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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (May 5, 1986)
Page 2/The Battalion/Monday, May 5, 1986 Opinion Understanding complex rules of political games to As the polls were closing Saturday for the state primaries, I was at the headquar ters of one of the gu- Craig Renfro (.olmimisl bernatorial candidates. As it was becom ing increasing!) apparent that this candidate was not going to win, I asked I. Canwin, his campaign poster hanger, what went wrong. Casting a dejected glance at the final tally, Canwin replied, "I don’t know what went wrong. We spent nearly $1 million, made sexeral TV commercials, shook thousands of hands and had sexe ral S^OO-a-plate campaign fund lun cheons. I just can't figure it out.” Feeling somewhat sorry for him, I told him that somebody had to lose and that, after all. it didn’t matter whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game. "But that’s the problem,” Canwin re torted. "We did play the political game, and we played it to perfection. Well, al most to perfection. "From the beginning you want to choose the right person to be a candi date for goyernor. You ha\ e to choose a person that the people can trust. You can’t get just any bum off the street to come in and be governor. You need someone who can smile a lot, even when it’s 90 degrees.” I agreed with him. People do like to see smiling politicians. It makes them feel that everything is going well and that we aren’t really experiencing oil revenue shortfalls, high unemployment and inflation: “But there must surely be other ways to measure a candidate’s political wor thiness besides the fact he smiles a lot,” I said. “You must be an eloquent speaker,” he replied. “If he can talk about budget cuts, tax hikes and other political rheo- toric in a way that the people think they understand, but really don’t, then that is certainly a bonus.” I still didn’t quite understand the sys tem, so I asked him to give me an exam ple of such skillful speaking. “Well, of course you understand that I am not the speech writer, but I’ll give it my best shot,” Canwin said. “You start off with something like this. . . .‘And if elected governor I promise to do every thing in my power to keep this state strong and financially prosperous. I promise not to raise taxes and I promise to seriously look into the problems and issues that max adxerselx affect this great state.’” “So it seems to me that what a candi date has to do is make a lot of beefy promises that he reallx can’t be held re sponsible for,” I said. “Well, in a xvax that’s true,” Canwin said. “You want to make your promises ambiguous so that if you are elected and the people do demand responsibility you can say you were misquoted or taken out of context.” “ Fell me what else it takes to make a successful politician. So far it seems all you have to do is have a good personal ity and a silver tongue,” 1 said. “One of the most important things is to criticize the incumbent's track record. The current governor has a list of mis takes that xvould make any opponent smile,” Canwin said. "First of all is the collapse of oil prices. You can reallx lax the blame on him for not anticipating that crisis. “Secondly you can criticize him for Deaver makes good ethical punching bag One o f the more interesting places to be these dax s would be in side Mike Deaxer's head. There, t h o u g h t s a n cl questions must ri cochet : What did I do wrong? Why me? What is this all about? Is this a Richard Cohen nightmare and, if so, xvhen do I xvake up? I he ansxver to the last is clear: Not yet. Michael, not xet. I he fact is that Washington is having a jollx good time punching around Mike Deaver noxv that it has him out in the open — axvax from his protector, Nancy Reagan, and her protector, the presi dent. Fhe man is being pummeled by the press, bx his felloxv lobbyists and by present and former members of the Reagan administration. Deaver, it seems, is one of those guys who forgot to be nice to subordinates. Now the munchkins are munching on him. For just a second, put yourself in Deaxer's place. You tell yourself that xou’re not the first person to go from goxermnent to public relations. Fhe town is full of people like that. And xou’re not the first to do so from the Reagan administration, either. Many former Reaganites are noxv consultants of one sort or another and some of them represent foreign goxernmcnts. Deaver max have South Korea, but Black, Ma- nafort. Stone and Kelly, another firm with Reagan connections, had the Phil ippines government under Ferdinand Marcos. Need some ladies’ shoes? Maybe it's the money. Billings of more than S2 million in the first year of business is more than enough to attract enxy, but then Deaver is not the first person to get rich in Washington. Rob ert Keith Gray, the chairman of Ronald Reagan's inaugural committee and for mer Fisen bower White House aide, makes xvhat xve used to call a nice lix ing. His firm has grown tremendously in the last sex eral x ears and he, too, represents foreign goxernments — Turkey and, tor a while, Angola. No one xvrites much about him. Okax , max be it’s the publicity. Deaver posed for a lime magazine cover in which he was shown seated in a limou sine. talking on the phone xvith the Ca pitol in the background. “Who’s This Man Calling?" I ime asked on the cover. l ime prox ided no ansxver, but ex ery- thing about Deaver suggests that it was the president. He is one of the few peo ple xvho can get Reagan on the phone. The Battalion (USPS 045 360) Member of Texas Press Association Southwest journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board i.dilor Miiii;iffini>l\(lit<>r Opinion P.iifc t.dilai C/M i.diloi .Yen s i.ditor Sports i.diloi .Cathie Anderson Kirsten Dietz Loren Steffv Frank Smith Sue Krenek Ken Sttrx Editorial Policy I lif H.iu.ilidit is ,i ntnt-junlii. //no not \/j.i/jc/ nf>cinu^t ;i> ;i cnmtnunit\ service tit I c\ns AJi'M und Hi\iiii-(.'itllcf(C St.itii m. (>l)initnis csfticsscd in \ Ik* Battalion .nr thttsc it/ the t.dilini;il Hoard ot the atithot and do not necessaiil\ ic/nesem the o/tiniotis nl I cs.is .\X .\I atlministiatot s. I.unltx ot the Hoatd ot Regents. I hr Battalion also saxes as a lalmi aim \ new sfia/ta lot students in tefjoi ting, editing and pholographx classes within the Dc/tai lineni o! Join nalisin. I hr Battalion is jtnhlishi-d Mondax tlnough h'ridax doting le\as Ati.M tegulai semesters, except lor holidax and examina tion peiiods. Mail snhsaiptimis ate $W./.’> pet semesta. S.'l.'!.!?.> pet sell<tol xear and S'la per lull vent. Advertising tales litr- nished on t ei/uesi. Out addtess: l hr Battalion. - Hi Reed Mt Donald HuHding. Texas AJi'.M L 'nix ersity. College Station. TX 77S4'A. Secoml class f >ostage paid at College Station. I X 77S4.'i. HOS I M \.S 11 R: Si nd addtess changes to'Wie Battalion. - Hi Reed McDonald. Texas A&M L'nixetsitx. College Station TX 77S lit. his tax format. In 1982 he promised no new taxes, and then in 1984 he backed a $4.6 million sales and gasoline tax hike. Those are the kinds of things any politi cal opponent will look for in an attempt to make the incumbent look bad.” “But, how can you pick on those sen- sitixe issues, when that situation could arise no matter who is in office?” I asked. “Who said politics were fair? You do anything you can to win, and bringing out policy mistakes is one of the best xvays.” “What other ways are there to put the incumbent in a bad light?” I asked. “One way is to make up some type of political scandal,” Canwin said. “It doesn’t hax e to be much, just something to the effect that the current administra- in a shot at an opponent.” “So if you call someone a nod I ‘scumbair, that’s a xvax of attrattiiijj'I tes?" 1 asked. By R turn is wasting money.’ “You mean something like the fact that they spent $3 million for a new air plane, when they should have been cut ting down administrative expenses?” “That’s it,” Canwin replied with a smile. “Now you’re beginning to get the hang of it. But there’s more to it than that. Name calling is another way to get “Well that’s t lose.” Canwin said ; A teleph some people might think that’s u :ni [ a ll (nv ' n unfaii tactics. I hex might prefei so; ?'T‘ 1 | SS / S 1 thing more subtle — like ’tax waste; IS ‘budget cutter’.” alliums,’d ent inf or “I think Fin finallx beginning h; |lst | m . derstand this game of politics nov AkM wil said. “But tell me how xou ;n e goiii.nivc i sities learn from this sear's defeat?" 'iluamssai Phone re; After gix ing the question a few r I'jf ^ ‘ llt ' ( Utes ot tin night. ( .mu m leplied s ‘ think that hn the next elec I ion \u § tU( | ( . I1|s just have to start smiling more, spr holies to < ing more monex, and who kn jrltapedi max be bx 1990 the gox ernoi will I nies made, so main mistakes that the pe l— will be reads for a new politiiiai make some different ones." ■tv Craig Renfro is a senior joumlisr " m g major and a columnist for The Bali; ion. By ( That’s what makes him unique. And that, in a nutshell, explains the entire Deaver imbroglio. Sure, there might be a matter of law' involved — whether Deaver ignored it and met too soon with White House aides, whether he cut a deal with Canada while still in the White House. But these are misde meanors: Canada and acid rain is not exactly Libya and atomic weapons. These allegations amount to a device to make the moral and personal case against Deaver. We all pretend we are talking about the law. But we are really talking about the feelings we all have for someone whose career, we think, amounts to nothing more than attach ing hinmself to someone more impor tant — and then exploiting that relationship. When he appeared on the “McNeil- Lehrer News Hour,” Deaver said he w’as valuable for his ability to “strategize.” Maybe. But to the rest of the world, Deaver’s value is his relationship wath the Reagans. His is a totally reflected glory. He commands the same respect and loathing as a boss’s son who con ducts himself as if he built the company. That is where the comparisons to Clark Clifford are way off the mark. Clifford may have started as an aide to President Harry S. Truman, but his va lue to clients amounted to more than proximity to a former president. Years after being"a Truman aide, Clifford be came Lyndon Johnson’s secretary of de fense. No one can imagine Deaver doing the same. Ironically, Deaver’s problems are compounded by the president’s age and popularity. The more popular Reagan is, the more people will be outraged by xvhat they see as Deaver’s exploitation of him. And the older he gets and the more “detached” Reagan becomes, the more people will resent someone who claims the president’s imprimatur —. who flourishes the president’s daily schedule. It is name dropping on a grand scale: Let’s see, if it’s 2:45 then Ron’s napping. (When it comes to Deaver, Ron certainly is.) The law' is important and Deaver’s al leged violation of it is worth the time and attention of the news media. And maybe Deaver personifies something about Washington that is worth being concerned about — the role of money. But Washington is really out to get Mi chael K. Deaver for reasons that make it still a toxvn not that different than most others in America: It’s simply disgusted. - .khougli moil my in con: s, it still luable n n Janiii Bn an < ||ack H< in Austii ’ision was tse. lopper it ncils give .vever, hi uld not hi v requestt MAR60USS ©1906 HCV&TCM VOGT United Feature Syndicate U.S. trading in biblical law for man’s arbitrary rules “In this situation of this Assem b 1 x , groping, as it were, in the dark, to find political truth, and Mark Schulz Guest Columnist scarce able to distinguish it xvhen pre sented to us, how has it happened. Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of Light to illuminate out understandings . . . I have lived. Sir, along time, and the longer I live the more coin incing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an F.mpire can arise without His aid? We hax e been as sured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that ‘except the Lord build the house they la bor in vain that build it.' I firmly believe this . . .” When Jefferson wrote the Declara tion of Independence, he appealed to the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” and “the Supreme Judge of the world” to validate the Declaration. He said men “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” and a government’s job is to secure these rights. Notice that he did not say, “we have reasoned that xve should have cer tain liberties.” Unalienable implies a welfare system that encourages la/ and family break-up, a medicalcoiiibI nity xvhich leaves handicapped babifi die and a society xvhere convicted* derers xvalk the street after liveve:* prison. Of special concern to AB(> is W creasing loss of religious and otherN I doms. As you read this column,paiel are in jail for teaching their children Y Democracy alone is not enough to insure liberty, as the majoritu tyrannize the minority. If the state or the will of the people beam the giver of liberties, then they may choose to remove these Mm anytime it is to their benefit. But if a government can be bekh countable to a higher authority by any citizen, liberty is gunninted Copyright 1986, the Washington Post Writers Group This is what Benjamin Franklin said to the Second ContinentalCongress and its president, George Washington, after several weeks of xvork on the Constitu tion had produced little fruit. He went on to motion f or dailx pi ax ers in order to invoke “the assistanceof Heaxen.” In describing the role of religion in the founding of our countrx. historian Dr. Frank Humphries said, "the founders of the republic inxoked God in their cixil assemblies, sought guidance for their political actions from their reli gious leaders and recognized the pre cepts of the Bible as sound political maxims.” Americans for Biblical Gox- ernment wishes to see America return to this spirit of our revolution. higher authority than man’s opinion. Non-theists insist that common sense or man’s reason is all we need to base our laws and freedoms on — that no higher standard is needed. Common sense is invaluable when used to apply truth in particular situations, but man’s reason, apart from moral absolutes, has led to the slaughter of millions in the So- x'iet Union, China, Cambodia, Nazi Ger many and in other nations where the state is elexated above the Bible’s moral standards. ABG recognizes from history that many of the founders of our nation xvere strong religious men,and their be lief in absolute truth astound in the Bi ble profoundly affected the forming of this nation. VVe knoxv that not all the founding fathers xvere true biblical Christians, but even themain two — Jef ferson and Franklin —were greatlx in fluenced bx the Christian faith. Democracy alone is not enough to in sure liberty, as the majority can tyran nize the minority. If the state or the will of the people become the giver of liber ties, then they may choose to remove these liberties anytime it is to their bene fit. But if a government can be held ac countable to a higher authority by any citizen, liberty is guaranteed. home. Churches increasingly are rassed by the IRS and other govt' mental agencies. Home bible stuefo closed down bx the use of /oningofl nances. More and more people tvisl see freedom of religion practiced e 1 on Sundays behind four walls. We believe that religious freedom this country’s greatest strength, li lose that f reedom, others WILL foil 1 ABG in no wax stands for a stated ported religion or denomination, stand for a nation in which people 1 choose to worship God as they pie* not worship at all. But we also bell' that our liberties are best in oteetetlil acknbwledge xvhere these libertiesii |l l from, and if xve hold to the standard! Our country has some serious prob lems today. ABG feels it is because our country is trading in biblical-based law for the arbitrary decisions of man. Some of the results of this new mentality are a right and wrong that goes with tin® George Washington said, “Truere^f offers' government its surest sup|) |l i We challenge every citizen to Ifk^ study the Constitution and DeclarJWf^ of Independence in light of the big and intent of the founding fathers. Mark Schulz is the system’s analp'i the Computing Services Center i member of Americans for a Government.