Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Tuesday
December 2, 1980
Slouch
By Jim Earle
“All of a sudden, everyone is in the mood to talk football.
Carter s power ebbed
quickly after election
By WESLEY G. PIPPERT
United Press International
WASHINGTON — All 30 buttons on the
White House telephone were dark. The presi
dent’s schedule showed only a few items, most
routine. He planned to depart yet again for
Camp David.
The daily senior staff meeting will be cut
down to two a week next week. Press secretary
Jody Powell now only occasionally has news
briefings.
Jimmy Carter spends much of his day tele
phoning or writing thank-you letters. It will
take 18 tractor-trailers to haul his papers and
memorabilia to Georgia when he leaves the
Oval Office in two months.
The power has drained faster from the Carter
White House than most of its inhabitants could
have believed possible. The contrast between
the frenzy of the past year — the hostages, the
campaign — is awesome to observe.
There is no doubt Carter’s feelings of dis
appointment are close to the surface.
“He still has moments of laughter and humor
— but he’s very subdued, there’s no question of
that,’ a senior aide said. California Gov.
Edmund G. Brown Jr. remarked that the presi
dent seemed “confident, sober, energetic.”
It showed in the somber way he talked to
reporters in an impromptu session in the
White House press room. The stridency of the
campaign was gone.
It showed in the way he listened when black
singer Clamma Dale sang “America the Beauti
ful” during a ceremony in the East Room. He
blinked hard a couple of times.
The White House had viewed the post
election session of Congress as a time to clean
up the president’s agenda — “but that’s when
we expected to win,” the aide said.
They also said there were “uncontrollable”
factors — the seizing of the hostages, the doubl
ing of oil prices by the Arab countries, and the
CubanHaitian refugees — over which Carter
had no control.
Among Carter’s aides, as their telephones
have quieted and their job searches have be
gun, there also is anxiety — in part about how
President-elect Ronald Reagan will lead the
nation, in part about their own futures.
Even after the Nov. 4 defeat, Carter said he
wanted to make the final two months the best of
his presidency. Congressional liaison Frank
Moore put together a legislative agenda of eight
or 10 items. Very quickly the White House
discovered it could not expect much action.
So the White House gave up hopes of pas
sing, for instance, the energy mobilization
board legislation, last item in Carter’s energy
package; and the fair housing bill, the most
significant civil rights legislation in years.
“The priorities are shrinking by the hour and
are beginning to be replaced by possibilities,”
the aide said. ” The focus tends to go day-by
day. It’s simply a fact of life. ”
Jordan, who has been with Carter since 1966,
will go to Emory University to write and reflect
on the past four years. Powell, Carter’s spokes
man for a decade, probably will stay in
Washington, perhaps join a “think tank” and do
some writing and speaking.
Jack Watson, who succeeded Jordan as chief
of staff, may return to his Atlanta law firm.
Special Assistant Ray Jenkins, who edited the
two largest newspapers in Alabama before com
ing to the White House, is weighing future in
the newspaper business, education and
perhaps staying in Washington.
As the power has ebbed, among the White
House staff there have been few — if any —
public displays of anger or bitterness.
Warped
Shouldn’t all students qualify
for Silver Taps ceremony?
“Silver Taps is that final tribute paid to an
Aggie who, at the time of his death, was enrol
led in undergraduate or graduate classes at
Texas A&M. The notice is posted at the base of
the flagpole in front of the Academic Build
ing. ”— The Standard, handbook for the Texas
A&M University Corps of Cadets.
“On the day of Silver Taps, the Hag in front ot
the Academic Building is at half-mast and
notices are posted... telling of the ceremony at
10:30p.m. At 10:15 chimes play from the MSC
bell tower. The Ross Volunteers Firing Squad
marches in a slow cadence to the statue of Sul
Ross and fires a 21 gun salute (three volleys with
seven guns firing).
“After the salute, ‘Silver Taps ’ is played three
times.
“This concludes the ceremony but not the
feelings of respect and honor.
“The ceremony of Silver Taps is dedicated to
the deceased Aggie and is a solemn and serious
event. ” — InROL, the student handbook.
Whistle-stop
By Becky Swanson
In my 2 1 /2 years at Texas A&M, I’ve always
believed Silver Taps was for any student cur
rently enrolled in the University who died. I
guess I was wrong.
John S. Caldwell, a 60-year-old lecturer and
bioengineering graduate student, died Nov. 11
in his College Station apartment, apparently
from a heart attack, but is not included on the
official Silver Taps notice released by the De
partment of Student Affairs for tonight’s cere
mony.
Caldwell’s name appeared on the flagpole
Nov. 25 with two other faculty members who
had died. Deceased faculty and staff members
are honored on the last Tuesday of each month
by lowering the flag in front of the Academic
Building and sending cards to their families,
Assistant Director of Student Affairs William L.
Kibler said.
Caldwell was enrolled in four semester hours
and was working toward a doctoral degree in
bioengineering. He was also a lecturer for the
industrial engineering department.
Kibler said Caldwell was “more properly
classified as a faculty-staff member” because
was employed “just short of full-time” as a lec
turer by the University.
Two of Caldwell’s students called The Batta
lion shortly after his death to make sure that
The Battalion included him in its
list. Unfortunately, making out the lisli
our function. The Battalion only publish
list released by Student Affairs.
Kibler said the decision was made to
Caldwell as a faculty member rather
student, so his name was excluded lioi
Silver Taps list, because “we havetodm
line somewhere.”
Many University employees enrollind
while remaining full-time employees,d
faculty members do post-graduate coura
while at the University, he said.
“Where do you draw the line between
ty/staff and student?,” Kibler asked.
My question is, “Why do you drawtbe
What would be so wrong to honorL
both a faculty member and a student?Itdo
cost anything. It wouldn’t be any more
trouble than typing out another
hang on the flagpole.
It seems arbitrary to exclude someone
what should be a final tribute to a
simply because he taught more hours tb
took.
Junior
broker
team. '
24-14 s
Those students who cared enough to
make sure John S. Caldwell was k
tonight, at least, should have the pri
attending a ceremony honoring thei
Aggie and teacher.
f the Hi
is Centc
he pres
ure the
ersity’s for
ng Cade
Now, two big matters are about all that re
main for Carter. One is negotiations with Iran
about freeing the American hostages, an issue
many people believe helped bring about his
defeat.
The other is the preparation of the State of
the Union message and the question of whether
he will deliver it to Congress in person. His
predecessor, Gerald Ford, delivered his final
State of the Union — but there are precedents
for simply sending a written message to Capitol
Hill.
Whichever, the State of the Union will be
Carter summing up his presidency.
“The election didn’t change his fundamental
beliefs in the direction the nation ought to go,
the aide said. “The solutions he proposed,
though far from perfect, were carefully thought
out.”
Former White House chief of staff Hamilton
Jordan and other presidential aides have said
they do not believe the defeat was a repudiation
of Carter and his policies.
Rather, they said, the defeat occurred in part
because Carter sought to take on too many
issues, did not have a clear focus, and never was
able to communicate adequately with the na
tion.
jhe phot
be Stud
Veteri
and wil
n 3 to 51
Reagan won’t woo blacks easily
Country
| Dalton
as plar
;C Town
Whatwi
nd the s
l This i:
By DEAN REYNOLDS
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President-elect Ronald
Reagan got high marks on his first post-election
visit to Washington for the concerted effort he
made to court the power centers of the capital.
There were meetings with the Supreme
Court, top Democrats and Republicans on
Capitol Hill, President Carter and the behind-
the-scenes power brokers long kept at bay by
the current administration.
But one group which sought a session with
Reagan did not get one — the Congressional
Black Caucus. He has agreed to meet with the
lawmakers, but no date has been set.
Reagan has his work cut out for him if he
hopes to woo blacks and other minorities to join
in a new beginning for the nation — 82 percent
of black voters supported President Carter, and
Reagan is perceived by many as staunchly
opposing the federal social programs that have
meant new opportunities for minorities.
The Reagan program — large tax cuts, a ba
lanced budget, reduced federal spending, more
money for the Pentagon — means something
must be cut. And new funding for social prog
rams will probably be limited.
Already, NAACP head Benjamin Hooks has
called for Reagan to address the nation to
assuage the “hysterical fear ’ some black Amer
icans have of him.
Caspar Weinberger, a top adviser and poten
tial Cabinet secretary, said of Reagan, “There is
no man who is more concerned with the welfare
and with the human condition of everybody
than Governor Reagan. ”
Yet it was Reagan who, during the campaign,
failed to respond to an invitation to address the
national NAACP convention. It was Reagan
who had no black advisers of any consequence.
It was Reagan who acknowledged that he
opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, although he
now sees the wisdom in the law.
And it was Reagan’s landslide victory that
created a Republican majority in the Senate,
pushing arch-conservatives like Sen. Strom
Thurmond, R-S.C., to new positions of promin
ence.
And Reagan, after all, is the man whose elec
tion, so Carter suggested, would pit black
against white, Jew against gentile, the South
against the North. Health and Human Services
Secretary Patricia Harris even said Reagan’s
campaign evoked memories of the Ku Klux
Klan.
One of Reagan’s first substantive coni* f
after the election did little to ease atf|
blacks have about him.
During his stay in Washington,
dorsed an antibusing proposal now
Congress, saying “busing has beena.».—
That kind of talk does not go down well® P
black community, despite Reagan’s repf p
references to his record in California and 1
proves he is sensitive — “heart and soul
says — to the issue of civil rights
When Reagan and the Black Caucus * P
bers sit down to their meeting, the af' 0 "'!"
likely be wide-ranging. One caucus s
ber said legislation and administration act
will be top subjects
But there will also be more subtle qutf
ing to test Reagan’s sensitivity on a
issues: the Miami riots, the recent
Klansmen and Nazis in a shootout in a
section of Greensboro, N.C., and blac
Cabinet-level positions.
c *■
By Scott McCullar
The Battalion
I SPS 0-15 360
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Southwest Journalism Congres
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