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The Battalion
Viewpoint
October 13,1981
Slouch
By Jim Earle
Vve never seen a more insensitive professor! We go through
a painful, agonizing weekend where we barely win by one
point, and he wants to go ahead with regular class assign
ments as if nothing happened!”
Tupperware for the White House
By DICK WEST
United Press Internationa]
WASHINGTON — The wife of a president
never knows when her husband might
bring 220 of his closest friends home for a
state dinner. And certainly it is better to
have 220 place settings than for some of the
guests to have to borrow mess kits or eat olf
the bare doilies.
So who can blame Mrs. Ronald Reagan
for ordering $209,508 worth of new china
for the White House?
After all, as the president pointed out at
this latest news conference, china does get
broken, even at the executive mansion.
Agreeing that Mrs. Reagan got a “bum
rap” on the matter does not, however, pre
clude our having a national debate on table
ware policy.
The next time a first family finds there
aren’t enough cups, saucers, plates and but
ter dishes to go around there may not be an
“anonymous donor” standing by to pick up
the bill for replacements.
The cost of restocking the White House
china cabinet might well fall upon us ordin
ary taxpayers. It is therefore proper that we
have a voice in how the money is spent.
One compromise the president’s wife
might consider is giving a Tupperware par
ty. I feel certain the firm would make a
substantial contribution to the White
House pantry in exchange for the exposure
its products would receive.
The beauty of such an arrangement is
that Tupperware is guaranteed against
breakage. State dinners, press receptions,
private gatherings, it could survive them
all.
Tupperware, unfortunately, does not
make table settings as such. It specializes in
refrigerator containers for storing leftovers
and the like. However, it does offer such
table items as coffee mugs, cream and sugar
servers and water tumblers. Moreover, a
woman who arranges Tupperware home
parties in this area assured me the lids of
some containers can double as serving
dishes.
And talk about cheap! The White House
could buy a Tupperware lid foraf
the $950 a place setting of the newij
costing.
The main advantage, though,'
insurance against embarrassment
Can you imagine how chagrinedijp 1 ^ 0
ing head of state would feel ifhebeca
first White House guest to breakout! nt!, j t '
new plates? rj r(
I don t care how hard the hostamHn L ser]
tried to pretend nothing had happeit “Higl
accident like that could have the mala (treate
a diplomatic contretemps. |se, sti
Would the plate-breaker returns
home country feeling kindly dispost |° r ^
ward the United States? Orwouldtlt ! nte f, a
dent be so seared into his brain tlJ 0
would enroll in a course in remedial* ees
passing and harbor dark thoughts eadfff in( j
America’s name was mentioned? K on gt
Don’t ask.
With Tupperware, by contrast, !■
House dinner guests could evenplaij
bee with the serving dishes withoutli
mortification.
Negative campaigning
polluting East Coast
By DAVID S. BRODER
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — If the air
pollution problem on the East Coast seems
a little worse than usual this fall, it may be
because of the gubernatorial campaigns
going on here in New Jersey and down in
Virginia. The “negative advertising” in
which too much of the country was sur
feited last autumn is back again, as polluting
as ever, in this year’s only two statehouse
contests.
It is futile to rail against the practice. But
sometime, somewhere, somebody is going
to have to reckon the costs of winning votes
in a way that poisons the whole political
process.
In New Jersey, two men with rather
distinguished careers as legislators are
opposing each other for governor. Thomas
H. Kean, the Republican, is a former speak
er of the assembly, a political moderate
with a long family tradition of public ser
vice. James J. Florio, the Democrat, is a
former state legislator who came to the
House of Representatives in 1974 and has
built an enviable record as a leader on trans
portation and environmental issues.
Both men have excellent personal repu
tations and both would seem to have some
positive ideas to offer.
But you listen to their campaign ads, and
this is what you hear: From the Florio camp
comes the charge that Kean is involved (you
won’t believe this) in a big-money scheme
to launch a dangerous uranium mining ven
ture in northern New Jersey. His tax plan is
all for Exxon and Gulf.
From the Kean camp, the reply is that
Florio is a hopeless big-spender and the
political clone of outgoing Gov. Brendan
Byrne (D). (No matter that Florio ran
against Byrne in the primary four years ago
and trounced Byrne’s hand-picked candi
date in the primary last June.)
Down in Virginia, the candidates are two
personable young conservatives, Lt. Gov.
Charles S. Robb (D) and Attorney General
Marshall Coleman (R). Both men happen to
be ex-Marines, and the camaraderie of the
corps might be thought sufficient immunity
against mudslinging. Not so.
Robb suggested in a sly commercial that
Coleman might be squishy-soft on crime
because he had once said the “marijuana is
not a serious criminal problem.” Rather
than demanding proof of the dubious prop
osition that it is such a problem, Coleman
put on his own ad, inquiring whether Robb
had been “smoking something funny.”
Just to complete this elevated dialogue,
Robb replied that he happened to be a non-
smoker, quickly adding that, of course, he
had nothing against the tobacco industry.
What are voters to make of this non
sense? I think it’s very clear what they make
of it. It makes them sick. It is a libel on the
voters of Virginia and New Jersey to suggest
that they are capable of responding only to
this kind of drivel.
I think the voters of New Jersey — or any
of the other older industrial states — are
aware of the drain of manufacturing jobs, of
the competitive threats of the low-cost
energy centers in the South and West, and
of the needs for better education and more
efficient delivery of services for the dispos
sessed in the cities.
Similarly, I think the voters ofVirginia —
like those in the other growth states — are
aware of the strains that new industry is
placing on the environment and the public-
service agencies, of the balancing act that
will be required to preserve the virtues of
the state in a period of rapid expansion.
To chatter at these voters about imagin
ary devils of uranium or marijuana or other
nonsense is to insult them — and turn them
away from the polls.
Why do candidates do it? They do it
preemptively, because they think the other
guy will take some cheap shot against them,
if they don’t get in their own knee to the
groin first.
Jow White, the New York ad man hand
ling the Florio campaign, said, “I used to
think that negative advertising was some
thing you used only at the very end of a
campaign — if ever. But I did radio for a lot
of Democratic senators in 1980, and I saw a
lot of negative ads, used early, to under
mine our guys, and they were very effec
tive. I’m not going to let that happen to Jim
(Florio), so we’ve kept at least one negative
ad going all the time.”
That may make sense as a tactic, but it’s
like the merchant who sticks a “fire sale”
sign in the window and just keeps it there.
Eventually, people figure out that he’s sell
ing shoddy goods.
Unless and until the politicians and their
hired guns recognize that the unremitting
negativism of their ad campaigns despoils
the very process in which they are inviting
the voters to take part, I think the public is
going to be increasingly turned off. And the
public will be right.
Warped
HEY, YOU'VE
HAD YOUR
HAIR CUT.
YEAH, WELL
IT WAS
PAUL,
MERRITT, SAY,
YOU’VE HAP
YOUR HAIR CUT.
UH, YEAH
A L L E A/,
PAUL WAS
JUST...
Editor:
This is an open letter to the Board of
Regents:
I am writing this letter, hoping to get it
completed before another power blackout
occurs.
Over the past decade, this school has
experienced uncontrolled, phenomenal
growth. Years ago, this great school should
have limited enrollment so that inconveni
ences would be lessened. Alas, the Re
gent’s desire to accumulate more research
money by increasing student enrollment
has serious side effects. Power goes off often
(6 times in the past year); leaking faucets
abound. Some classrooms (like my Math
405 class) don’t have enough good chairs for
students because many are broken and ha
ven’t been fixed since school started. This
school has many friendly people, but I don’t
want this school to become another Michi
gan (ie 65,000 students).
Unfortunately, we, the students, are the
ones who will suffer. The Board of Regents
seems insensitive to the student body, and
Editor:
After reading Dan Garcia’s letter that
By Scott McCullar
HAVE YOU EVER A/OTICED
HOW EVERYONE TELLS YOU
WHEN YOU'VE HAD YOUR HAIR
CUT, LIKE YOU DIDN'T KNOW?,
USPS 045 360
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