran that the hostages will be released in a week or we will bomb their country. And yes, Mr. Cherry, even if one of my relatives were there, I still would believe that. Furthermore, Mr. Cherry states that the last balanced budget was under a Democrat (Lyndon Johnson).” Wrong again. That balanced budget was under the Nixon administration. So, get your facts straight, please. Mr. Cherry also neglects the fact that the budget deficits under the past two Republi can administrations were passed by a Democratic Congress. In addition, Carter’s policies now are going to lead us into a recession. But Carter will alleviate the recession by putting the unemployed on welfare dike most Demo crats are fond of). Ted Arnold was correct in saying that I am a YAF member (now the Young Conser vatives of Texas). Finally, I said to vote Republican. Well, I should have said to vote conservative because occasionally 1 will vote for a Democrat. Richard Leonardon Alarming situation Editor: This is a letter of thanks to all of you who were in the library during the fire drill at 1:30 Wednesday afternoon. I was one of the floor proctors and I appreciated ft* cooperation in clearing the building. However, the numerous false alan* have led to a dangerous situation. W people didn’t start to leave unhU proctor asked them to. There won be someone there to tell you to d and you may end up waiting until it s late. Leave when the alram sounds oi & ' I taki'il clear out, | Ml effort to “educate the voters” about thes senators. The victims claim it is a purely negate campaign, designed to oust them rathd than concentrated on electing their opp> nents. Whatever the motive, the purpose k clear: to strip the Senate of some of its moil liberal Democrats. It is not a small undertaking. Chun±, McGovern, Bayh and Cranston are alien-1 trenched veterans who have run the gaunt let several times. McGovern was in 1972 the Democrats’ presidential candidate and Church and Bayh sought the same ^ four years ago. Cranston is assistant parr, I leader in the Senate. None of them and not Culver—finishing I his first term — are patsies who will be ei$\ to pick off. But if the conservatives have the musde | to defeat one or even two of them, (lie warning will be there for all the other liber-1 als: Move right or risk moving out. W I as tl Arch atth (leavi a I derl wate who causr prote Hi | Texas togr 'If I mess destre | herita Ev< I al wa destro iedera 1 .Also, ( j pearec I they w Coc I lies no | it can Hes I is in da stitutio treasu Fisher Spanis! I lie the | off the IfFk Irell sai (states a | not war Cock | destroy hreckt | except f 'edge, Cock I take tw I sites sh | experts 2) No I should I whip.” He sai liven si the : (hound b Coder icirgo s |«epers. It’s n P'eryboi Th 40 Co Don’t try tro use the elevators and crowd onto the center stairs. Th er e*j® exits along all the outer walls on all Move away from the building 50 equipment can get in and so you don hurt by exploding glass. Finally, the alarm system ing properly now, and we ve had . one fire drill. All the other ^ m 1 es cleared the library were the resul. fellow Aggies. You will P r0 ^ a ^ ^ during your studying for finals, fr 1 u x , can stop these false alarms, be leave — often. If you won t leave during an University Police may take y° ur you see anyone pull an a i arnl , | cause, please notify someone on staff. We ll tell the University po® maybe we can get this annoying ^ gerous activity stopped. The uWJIl ^ can t be everywhere, so we need help you can give us. •? i^i Nancy E- Readers’ Forum Guest viewpoints, in addiW" Letters to the Editor, are we ^ All pieces submitted to f* forum should be: • Typed triple space gJ • Limited to 60 characters line • Limited to 100 lines De, Thi 27. Dri anc We mo Sav Hir met (ter of bro Chi yoi On met On tfte ft*