The Battalion
Viewpoint
A.
October 9,1981
(
< i
11
i \
1
11
11
Slouch By Jim Earle
‘‘The power outage is over? I haven’t gotten around to turning
the lights on. ”
By DAVID S. BRODER
WASHINGTON — The rescue of the
presidential nominating system from the
wounds it has suffered in the last 10 years of
“reform” is a task whose urgency has been
recognized by both national political par
ties. The Democrats and Republicans have
both chartered commissions empowered to
recommend changes in public participa
tion, delegate-selection caucuses, pres
idential primaries and nominating conven
tion rules.
That effort to overhaul the procedures by
which we choose the principal candidates
for the most important office in the land has
been powerfully stimulated and challenged
by the report published last week by the
Duke University Forum on Presidential
Nominations, a bipartisan body including
past chairmen and presidential aspirants of
both parties and headed by Duke Universi
ty President Terry Sanford, himself a two-
time contender for the Democratic nomina
tion.
The report is addressed to the political
parties, and its chief message is that the
parties themselves must accept the respon
sibility for the recent corruption of the
presidential nomination process and for its
necessary rehabilitation.
In a single paragraph, the report bluntly
states why the present system (with its mul
titude of primaries feeding a mass-media
hunger for the hero-candidate whose
magical “momentum” will lock up to nomi
nation long before most voters have the
contest in focus) “ill serves the purposes of
the nation.”
“It saps interest, distorts choice, elimin
ates judgment, narrows the popuar base,
spans too long a period, and squeezes out of
the deliberative process those peers whose
evaluations and cooperation the choice of a
president viattly requires,” the Sanford re
port says. “Most significantly, the present
system radically erodes the foundation of
the one institution most necessary to its
effective operation: the political party.”
Of the five main recommendations San
ford and Co. make, only one is virually
certain to be adopted by the Democratic
Party rules commission headed by San
ford’s friend and neighbor, North Carolina
Gov. James Hunt. That is the recommenda
tion to make members of Congress and
other major elected officials automatic vot
ing members of their states’ convention de
legations.
There will be no great controversy in the
Hunt Commission or its counterpart in the
GOP, headed by Ernest Angelo of Texas,
about two other recommendations from the
Sanford group. They are to “revitalize the
That would not only shorten the primary
season, it would discourage many states
from even bothering to hold primaries. And
it would provide the intervals needed to
deny those early-primary plurality winners
their cheap “momentum” victories the next
Tuesday.
That change may be very desirable, but it
required a more massive rearrangement of
the election calendar than either party now
seems ready to mandate. Still, it is less
controversial than the last of the Sanford
Commission’s recommendations, the one it
calls the most vital.
That is simply a call for ending the candi
dates’ veto power over the choice of their
own delegates and for freeing all the dele
gates from binding commitments of support
for particular candidates.
That recommendation poses, in the blun
test fashion, the fundamental question both
parties must decide: What is the criterion
for legitimacy in the nominating process?
The thrust of the “reforms’ of the past
decade has been to make the convention an
automatic device for recording and ratifying
the candidate choices already made by par
ticipants in the primaries and state conven
tions.
The Sanford Commission suggests a dif
ferent kind of convention — one of creden-
tialed representatives of party constituen
cies, deliberating among themselves on the
choice of the best person to head the ticket.
The report says that “freeing the dele
gates is the key recommendation we
bring,” because “failure to free the dele
gates could mean the end of the national
party convention as a deliberative body,”
and that, in turn, would “clearly signal the
demise of political parties in this country.”
Well, the 1980 conventions were any
thing but deliberative bodies. And some
how the parties have survived. But the
issue the Sanford Commission raises is the
fundamental one. And the closer the Hunt
and Angelo Commissions come to addres
sing it head-on, the better off the parties
and the country will be.
Warped
Change the name to a WACS
By DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Debate over the prop
osed sale of AWACS to Saudi Arabia has
been heavily laced with talk of compromise.
Thus far, none of the modified plans has
managed to ease Israeli qualms about an
Arab country obtaining sophisticated radar
planes, Saudi Arabian qualms about relin
quishing its sovereignty over the aircraft,
and congressional qualms about losing
votes in the next election.
bit. It also is likely that some still can see
pretty good, especially when wearing bifoc
al contact lenses.
Very well. Here is the scam:
Congress puts aside the thorny AWACS
issue and votes instead to revive the WAC
organiation as an aerial
unit.
WAC’s plane could properly bedesc
as having sophisticated survellianceo
bility.
reconnaissance
Some of the WACs I knewduringl
War II were highly sophisticated,
they seemed to a young recruit froi
kel, Texas.
The Air Force could easily outfit an
observation plane with a plastic bubble
from which a WAC could see what was
happening in the skies.
So now it is back to Square One.
On the premise that one unacceptable
compromise is as valid as another, I hereby
offer one of my own.
Older readers may recall that women
who served in the Army during World War
II were known as WACs. Some of them
were used as aircraft spotters and, I under
stand, became quite good at it.
As the plane flew over the Middle East
ern deserts, a WAC would climb up into the
bubble and peer around hostile foreign air
craft, missiles and satellites. Any sightings
would be radioed back to the air base,
which would send up fighter planes to in
tercept the intruders.
It is quite possible that modern Bi
the Saudi Arabian capital, is some
more sophisticated than Merkel
Nevertheless, I have no doubtagreati
WACs have retained enough savoir-fc
meet most national standards.
As for Saudi sovereignty, anymisgj
along that line probably could beassi
by making the WACs honorary citizei
Riyadh.
Most WAC veterans. I’m sure, would
welcome being recalled to duty. A few
probably even could fit into their old uni
forms, if the hips and waist were let out a
Such a flying machine could legitimately
be called a WAC’s plane. And it might be
just the compromise that would be toler
able to Saudi Arabia, the Israel and Con
gress.
The main question might be whether a
I’m not suggesting that buyinga\\
plane would be precisely the sametb
acquiring AWACS. The latter stand
Airborne Warning and Control Sy
whereas the former set of initials on
from Women’s Army Corps. Butasloi
the acronyms are homonymic, I can!
the Saudis quibbling over technical deli
P'-M OOLVtW 7->' r " AV.'HWUl - in f A- :'-V» "5
System must be rescued
from years of ‘reform ’
local party caucus’ as the locus for most
delegate-choosing decisions, and to “re
move every possible barrier to convenient
participation” in those caususes. Those re
commendations are very much in the spirit
of the rules changes in the last decade.
It is unlikely that the Democrats or Re
publicans will go as far in restricting primar
ies as Sanford and Co. would like. Their
report suggests that all primaries be
squeezed into a four-month period, with
one day a month set by party rules for the
voting.
It s your turn
The I
merican
onthly b
Message from ‘Cougar High’
Editor:
Once more the powerful Cougars will rip
your campus into millions of pieces as we
destroy your pitiful football team Saturday.
Everyone knows we own the road to Dallas
and the Cotton Bowl, and now we’ll take
over Highway 6 and the Aggies’ campus,
too.
Call us Cougar High all you want. My
two best friends play for UH and they know
that every time they hear that “Beat the hell
outa Cougar High” it’s time to score
another touchdown. You guys are so stupid
you never know when to quit with that
infantile remark that degrades our universi
ty. Keep on saying it. We keep on scoring.
It fires our guys up like nothing else does.
Besides, everyone knows there’s no high
like a Cougar High! A&M will be still drag
ging from barely lucking out over Tech, and
the alumni will be firing their coaches and
crying to the sky about how bad UH beat
them come Saturday. Your coach doesn’t
know east from west and your offense
doesn’t know north from south, that’s why
they never can find the end zone and beat a
class team like Houston.
But we love to play you guys. The
coaches relax and let your stupid Cougar
High yells or whatever fire up our guys,
then we roll over another SWC sucker and
travel to our “Home away from Home, ” the
Cotton Bowl. Or hadn’t you seen our signs?
Good luck, farmers. You need lots of it.
And a bigger hospital, too!
Eat em UP, COOGS!
Someone noticed
Editor:
uesday al
Cliurcl
Dan Garcia
Houston
I recently noticed an Texas A&M parfc
permit decal on the rear window of an ant
mobile for “Freshman-Sophomore.”
Don’t you agree the University shoii
issue an immediate recall and correct I
spelling of sophmore?
Leonard Herrntf 1
By Scott McCuUar
YEAH.
The Battalion
USPS 045 360
MEMBER
Texas Press Association
Editor Angelique Copeland
Managing Editor Marcy Boyce
City Editor Jane G. Brust
Asst. City Editor Kathy O’Connell
Photo Editor Greg Gammon
Sports Editor Ritchie Priddy
Focus Editor Cathy Saathoff
Asst. Focus Editor Debbie Nelson
News Editors Jennifer Afflerbach
Bernie Fette, Belinda McCoy
Diana Sultenfuss
StaffWriters Frank L. Christlieb
Randy Clements, Gaye Denley, Terry Duran
Nancy Floeck, Phyllis Henderson
Colette Hutchings, Denise Richter, Rick Stolle
Nancy Weatherley
Cartoonist Scott McCullar
Graphic Artist Richard DeLeon Jr.
Photographers Brian Tate
Becky Swanson, Dave Einsel
The Battalion also servos as a laboratory newspaper^
students in reporting, editing and photography clasH 1
within the Department of Communications.
Questions or comments concerning any editorial maW
should he directed to the editor.
LETTERS POLICY
Letters to the Editor should not exceed 300 words*
length, and are subject to being cut if they are longer. Tk
editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters forst
length, but will make every effort to maintain the author
intent. Each letter must also be signed, show the addres*
and phone number of the writer.
Columns and guest editorials are also welcome, andar*
not subject to the same length constraints as letters
Address all inquiries and correspondence to: Editor, Tl*
Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M University.
College Station, TX 77843.
EDITORIAL POLICY
The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspaper
operated as a community service to Texas A&M University
and Bryan-College Station. Opinions expressed in The Bat
talion are those of the editor or the author, and do not
necessarily represent the opinions of Texas A&M Universi
ty administrators or faculty members, or of the Board of
Regents.
The Battalion is published daily during Texas A&M’sf®
and spring semesters, except for holiday and examinatioi
periods. Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester, $33.2>
per school year and $35 per full year. Advertising raW
furnished on request.
Our address: The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald Build
ing, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843.
United Press International is entitled exclusively to tilt
use for reproduction of all news dispatches credited toil
Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein reserved
Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843
a