Editorial opinion
Human rights
Bet you thought human rights
had come a long way. Women,
blacks and other minorities have
won major battles in hiring, lending
and housing discrimination cases.
Many states have adopted laws
that protect , people from
discrimination based on race, sex
and religion. I
And yet, the strides for gays -
have been short indeed. Wh'eh the
state legislature returns from'
recess next week, it will attempt to
override Gov. Shapp’s veto of a bill
that would prevent gays being
hired in state correctional and
'Young Turk' Donald Rumsfeld makes Ford team
By JOHN DeVAULT
Collegian Columnist
Jerry Ford and Don Rumsfeld go back a long way back to
’965 when Rumsfeld was one of the leaders of the "Young
Turks, a group of young, rebel Republican Congressmen who
hlerally pushed Ford into the position of House Minority
leader
Last week. Jerry Ford nominated his old colleague to be the
next Secretary of Defense and one of the chief players on what
Ford calls 'my team."
It is interesting to look back to 1965, because it was during
•hat campaign, when Ford and Rumsfeld were allied for the
first time, that the political styles that were to mark Gerald
Ford and Donald Rumsfeld for the rest of their careers were
first spotlighted. And these styles and careers are fascinating
because they say so much about why today Donald Rumsfeld
is on the Ford team, and about where that team is going.
In 1965. the Young Turks were looking for ways to advance
i heir position in the House. They decided to run a man against
ncumbent Charles Halleck for House Minority Leader and
narrowed their choices to two' Gerald Ford and Melvin Laird
This was not a bailie of ideologies; the Young Turks were as
conservative as Halleck. They simply wanted to advance
themselves by showing they could beat him. So the idea was
lo pick a winner, someone whom people liked. He didn't have
to stand for anything.
It was here that ''ord won over Laird. One of the challengers
explained why is more dynamic He's got more
leadership But he s antagonized some people, made enemies
along the line Ford has not . there were fewer people mad at
Ford
And so Rumsfeld and the other Turks had their candidate.
But non-candidate would be a better word. Ford constantly
annoyed Rumsfeld and the other ambitious young men
pushing him because that was practically what they had to do:
push him physically into office. He was willing to be the
challenger and let others campaign for him. But he himself
wasn't going to challenge anybody;— you make enemies that
way Writer Richard Reeves describefeone night when the only
way Ford s campaign managers could keep him in the office
was to continually send out for food, telling him that if he went
home for dinner it would be wasted.
Ford tu nearly everyone's surprise, did, of course win. But
.-.hat is interesting is the behavior of the principals' Ford for
•he first time on a national level played his role of the leader
.vho was led. content to fill a seat and let others use his
amiability to advance themselves and. of course, him. And
Rumsfeld, while he would show it more clearly later, was a
pusher Ambitious and shrewd
Both have continued to play these roles in the decade since,
and have come to their present positions because they have.
Congress did not hold Rumsfeld long He was recognized by
‘ns colleagues as an extraordinarily skillful politician with
jmb'tion to match and his aides claim, though he denies it,
that he always felt boxed in by the in-house games of the
os'itutinn In any case, he accepted an offer from Richard
Letters to the Editor
Surprise
TO THE EDITOR: Lured by a promise of a local supermarket
' aid the consumer", we recently set off on a bizarre grocery
'-'v pping spree l On arrival, we found the cart already over
"i ,ung with assorted groceries. A large sign informed us that
•no store had adopted a new method of grocery buying using
he negative check-off system." Imagine our surprise when
.ve discovered that we were required to return every item that
we- 'id not want to its proper place, before entering the check
iut lanes
Atier an exhaustive hour, we were at last ready to face the
rash register We questioned the manager about the new
s v ’em and he replied that "other stores in the chain had tried
■he old way the positive check-off system' and did not
m.-Ke enough money to remain in business.” We countered
vth the fact that a sufficient number of customers will gladly
pay for a p-oduC that is necessary and desirable.
Returning home, we were disgusted to discover that we had
overlooked' a box of Wheaties and had paid for a product we
Ji ! no' want Although the Wheaties added only 59 cents to
t
'C3 u
mental institutions It would also
prevent them from being hired as
state policemen.
Tomorrow gays and gay sup
porters all over the state will
protest the override attempt. And
they, urge you to contact your
representatives to encourage
them to sustain Shapp’s veto.
Because what the bill does is
discriminate against people for
what they do in their private lives.
Thus the issue, though it affects
gays for the most part, is not a gay
rights issue. It's a human rights
issue.
X€ee twe. u.
yOCGOLT CUJB
f ft CONCEPT j
Nixon in 1969 to head the Office fo Economic Opportunity mentioned for high administration posts. Rumsfeld knew what
(OEO) and to join the White House staff as an adviser to the he was doing
president. Many wondered aloud at the wisdom of leaving a
"safe" congressional seat for an uncertain position in the
White House Rumsfeld knew what he was doing
The OEO position was indeed uncertain: though he denied
it, Nixon was in the process of dismantling OEO. But Rums
feld handled the position with great political finesse,
dissolving OEO practically without anyone realizing he was
doing it.
The Nixon administration supported Lent, of course, and a
But Rumsfeld made his mark in the White House itself. f ew after Lowenstein's request Rumsfeld's endorsement
Between OEO and the White House, he put in regular 12-hour djd indeed go ou , _ (0 Norm Lent
days After he finished at five at OEO, he would often return to
the White House and work until eight or nine. He soon im- Rumsfeld was one of the select group Nixgn called to the
pressed Nixon with his shrewdness, hard work and loyalty. White House after the elections to analyze the results;
Soon, he was dining with the President and being frequently Lowenstem and Rumsfeld haven't spoken since.
m . Henry, the press *vi/l ia ant the
detailed reasons why
-they were dismissed.
j-:l
our bill, similar amounts multiplied by thousands of other
customers' oversights constitute an unethical money-making
scheme.
Evidently, the store can only stay in business through such
consumer oversights, as these are responsible for the only
monetary difference between the two grocery-buying systems.
Sound familiar - ?
Congratulations
TO THE EDITOR: This is directed to the two girls I saw
stealing some books from the library at 3:30 on Saturday, Oct.
25. Congratulations. You have just qualified for the lowest life
form on campus. By stealing those books you may have
deprived some honest student of a source for their papers. The
/ TtE OCCULT'
f Q. us 1 ? /
V COX.OTHFV
Human rights because gays,
like women or blacks, are people
above all else. And people should
have a chance to compete equally
with other people for jobs.
Some people believe employing
gay guards in prisons will increase
substantially the homosexuality
that already exists in our prisons.
Then why aren't legislators afraid
that hiring heterosexual men to
work in female institutions will in
crease rapes?
It’s not right and it’s not rights.
Support the protest against this
discriminatory bill.
Jerry L. Wood
grad-ceramic science
Albert Shearer
grad-mechanical engineering
/joHfttowN
Not the least of Rumsfeld's traits that endeared him to Nixon
was his loyalty. In 1970, one of Rumsfeld’s oldest friends,
Congressman Al Lowenstem, approached Rumsfeld for an
endorsement. Lowenstem was in for a tough race against his
mudslinging Republican opponent Norm Lent.
Lowenstein had defended Rumsfeld aqainst liberal critics
when Rumsfeld was named head of OEO, and now was asking
that, the favor be returned.
■' < "1
J i
library operates on a system of honesty and you two are ex
tremely immature for doing something so thoughtless and
inconsiderate Incidentally, although I was not able to prevent
the theft, I did manage to sketch a quick portrait of the girl on
the outside (I'm an artist). So, to the tall, light-haired girl: I can
identify you and will do so if I see you on campus.
Alternate proposal
TO THE EDITOR: On Nov. 11, the University Faculty Senate
will vote on the proposed Academic Redemption Option
(ARO). Under this proposal, a student enrolled in a BA or BS
degree program may erase 18 original credits by substituting
18 credits of new courses that fulfill a student's requirements
to graduate. ARO would replace Pass-Fail and M3B, the policy
which enables a student to drop an F.
If ARO passes the Senate, it will actually hurt students and
will promote "cum" inflation. ARO allows students to drop any
grade they are dissatisfied with up to 18 credits. This ad
vantage allows poorer students to raise their academic rank to
that of the hardworking good students by simple dropping low
grades. : Meanwhile, those students who already get high
grades have no way of being recognized. They are being un
fairly discriminated against since there is no way to dif
ferentiate between a grade received the first time around and a
grade received when the course is repeated. Actually, ARO
helps no one. The low grades are only dropped from the “cum”
and not from the transcript. Future employers or professional
schools will see the poor grades anyway!
As an alternate proposal to ARO, the Liberal Arts'Student
Council supports the plan of Dr. Robert Dunham which
proposes to extend the drop period to eight weeks, to retain
Pass-Fail and to rescind M3B.
Since there has been no abuse pf Pass-Fail, why abandon it?
Pass-Fail gives students the opportunity to explore areas of
interest without feeling the pressures of grade competition. It
is based on the same premise as ARO-academic freedom and
flexibility, but without harmful side effects like "cum” in
flation.
By extending the drop period to eight weeks, a student is
given more time to know whether a course is right for him or
her. Eight weeks of drop enables a student to keep a grade off
a transcript altogether instead of dropping it from the “cum”
average, but keeping it on the transcript as provided in ARO. At
the present time, many 'of the colleges in the University allow
free drop until the seventh week as long as the student
petitions for it. (i.e.-Liberal Arts) Other universities
Temple and Penn allow students to drop up until the last few
days of class.
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Meanwhile, Ford was minority leader.
He had trouble from the start, chiefly because he continued
to allow himself to be manipulated This time it was Melvin
Laird. Laird talked Ford into taking him on as an aide, and
Laird made his first duty the hiring and directing of Ford's
staff; before long, as others described it, Laird was "leading
the leader."
It was an embarrassinq time for Ford. Then President
Johnson began making cracks about Jerry having played
football too long without a helmet and one day told an aide,
who had a baby boy, to "take the kid's building blocks and go
up and explain to Jerry Ford what we’re trying to do."
Then in 1969, Nixon took office. Ford was at least as loyal to
Nixon as Rumsfeld, but the White House didn’t treat him the
same way. Rumsfeld, Nixon knew, was able and shrewd; Ford
was just loyal and malleable.
White House messengers regularly brought speeches to
Ford which he readily read on the floor of the House
"He didn't even bother to read the damn things," a
Congressional colleague told writer Reeves. "If the White
House wanted something said, Jerry jumped up and said it."
The White House, while it continued to use Ford, did not
respect him for it; John Ehrlichman leaned back in his chair
one day and laughed, "What a lerk Jerry is."
Then, of course, came Watergate. Ford staunchly defended
Nixon from the beginning, although he must be credited with
showing discretion by keeping relatively out of things once he
was made vice president. Ford was made vice president, in
cidentally, for the same reason Rumsfeld and the Young Turks
ran him for minority leader: he was not particularly fit to be
President, but at least people weren't calling him names.i
Nixon, while he agreed to Ford because he knew he had to .J
reportedly couldn't bring himself to tell Ford the good news
himself and had an aide do it.
Rumsfeld treated Watergate much more pragmatically- he
got out of town. Early in 1973, having once more seen the hand
writing on the wall, he used his White House connections to
have himself made U.S. ambassador to NATO. There he
remained until Ford called him back.
Now Ford and Rumsfeld, after a decade, are back together
again Rumsfeld was Ford's immediate choice for his chief of
staff when he took office last year, and Rumsfeld is credited
with much of the smoothness that characterized the transition
from Nixon to Ford or, at least making it look smooth,
something Rumsfeld is a master at. Further, as chief of staff,
he controlled to a considerable degree who saw the President
and what business crossed his desk. Rumsfeld denies, of
course, that he has any influence over Ford’s decisions, but it
is well known that he had mucfi to do with the recent hirings
and firings that resulted in “the Ford team" <jf which he is
now a member. Another Ford-Laird relationship? Probably
not, Ford has learned that lesson.
But Rumsfeld bears watching, he wants to be President and
already influences one President greatly. Because of Rums
feld’s past history and perhaps even more because of Ford's,
it is an interesting relationship
There is no need for M3B with the extended drop period and
Pass-Fail. M3B has been confusing and controversial. These
other two policies give the student opportunities to drop a
course when he is doing poorly or to take the course Pass-Fail,
without the fear of failing.
On Tuesday, the Faculty Senate will decide on ARO, Pass-.
Fail, Eight Week Drop and M3B. Although both proposals*
studied in this article are of an inflationary nature, eight drop.=
Pass-Fail and the rescinding of M3B is the lesser of two evils."
ARO fails to solve the problems and only helps to create them.
Mary R. Musca, president
the Liberal Arts Student Council
Name Withheld
-Collegian
JERRY SCHWARTZ
Editor
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