opinion
—
1 ■-
Tune in for tomorrow
‘As the Senate turns’
by Dick West
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The series of de
bates over whether to change Senate
rules to permit television cameras in the
chamber have been canceled for the rest
of the season.
Sorry about that, folks.
The 60-day interruption means it will
be at least midsummer, or probably after
the 10-day July 4 recess, before the Sen
ate decides whether to pick up the op
tion.
One argument in favor of televising
Senate proceedings concerns the fun and
challenge it would provide for puzzle
fans.
If Rubik’s Cube and the Sunday dou
ble-acrostics tax your powers of concen
tration, wait until you try untangling
some of the parliamentary situations the
Senate gets itself enmeshed in.
Indeed, these legislative snarls may ex
plain why senators need so many reces
ses. It could be they get all tuckered out
trying to cope with the parliamentary
situations.
I doubt, however, that the television
issue itself will necessitate adding to the
three recesses of 10 days or more the
Senate already has scheduled between
now and the end of August.
Strangely, the parliamentary situa
tions created by tne television debate
have been relatively simply. One was
neatly clarified by Sen. James McClure,
R-Idaho, shortly before the Senate voted
last week to send the issue back to the
rules committee for two months. Said
McClure:
“I am informed that at no time from
1884 to the present has the Senate ever
amended its rules by using the technique
of adding an amendment changing the
rules of the Senate to a resolution pend
ing before the Senate which itself did not
amend the rules.”
See how cut and dried it all was? Cer
tainly nothing in that situation would re
quire senators to take off for 10 days, or
until their heads stopped spinning,
whichever came first.
Compare, if you will, the beautiful sim
plicity of the situation so tidily summed
up by McClure with the mindboggling
parliamentary situation that arose a cou
ple of years ago during the Fair Housing
debate.
As the Congressional Record so aptly
put it:
‘‘The question is on agreeing to the
motion to lay on the table the motion to
reconsider the vote by which the motion
to lay on the table the motion to proceed
to the consideration of the Fair Housing
Bill was rejected.”
Now that is the type of situation that
might force a senator to lie down and rest
a bit.
As it turned out, the vote was 61-31 in
favor of this particular question with
eight senators, who might have re
mained in a quandry, not voting.
“So,” the Recora summarized, “the
motion to lay on the table the motion to
reconsider the vote by which the motion
to lay on the table the motion to proceed
to the consideration of the Fair Housing
Bill (H.R. 5200) was rejected was agreed
to.”
Too bad there wasn’t any Senate televi
sion back then.
Slouch
By Jim Earle
Would you graduating seniors continue your count-down
until graduation in minutes instead of in seconds? It
would be appreciated by those of us who are not gra
duating.
The Battalion
USPS 045 360
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w
Those quickly forgotten senators
of sc
by Steve Gerstel
WASHINGTON — Nicholas F. Brady
of New Jersey is the latest addition to the
Senate and the natural impulse is to won
der why he would desert the canyons of
Wall Street for a summer in the city built
atop a swamp.
Brady is one of a rare species of poli
tical creations which dot the history
books — an appointed seat-warming
senator who foreswears running for elec
tion in his own right.
These types are usually friends and
cronies, or both, of those in a position to
appoint and very often they have labored
in the party vineyards long and loyally.
Among the most recent that come to
mind are Kaneaster Hodges of Arkansas,
Benjamin Smith of Massachusetts and
Hub Walters of Tennessee.
They provide ample proof that these
short-term appointed senators have just
about no impact on the national scene
and are hurriedly forgotten.
Their only solace is being addressed as
senator for the rest of their lives, usually
by people who want something.
Although Brady has the right connec
tions to get appointed and has been active
in Republican politics, he does not seem
to fit the mold.
As his biography indicates, Brady has
been a super success in the world of busi
ness and at the professional mid-life of
52, he is at the top.
Brady, a millionaire, was, until his
appointment, head of Dillon, Read and
Co., an investment banking outfit, and
chairman of Purolator Inc. He was also a
director of NCR Corp. and the Bessemer
Securities Corp.
At a news conference — the first he has
ever held — Brady said he had resigned
“every business connection that I know
of.
“I put it that way because after 28 years
in business, you don’t even realize what
you have,” Brady said.
With those credentials, Brady hardly
needs a six-month ego trip. And at 52, he
is still too young for the meaningless hon
ors reserved for age.
Why, then, did Brady decide on the
six-month sabbatical from business.
Well, Brady told reporters in
Washington that his decision was partly
based on loyalty to friends.
Two of those friends are Vice Presi
dent George Bush, for whom he worked
by Randy I
Battalion R
in the 198U pre-convemionra^ °^’
campaign, and Thomas Kafone ofth^se style
New Jersey governor. the Texas A &m
“I’ve always felt in life than bine all three,
your friends ask,” Brady saiiM The 12-m
There are those who woulc.f evolved in 1974 <
that kind of philosophy leadssBp'adition Singer
the business world. Century Singers
Another reason he 5av(|™ us ' c n( J t an an >
wanted to “pitch in” seemsiiM 0 -J! h * t ^^ e i iers
ble. Many men in the privatesf J, be Sunday at
some point an obligation top,®
— either doing it themselvesal ~
leering sons and daughters.
Yet, neither of these e\*<
seem quite adequate.
What lirady might bedoi^H
ing the interim appointmenti i
' ical c
some more political dues inan.i. *
of becoming even more actnflr
arena.
It wouldn’t be surprisingitSf'
turns to Washington at sontefl'
he leaves the Senate.
T he move could come dun
second Reagan administration
a Bush presidency. -
Should it come to that,
months of Washington will|
better idea of what to expect.
Letters: Teachers serve, not
Editor:
In the Houston Chronicle (4/18/82),
Dr. Frank Vandiver made some awesome
comments concerning “professor-
priests” and Texas A&M’s place in a new
world order.
The one world government idea is
truly nothing new; such is also proported
by groups like the Council of Foreign
Relations, the Club of Rome, the Dicta
torships of Proclaiming Communism,
writers of the Humanist Manifestos I and
II, and now our own University presi
dent. The method is different, the goal
unchanged — world power inducing
world peace.
Briefly, Dr. Vandiver told his menial
students a few things and admitted to a
shortsightedness in a few areas. Students
who say that Texas A&M is becoming a
modern, powerful “think tank” or re
search institution at the students’ ex
pense no longer need clamor in vain:
now they can quote their president.
Knowledge is not meant for a god, nor
are professors priests. Knowledge is a
tool for wise men and a weapon for those
educated away from their intelligence.
Professors and presidents are servants
meant to share knowledge and search for
wisdom in themselves and in their stu
dents.
If the lenses get too far away from the
eyes, objects are seen upside down,
means get mistaken for ends, objects and
purposes get worship instead of the true
and living God. Then we get such quotes
that appear in the Chronicle as “woe to
him who speaks ill of Einsteinian physics”
instead of “thou shall have no other gods
before me.” If Dr. Vandiver is going to
invoke God’s name in his interviews, let
him remember the first time what the
world was to be centered around —
knowledge and the outcome at the Tow
er of Babel (Genesis 11). An infinitely
better solution can be found in other
parts of that same book.
the outside world by expelling the repre
sentatives of foreign media from Iran. It
was under certain conditions when re
cently a group of American and Euro
pean reporters were allowed to visit in
side the country. They were permitted to
report only on the “victories” of the re
gime in its war with Iraq. Even in doing
so, their reports were to be passed from
under the scrutiny of the regime’s cen
sure.
This isolation has been used as a mea
sure against the wide-spread leakage of
the news of the virtual incapability of
Khomeini’s regime in dealing with eco
nomical and social problems it is facing.
In a chain of confused reactions, the
Khomeini regime has involved itself in a
massive compaign to eliminate its politic
al opponents. So far, the official figure of
the executions of dissidents is 4,500. A
great number of children and six pre
gnant women are reported to have been
among those executed. Furthermore, the
opponents of the regime say that the
number of the political prisoners cur
rently reaches 40,000. Torture, sum
mary trials without any due process have
become common place. Social and indi
vidual freedoms and rights have been
totally abolished. And only those papers
eulogizing the regime are permitted to
operate.
The economic state of the regime is
tragic. The oil production, the only signi
ficant source of revenue, has reached an
all time low of 1 million barrels a day.
More than 85 percent of all basic necessi
ties are being imported. And while peo
ple have been forced to stayi8|
lines to obtain their basic I
the regime has been desperalt!
to generate revenues by attain
gold and antiques, inordertol
meaningless war with Iraq.
It is unlikely that the rft
Khomeini which orignally tootf: ■
abusing the religious inclinalk®
people, and their lack ofexjxii
determining their own destinia
many years of dictatorship ut
Shah, will be able to cope withitii
crisis. Khomeini regime is also[||
increasing pressure of the wifl
guerrilla movement by its oppoiil •
ited under the Naitonal Count 5
sistance of Iran, which is a coif 5
People’s Mojahedin Organic
Iran, former president
Democratic Party of KurdM
other national and anti-dictator
nizations.
This well organized coaliti
forced the regime to split ilsjj
recombat the attacks of the nil
its leadership and centers of po 1
Due to the presence of such r
circumstances, Khomeini’s
should be regarded as one off
fragile and unstable regimes of
gion which maintains its poor
violence and supression.
It is very doubtful that once fc’
dies, the regime can hold itt
and not crumble under the pr(
the discontent majority of the f
*
Johil
P.0. Bor
the small society
by Bricb
David Lowry ’83
Khomeine regime unstable
Editor:
! It has been a long time since
Khomeine’s regime isolated itself from
shop Dillia