The Battalion
VIE WPOINT
August 31, 1981
Slouch By Jim Earle
WELCOMi
TO OUQ. _
BEST BV(
ads’
new
‘Negative
campaign technique
By DAVID S. BRODER
WASHINGTON — Fred Wertheimer,
the new president of Common Cause, has
an ingenious idea that could solve one of the
more vexing problems that has popped up
recently in our politics. It is the question of
how to deal with “independent expenditure
groups” that come into a state or district,
not to help elect a particular candidate but
to defeat someone else.
The most publicized of these groups,
which claimed to have scalped several li
beral Democratic senators in 1980, is Terry
Dolan’s National Conservative Political Ac
tion Committee. NCPAC moved in early in
such states as Idaho, South Dakota and In
diana — months ahead of the formal selec
tion of a Republican challenger — and be
gan an advertising campaign aimed at the
record of the Democratic incumbents.
Encouraged by the victories in those
races in 1980, Dolan’s group has started in
on an expanded program of “targeting” for
1981. Other groups are seeking to imitate
the technique, and liberals have organized
at least three groups of their own to fight
fire with fire.
The clear prospect is that unless some
way is found to break the cycle, the air
waves and newspaper pages are going to be
filled with a rising volume of “negative ads”
blasting away at Senator Jones or Represen
tative Smith.
What is wrong with that? you ask.
Assuredly, Sen. Jones and Rep. Smith miss
no opportunity to tell their constituents
how lucky they are to have such great men
speaking for them in Congress. And the
Supreme Court has held rightly that when
Congress legislated limits on campaign
spending, it could not constitutionally
abridge the right of individuals or groups,
operating independently of the candidates,
to say through advertising what they
thought of the merits or demerits of the
aspirants.
Acknowledging all that, there are still
two or three things about the independent
expenditures groups that are troublesome.
They are not really accountable to anyone
There would still be room for the inde
pendent campaign expenditures. A group
that wanted to go off on its own and publize
its views on policy issues or its support for a
particular candidate, without consulting
anyone else, would still have the freedom to
do so. But if it chose to attack someone, it
would do so with the knowledge that its
target would gain an automatic right to
reply.
My guess is that the effect of such a rule
would be to return responsibility and con
trol of the election campaigns to the parties
and the candidates, which is where they
belong. It strikes me as an idea that is worth
Congress considering when it takes up the
question of federal election law amend
ments later this year.
The Battalion
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Today’s Battalion
es
— a look
back while planning ahead
By DEI
Bi
Last wee
rop-add am
suit of pro 1
entered
Associa
|D. Carter.
By ANGELIQUE COPELAND
Battalion Editor
Remember when the toughest thing ab
out going back to school was convincing
your mom that you really needed the super
deluxe 84-crayon box of Crayolas with the
sharpener in the back?
Things have definitely changed.
Say you successfully fought the traffic
through town and found a place to park
within two miles of campus. Say you even
survived the registration lines, the drop/
add lines and the bookstore lines without
giving up and going home. You still have
the task of settling into a new apartment or
dorm and school life, maybe for the first
time.
In this Back-to-School edition of The
Battalion, we have tried to supply you with
information that will make that transition
easier. In Section D there are stories on
how to get everything hooked up in your
new apartment, as well as where to go for
help if it’s only been one day and you
already want to disown your roommate.
In this section there are stories on how to
survive dorm life. Throughout the paper
there is information about the campus, its
people and the traditions that shape what it
really means to be an Aggie.
And because the beginning of school can
get you down, there are some stories that
will just help you smile when the person
behind the desk tells you you’ve been
standing in the wrong line for the last hour.
In Section F there is valuable information
for new students on “How not to act like a
freshman” and Section D will tell you how
to distinguish between a “Good Ag” and
“Two-percenter.” There is even a word
search in Section F to help you pass the
time when you finally make it into the right
line.
This is the last edition of the paper that is
put out by the summer Battalion staff.
We’ve been here throughout installation of
the new campus phone system, the College
Station water shortage, and the naming of a
new University president. For the more
than 25,000 students who spent their sum-
Some s
rough the
mer anywhere but College Station, tb ' ve ^ r ® vi!
a recap of these and other local even!; f, ses ., es
this section of the paper. f 0 ™
Throughout the coming year, The! lesshowei
taion will try and keep you up-to-date! t hours in:
informed on campus events and administ
tive decisions, as well as provide in™ 1 ' ^' e tr ' et
to how these things will affect your life
education at Texas A&M University. Tie r saic ] - T j.
our job. the softw
„ , , . . „ . red into th
But it s your job to tell us moreohi lt a com p
you want to see and read in The Battalioi mdpoint ol
college newspaper should supply itsi inter bein;
dents, faculty and staff with the informit l g to 11111 1
they need daily as well as stories on to Students v
iha, inieres, then,. ^
This page, the editorial page, proi through t
you with an open forum to express; j iave
ideas, concerns and opinions about tliei ^
we do our job and any other aspect ofl .^ected
Texas A&M. It’s up to you to provids j w ji] not
with input so we can make The Battalioi mputer sy
accurate, informative resource for the iff
atwethoui
lyofhandl
versity.
but themselves and — as NCPAC’s exam
ple shows — they are not exactly scrupu
lous about the evidence they use in their
roundhouse swings at their targets. If poli
tics were as closely refereed as, say, hock
ey, Dolan would have spent a lot of time in
the penalty box.
Second, the din of negative advertising
does tend to denigrate and drown out the
healthy debate between candidates and
parties that ought to be the heart of any
campaign. And an avowedly independent
negative campaign can tilt the odds in a
contest by softening up the incumbent or
forcing him to spend from his own funds,
not against his opponent but against this
outside group.
Wertheimer’s suggestion is ingeniously
simple: Provide a right of free reply for the
target of the independent expenditure cam
paign. For every negative ad that is run
attacking him, give the person under the
gun equal time and space, without charge,
to respond.
What I like about the idea is that it effec
tively discourages the negative campaigns
without impairing what is, I think, an im
portant constitutional right to organize such
a campaign. Anybody would still have the
right to get up on the soapbox and holler.
But he would know that the fellow he was
hollering about would be right up there
next to deliver his rebuttal.
I AM AN
ENVIRONMENT!
EXTREMIST.
IA plan to
pas A&M 1
proved by I
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At their J
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Schola
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The future is closer than you think
Fifteen
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Texas A&M
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Holidays
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Texas Veter
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Thanksgi
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1, 1!
By DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON — A Jeep that runs on
sunflower oil. A BMW that runs on dates
and prunes. A wood-burning Dodge pick
up. A garbage-powered Volkwagen. A Saab
sedan whose fuel is partly derived from
artichokes.
These are some of the 200-odd — and I
do mean ODD — vehicles that will be par
ticipating next month in a crosscountry
“Future Fuels Challenge Rally.” They
seem to indicate the future is closer than we
might have realized.
I was particularly impressed by what was
described in a rally poop sheet as “an entry
running on wood smoke.”
If there is one thing we have in abund
ance in this country it is wood smoke. But
most of it now goes to waste up the
chimney.
If, as the entry list suggests, someone has
found a way to harness the energy of wood
smoke, that surely would be a giant step
toward the ultimate in fuel-efficient trans
portation — a car that runs on air pollution.
The rally is scheduled to begin Sept. 5 in
Los Angeles. In that city, the auto of the
future might be the Smogmobile, a vehicle
that uses freeway fumes for fuel.
Finding some way to recycle smog is one
of man’s oldest dreams. And now it appa
rently is almost at hand.
After stops in Las Vegas, Denver, Oma
ha, Chicago, Cleveland and Buffalo, the
race will end Sept. 12 at Rochester, N. Y. In
some of those areas, a car that runs on acid
rain would be most welcome.
As things now stand, chemicals that fac
tories spew into the atmosphere and that
fall back to Earth with the gentle rain from
heaven serve no worthwhile purpose. In
deed, there have been complaints from far
mers and foresters that crops and trees are
being ruined by acid rain.
But put it into the fuel tanks of auto
mobiles and it wouldn’t be long before we
Spring bi
inclusive
Indepenc
I The holi
Texas Veter
(nostic Laboi
would have a sort of acid rain OPEC set 1 ^or D;
the stuff around the world. ( u u •
In some ways, though, the published: i an , s ^ n
of participants in the 2,700-mile race"- | ve ns ma ‘
bit disappointing. New Yeai
I spotted among the entrants a ‘^Ifwashingt
runs on animal waste. I spotted a Che'S
that runs on fuel partly made fromSpring br
the watery milk left over from mi
cheese. But nowhere did I spotacar^
runs on nuclear waste.
That type of car would be an approp'-j
solution to what has become one of“
country’s most vexing problems—wtii 1
do with the waste material created by •
lear power plants.
A rally information sheet notes
“some entrants are very secretive,
could be a such a car already has bee
vented and is being saved for a surpris
If so, it may mean the future is
enough to reach out and grab us b
throats.
Warped
By Scott McCullar