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The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Slouch
By Jim Earle
“I’m highly concerned about our situation in Iran, we have a crucial
football game over the weekend, inflation is spiraling upward, and now
he wants to give us an examination on top of all this!’’
Congress’ leaders appear sat
By STEVE GERSTEL
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders
— Republicans and Democrats — seem to have
nothing to fear from their colleagues. If there is
to be a palace coup in January, the plans are a
well-kept secret.
One or two may be in trouble with the voters.
But once that hurdle is cleared, their leadership
posts are there for the asking.
There will be one, maybe two, changes
among House Republican leaders, but these
are being dictated by retirements — not by an
uprising among the serfs.
All that is not surprising.
In both the Senate and House, the pattern of
the past indicates that leaders, once in place, do
not budge on their own — except to move up —
and are not put to the test by their followers.
They — the leaders — may take this as a sign
of loyalty and deep devotion. The chances,
however, are that the reluctance to challenge
an incumbent stems from a fear of the consequ-
In 1959, Rep. Charles Halleck of Indiana
ended the 20-year reign of Rep. Joseph Martin
of Massachusetts as the House Republican
leader.
Six years later, then Rep. Gerald Ford of
Michigan turned out Halleck.
The House Democrats have been more tradi
tional — brooking not even a few battles for the
top spot.
The last three speakers all served as House
Democratic leader under their predecessors.
The lineage is RayburnMcCormick-Albert-
O’Neill.
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The battles come at the lower level, such as
the one when the post of House Democratic
leader opened in 1976. Rep. Jim Wright of
Texas won in a field of four.
was in the right spot when Mansfield n
On the Republican side, the major
came when Senate GOP leader Everett! (tentshaveparti<
sen died in 1969 and when his successor,! ? s . tu y wa -^_f 1
Scott, retired in 1976. uston said Dr
Scott, following a normal progression,! ^ ssor 0 f V eterin
up from “whip. ” But the current Repul Texas A&M.
leader, Howard Baker, came from outsidt 5 0 me students tc
leadership circles. »ts which inv
There should be only one race in the Ha ce, Flowers saic
unless Wright loses the election. ce are genetic m
House Republican leader John RliotSi/ithout 1 thesl; oig
Arizona will seek the speakership if the R(j a bie to produce
licans win control — which is highly unlikl mbat bacteria,
but will not return as leader if they do Flowers said a g
Reps. Guy Vander Jagt of Michigan and
Michel of Illinois are going for that
mt is created in
mice, which ar
ences.
Like an animal, a leader wounded can be
dangerous. And he has a great many options of
making a colleague’s career less pleasant — a
voice in committee assignments, scheduling of
bills, perks and other favors.
As a result, there have been few efforts in
recent years to depose leaders.
The Senate also shows no eagerness for coups
at the top but there has never been a reluctance
to dispatch the No. 2 leaders — especially
among Democrats.
During the 16-year reign of Senate Democra
tic leader Mike Mansfield, a number of senators
were elected his “whips.” In three successive
elections, Russell Long of Louisiana was
chosen; Long was beaten by Edward Kennedy
and Kennedy, in turn, was ousted by Robert
Byrd.
Byrd, now the Senate Democratic leader.
House and Senate Democratic leiL
appear secure, although there are rami bygone s<
never confirmed by him — that Byrdwoull
be averse to having a new deputy in pk
California’s Alan Cranston.
Baker and his deputy, Ted Stevens of
should be in good shape. They have
Senate Republicans.
But there persists the possibility that
Bre
Senate’s GOP conservatives may challei .. , > P v
D „I ' -L seed and plant t
Baker with a candidate from their own r
possibly John Tower of Texas.
Americans get serious
about election issues
By DAVID S. BRODER
DES MOINES — In the course of a misspent
20 years on the political trail, I have attended
dozens of Democratic dinners where the
drunken din was such that no one, including the
speaker, had any idea what was being said.
Hubert H. Humphrey had standard advice
for other Democrats going to such notoriously
besotted affairs as the Philadelphia or New
Jersey dinners. “You say, ‘Buzz-buzz-buzz-
buzz— Franklin Delano Roosevelt! Buzz-buzz-
buzz-buzz — Harry S. Truman! Buzz-buzz-
buzz-buzz — John Fitzgerald Kennedy!”
Humphrey advised. “And then you get the hell
out of there before they start throwing rolls at
each other.”
However, recently I was at a Democratic
dinner here where you could hear a pin drop.
Sen. John C. Culver (D-Ia.), who is locked in a
tough, close re-election campaign against Rep.
Charles Grassley (R.Ia.), was winding up his
speech to the party faithful in a rather remark
able way.
Instead of the standard Humphrey-style pep-
talk, he was talking about arms control and the
importance of reviving — not discarding — the
strategic arms limitation treaty with the Soviet
Union. And he was doing it, not by reciting data
on warheads and throw-weights, but by reading
a Japanese woman’s recollections of her experi
ences, as a young girl, on the day the first
atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
Listening to the terrifying description of the
effect of fire, blast and radiation on human
flesh, written 30 years ago by that Japanese
woman, now filling a basketball arena in the
amplified voice of the former Marine and Har
vard fullback, brought the hundreds of Demo
cratic revelers to sudden silence — and full
attention.
It was a dramatic example of what could be
sensed everywhere on the campaign trail last
week: America is getting serious about this
election. After all the demeaning distractions,
the voters and candidates alike are finally be
ginning to sense what is at stake.
There was a similar experience earlier in the
week, when Ronald Reagan toured the largely
shut-down Jones and Laughlin steel complex in
Youngstown, Ohio. Without impugning any
motives, it’s a safe bet that the visit was sche
duled simply to provide a teleginic setting for
another Reagan blast at the regulatory and eco
nomic policies of Jimmy Carter’s administra
tion.
But the reality overwhelmed the theatrics.
Candidate and correspondents drove through
acre after acre of rusting, abandoned buildings
— looking a bit like war ruins themselves —
that symbolized America’s decaying technolo
gical and industrial strength.
And when Reagan met with some of the re
maining workers in the plant, they turned out
to be, not extras provided by a Hollywood rent-
a-blue-collar-crowd agency, but worried men
with probing questions about the candidate’s
readiness to commit government funds to the
rehabilitation of this aging plant.
Like the diners in Des Moines and millions of
others across the land, they are remembering,
now that the moment of decision is
approaching, that there are terribly consequen
tial choices to be made by the next President,
by the senators and by the others to be elected
next month.
The press — which has gotten its share of
criticism for the trivialization of the campaign
— is also getting the message. James P. Gan
non, the executive editor of the Des Moines
Register, reprinted in his own paper a speech
he’d made, criticizing the campaign coverage
and suggesting that “instead of beng content to
serve up only the charge and countercharge of
the campaign trail, we can pose the questions
that the candidates should be answering, and
explain to the readers why the answers aren’t as
simple as the candidates’ TV ads suggest.”
Putting his doctrine into practice, Gannon
has been running a series of front-page articles
on the issues. Similar pieces are beginning to
appear in papers from coast to coast. The Asso
ciated Press, our largest news organization, did
a Reagan interview recently that focused more
sharply on the thrust of his policies than any
thing that has appeared since the conventions.
If Reagan and Carter are smart, they will
sense this changing mood — and do the one
thing that, more than any other, can still re
deem this campiagn from travesty. They will
meet face-to-face for a serious discussion of
these issues.
They can do it themselves, with or without
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Scions’ drinking prompts look at labor
By DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Demon rum, as we have
learned from recent scandals, can cause con
gressmen to succumb to venal or homosexual
tendencies they might have resisted had they
stayed sober.
Does drinking also bring out collective bar
gaining tendencies in individuals?
Specifically, might non-union workers under
the influence of alcohol vote for organized labor
representation that they, if sober, would spurn?
Such a question is implicitly raised in a case
now awaiting a ruling by the National Labor
Relations Board. Let’s look at the record:
In a secret-ballot election conducted last
Correction
Two headlines in Monday’s Battalion were
incorrect.
On page 1, one headline reported, “Run-off
freshman election today. ” The headline should
theblessingofjohn Anderson or the League of have said “Tuesday,” rather than “today.
Women Voters. Bob Strauss and Jim Baker
could agree in one phone call on a date, a site
and a neutral moderator. Without the distrac
tion of a phony panel of press questioners,
Carter and Reagan could sit down for two
hours to talk seriously about where the coun
try is and where it should be going.
Americans are ready to listen.
Freshman runoffs will be held today, October
21. Polling places are Harrington Center, the
Memorial Student Center, Sbisa Dining Hall,
the Corps Guardroom and the Commons.
A headline on page 9 incorrectly reported the
score of Saturday’s football game as 47-6. Baylor
won the game 46-7.
The Battalion regrets the errors.
Aug. 7, employees of the Browning-Ferris In
dustries plant in Grafton, Va., voted 14-10 to
designate the Teamsters union as their bargain
ing agent.
The company then challenged the results,
contending among other things that the voting
was “affected by the consumption of alcoholic
beverages in substantial quantities.”
It seems that on the day of the election sever
al employees attended the funeral of a co
worker and later gathered at the home of the
deceased’s mother.
According to the testimony of the plant man
ager, “Food and alcoholic beverages were
served at this gathering, and, with one excep
tion, everyone consumed the equivalent of at
least four beers.”
A few weeks ago, I might simply have gone
along with the findings of Louis D’Amico, an
NLRB acting regional director, who recom
mended that the objections be dismissed.
But that was before drunkenness figured in
the defense of congressmen accused of taking
bribes or making homosexual advances.
Now that we know a few too many can cause
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bending on labor relations seems to warn
more study.
D’Amico, perhaps borrowing a page ffomtli
U.S. Supreme Court, reached his decision!
narrow, legalistic grounds, rather than comi:
to grips with the central issue.
He dealt only with the technical question
whether the employees in this instance actui:
were intoxicated.
“ ... even assuming, arguendo, thateachei
ployee had consumed four beers, no eviden
was either submitted or adduced to demon
trate that any employees were, in fact, inch
ated during the time they voted,” he wrote
Thus the broader question of whether in
ebriation would be grounds for invalidating
union election was left twisting in the wind
Perhaps the full NLRB will address thatissof
in its review of the case. Meanwhile, ifyouhei
a report that the House and Senate have vote!
to unionize Congress, you will know the reasc:
why.
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Warped
By Scott McCullar
The Battalion
U S P S 045 360
MEMBER
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Congress
Editor Dillard Stone
Managing Editor Rhonda Watters
Asst. Managing Editor Scott Haring
City Editor Becky Swanson
Asst. City Editor Angelique Copeland
Sports Editor Richard Oliver
Asst. Sports Editor Ritchie Priddy
Focus Editor Scot K. Meyer
Asst. Focus Editor Cathy Saathoff
News Editors Lynn Blanco,
Gwen Ham, Todd Woodard
Staff Writers Kurt Allen, Nancy Andersen
Marcy Boyce, Mike Burrichter,
Pat Davidson, Jon Heidtke, Uschi Michel-Howell,
Kathleen McElroy, Debbie Nelson,
Liz Newlin, Rick Stolle
Cartoonist Scott McCullar
Photo Editor Pat O’Malley
Photographers George Dolan,
Brent Frerck, Jeff Kerber
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