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
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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
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* ~ ^ okK 11
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