ustxtxb_obs_1972_10_20_50_00004-00000_000.pdf

Page 16

by

EDITOR CO-EDITOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR EDITOR AT LARGE REVIEW EDITOR Kaye Northcott Moll Ivins John Ferguson Ronnie Dugger Steve Barthelme Tower had no part in drafting the ’67 bill. It was written, Yarborough said, during October, November and December of 1966. Yarborough said that during that time he invited Tower along with Robert Kennedy, Jacob Javits, Joe Montoya and Harrison Williams to cosponsor the bill. There is no indication in the CR Index that Tower was a principal sponsor of the bilingual bill. \(In August of this year, however, Tower introduced a bilingual measure of his own, S. 3952, establishing a Perhaps in anticipation of the impending campaign, Tower sponsored and cosponsored many more bills during 1971 and ’72 than he did in earlier years. In 1971 he introduced or was a major cosponsor of 53 bills as compared to 19 bills in 1966, 24 bills in 1967 \(14 of them 7 12 PERHAPS PART of Tower’s Problem is his attendance record. Sanders claims the senator’s record is “far below average.” According to Sanders’ investigation, Tower was present for only 69 percent of the Senate roll call votes in 1966, 53 percent in 1967, 63 percent in 1968, 78 percent in 1969, 55 percent. in 1970 and 78 percent in 1971. During these six years GOP senators averaged an attendance record of from 79 to 87 percent on roll call votes. Tower answers that he has been present for 80 percent of the roll call votes in the Senate this year and for 78 per cent of them last year.” The senator’s people have gone back and looked up Sanders’ record in the Texas House during the fifties and they countercharge that Sanders missed 266 roll call votes in 224 legislative days. \(Sanders says he voted on 93 percent of the record votes while he was in the Legislature. There were more than 5,000 record votes during his four years in office; he could have missed 266 roll call votes in 224 legislative days in the Texas House just “A U.S. Senator from Texas, or any large state, cannot do an effective job by chaining himself to a desk in the Senate Chamber,” Tower argues. “This year alone I have been called to the White House 18 times to confer with the President.” Tower may not be in heavy demand as a bill passer, but he is as a public speaker. The tiny senator received an M.A. in political science from SMU in 1953 and did some post-graduate work at the University of London. He taught government for several years at Midwestern University in Wichita Falls, Tex., until he decided to stop teaching government and start working in government. Tower has a strong, deep, speaking voice and a penchant for Bucklean rhetoric. A sampling from a recent Senate debate on SALT: “Mr. President, does the Senator from Washington agree that given their present momentum in advancing their military technology, both qualitatively and quantitatively, and given our current lack of momentum, the Soviets would, in the absence of an equitable agreement, in a short period of time achieve or exceed superiority?” \(Senator Jackson did indeed The Texas Observer Publishing Co. Ronnie Dugger, Publisher A window to the South A journal of free voices THE TEXAS OBSERVER Contributing Editors: Winston Bode, Bill Brammer, Gary Cartwright, Sue Horn Estes, Joe Frantz, Larry Goodwyn, Harris Green, Bill Hamilton, Bill Helmer, Dave Hickey, Franklin Jones, Lyman Jones, Larry L. King, Georgia Earnest Klipple, Larry Lee, Al Melinger, Robert L. Montgomery, 1972 Willie Morris, Bill Porterfield, James Presley, Charles Ramsdell, Buck Ramsey, John Rogers, Mary Beth Rogers, Roger Shattuck, Edwin Shrake, Dan Strawn, John P. Sullivan, Tom Sutherland. Charles Alan Wright. We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all interests, to the rights of man as the foundation of democracy; we will take orders from none but our own conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. The editor has exclusive control over the editorial policies and contents of the Observer. None of the other people who are associated with the enterprise shares this responsibility with her. Writers are responsible for their own work, but not for anything they have not themselves written, and in publishing them the editor does not necessarily imply that she agrees with them, because this is a journal of free voices. BUSINESS STAFF Sarah Boardman Joe Espinosa Jr. C. R. Olofson David Sharpe The Observer is published by Texas Observer Publishing Co., biweekly from Austin, Texas. Entered as second-class matter April 26, 1937, at the Post Office at Austin, Texas, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Second class postage paid at Austin, Texas. Single copy, 25c. One year, $7.00; two years, $13.00; three years. $18.00; plus, for Texas addresses, 5% sales tax. Foreign, except kPO/FPO, 50c additional per year. Airmail, bulk orders, and group rates on request. Microfilmed by Microfilming Corporation of America, 21 Harristown Road, Glen Rock, N.J. 07452. Change of Address: Please give old and new address, including zip codes, and allow two weeks. Postmaster: Send form 3579 to Texas Observer, 600 W. 7th St., Austin, Texas 78701. Vol. LXIV, No. 20 Oct. 20, 1972 Incorporating the State Observer and the East Texas Democrat, which in turn incorporated the Austin ForumAdvocate. Editorial and -Business Offices: The Texas Observer, 600 W. 7th St., Austin, Texas 78701. Telephone 477-0746. 74411110V