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Opinion
Page 2/The Battalion/Tuesday, July 17, 1984
Sleaze factor part
of political process
Sleaze factor — a term used by
Democrats denoting unethical behav
ior by the Reagan administration.
Democrats coined the phrase to at
tack officials in the Reagan adminis
tration for alleged unethical behavior.
The president’s administration pro
vided ample material for the Demo
crats: the theft of the Carter briefing
books before the Carter-Reagan de
bate, the appointment of Edwin Meese
as attorney general and mismanage
ment of the Environmental Protection
Agency.
Meese still hasn’t been OK’d for the
attorney general spot and probably
never will be, because of irregularities
found in personal loans Meese re
ceived. Anne Oorsuch Burford, who
resigned as director of the EPA in
1983, now is the chairwoman of the
National Advisory Committee on
Oceans and Atmosphere.
Walter Mondale had planned to use
this “sleaze factor” as one of the cor
nerstones of his campaign against Rea-
gan.
But Mondale has discovered the
sleaze factor knows no political party
boundaries. He will have to think twice
before using that argument after his
selection of Bert Lance as his general
campaign manager.
Lance resigned under fire as Jimmy
Carter’s budget director in September
1977 amid allegations that he engaged
in questionable banking practices in
Ceorgia. He later was indicted on a se
ries of charges — including bank
fraud — but won acquittal on nine
counts and the rest were thrown out.
But Lance has been a key force be
hind the scenes this year to get Jesse
Jackson to resolve his differences with
Mondale and join in the party’s efforts
to defeat Reagan in November.
Obviously, party unity carries
greater weight than whether a per
son’s behavior is ethical.
Sleaze factor — 1 j a term denoting
questionable ethics in any political ad
ministration; 2) an inescapable aspect
of politics.
— The Battalion Editorial Board
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By ART BUCHWALD
Columnist for
The Los Angeles Times Syndicate
I was getting off the airplane at the
San Francisco airport when I saw a
large wooden crate standing on the
tarmac. Several customs officials were
staring at it.
“What’s going on?” I asked the chief
customs inspector.
“We’re not sure. We think we can
hear a human voice from within.”
“It’s addressed to the Democratic
National Convention, Moscone Hall,”
I said. “It’s probably a stack of ‘Fritz
for Pres’ placards or ‘We Want Teddy’
balloons,” I told the man.
“We can’t take any chances. It could
be something bigger than that. It
could be Gary Hart.”
“Why would Gary Hart arrive in a
crate?”
“He doesn’t have much chance for
the nomination and he might be trying
to do something dramatic to turn the
convention around.”
“Well, if Gary Hart wants to arrive
in a crate, what concern is it of yours?”
“It might not be Gary Hart. It could
be Louis Farrakhan or Phyllis Schlafly.
We don’t like people arriving in San
Francisco in wooden boxes.”
“What are those German shepherd
dogs doing?”
“They’re trained to sniffout suspi
cious crates addresssed to the Demo
cratic convention, just to make sure if
they’re accredited of not.”
“It couldn’t be Mrs. Ferraro, could
it?”
“No, we’ve eliminated her, now that
Mondale has announced she would be
his running mate. There would be no
sense in her arriving by box since
there would be no element of surpri
se.”
“What made you people pick that
particular box?”
“For one thing it wasn’t marked
FRAGILE’ or THIS SIDE UP,’ and it
wasn’t insured. Then when two people
from the Democratic National Com
mittee showed up in a van to claim the
crate, they didn’t argue when we re
fused to turn it over, and justs drove
away.”
“Maybe it’s Jesse Jackson?” I sug
gested.
“We’ve ruled him out. He’d never
arrive by crate without tipping off the
media.”
“Maybe it’s just one of the speakers
scheduled to address the convention.”
“Yes, but why would a speaker ar
rive in a crate?”
“Perhaps he didn’t want to come in
the first place, and that was the only
way to get him out here.”
“We won’t know until the comS
der to open the box arrives.” By L
“Is there any law about shiJ|
someone to the Democratic mBywri
tion in a crate?” ffiL j,
“Not if he was provided plates
enough food and water. Othenvisthoney
ASPCA wil bring charges.” ||p le
Someone handed the Chief a# 1 ' 01 '
order and he went toward ther^u^
with a hammer and crowbar.
open a few boards and talked toWThii
person inside. Finally he noddecwill be
head and hammered back the boa:!* 1156 ]
“Well,” I said, “who was it?” E^ lai
“You’re not going to believe
but it was Jimmy Carter.” M| nc
Two-term
presidents
often flops
By JIM ANDERSON
Columnist for United Press International
WASHINGTON — An underlying
theme of President Reagan’s re-elec
tion campaign is expected to be that
his second term — whatever the faults
and failings of the first four years —
will be better than the first term.
But one authoritative look at history
says that “twice-elected Presidents ac
complish less, never more, during
their second terms” and second-term
presidencies are almost always flops.
What makes the survey of second-
term presidencies interesting, and
possibly embarrassing, is that it was
done by the scholar and political scien
tist who is now President Reagan’s di
rector of the Arms Control and Disar
mament Agency, Kenneth Adelman.
Adelman surveyed the 10 American
presidents who served second terms,
starting with George Washington and
ending with Richard Nixon.
The overwhelming historical evi
dence was “remarkably consistent,”
with only Franklin Roosevelt and
Dwight Eisenhower breaking the gen
eral pattern of twice-elected presi
dents doing worse in their second
terms.
One example is Thomas Jefferson,
who negotiated the Louisiana Pur
chase in his first term, but infuriated
public opinion with his Embargo Act
of 1807 and was'so unpopular during
his second term that he left Washing
ton several weeks before his successor
was inaugurated.
Adelman came up with several pos
sible reasons why second-termers
mostly do worse the second time
around. Some of the reasons sound
like the sort of political ammunition
that the Democrats have been seeking
to bombard Ronald Reagan in the ap
proaching election campaign:
“It may be that economic, political
or moral errors committed during
their first terms come back to haunt
them. Or it may be due to lame-duck-
ism (mandatory since Harry Truman
but customary since Washington), or
to ‘tired blood’ (second-term infirmi
ties are frequent), or to tired brains
(new ideas get harder to come by).”
Warnings for movies, rock conceit.
By DICK WEST
Columnist for
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The film indus
try has expanded its “G,” “PG,” “R”
and “X” rating system to include a
fifth category — “PG-13,” which
means parental guidance is recom
mended for pre-teenagers.
I commend the rating board for its
sagacity in recognizing that Certain
movies depicting nudity, profanity, vi
olence and “adult situations” should
not be seen by children of tender years
until their parents have had an oppor
tunity to check out the contents.
No parent, I’m sure, would be so
presumptive as to keep the kids away
from shows they themselves have not
seen. I am wondering, though, if Hol
lywood went far enough in adding just
one new rating to its moral code.
What may be needed equally ur
gently is some sort of rating like TG-
MA. This means that parents who
have reached middle age should seek
guidance from their teenage children
before seeing certain films.
All so-called “horror” movies auto
matically would be rated TG-MA, for
example, as would any films about
summer camps, high school gymnasi
ums or college fraternities.
The primary purpose of the new
rating would be to protect the inno
cence of middle age parents, so that
they are not aware of what goes on in
summer camps, high school gyms and
frat houses.
As a rule of thumb, any film would
carry a TG-MA rating if teenagers in
the audience would be inclined to call
it “really keen.”
“But what’s it about?” a guidance
seeking parent might ask.
“Well, it’s mostly about a college fra
ternity bachelor party where the nude
moonlight swimmers from a nearby
girls’ summer camp are hacked up
with chain saws obtained in a high
school gym,” the teenage movie critic
reports. “It’s really keen.”
For that matter, while we are in the
rating business, why stop with movies?
There are a lot of rock concerts that
parents probably wouldn’t attend if
the touring musicians and singers
were rated TG-MA.
Non-movie ratings might have to be
cleared by the Supreme Court to make
sure there are no First Amendrom
transgressions. But once a ratings
tern has been given a clean billbyfl
judicial system, here are a i|
guidelines that might be followB
Rock concerts would be consider
unsuitable for middle age parentsilffi
—All or part of the performers;'
British transvestites.
—One or more of the performen |
wearing only one glove.
—The percussion instrumetl
sound like a fiat tire slapping agaii|
the pavement.
—The instrumentation consists ■
1 6 guitars and a riveting machine.
—The lead singer has pel 1 !
movements that would be morej
propriate for the broken field runnj
A marriage made in heaven
By ARNOLD SAWISLAK
Columnist for
United Press International
SAN FRANCISCO — The critics
who say the trouble with the Demo
cratic Party is that it suffers from too
much democracy probably might also
conclude that the Democrats and San
Francisco deserve each other.
There are some easy parallels to
draw between the political party and
the city.
Both have been trying for years to
strike a balance between open partici
pation and political efficiency. Critics
say both have leaned so far toward the
democracy side of the equation that
they have jeopardized or even de
stroyed their ability to perform their
principal functions.
The knock on the Democrats is that
they have ceded too much institutional
power to what are called special inter
est groups — feminists, unions, blacks,
Hispanics, Jews, the elderly, the hand
icapped and more. There is no doubt
that Walter Mondale’s decision to seek
the presidency with a female running
mate will be regarded as more of the
same.
The criticism of San Francisco is
similar, usually focusing on the politi
cal power held by the sizable homosex-
II has been said the Democrats
have been losing elections be
cause they have lost touch with
plain vanilla Americans, the
people who see themselves as
ordinary citizens just trying to
earn a living, raise families and
live in peace.
ual community in the city and the
cheerful tolerance afforded all man
ner of people and groups who swim
outside the perceived American
mainstream.
An example was seen in the city last
week when a group of people cos
tumed as animals and birds declared
they would lobby the Democrats on
behalf of all non-human species. They
were greeted with tolerant smiles.
It has been said the Democrats have
been losing elections because they
have lost touch with plain vanilla
Americans, the people who see them
selves as ordinary citizens just trying to
earn a living, raise families and live in
peace.
And it has been said that San Fran
cisco cannot be regarded as one of the
great commercial and cultural centers
of the nation and the world because it
too has developed a taste for exotic fla
vors to the exclusion of the accepted
norm.
Of course, neither the Democrats
nor San Francisco agrees with the last
two conclusions.
The city will admit to some faults,
such as being situated on a major geo
logical rift that from time to time will
shake up its citizens and its real estate.
But in general, San Franciscans ap
pear to believe they live in the best of
all possible cities, a place where every
one has freedom of expression and no
one is afraid to exercise it.
The party believes itself to be the
vehicle of political and social justice
for all Americans, a representation of
the best aspirations for the country
and the world. It also will concede er
ror, especially after losing elections,
but that usually takes the form of self-
criticism centered on tactics rather
than principles.
The smart money says the Demo
crats are not likely to nominate a win
ning ticket this week in San Francisco.
The Democrats have a different opin
ion, and all things considered, there
may not be a better place than San
Francisco for them to express it.
The Battalion
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