T he Battalion OPINION Monday, November 27,1989 Slocum and team deserve respect, support from Ags Despite the disappointing loss to Arkansas on Friday, R.C. Slo cum and his team have done an outstanding job this year. The credibility and respect that any team brings to a school it represents is more important than winning. Under Jackie Sherrill, Texas A&M was the butt of jokes and an object of scorn because of the continuous pall of illegality that hung over the football team. The constant presence of NCAA investigations brought A&M ever closer to the death penalty. Slocum has apparently eliminated all traces of the sleaze fac tor, and has managed to field a competitive team that has shown class both in losing and in winning as shown against SMU and TCU. Slocum needs only one more victory to tie the all-time NCA re cord for most wins by a rookie head coach. He came within one point of becoming the only coach in history to lead his team to the Cotton Bowl in his first year. Slocum and the Aggies have shown they can compete with the best on honest terms, and they deserve our full respect and support. The Battalion Editorial Board HCT>£TCf* Quayle needs to save his image before it’s too late To a golfer, a mulligan is a second chance, an invitation to hit a bad shot over again and pretend the first one never happened. Golfing with Republi can governors, Vice President Dan Quayle said he didn’t want one because “mulligans are for Democrats.” There are no mulligans in national politics, where Quayle might find one handy now and then. In that arena, any errant move is marked indelibly on the scorecard. That means no mistakes go unpenalized, especially for a politi cal figure whose confidence and per formance ratings are persistently low, as Quayle’s are. That pressure doesn’t let up; one as sociate sees the stress on Quayle as the vice president strives to boost his stand ing, knowing that any slipup or misspo ken word will be magnified into an other dent in the image. Walter Mears Associated Press Gov. Carroll A. Campbell Jr. of South Carolina introducing him at a casual reception, said the vice presi dent “will make a very fine place in his tory.” Republican National Chairman Lee Atwater tossed into his remarks to the governors the observation that Quayle “is doing a very fine job and could not have more confidence and support from the president.” After all, Quayle has solid backing where it really counts. President Bush has said flatly that Quayle will be his 1992 running mate. That gives the vice president seven years to do his job and enhance his standing. In the changeable world of politics, that is a very long time — half again as long as Quayle’s entire political career to date. Even though the adverse polls clearly sting, Quayle is up to a joke about his political standing. “A year and one week ago, President George Bush rode to victory on my coattails,” he told the governors. He spoke of his wife’s interest in di saster relief efforts: “Marilyn has a lot of experience in disaster preparedness; she’s lived with me for 17 years.” But the banter isn’t always easy in the face of public opinion surveys indi cating that a majority of Americans do not think Quayle qualified to succeed to the presidency, which is a vice presi dent’s one crucial role, and that nearly clra wh< half think he should be replaced on the 1992 Republican ticket. President Bush has said that will not happen, making the commitment pub licly. “He’s doing a very good job, an oustanding job ... exactly what I want him to do,” Bush said in an interview with the Dallas Morning News early this month. The vice president says unfavorable polls will not affect the way he does his job. “I’m not going to do anything differ ently no matter what the polls say,” Quayle said in an interview with a group of reporters. “I’m going to work as I believe a vice president should work, that is, first and foremost, with complete loyalty to the president, for the advancement of his agenda, in his interest, and that’s what I’m doing.” - m That job description does notf elude a more aggressive effort strengthen his own standing and prove his own image. Quayle and allies have maintained that his ima; problem stems largely from mentor; of the Democratic attack on himdi ing the 1988 campaign, but it haste lot over a year now and the numl aren’t any better. As a result, some Quayle advise want him to raise his television proft ‘7 appearing more frequently on the and question-and-answer programs. a-j c That means the voters will be $eei:|! T more of Quayle. They’ll knowhimf faul ter; his challenge is to convince themflon like him better. B? 111 Walter R. Mears, vicepresidenlti^ { columnist for The Associated Prti st ‘ ( has reported on Washington andm “ tional politics for more than 25years|i| i r ...... Bev he Politicians don’t deserve rewards for jobs done poorly ble Some politicians have long been champions at lying, cheating, dirty- dealing and underhandedness, but Congress has elevated those practices to new heights with this latest pay- raise fiasco. In case you didn’t hear the details, listen to this: The U.S. House of Representa tives voted 252-174 to pass a pay- raise bill, which, true to form, was sneakily disguised as ethics legislation. The bill increases salaries in the House, Jor federal judges and for top exec utive-branch officials by 35-40 percent. A 7.9 percent “cost-of-living” hike goes into effect by January. A 25 percent raise will be given on Jan. 1, 1991, on top of whatever cost-of-living increase is given to rank-and-file civil servants at that time (probably around 3 percent). So House members have voted to in crease their own salaries from $89,500 to about $125,000. doing it. After all, they had to bribe themselves with a payraise just to con vince themselves of the need for ethics reform. Quiet magnanimous, eh? As Ohio Rep. James Traficant put it, “We come with ethics reform and we sneak in a pay raise.” Now, consider that the old salary of $89,500 already puts House members in the top one percent of the popula tion in terms of salary, and tell me how these poor pitiful politicians so desper ately need the extra money. Of course, the politicians who voted for this bill are quick to point out that its “real purpose” was to provide much- needed ethics reform for the House. In addition to raising salaries, the bill phases out the amount of income the elected officials can accept from out side sources; starting in 1991, rep resentatives can no longer accept speaking fees, honoraria and all the other thinly disguised attempts by po litical interest groups at buying political influence. This reform is long overdue, but the House deserves no pat on the back for finally getting around to But for all the hypocrisy and dirty- dealing displayed by the House, the Senate managed to do them one better. The Senators also voted themselves a pay raise, but they didn’t touch the rules governing how much money a senator can receive from outside sources. That means Texas Senators Phil Gramm and Lloyd Bentson can pull in, in addition to their $100,000 official salary, an additonal $27,000 in speaking fees and honoraria. The per centage of their official compensation that can be earned from outside in come is scheduled to gradually dimin ish, but the schedule is so gradual that Senate aids have derided the schedule in the news media as “Honoraria 2000.” went screaming nuts. Consumer activ ists and radio talk-show hosts helped lead the fight against the raise, and Congress had no choice but to kill its own proposal. Congressional leaders were mindful of the overwhelming public opposition to any congressional pay hikes (USA Today said 72 percent of Americans opposed the increase) so they took care to grease this pig really well to ease its slide through the system this time around. No public hearings took place on the issue. There was no decent in terval of time between announcement of the proposal and its passage for the public to digest the idea. And worst of all, the vote came at the very tail end of the session, allowing lawmakers to slink out of town and let the furor die down before the next session. All other issues aside, a pay raise usually indicates that an employee is doing some kind of good work that de serves a reward. Can Congress lay hon est claim to such kudos? Hardly. Here’s what the 101st Congress has managed to do in the first half of itsterm: • Place a federal ban on flag burn- ing. • Boost the minimunwage. • Approve yet-another “War on Drugs.” This is the fifth in five admin istrations, and is already proving to be just as ineffectiveas its predecessors. • Bail out the savings and loan in dustry. But can you guess who gets to foot this bill? Hint: It ain’t the people who caused all the problems in the first place, and it ain’t the people (like Con gressmen) who make enough money to afford more taxes. Once again, John Q. Public gets reamed. • Place a lid on federal payments to doctors. • And, last but by no means least: Approve their own pay increase. And here are just a few of the issues that Congress didn’t address this time around: • Child care. • Clean air. • Housing for the homeless. • Oil-spill liability. • Rights for the disabled. • The federal budget deficit. Al though they did squeak through a last- minute appropriations bill, nearly all of its $14.7 billion in deficit reductions come from fancy accounting gimmicks that in reality don’t decrease the deficit a bit. • The explosion of democracy among the Eastern Bloc nations. Con gress did decide to offer foreign aid to Poland and Hungary to encourage and support continued econmic reform, but managed to come up with only a paltry $846 million, billions less than we give to countries who have much less need for our help, like Israel. California representative Robert Matsul said it well: “We didn’t do a damned thing this year.” What they did do well this yean; mostly illegal or immoral. 1 j k; Hill D.ill de;i me< House members, including! fou Speaker, have been driven to resif wor A third was convicted on crimit charges. Four are under inveslf j^ 1 tion by the House ethics commitif ^ Over in the Senate, a special inves gator has been hired to look intoi: Wo suspicious dealings of six senate* Not really a good year, I’d say.G tainly nothing there that makes! think they deserve a raise foraj well done. froi the ' thn qui por con Here in Texas, we just voteddo a much-more-defensible raise our state legislators. It’s not took ^ to convince the politicians thati federal pay raise was a bad too. Write Gramm (703 HartSeiti Office Building, Washington, 20510) or Bentson (370 Russf Building, Washington, D.C. S Call Joe Barton (his College office phone number is 846-1® and tell him you’ll remember! “Yes” vote when he comes upforf election, and urge him to world have the raise rescinded. Speak® and be heard. Don’t let youreledt officials get away with such an® vious attempt at manipulating' system and the public. Scot Walker is a junior jo0 lism major and editor of The Bad ion. What is most disgusting about the actions of both the House and the Sen ate is the way they went about giving themselves this pay hike. Remember back to earlier this year when Congress proposed to give itself a 51 percent pay hike. The public, with good reason, /fl Oftv In The Life- Of ft Pouncmn ( The Battalion (USPS 045 360) Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Scot O.Walker, Editor Wade See, Managing Editor Juliette Rizzo, Opinion Page Editor Fiona Soltes, City Editor Ellen Hobbs, Chuck Squatriglia, News Editors Tom Kehoe, Sports Editor Jay Janner, Art Director Dean Sueltenfuss, Lifestyles Editor Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspa per operated as a community service to Texas A&M and Bryan-College Station. Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editorial board or the author, and do not necessarily rep resent the opinions of Texas A&M administrators, fac ulty or the Board of Regents. The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper for students in reporting, editing and photography classes within the Department of Journalism. 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