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'age 2/The Battalion/Wednesday, August 31, 1983
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opinion
Sneaky tactics blamed for Congress’ pain
by
Cha
will be
from l
by Don Phillips
The same thing is true of congression
al travel.
beaches and night spots. That’s a junket.
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Congress has a
vay of collectively putting its foot in its
nouth, chomping down hard and then
darning the press and the public interest
groups for the resulting wound.
Not all congressional trips are junkets.
Rep. Leo Ryan of California was not on a
junket when he was gunned down on an
airstrip in Cuiana. And I doubt that any
one dodging bullets in Lebanon would
consider the trip a junket unless a lengthy
stay in Paris accompanied it.
The classic scenario, of course, in-
olves congressional pay increases and
utside income limits.
Congress again and again acts like a
hief in the night, skulking around and
hrough parliamentary maneuvers to
neak themselves a pay raise. Then when
omeone flips on the poltical lights and
hey are left standing there sheepishly,
hey blame those who turned on the light.
It never occurs that one reason they
re treated like thieves is that they act that
^ay. There are good reasons to increase
ongressional salaries; why not do it
Congress again and again acts
like a thief in the night, skulking
around and through parliamen
tary maneuvers to sneak them
selves a pay raise.
But the destination does not necessari
ly make a trip a junket. The Interpar
liamentary Union meets in some of the
world’s great cities, but experience has
shown that the congressmen who attend
these sessions are serious about their
work and come home with a greater
understanding of the world and its
needs, even if they do have a little fun
while there. —
even have a purpose.
Common Cause, the ever-present self-
styled citizens lobby, spent a lot of time
digging into congressional travel for the
past two and a half years and concluded
that members of the House and Senate
took 991 trips to 114 foreign countries at
taxpayer expense.
t he group said that its information
“critical fact-finding”
Ihe
mg trips
that the group made is that it often
years c
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junkets. Any trip
iket. One commit-
■penlyi
Some trips are clear
by a lame cluck is a junl
tee actually spent weeks in South Amer
ica studying the postal systems of coun
tries with some of the world’s greatest
The trouble is that Congress seems to
treat all trips as if they were junkets.
Getting information on congressional
travel, for instance, is deliberately made
difficult. There is no central point to
gather the information, and unless a con
gressman or a committee chooses to
announce the trip, it is not certain that we
ever will learn that a trip was made, much
less its purpose.
There is no requirement that the trip
The point that the group made is
that it often is impossible to dis
tinguish between junkets and
trips that benefit everyone,
eluding the public.
m-
“was difficult to acquire and often incom
plete.”
Common Cause made no knee-jerk
judgments of congressional travel as
such, saying that there are such things as
impossible to distinguish betweenjuni
ets and trips that benefit everyone
eluding the public.
Every reporter has had doors slaa
met! on fingers, f iguratively at least
attempting to get information on co
gressional travel. Staff members immei
ately become suspicious and beginhklitt even
papers when the subject arises. there’s
I he Pentagon refers questions f
travel on Air force jets to Congress, aal
Congress of ten says to call the Pentagon
In f airness, some committeesareopa
about travel, notably the HouseForeiji Aggie;
Affairs Committee. Then again,thattl “I’ 1
committee with clearly legitimate trail
needs.
But Congress sometimes seemsloopByou sit
erate on the principle of the lowestca dents,
mon denominator. In this case, itoltt
seems to act as if all trips wereshamefi
and useless junkets.
could
Citii
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this is
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the oi
fhen Congress seems surprised win asked
the press does the same thing.
Car industry upset
‘lemon-aid’ laws
by
by Maxwell Glen
and Cody Shearer
WASHINGTON — Auto industry
nalysts couldn’t pinpoint last week why
ew car sales increased for the 11th con-
^cutive reporting period. Favorable in-
?rest rates and improvement in auto-
lobile quality were the most common
xplanations.
One possible factor, however, may
tever show up in Detroit’s official analy-
is: Car buyers in many states now enjoy
tatutory protections from new cars that
re little more than lemons. While the
•roliferation of “lemon laws” might seem
ittersweet new to Detroit, it could speed
he auto industry’s recovery.
at,
OnJ^in. 1 car buyers ift California and
Connecticut gained easier access to re
minds or replacements if cars fail to per-
orm as promised. Since then, 14 other
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states have passed similar lemon laws,
and at least 10 others may follow suit by
the end of the year.
While most car purchasers won’t drive
away with lemons this year, many inevit
ably will. If, as the Washington-based
Center for Auto Safety estimates, even
only one in 1,000 cars is irreparably de
fective, Detroit could produce 6,000 or
7,000 lemons this year.
According to John Woodcock, the
state legislator who drafted Connecticut’s
new law, the lemon can suffer from many
maladies: vibrations, wind noise, roof
leaks, engine and dashboard fires and
losses in electrical power and oil
pressure.
“It’s a whole litany of problems,”
Woodcock told our reporter, Michael
Duffy.
Some state laws are tougher than
others. Connecticut’s manufactureres
are required to replace any new car that
remains a problem after four trips to the
repair shop or stays out of service for 30
days during the first year of ownership.
(Refunds are also an option.)
Minnesota, meanwhile, mandates re
placement in the event of a safety hazard
in the car’s design; New York extends
protection through the second year of
ownership.
While Congress has long guaranteed
the replacement of products after
“reasonable” attempts at repair, the new
state laws reduce the need for costly legal
assistance. Now car owners can simply
approach a locally-convened arbitration
board established by the auto companies
under Federal Trade Commission guide
lines; unsatisfied petitioners may appeal
to the courts later. In Connecticut, at
least 20 residents have received replace
ment models through this process in
1983.
Auto dealers have largely welcomed
the new legal environment. Lemon laws
not only give dealers legislative guaran
tees with which to reassure paranoid car
buyers, but also lay the responsibility for
replacing a defective car squarely on the
manufacturers, who are obviously not
too pleased.
Yet, in some states, Detroit has re
sponded to an ever-increasing number of
lemon lawsuits with “consumer action”
panels of its own. The panels, insisted
Ford spokesman Dale Leibach, “. . . re
flect a growing realization that quality
and consumer satisfaction are extremely
important.”
In fact, they may simply reflect an in
terest in reducing the number of outright
court awards, which have topped
$700,000 in some lemon cases.
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Heroines of female equality war
could find success in television
by Dick West
United Press International
WASHINGTON — One govern
ment spokesman referred to her as an
“Easter bunny.” Another described her
as a “low-level munchkin.”
It could be, however, that the some
where over the rainbow Barbara Honeg-
f er will find a job as a television news
road — oops, I mean broadcaster.
Certainly she and Christine Craft, the
anchorperson who won a $500,000judg
ment against a Kansas City station,
appear to have something in common.
Both became national celebrities in
the pursuit of female equality.
Craft, as talk show fans are well aware,
filed suit against her ex-employers on
grounds she was demoted because of age,
appearance . and failure to project
“warmth and comfort” on camera.
And Honegger, as talk show fans also
are aware, resigned from the Justice De-
S artment after criticizing President
eagan’s women’s rights policy.
I don’t know whether Honegger is
young and attractive enough to report
the news, but thus far she has been fully
as durable as Craft when it comes to
being interviewed.
In one interview, she said “a source”
using her own voice told her three years
ago that she would serve as a women’s
rights defender in the Reagan adminis
tration.
Does that mean she would have a
more promising career in the studio than
in the courtroom? We shall see.
There is a world of different between
/-type bunny and the Easter
“What is a munchkin?” Speakesaskeil
A good question.
Although you won’t find that word
most dictionaries, it will be familiar
readers of “The Wizard of Oz.”
type. Judging from Craft’s complaint,
women who fit the former mold are more
likely to succeed as anchorpersons.
It was Larry Speakes, the White
House press secretary, who identified
Honegger as “the Easter bunny at the
White House Easter Egg Roll.”
She, however, denied having
appeared on the White House lawn in a
rabbit suit. She said it was on other occa
sions that she dressed as a March Hare.
Thus were laid the contradictions for
what some sources now are calling “Bun
ny gate.”
Speakes also was invited to comment
on the remark of Tom DeCair, a Justice
Department spokesman who characte
rized Honegger as a “low-level mun-
chkin.”
In the movie version, the figmenW
inhabitants of Munchkin CountryvW
midgets. Honegger is not terribly tall,k*
she would tower over Hollywood’s con
cept of a munchkin — however c#
turned. So my guess is that DeCairW
alluding to inhabitants of Munchen,
city in Germany.
Stuc
refrii
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• 2 i
• Hi
fre
Anyway, the verb “to munch” nice!
defines the eating style of rabbits.Thetf
fore, both Speakes and DeCair could w
have been within the perimeters'
hyperbole and anthropomorphis 1
established for government spokesiffl 11
Futhermore, I’m sure most televi#
stations would be delighted to hire
woman in a rabbit suit, if not as <
anchorperson at least as a political cot
mentator.
Sources of the kind Honegger heak
could be invaluable on election day
f
Reagan hosts ‘meet the people’
by Ira R. Allen
to present him with a gift or an award.
United Press International
WASHINGTON — For half an hour
twice a week, President Reagan puts
aside the business of state and meets with
Americans from different w^alks of life.
During the 30 minutes of “administra
tive time 3 late Tuesday and Thursday
afternoons, Reagan spends five minutes
with people who have been brought into
the Oval Office by aides or Republican
members of Congress to shake hands,
have their pictures taken and exchange
chit-chat.
It is one way a president has of meet
ing face to face with more ordinary
Americans, although they are well-
scrubbed and carefully screened.
The parade of children, senior
citizens and handicapped generally have
one thing in common: They have
achieved something or overcome some
adversity. Occasionally, someone wants
Despite the obvious public relations
aspect of the exercise, reporters are not
usually allowed to witness the exchanges.
Photographers, however, are.
In recent weeks, the only substantial
thing participants would say upon leav
ing the Oval Office was the comment
from Miss Teen Age America, Amy Sue
Brenkacz of Joliet, Ill., who said, “I love
to talk but it was the first time ever I’ve
been speechless.”
fraternity, officials of the Mars candy
company, five new White House repor
ters, an epileptic who walked across
i, Kiwank
America, Kiwanians and Optimists and
broadcasters whose gift of a 1920s-sUyJe
Among the approximately
the oast month were: A craft
50 visitors
in the past month were: A craftsman who
makes quill pens for the Supreme Court,
the motner of a freshman House Repub
lican, the editor of the Times of London,
America’s Junior Miss, the poster child
for the Asthma and Allergy Foundation,
a Vietnamese girl who lived in a box on
the streets of Saigon, Red Skelton on his
70th birthday, the 94-year-old woman
who served Reagan meals at his college
microphone was sniffed for bombs
fore entering the White House.
Irreverents among the news photo
graphers who record the stream of visi
tors refer to the parade as “the freak-a-
week” show.
To be sure, it does the president no
harm to greet less exalted guests than the
heads of state and staff aides he usually
sees. And it is good public relations.
“He likes it very much,” an aide said.
“It’s a chance to have contact with a good
cross-section of America.” ‘
But since the “cross-section” is always
sponsored by White House staff mem
bers or friendly congressmen, the visitors
are not only awe-struck, but guaranteed
not to tell Reagan anything he doesn’t
want to hear.
Slouch
By Jim Eark
po
7C
‘Can I ask you a question!"