The Battalion
OPINION
The Battalion
Thursday, Ap
Thursday, April 20,1989
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THE TIDE TURNS
Wright’s ‘unethical’ acts
not the same as Tower’s
After more than 30 years in the U.S.
House of Representatives and after be
coming Speaker of the House, Jim
Wright has been dealt a firm blow by the
House ethics committee.
All 12 members of the committee, six
Republicans and six Democrats, voted
for a House examination of Speaker
Wright’s alleged violations of the House
ethics code. For the first time in history
the speaker of the House has been in
dicted by his colleagues.
The word ethics has been the buz
zword around Washington for several
months now. But its definition seems to
be changing every time it is used.
The Senate confirmation committee
voted against John Tower for Defense
Secretary because of “ethics charges.”
But ethics used in Tower’s case was dif
ferent from ethics in Wright’s case.
Tower was criticized for what he
chose to do on his own time: drink at
cocktail parties, divorce his wife, go out
with women and other acts of unpermi-
table deviance (even though they were
tolerated in the ’60s when committed by
President Kennedy).
Wright has been accused of breaking
the rules laid down by the “institution
he loves,” meaning Congress. The com
mittee recommends that the House con
sider 69 instances where Wright has
broken House rules by hiding excessive
income from donations and honorari
ums. Congressmen already have differ
ent rules than the rest of us, like special
bank accounts and freedom from the
IRS. But even under these special rules,
the honorable speaker wasn’t able to
play fairly.
Jim Wright’s ethics violations in
volved people paying him money so that
he would shape laws in their favor,
whereas accusations against Tower dealt
with his personal life. Clearly, Wright’s
F5s§f
James
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Cecil
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Columnist
behavior is much more serious because
of the ramifications of the situation:
The leader of our legislative branch,
only two heartbeats away from the pre
sidency, is willing to take bribes to
change federal laws. He is for sale.
John Tower’s problems were the talk
of the country, receiving constant atten
tion on television, magazines and car
toons because of the inquiring-minds-
want-to-know effect the stories had on
the public. But in Wright’s situation, our
average American will find this whole
mess boring. There’s just no entertain
ment value.
Other public officials recently have
come under scrutiny because of prob
lems in their private lives. Mayor Mar
ion Barry of Washington, D.C., was vic
timized by the inquiring-minds-want-to-
know effect because of his close associa
tion with drug dealers. Mayor Henry
Cisneros of San Antonio had his per
sonal life raked over the coals when his
mistress held a press conference to an
nounce their affair. These instances are
interesting and show a different image
of the officials than what the public held
before, but what do they say about the
work that person does?
The accusations against Speaker
Wright have attracted little attention by
comparison. The public isn’t really con
cerned with elected officials who violate
seemingly obscure rules established by
the House of Representatives. Also, un
like the Tower confirmation, the investi
gation on the speaker has support of
Democrats as well as Republicans; it’s
not a partisan issue.
The Republicans would love to jump
up and down, spit in Wright’s hair, and
laugh at their distinguished colleagues
across the aisle, but they know that the
Democrats supporting the investigation
would then run to their leader’s de
fense. So the Republicans are biting
their tongues right now and are quitely
enjoying the scenery.
House Democrats are walking softly
and watching every word they say to
keep from promoting a negative atti
tude about the speaker’s future. This is
difficult for them when the ethics com
mittee chairman is a Democratic himself
and had to announce his committee’s in
dictment against Wright. A few Demo
crats are going to support the speaker
regardless of the charges and evidence.
Texas Democrat Charles Wilson said
that he wants to “start figuring out
who’s on our side and who’s on the
other side.” He and his followers don’t
seem too concerned about doing what’s
right or wrong, they’re out for the blind
pursuit of keeping Wright in the speak
er’s chair, for the benefit of the whole
country, I’m sure.
Speaker Wright should be given some
credit, though. He has seen how Tower
was dragged through the mud for
weeks on end and has called for a quick
end to the investigation into his own af
fairs. Unfortunately for him, though,
the process will take several weeks.
Hopefully the public will see the se
verity of the accusations against Jim
Wright, despite the lack of hype and in
terest in bedroom affairs that we have
seen with other public officials.
James Cecil is a senior economics
major and a columnist for The Battal
ion.
Mail Call
Graduate employees deserve benefits
EDITOR:
As a former teaching assistant in the English Department, I would like to
address Texas A&M graduate employees about an issue of some substance.
The Texas Legislature is now considering a bill to authorize insurance
benefits for graduate employees who are employed at least 20 hours per
week.
Graduate employees at the University of Texas at Austin have been
working very hard on this issue for the past eleven months, and we have
managed to prod the bill over several hurdles. Along the way we have
requested the assistance of your Graduate Student Council, but I regret to
inform you that the GSC has been singularly unresponsive. The timetoactis
now. You deserve the benefits paid to any other hard-working state employee
and you need to start saying so.
Greg Moses ’81
Rated ‘X’
EDITOR:
So, the main reason I am taking time to write this article is because lam
appalled with part of my political science curriculum. I am required toreada
book for a political science class, and if it were a movie, it would most
assuredly be rated “X”.
A random sample proved my point. I opened the book 11 times, andeadi
time 1 noticed a most vulgar profanity — each page!
And these aren’t your everyday, run-of-the-mill curse words. These are
serious perversions, and my instructor tells me that I have to buy and read
this trash? Honestly, I consider it a violation of myself and desecration of my
religion to be compelled to read this rubbish.
I was told it was chosen to graphically point out the atrocities of war. This
excuse does not hold for me. Consider what would happen if a professor
made his/her class purchase a Bible to prove the extremes of love and
Christian deportment. 1 need not probe the ramification of the example.
A shocking cry would go all over A&M and our paper would be
inundated with protest letter.
So here is mine. I don’t feel I should have to read a book which
prostitutes principles absolutely opposed to my belief as a Christian.
Christopher Henderson ’91
Happiness is difficult to find
EDITOR:
Todd Honeycutt’s column on doughnuts and happiness was an
interesting, thought-provoking article. 1 often think about the nature of
happiness, only with my “analytical” mind, 1 chose a mathematical model
rather than an edible one.
I use the amount of happiness as the y-axis and time, past or future, as
the x-axis. This way, I can produce a curve depending on how happy I’ve
been and how much I have to look forward to. The interesting thing is thatl
can never really rate the present! When I think about it, all I can really sayis
that my thoughts of the past and future are either happy or sad.
I think Todd is right about separating pleasure and happiness, becausel
can say, “Yes, I’m having a ‘pleasurable’ time, right now, at this very pointin
time” I’m not sure if this is because I’m always on the go or if it’s something
else. But I can’t say, “Yes, I’m happy right now.” I can only say, “Gosh, wasn’t
that fun last night,” or “I can’t wait until tomorrow!”
I also agree that satisfaction is not happiness. When I’m most happy is
when I’m between satisfaction and disappointment. Here, I always havea
goal, and yet I’m not suffering any sort of personal defeat. When you’re
satisfied, all you can really do is say, “Gosh, wasn’t that neat,” plop on the
couch and watch Geraldo.
Chris Anderson ’89
Babbling idiot
EDITOR:
T he other day I asked myself if I was happy, but somehow I got the
feeling that my answer would not be good enough for Todd Honeycutt. Sol
posed three questions:
1. What is a “cake doughnut” and how does it differ from the standard
doughnut?
2. How did Mr. Honeycutt make it this far in life by being a babbling
idiot?
3. Why does The Battalion print this kind of dribble on the Opinion
page? I mean, if it was on the Babbling Idiot page I probably would not mind
a bit. . .
But before I go on let me check to make sure that I’m not beating around
the bush or violating any journalistic norms such as using understandable
sentences or having a point.
This is not the first utterly ridiculous vignette that I have read by Mr.
Honeycutt. But it is the first one to jump from doughnuts to suicide to birds
landing on my head to children to doughnuts again. I guess this is art.
Admittedly though, I have no objective criticism of the April 13 work except
that no one that I know has gotten anything out of it except a good laugh.
And of The Battalion staff, I ask: Don’t you want to be a respectable
newspaper? Don’t you want to be read for reasons other than because your
paper is free? Sometimes I get the feeling that you print columns on the
opinion page just to stimulate a response. Gee, I guess it worked. Boy do 1
feel duped.
Greg Christopher ’90
Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters
for style and length, but will make every effort to maintain the author’s intent. Each letter must be signed anl
must include the classification, address and telephone number of the writer.
The Battalion
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Member of
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Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Becky Weisenfels, Editor
Leslie Guy, Managing Editor
Dean Sueltenfuss, Opinion Page Editor
Anthony Wilson, City Editor
Scot Walker, Wire Editor
Drew Leder, News Editor
Doug Walker, Sports Editor
Jay Janner, Art Director
Mary-Lynne Rice, Entertainment Edi
tor
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resent the opinions of Texas A&M administrators, fac
ulty or the Board of Regents.
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