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The Battalion
Wednesday • August 6, 1997
PINION
Igliu
[nee
wan
It garden of Democrats
Resident Clinton plants seeds to survive his presidency
is Id.
'any people regard insects, in
general, as pretty disgusting.
.But to a gardener, the right
|siiccf<§eofinsect released into a flower
!, at the right time, can help yield
!exact blooms the gardener wants.
Under the dissipating clouds
(from the OOP’s heavy assault
accusations toward the White
mse, President Bill Clinton care-
lyselected his candidate to gain
n a maximum yield in a field of
litical land mines.
There are many reasons and suspicions on
th sides of the aisle as to why Clinton selected
n Massachusetts Governor William Weld to
come the next ambassador to Mexico.
oosingWeld, a Republican, should have been
hoice applauded by Congress — currendy
th senators and representatives alike love to
out apparently meaningless rhetoric touting
jartisanship as the savior of America.
But the chair of the U.S. Senate Foreign
lations Committee, friendly Jesse Helms, is
ce again showing what community and
oup spirit mean to the old guard. Helms
not even give Weld the basic right to a
aring. Helms does not even want to open
eyes to what the future of the Republican
rty might become.
Helms claims that Weld is too soft on drugs
cause Weld, a more moderate Republican,
rorsthe legalization of marijuana for med-
reasons. Of course Weld sitting in the
aited States Embassy in Mexico will in
ease the flow of marijuana to inordinate
nounts just because he thinks it might be
neficial to offer sick people as many op-
ansas there are available. Helms doesn’t ap-
artoo concerned about being soft on cam-
lign contributions or the large amount of
ibacco (just as harmful as marijuana) that
ready exists within the borders.
But already, Clinton’s clever choice has
Columnist
Stephen Luno
Senior history major
made an analysis such as the previ
ous one, miss the real questions sur
rounding Weld’s nomination. Al
though important to recognize and
cure any dissent within a political
party, it isn’t usually considered good
to have an opposition party presi
dent try to demonstrate it for you.
Clinton reached across party lines
to pick Weld for several different rea
sons. First and most obvious, is that
Clinton believes Weld is the best
choice and most qualified to become
ambassador to Mexico. Traditionally, Clinton has
stayed within party lines on big issues, including
presidential appointments, and there is no rea
son to think that Weld’s experience as governor
would qualify him as ambassador material.
Secondly, many analysts feel that Clinton is
paving the way for the up and coming young
Kennedys, who have ruled some part of the
country in some form or fashion for the better
part of the century. This theory carries a lot of
weight, due to the fast approaching governor
elections in 1998, but the question of why
Weld would quickly resign a Republican seat
and leave it exposed to a possible left-wing
victory remains unanswered. Although more
open-minded than other Republicans, Weld is
not a dissenter who would throw party seats
in the air just to appease a Democratic presi
dent. Weld honestly believes his appointment
as ambassador will do more good than anoth
er Republican governor.
Perhaps Clinton wanted to mend fissures
with the Republicans by appointing a Republi
can he could agree with on some issues just to
appease the conservative element in the Sen
ate. But this theory is also flawed due to the
better-than-average relationship developing
between Republicans and Clinton. The recent
balanced budget agreement is one example,
and many people with an eye trained on Capi
tol Hill will remember the puzzled looks on
Loti^
k
Mail Call
MSC offers apology
or advertisement
On Monday, August 4, an ad-
ertisement ran in The Battalion
romoting MSC Open House.
We regret that this advertise-
bent is offensive to many indi-
iduals at Texas A&M and oth-
ts within the Bryan/College
‘tation community.
It was not our intent to offend
N degrade any individual or
[thnic group.
| We acknowledge the adver-
pement was in extremely poor
a ste and apologize to all who
tare angered or hurt.
Although we do not attempt to
Xcuse this action, under Stan
ford organizational procedure,
^advertisement of this nature
,0 uld never have been approved.
I That is, publications under-
[° a thorough evaluation prior
printing to assure that the
intended message is clear, of
high quality, and consistent
with the goals of the Memorial
Student Center.
In this instance, the ad was
produced and submitted for
printing without the benefit of
this process.
We acknowledge and apolo
gize for this mistake.
The advertisement in ques
tion does not represent or com
municate the values of the
Memorial Student Center.
Kyle Simson
Class of’98
Executive Vice President for
Human Resources
48th MSC Council
Eddie Hoover
Class of’98
Director of Public Relations
Rachel Allen
Class of’99
Director of Publishing
MSC advertisement
portrays racist A&M
It is a shame that a university
that I refer to as my own could
still wallow in the filth of racial ig
norance. It is also a travesty that
the printing of this advertisement
was not halted by someone at
The Battalion or the MSC.
The fact that orientation is
occurring today only adds to the
horror. How many parents of fu
ture students saw that picture?
Be they black or not, this is not
the picture you want to paint of
the University.
I suppose African-Americans
only are seen as entertainers and
clowns by MSC Student Programs.
Please do not forget or ignore
the fact that had it not been for
African-Americans such as Sen.
Matthew Gaines, there would be
no Texas A&M University. Where
is his statue?
Where is his plaque in the
MSC honoring his sacrifice for
the great “A&M College of Texas?”
Instead, you close your eyes
and allow ignorance to flow ram
pant through these hallowed halls.
Meanwhile, we have quietly
gone to class and continued to
achieve, but slowly we are being
deliberately and categorically
calculated out of the Aggie equa
tion. Tradition is a word I hear a
lot on this campus.
Obviously, history shows that
African-Americans were not in
tended to be a tradition here. We
were supposed to be out in the
cotton fields of Prairie View.
Please think before you print.
Theodore J. Sanders
Class of ’00
Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity
Vice President
Astros fan tackles
Houston bashing
In response to Travis Dabney’s August
4 sports column:
Houston fans are fairly similar
to any other fans in the world; they
like a winner. They also like teams
that have owners who go out of
their way to produce a winner (see
Les Alexander, the owner of the
Houston Rockets).
What they don’t like are teams
that merely try to stay competitive
(see Drayton McLane, the financial
ly strapped owner of the Houston
Astros), and they don’t like owners
who pick up and move to go and
find Elvis (see Bud Adams, the new
owner of the Tennessee Fiddlers).
Contrary to your article, Chicago
doesn’t packWrigley Field, Boston
doesn’t sell out Fenway Park and
Denver doesn’t sell out games for
the Nuggets. The Rockets and the
Astros aren’t going anywhere, and
in 10 to 15 years, Houston will have
another NFL franchise. If Houston
fans don’t want to keep their teams,
how do you explain the bond issue
passing to build a new baseball sta
dium downtown? I drove for two
hours and fought downtown traffic
to go see the Astros lose last Friday
against the Mets. Would you have
stayed, Dabney? I doubt it. I doubt
you’d even make the drive.
Scott Simonds
Class of’98
Americans’ faces as Clinton, from day one in
the Oval Office, seemed to lean a bit to the right
on issues such as NAFTA and other foreign pol
icy matters. On gun control and abortion, Clin
ton doesn’t step outside of the pretty Democra
tic boundaries, and that might still be a sore
spot with Republicans who he might need for
the future of his own party.
Republicans are very anxious to see Clinton
leave office. He has given them quite a run for
their platform, although he did have some
help from the occasional mistake. The Repub
licans have lost a lot of steam since the “Revo
lution of ’94,” as Newt Gingrich liked to call it.
In 1998, voters will go to the polls to select
representatives, and this is where Clinton has
placed his bipartisan thinking.
The majority of Republicans who are still
card-carrying members are a little frustrated
right now. The party has been rendered some
what inactive by a lack of self discussion on im
portant issues. In the 1996 presidential race,
Bob Dole attempted to start a much needed
party-wide dialogue on abortion. The more re
actionary conservatives quickly quieted that ef
fort. This inaction or self-imposed silence only
makes moderate Republicans look for alterna
tives. Weld wants to fight old thinking such as
Helms’, due to the stifling nature that lack of in
ter-party reasoning creates. And when there is a
lack of progress, explosive results can occur.
- Clinton selected Weld to woo Republican
moderates toward the Democratic party from
the tired and staunchly conservative views of
the older regime, which have stopped the party
from moving forward. Shifting the focus away
from the campaign money trail cannot do any
thing but help not only the Democrats in 1998,
but A1 Gore in 2000. While Helms plays moral
ist, and Weld plays Don Quixote, Clinton is
slowly, in beautiful political style, turning the
garden of power politics in Washington into his
concept of a very well-managed and beautiful
garden, rosy for the Democrats’ future.
The Battalion
Established in 1893
Editorials appearing in The Battalion reflect the
views of the editorials board members. They do not
necessarily reflect the opinions of other Battalion
staff members, the Texas A&M student body, re
gents, administration, faculty or staff. Columns,
guest columns, cartoons and letters express the
opinions of the authors.
Contact the opinion editor for information on sub
mitting guest columns.
Editorials Board
Stew Milne
Editor in Chief
Helen Clancy
Managing Editor
James Francis
Opinion Editor
John LeBas
City Editor
Missing The Target
Disbanding of Fish Drill Team does
not solve the mentality behind hazing
After months of ongoing hazing
controversy leaders within the
Corps of Cadets seemed left with
no other choice than to disband
the Fish Drill Team.
This action was imminent, but
Texas A&M and the Corps de
serve a much better promise for
reform than simply disbanding
the team.
Targeting a single entity will
not eradicate hazing in the Corps
or other student organizations. Al
though this action will satisfy
public demands on a superficial
level, the root of the problem is
not being addressed.
No isolated disciplinary action
can change the mentality that haz
ing is a tradition in the Corps.
Too often cadets think, “Hazing
is necessary in the Corps,” or “I’ll
never whine about hazing.” This
attitude is generations-strong and
will not be changed overnight.
The disbanding may send a )
strong signal to those who perpetu
ate hazing but should not be hailed (
as a comprehensive solution.
Hazing charges by current and
former cadets will persist
whether or not the University ac
knowledges the problem is per
vasive in the Corps and other -
student organizations.
Therefore, A&M officials must
“suck it up” — as hazed cadets "
are no doubt ordered to do —
and admit that hazing is an Ag
gie tradition. Such a token ges- ‘
ture such as disbanding the drill
team acknowledges the problem
but will not stand in the way of
future violations. (
Republicans suffer
from inner-conflicts
R epublican —
Schmapublican.
No wonder the
nation has chosen to
allow the ultra-liberal
Clinton-administration
to have the type of
control it has had over
the last five years.
Detractors from the
Democratic Party may
say what they want
about the president and the De
mocratic Party, but at least they
seem to like one another and
publicly express a willingness to
work together. These people are
admired by many for their steely
verve. They can lie to the Ameri
can people at any turn and not
feel a bit of remorse about doing
so. They lie so well that they very
rarely get caught — and when
they are caught, they lie about
being caught. These incidents
are examples of politics, not
governing, at its finest.
Due partly to his own deft com
munication skills and to the gulli
bility of the American people,
Clinton is the best politician that
America has seen in recent years.
The American people no
longer seem to care about the
personal endeavors of the presi
dent. They just seem to care about
the job that the president is doing.
The presidency used to be a
revered office and in administra
tions such as Eisenhower, Tru
man and Kennedy, the presiden
cy was a regal position occupied
by publicly perceived modern-
day knights who would serve
their country selflessly, and with
true and decent ambition. The
Watergate scandal and the sub
sequent resignation of President
Nixon helped shed light on the
fact that the presidency was not
such a clean and pure office.
People began to realize that
everyone, especially the presi
dent, is susceptible to corrup
tion. The presidency has lost
some of its glitz and glamour.
People who have feverishly at
tacked Clinton’s personal life
seem to lose out in the press and
the polls. The American people
have become so liberal since the
days of the Johnson and Nixon
administrations that we no
longer hold the president in a
higher moral or ethical standard
than the average citizen would
be held, with the political climate
of today, it may even be impossi
ble to have an ethical leadership
and still accomplish anything.
The recent behavior of the
GOP is reminiscent of a bunch of
whining, crying babies who have
a disagreement over who is in
charge while Mommy is at the
store. Jenny Coleman, a sopho
more industrial distribution ma
jor, said, “I find it hard to put a lot
Columnist
Len Callaway
Junior journalism major
of stock int o a bunch of
men that can’t even or
ganize a decent coup.”
The attempted
mutiny inside the
GOP against House of
Representatives
Speaker Newt Gin
grich can have no pos
itive public effect on
the party, but private
ly it could have ex
posed a rift among the leader
ship that is now out in the open,
and cannot be reconciled.
The Republican Party cannot
expect to outshine or maneuver
around the Democratic Party in
any capacity until it learns a little
teamwork. “Slick Willie’s” band of
ultra-liberal jackals are cleaning
house right now because they
have learned how to fake it for the
cameras and papers. Since Clin
ton, no other president in history
has had the number of serious
character issues leveled against
him and been able to maintain
an approval rating in the high 50
percent region. People simply do
not care what political problems
he has encountered.
The GOP contradicts itself
every time it has the chance. Dur
ing the hearings on campaign fi
nance this summer, the Republi
can members of the committee
worked much of the time with a
negative attitude and have shown
themselves to be overzealous at
times. Their intense scrutiniza-
tion of Democratic Party fund
raising has led to the same scruti-
nization of the Republican Party.
It has even been discovered re
cently that the GOP has ties to
Asian campaign money.
In order for the GOP to allow
itself the opportunity to rise to
power again in the years to
come, it must drop the charac
ter assassination ploys and be
gin to deal with their con
stituents on a different level.
The Republican Party only has
a few serious candidates that are
politically clean enough to make a
serious bid for the presidency in
2000. The public perception is
that the Republican Party is up
tight and that its members want
to hold President Clinton to a
higher standard than they even
hold themselves. Mike Carroll, a
senior business management ma
jor, said, “It looks as if they cannot
argue the issues on merit so they
just go with the extraneous stuff.”
The Republican Party definite
ly has enough talented leadership
to make a huge difference in the
years to “Election 2000” and could
have a serious contender for the
Presidency when the time arises.
It must simply get its proverbial
act together in the very near fu
ture or we will no doubt see an
other Democratic president.