Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Tuesday
February 24, 1981
Editors i
Slouch
By Jim Earle
“I was so upset about that test that I resorted to studying!'
Lobbyists: Getting,
stopping, keeping
By ARNOLD SAWISLAK
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Washington lob
byists have three basic missions — to get, to
stop and to keep.
Getting is the process of securing some
benefit — a federal aid program, a tax
break, a subsidy — for some group, busi
ness or region.
It is hard work, often requiring years of
agitation, propagandizing and persuasion to
get both Congress and the White House to
agree on some new attachment to the feder
al treasury. Lobbyists have spent their en
tire working lives trying to get one goodie in
Washington.
With President Reagan basing his entire
budget-cutting proposal on the premise
that the federal cow has been milked dry,
getting is going to be the toughest job a
lobbyist could have for a while. The excep
tion is the defense industry lobby. If your
client sells weapons systems, this ought to
be open season for getting.
Stopping has been tough work for lob
byists in recent times. It consists of pre
venting Washington from getting involved
in some area of the economy or the society
that in the past has been the province of
local, state or no government.
It often has pitted stopping lobbyists
against getting lobbyists, and during much
of the time since FDR brought the New
Deal to Washington, the cards were stacked
in the White House and in Congress in
favor of getting.
But Reagan’s arrival ought to make stop
ping much easier. He says the United
States already is over-regulated, and with
the small society
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By MAR
Editor’s note: This is the second of a three-
part Guest column giving one man’s views
of U. S. strategy and costs during the Viet
nam War.
Guest
By RICHARD S. LE VIEUX
The Nixon Administration was commit
ted to ending the war with the Kennedy
commitment intact. The table above shows,
as the troops came home, casualties drop
ped dramatically to 1964 levels by the end
of 1972. And yet the reduced military forces
still continued to fulfill the Kennedy com
mitment.
The explanation for this paradox is sim
ple. Instead of limiting the destruction of
military supplies to the “front lines” (always
the most expensive place to do so), these
enemy supplies were destroyed further and
further behind the front lines by consistent,
intense application of U.S. Air Power. A
maxim discovered long ago was that when
one side no longer has any military sup
plies, the war is over for that side. American
military forces in the Philippines surren
dered to the Japanese in April 1942 only
because they had no expendable military
supplies left with which to resist the Impe
rial Japanese Army (although our military
Column
force there represented better than 70 per
cent of all the Allied power in the Southern
Pacific, including Australia!). Never before
or since has such a large American military
force surrendered.
It should be beyond debate that from
1961 through 1972 Southeast Asia did not
fall to communism. The price we paid in the
lives of our youth and in our money from the
national Treasury ($150 billion), to say no
thing of perhaps a half million Southeast
Asians, is another subject. If the commit
ment was not worth American lives, then
the Kennedy commitment was hypocrisy
on the part of our government. If it was
worth one or more American lives, then one
is quibbling about how many ... unless one
is thinking about malfeasance, dereliction
of duty or treachery in carrying out the
commitment.
1 Why J
The total collapse of the American Sp Leasing
by the end of 1972 caused events oh andteac
following two years (from January Will educatn
April 1975) to go unnoticed and tks ;. Marys w
appreciated. By 27 January 1973, thek C >1 or be
the U.S. combat forces had departed^ The l
South Vietnam. On 7 November Iffl,
Kennedy commitment was de
shambles by the War Powers Resoli
passed by Congress over a Presidi
veto. Still another 13 months
before North Vietnam could again i
sufficient military supplies to re-invat World '
neighbor to the south. Abandonedbyli, rents, th
the authoritarian government ofra Educatic
Vietnam fell to the totalitarian goverac ofTduca
of North Vietnam (though not as quiet: ^ 1967
Poland did to Germany in 1939.
iared 1!
led. Ir
the righl
been bre
by the re
educatio
In the
were required instead of 30 days). Mii K ech ;
Kennedy feared would happen to Mb
, .1 • i i j^erc ci i]
Asia did happen.
otion
What the really concernedcitizeni; In 197
be asking is how the U.S. militarydm vs, the
the ’69-’72 period could fulfill the Kei®) stated th
commitment with fewer and fewer trt! °f handi
and with correspondingly lowercostiife "ght to
than during the ’65-68 period? Ands I i
keep Southeast Asia free for anottai
years without any American combatfc
in South Vietnam! (i 0Ii a g ai
| There
hensive
icapped
States, c
attendee
the White House taking a jaundiced view of
new federal intrusions into the private sec
tor, stopping lobbyists should have a much
easier time of it.
Keeping usually is the lobbyist’s easiest
task. Most often, a lobbyist doesn’t have to
do anything to keep those federal dollars
flowing once a goodie has been embedded
in the budget and the bureaucracy. It fre
quently becomes self-perpetuating, with
federal employees in Washington and be
neficiaries elsewhere in the country doing
the work to keep the benefit alive.
But keeping is now under the gun. The
Reagan administration has compiled a huge
“hit list” of federal benefits it says have to be
reduced and eliminated, and that looks like
work for hundreds of once-complacent lob
byists who had little to do other than make
sure that the food was warm and the wine
was cold when their clients came to visit
Washington.
It is impossible to say how this will affect
the lobbying industry in Washington, but it
could result in a whole new lineup of allies
among the special interests.
Ever since the civil rights-crusades of the
1960s, coalitions of groups that appear to
have divergent interests have been popular
among Washington lobbyists. Most of that
activity has been aimed at getting some
thing from the federal government, but it is
not unreasonable that the same technique
might be adapted for keeping.
If that becomes the case, members of
Congress may find lobbyists on their door
steps eager to make a case for dairy price
supports, food stamps, AMTRAK subsidies
and Saturday mail service. Sounds strange,
but this is Washington.
The Si
is sponsi
test. Stu(
asked to •
The win:
prize.
The 1c
rary sen
service t
The c<
I -Th
A&M st
Multipl
mitted.
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design si
a 12 incl
V2 inch 1
It’s your turn
Illegalparkers bother disabled
Editor:
I’m writing this letter in compliance with
the fact that the handicapped parking
spaces on this campus are unkept and ex
tremely misused. I am not severely hand
icapped, but nonetheless I have to park in
the disabled areas. Many times I have
driven up to a disabled spot and found a car
parked there, one without a disabled sticker
of any type. Most of the time I realize that
they are only parked there for a short while
but I have to go on and find the next spot
which is sometimes far away from where
I’m trying to go. Anyone with less than 60
hours that is disabled has to park with the
rest of his class when the disabled spots are
taken up. Some of the disabled spots on this
campus are not marked will enough for the
non-disabled to distinguish them as such. If
all of the areas had the handicapped symbol
of a person in a wheelchair then they would
be much easier to distinguish. And on the
weekends I’ve seen many illegal parkers in
these spots but no tickets on them. Hey, I
am disabled on the weekends as well as the
weekdays! And what about those in wheel
chairs?
Gary Jackson
Not all are good Ags
Editor:
I just read Mr. Wagner’s letter (2/18) and
I couldn’t agree more. It is important to
keep A&M pure. After-all there are only
certain kinds of people that make good Ags.
In past years homosexuals have tried to
form on campus. They obviously don’t fit in
here — they talk funny and don’t know how
to have a good time. But, A&M pulled
together and, with the help of Texas law,
withstood the Gay scourge.
Now the Greeks are trying to come on
campus. They dress funny and spend too
A lib<
thougl
Torn
bate Te
Nationa
I am afraid that we have been lax inf (NCPA(
vigilance and allowed several subvew MSC P<
groups into our midsts. For example,#, “We
students — they spend all their timesttf said San
ing and sometimes seem more interested will be
graduating than in joining the “Aggiefr* NC;p./
nity.” The Student Government doesnl Bayh, G
in either. Those people spend all theirti it marks
hanging around the SPO planning if' be help.
political careers.
ch
much time partying. Besides, other
schools have Greeks. They simply don’t
show proper Aggie spirit. There is no
doubt their request needs to be turned
down.
Our watchdogs in the system havesfl
us from homosexuality, but their job is
done. They must stop the vile threat#'
by fraternities and sororities. TheysW
also review existing organizations so wet
“Keep that brotherly spirit” and pros
say “some of we are Aggies, and theAj!?
are some of we.”
David Witzel !
ebate.
Polit
The Battalion
By Scott McCullar
HET, LET'S
THIS ONE,
ONE IN A
STOP AND 5E£
I HAVEN'T REAP
LoNe rine.
OH NO, YOU'RE NOT R£ALLY|
G0/N6 TO MAKE Nl£ STOP
JUST TO SEE SOME..
%
HISTORICAL
MARKE R
1 MILE
OH COME ON,
SOMETIMES THEY'RE
REALLY INTERESTING.;
TALK
ABOUT BEING
PRIVEA/
CKAZ.Y...
■
SOMEWHERE RIGHT NOW
THE WHOLE STATE
tt/STORICAL SOCIETY IS
G16GLIM6 JO DEATH.
A\l\
THIS is THE FIRST BLACR
MA6IC MARKER EVER MADE
IT WAS /NYEA/TED ON THIS
SITE IN l«i« tfA&i
MEMBER ISPS
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Congress
Editor Dillard Stone
Managing Editor Angelique Copeland
Asst. Managing Editor Todd Woodard
City Editor Debbie Nelson
Asst. City Editor Marcy Boyce
News Editors Venita M<k3ellon,
Scot K. Meyer
Sports Editor. Richard Oliver
Focus Editor Cathy Saathoff
Asst. Focus Editor Susan Hopkins
Staff Writers Carolyn Barnes,
Jane G. Brust, Terry Duran, Bernie Fette,
Cindy Gee, Jon Heidtke, Glenn Krampota,
Kate McElroy, Belinda McCoy,
Marjorie McLaughlin, Kathy O’Connell,
Ritchie Priddy, Rick Stolle
Cartoonist Scott McCullar
Photo Editor Greg Gammon
Photographers Chuck Chapman
Brian Tate
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talion are those of the editor or the author, and do not
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ty administrators or faculty members, or of the Board of
Regents.
045 360
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students in reporting, editing and photography
within the Department of Communications.
Questions or comments concerning any editorial
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/T
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Address all inquiries and correspondence to: Editor,®*I
Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M Univfi*' 1 1
College Station, TX 77843.
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