Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Wednesday
February 4, 1981
Slouch
By Jim Earle
“I think I have the proper balance between problems with no
answers and those with several answers. This may be the best
test that Tve ever made. “
Courting Congress
is Reagan’s secret
By DAVID S. BRODER
WASHINGTON — A fact of life in Washing
ton which the Carter administration was still
discovering at the end of its tenure is that much
of the reputation as well as the success of a
President depends on his relationship with
Congress. Congress can rfiake or break a Presi
dent, by passing or killing his program. And it t
can make or break his reputation, because the
congressional press galleries house the largest
single concentration of reporters — and what
they write about a president comes to them
through the filter of the representatives’ and
senators’ attitudes.
All this is by way of observing that Ronald
Reagan has done himself and his administration
a tremendous service by his skillful courtship of
Congress in the opening phase of his adminis
tration. The durability of the relationship will
be tested when Congress goes to work on the
economic package Reagan is to outline, in gen
eral terms, this week, but the basis has been
laid for a good start on this always perilous
voyage.
Reagan himself has been spending a great
deal of time meeting key legislators of both
parties individually and in small groups. He has
assembled an experienced and skillful congres
sional liaison team, under the leadership of Max
L. Friedersdorf, who held the same post under
President Ford. And the incoming Cabinet and
agency heads have been instructed to give
priority to their own dealings with Capitol Hill.
This has been a matter of favorable comment
in both Republican and Democratic cloakrooms
— and of some astonishment to those members
of the House who were in the California legisla
ture when Reagan was governor some dozen
years ago. Democrats like Anthony (Tony)
Beilenson of Los Angeles and Republicans like
Jerry Lewis of San Bernadino say, in almost
identical words, “Reagan really learned a les
son” from his Sacramento experiences.
“When he came to Sacramento,” Beilenson
recalled, “He looked at politicians generally
with some disdain. He really didn’t want to see
us; even the Republican leaders found him
rather distant.”
Lewis, who came to the assembly two years
after Reagan began his first term, confirms that
was the case. “He had people around him then
who felt from the show-business experience
that a celebrity needed to be shielded from
others. It wasn’t until his second term that
Reagan really began to deal with legislators —
and that was the reason the second term was a
success.
Reagan,has picked up where he left off in
California. Friedersdorf said that by the time
Congress breaks at the end of this week for its
first recess of the year, the president will prob-
In a White House not conspicuous for
women appointees, Friedersdorf has made a
point of having two women on his staff, “be
cause so many more of the staff directors, AAs
(administrative assistants) LAs (legislative assis
tants) on the Hill are women.”
A one-time aide to a back-bench Republican
Representative from Indiana himself, Frieders
dorf is conscious of the powerful if unpublicized
role the staff members play in Congress. He has
lunched with the Republican AAs himself and
has issued orders that his aides stay in touch
with the Capitol Hill aides as often as possible.
Despite the occasional static from right-wing
senators, Reagan should have few problems
with his economic package in the GOP-
controlled Senate. But the Democratic House
is another story. Beilenson, who is rated among
the more liberal Democrats, said, “Just being
nice to people up here pays off. I think Reagan
will be surprised; he’ll have more support from
Democrats who are fiscally conservative than
he thinks.”
Given the skill with which Reagan is wooing
Congress, the Rostenkowski-Beilenson predic
tions could easily turn into self-fulfilling
prophecies. And what a story that would be.
Warped
Policy deserves senate rebuke
Student senator Fred Seals and his col
leagues are justifiably upset.
Seals is an off-campus graduate senator; four
of his bills dealing with the forthcoming policy
to eliminate fifth-year seniors and graduate stu
dents from University housing will be voted on
in tonight’s student senate meeting.
The “Discrimination Against Old Folks” bills
are four in number. They express four varying
degrees of disapproval:
— a censure of the Department of Student
Affairs and a request for a review of the policy;
— a request that student affairs declare a
on-year moratorium on the policy’s implemen
tation;
— a request that Acting President Charles
Samson declare a similar moratorium; and
— a request that student affairs receive input
from the groups concerned before making any
more such decisions in the future.
The hist one is both the most practical and the
least offensive; it’s also the one with the best
chance of passing.
Although the decision and its method of im-
Sidebars
By Dillard Stone
plementation deserve public criticism, the sen
ate will be reluctant to rebuke Student Affairs
Director Ron Blatchley or his department. And
it’s doubtful they would consent to trying to
embarrass Blatchley by asking Samson directly
to intervene in the implementation.
The decision may be insignificant enough for
Blatchley to “goof’ and forget about, but it’s not
insignificant for the students who had not made
plans to move off campus next year.
It is something Seals and his graduate col
leagues have a right to be upset about. But,
since the senate has only a small minority of
graduate students, it’s doubtful that many other
senators will share in the sense of outrage.
Thus, any public student chastisement of
Blatchley or the decision itself is highly unlike
ly, since it’s an issue that affects a minotf [
the senate as well as a minority of the stu i
body.
That students were neither consulted;: i
formulation of the policy nor informed asc
until four months after the decision wasreat
runs contrary to established principles 0(11
suiting students in student-related decisi j
Such a consultation, even if superficial ins |
instances, at least allows students to
their opinions are respected.
So while we can hope that the senate
stand up and be counted in support ofi
bills, we must temper that hope withtlie
ism of the moment.
The record of student involvement in
dent-oriented policies at Texas A&Misi
good one. Rather than looking at thissetof!
as one which is critical and embarrass
perhaps we should view them as a positive!
firmation of students’ desires to be include
decisions.
An ounce of prevention now might be
a pound of cure later.
Captain (
liam Mus
before a I
per is the
She deve
ably have met with the entire membership of
the Senate and most — if not all — the mem
bers of the three main “money” committees in
the House.
Those meetings have gone well. As Chair
man Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) of the House
Ways and Means ; 06Tnmittee‘, a hard-bitten
Chicago pro, said after his meeting with
Reagan, “He’s a warm guy and he’s smart.
He listened and I talked. I told him I hoped to
be able to come back in two years and say that
the House Democrats had given him more sup
port than the Republicans — and I think we
will.”
Rostenkowski also said he told Reagan, “I
promise I won’t surprise you, Mr. President.”
And, he said, Reagan made the same promise to
him. That is a point Friedersdorf, a veteran of
Capitol Hill, is also emphasizing—in unspoken
contrast to the Carter record of unanticipated
and unannounced policy switches. “What
members of Congress most object to is if you
surprise them. They hate to be caught unpre
pared or uninformed,” Friedersdorf said.
In addition to hammering home that mes
sage, Friedersdorf is being attentive to the
small but important gestures many members of
Congress was invited — in a first-name note —
to the White House welcome for the returned
hostages. All will be getting letters with the
direct-dial phone numbers of the nine House
and Senate liaison people, and an invitation to
call them as needed.
It’s your turn
Economic practices get U.S. in trouble
Editor:
Sometimes I wonder about the possibility of
a Third World War occuring, and it seems high
ly probable with the current powers at work. Of
course the obvious motivator would be to pro
tect oil supplies and the not-so-obvious motiva
tor would be to keep the most powerful busi
nessmen wealthy. The goal of most successful
businesses is to make as large a profit as possi
ble. Therefore, it makes good economic sense
to continue depending on oil for our energy
source rather than switching to less profitable
sources which would require quite a bit of in
vestment. But these sound economic practices
lead the U.S. into trouble. Many of the coun
tries which supply us with a major portion of
our imported oil are experiencing changes in
their political make-up at this time. Some might
be headed for a more communistic govern
ment, which would lead the oil Russia’s way
instead of ours. It seems changing our energy
needs and sources would be a more humane,
although less profitable, solution rather than
war to protect our oil interests.
Besides avoiding war, other reasons exist
now for the U.S. to stay away from intervening
in other countries’ internal political struggles.
We have always felt threatened by the spread of
communism, and with good reason — its stated
goal is to have communism throughout the en
tire world and to abolish capitalism. Marx be
lieved society goes through many political
stages, the last and most successful and ideal
being communism. Could it be, perhaps, that
his theory is backwards? Poland’s struggle to
shake the clutches of communism is evident to
anyone who reads the front page of a newspap
er, but Russia seems to be having problems
also. Productivity and quality of farm and other
products is low compared to those produced
privately. Even China is making use of capita
listic ideas and encouraging freedom of express
ion. Maybe capitalism is the step after com
munism in a society’s evolution. If communism
is a step that many countries need to go
through, maybe we should let them go through
this step. We don’t need anymore Vietnams,
and we certainly don’t need another world war.
What can we do? Write letters.
Thanks for reading.
Melissa Wilson
False alarms dangerous
Editor:
This letter is in reference to the fire alarm
that went off at the library last Thursday ni|
have worked at the library for two years, an
have been through many similar alarms,
and otherwise. People continue to ignored
alarms, and due to their ignorance, andsel
ness, one of these days, a real fire will bn
out, and many people will die. The staff all
library is responsible for clearing the buitt
and when people hang around, or refe
leave when an alarm goes off, they are end 1
gering staff members’ lives, as well as their 1 ?
lives. People do not think it can happen,®
least ignore the reality of the situation, foritl
happened. The survivors of the MGM Gn
Hotel fire can attest to that fact. If a f
break out, and any of the numerous chemici
plastics, or other materials that can
poisonous gases burn, fumes will fill the lib®
rapidly, just as they did in the Las Vegas (iff
you want to die, a brave death, or be a fool,d
it some place besides the library.
Jeff West'
By Scott McCullar
The Battalion
l' S P S 045 .360
MEMBER
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Congres
Questions or comments concerning any editorial tnw
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Editor Dillard Stone
Managing Editor Angelique Copeland
Asst. Managing Editor Todd Woodard
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Cartoonist Scott McCullar
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