Friday, March 27, 19877The Battalion/Page 3
State and Local
ton
Speaker: Foreign policy power tilts to Congress
aifj
I By Amy Couvillon
Staff Writer
he foreign policy power struggle
IS now weighted slightly in favor of
Congress and away from the presi
dency, a former Texas A&M student
who served as an assistant to the
president told students Thursday
night.
■I believe that that’s the way it (the
power advantage) will continue tilt
ing, toward Congress, if President
Reagan’s strength does not return in
some degree or fashion,” said Fred
erick D. McClure, former special as-
sisfmi for legislative affairs to Ron
ald Reagan.
■“And absent the next president
having the charisma, the charm, the
character of a Ronald Reagan, the
a ™mlarity and public opinion factor
continue to be weighted in Con
gress’ favor,” he said.
^^IcClure, Class of '76, in a lecture
on relations between Congress and
the president in connection with the
April 1 MSC Wiley lecture series,
said the roles of the executive and
legislative branches are both compli
mentary and conflicting.
“As the commander-in-chief, the
president commands the military,”
McClure said. “But he would have
nothing to command if the Congress
Hn’t use its power to raise and sup-
mds at rehe pfc L the Arrn / and t! ? e Nav y-”
• ' ^■ne president is the negotiator —
•raising evti™ v j sua j 0 f u n k e d
miration States to foreign countries, he said,
rs who have:* Congress has control over the
irsal. Some purse strings because it can decide to
dance man(li|W ro P r i ate money or levy taxes,
ies fnr thrw T» us their relationship is tension-
Kl and dynamic, he said.
■IcClure said his role as former
e commitmfliKsidential adviser, combined with
rk. There d
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cv want (AP) — A lawyer for plaintiffs in
1 alclass-action lawsuit against three state
" t . e .y PWools Thursday filed a motion in federal
ans givinguf C0lll t asking tj iat t h e Texas Department of
ig Unikh; Menial Health and Mental Retardation be
added sires; held in contempt of court,
le. K^die state is under a federal order prohibit-
■ substandard care in facilities for the men-
le expressioi tails retarded.
le real world' i§\ttorney David Ferleger said he obtained
e it sound li!:®° n hdential reports from the Fort Worth
nave a camB te School reflecting “a pattern of degrada-
t of the real M 1 - beatings, neglect and abuse.”
umerous det
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his other past position as former leg
islative director of legal counsel for
former Sen. John Tower, R-Texas,
has given him a view of the two
branches’ relationship.
Historically, the president has had
the most power in relations with
other countries, McClure said.
“George Washington first got
onto this idea of having power,” he
said. “He decided that it was a presi
dential prerogative to be the leader
“Attitude changes are
needed in both the
branches. ”
— Frederick D. McClure,
former Reagan assistant
in terms of foreign affairs. His suc-
cesors tended to embellish upon that
theme, and a guy named Abe Lin
coln probably invoked the notion of
war power for the very first time.”
Through the modern wars and!
conflicts the United States has beem
involved in, he said, the foreign-pol
icy power of the president grew
more, but recently, Congress has be
gun to take a more active role, begin
ning with the 1973 passage of the
War Powers Act.
“Since Vietnam, it has challeged
the president’s preeminence,” Mc
Clure said. “It has also appropriated
unto itself the resources, the infor
mation and the legal authority to en
gage in the conduct of foreign af
fairs on a comprehensive basis.”
He said the current Iran-Contra
affair makes a discussion of this issue
very timely.
“Given the events of the past four
months,” he said, “it’s pretty clear
that the lecture series committee
must have used some sort of a crystal
ball in selecting this year’s topic. In
my view, your timing could not have
been more perfect.”
An important power of the presi
dent, he said, is the power of per
suasion. It still remains to be seen, he
said, if Reagan can bounce back
from his recent fall from popularity
and credibility.
“This power rests in the presi
dent’s ability to induce others to be
lieve (his policies),” he said. “Ronald
Reagan used this power quite effecti
vely during the first six years of his
administration, even outside the for
eign policy area. . . . Frankly, the
jury is still out in the case of Presi
dent Reagan and Iran.”
McClure said Congress is using
the ongoing congressional investiga
tion of the Iran-Contra matter as a
forum through which to question fo-
riegn policy quite closely.
“Sure, they’re wanting to get to
some answers,” he said, “in terms of
who did what to who and at what
time and who knew about it, but by
the same token, it allows Congress to
control the foreign policy debate, be
cause they can be critical of the pol
icy as well as the process.”
The current struggle between
Reagan and the Congress over aid to
the Contras is the beginning of the
battle, McClure said, adding that the
Congress’ new basis for power is
likely to spill over into the United
State’s future dealings with Israel
and Iran.
But McClure said Congress and
the president must learn to compro-
Frederick D. McClure
mise and cooperate more it toriegn
policy is to work.
“Attitude changes are needed in
both the branches,” he said. “The
Congress must agree that it can not
and should not exercise detailed
control of policy of military opera
tions, in other words to assume exec
utive branch functions.
“And the executive, on the other
hand, must accept the reality that
Congressional diffidence ana the
passivity of an earlier era will never
return. The executive’s personal and
institutional working relationship
with Capitol Hill must be strength
ened, through continued consulta
tion and cooperation.
“The problem is, where is the line
drawn?”
contempt motion against MHMR
Thief takes
master keys
to Hart Hall
By Robert Morris
Staff Writer
A Hart Hall dorm resident re
ported that two master keys were
stolen from the dorm’s staff room
early March 16.
The keys were apparently
taken between March 13 and
March 16, said Bob Wiatt, direc
tor of the University Police.
The student told University
Police he saw a first floor window
open early Monday morning. He
entered the hall and found that
the door to the staff room in the
basement had been forced open
and the keys had been taken from
their box, Wiatt said.
Tom Murray, assistant director
of student affairs, said the entire
building would be re-keyed
within the next three weeks at a
cost of $2,500. The money will
come from an account students
pay $15 into when they lose a
dorm key.
The decision to change the
locks was delayed with hope the
missing keys would be found ear
lier in the week, Murray said.
There have been no reports of
theft, Wiatt said, but one room
was vandalized March 19 with no
sign of forcible entry, which
would indicate the key was in
volved.
Currently there are no sus
pects, but an investigation will
continue and the campus police
are keeping close watch on the
dorm until it can be re-keyed, he
said.
“The horror of being locked up at the insti
tution (in Fort Worth) is that you never know
whether you will be next in line for a beating
or left to wallow in filth,” Ferleger said.
The filed motion coincides with a consul
tant’s report given to U.S. District Judge
Barefoot Sanders that alleges mishandling of
clients and a lack of training at state schools.
In a 66-page report delivered Wednesday,
sociologist Linda O’Neall said she visited state
schools at Fort Worth, Denton and Austin last
August and found “flagrant violations” of
personal dignity, neglect, unnecessary re
straint and almost no social-skills training for
patients who spend their days engaged in
“non-productive and self-abusive activity.”
Ferleger’s motion, filed with Sanders, al
leges that workers at the Fort Worth school
who abuse retarded residents are given lax
discipline, that workers lie to cover up abuse,
and that abuse often is not fully investigated.
“We can’t trust the state school to police it
self anymore,” Ferleger said. “There has been
a court order saying that you can’t abuse peo
ple, you can’t beat them up and neglect them.
And that’s been violated in dozens of cases in
a year and a half.”
He said he will ask Sanders to fine the state
an unspecified amount. He said he also plans
to ask the judge to appoint a monitor to work
full-time investigating abuse at the facility.
The report said the residents are overly re
stricted; young and handicapped retarded
people spend a great amount of time walking
about aimlessly or staring into space; and per
sonal dignity is violated by such occurrences
as coed showering for adolescents.
Clarification
In a front-page article in
Thursday’s issue of The Battal
ion, information received from
both Carolyn Adair, director of
student affairs, and Louis Meneg-
hetti, Traditions Council chair
man, indicated that sale of T-
shirts protesting senior finals had
been ended. However, sources
have revealed that sales contin
ued Thursday on a private basis.
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