Sapulpa Daily Herald (Sapulpa, Okla.), Vol. 67, No. 284, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 12, 1981 Page: 4 of 20
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PAGE EOL'R-A—Sapulpa (Okl».) Herald, Wedneaday, Aucaat It, 1M1
Sapulpa Herald
Notebook
Ed Livermore
Sapulpa Daily
MEFfc^LD
LditoriaU-Commenta*Obaervations
ONE POSSIBILITY for rearranging
county government procedures is the
bill introduced by Sen. Finis Smith, D-
Tulsa, in tlie recent session of the
legislature.
THIS BILL would permit Oklahoma
and Tulsa counties to adopt county
management government on a home
rule basis. Smith's bill pro.iued for the
method in only the two largest counties.
It passed the senate but didn't get out of
committee in the house.
THE BLUE RIBBON" committee
low taking a look at Oklahoma law
concerning county government will
likeh give this proposal considerable
attention.
with the publicity surrounding
county commission imiescretions in
several counties in the state, it is
easonable to expect the next session of
the legislature to come forth with ideas
for better monetary and management
control on the county level.
THE PROPOSED home rule bill
written by Smith would permit alter-
nate methods of financing county
government and open avenues to in-
come that heretofore have been
prohibited by the state constitution.
Likewise, it would restrict
management and responsibility to
professionals, as is the case with the
many state cities having adopted the
system.
"GOOD OLE' boy” government is a
thing of the past what with even smaller
counties sporting multi-million-dollar
budgets. The presence of inadequate
controls, and outright dishonesty, is the
lesson being learned daily by the
allegations and guilty pleadings of the
federal jury docket now underway in
Oklahoma City.
IT'S TIME to make some changes in
the administration of affairs of county
government.
Washington Window
Where have all
the Democrats gone?
mrrrrrn
imiiii
By ARNOLD SAWISLAK
WASHING ION UFI) — It passes
amazement to see how fragile
Washington status can be.
As. for example, Democratic Sens.
Edw ard Kennedy of Massachusetts and
Henry Jackson of Washington.
Two years ago, there were a lot of
people who expected Kennedy, the man
who was going to carry out the mission
of hrs fallen brothers, to be the 1980
Democratic presidential nominee and
possibly president in 1981.
A week ago, Kennedy made the news
for the first time in months by holding
up the August Senate vacation period
by objecting to a final vote on President
Reagan's tax bill on a Saturday. He was
at Cape Cod at the time.
Five years ago, there were a lot of
people who expected Jackson, who was
chosen as the most influential member
of the Senate in a 1976 straw vote, to be
the Democratic presidential nominee
and possibly president in 1977.
A week ago, Jackson got in the news
by complaining that Kennedy had
caused everyone a lot of trouble by
holding up the Senate’s August
vacation. He almost missed the rollout
of Boeing’s new jetliner because of the
delay.
All of which explains why some
Democrats are asking: “Is this what
the party of Franklin D. Roosevelt,
Harry Truman and John Kennedy has
come to?"
Ronald Reagan and the Republicans
are on a roll, as they say in Las Vegas,
and Democrats everywhere seem to be
,in retreat.
This is especially true in the Senate,
where the Democrats are only three
votes shy of a majority but haven’t
made a dent worthy of a BB on a piece
of legislation since the national debt
limit was increased last winter.
It is true that some of the Senate’s
best-known Democrats such as George
McCiovem, Frank Church and Birch
Bayh were given their walking papers
last fall. But Kennedy and Jackson are
here. So is Russell Long of Louisiana,
• who was supposed to be the most
powerful member of the Senate only a
year ago, and Robert Byrd of West
Virginia, who was the majority leader,
md Paul Tsongas, who did a lot of
alking about the need for a “new”
Democratic thrust after the elections.
Where are those fellows? When it
a me time to chose Democrats to reDlv
to President Reagan just before the tax
cut votes, it was Sens. Bill Bradley of
New Jersey and Daniel Patrick
Moynihan of New York who spoke for
the party. Estimable men both, but
where were the heavy hitters of the
Democratic Party?
To suggest that the Democrats are
quiet because they no longer control the
Senate is convenient, but not very
convincing.
Everett Dirksen, whose fate it was to
be Senate Republican leader during
years in which the GOP could have held
its caucus in a broom closet, always
managed to be heard from. So did
Republican leader Howard Baker
during the most recent period of
Democrat dominance in the Senate.
A long time member of one veteran
Democrat’s staff said recently “The
man is in a panic. He always gets
nervous two years before his term is up,
but now he’s in a state of hysteria.”
Maybe that's where all the
Democrats have gone.
{Bobby Newton Says ]
The trouble with poverty campaigns
is that it makes the people enforcing
them richer.
If money can’t buy hapiness, then
don’t tell Bob Hope’s gag writers.
There’s a cure for everything these
days, except paying for the cure bill.
Food stamps are being used these
days for everything but food.
Iran had four men running for the
presidency; three of them got lucky.
Congress makes the bills and then
passes them along to us for payment.
Fair trade means one side thinks
they’re coming out better than the
other.
The only way government can get
around Social Security is to reverse the
aging process.
An emergecy hospital is where you go
when you forgot your wallet.
Today s Almanac
By United Press International
Today is Wtdnesday, August 12th, the
224th day of 1981 with 141 to follow.
The moon is moving toward its full
phase.
The morning star is Mars.
The evening stars are Mercury,
Venus, Jupiter and Saturn.
Those bom on this date are under the
sign of Leo. Novelist Mary Roberts
Rinehart was bom August 12th, 1876.
• On this date in history:
In 1658, a so-called “rattle watch” of
eight men was formed in the colony of
New Amsterdam... the first police force
in America.
In Washington
Rot in gubernatorial
barrel?
Robert Walters
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (NEA)-
When the chief executives of the
nation’s 50 states assemble here for the
annual meeting of the National
Governors’ Association, the spirit of
Charles E. Roemer II will be walking
the halls.
Roemer won’t be here in person
because he was just convicted by a
federal district court in New Orleans of
conspiring to trade bribes and kick-
backs for lucrative state insurance
contracts. Reputed Mafia boss Carlos
Marcello was also convicted in the so-
called “Brilab” trial.
Roemer was commissioner of ad-
ministration, the most powerful ap-
pointive post in state government,
under former Louisiana Gov. Edwin W.
Edwards, a Democrat who served from
1972 to 1980 and may run again in 1984.
Roemer’s title belies his importance
because he was, in effect, the eminence
grise of the Edwards administration—
the single most influential behind-the-
scenes political adviser to the governor.
His conviction is part of a discon-
certing pattern that has seen present
and former state executives and their
most senior aides accused or convicted
during the past year of engaging In
illegal or improper activities.
Those cases are especially disturbing
because they have surfaced at a time
when many observers of state govern-
ment—and the governors themselves—
are arguing that the era in which in-
competents, ne’er-do-wells and
scoundrels were over-represented in
the governors’ offices throughout the
nation had finally drawn to a close.
Moreover, the minor resurgence of
corruption in those offices also coin-
cides with the determined effort by
policy makers in Washington to tran-
sfer responsibility for billions of
dollars’ worth of government programs
from the federal to the state level.
Although there is considerable
evidence that honest, dedicated and
competent people are winning
governorships in unprecedented
numbers, the year since the National
Governors’ Association held its last
meeting has produced the following
developments:
Former Tennessee Gov. Ray Blan-
ton, a Democrat who served from 1975
to 1979, was convicted on federal
criminal charges of operating a scheme
out of the governor’s office to award
state liquor licenses to businessmen in
return for a personal share of their
profits.
Blanton was found guilty of 11 counts
of extortion, conspiracy and mail fraud.
Also convicted were a former cam-
paign manager and a one-time special
assistant in the governor’s office.
In another case, Blanton’s former
legal counsel and a state trooper
iV/tvf
*
assigned to tne governor’s office
pleaded guilty after being charged with
attempting to sell pardons, paroles and
commutations to the state’s prisoners.
Former Maryland Gov. Spiro T.
Agnew, a Republican who served in
1967 and 1968 before becoming vice
president, lost a civil suit in which he
was charged with accepting $147,500 in
bribes and kickbacks from contractors
seeking to do business with the state.
The judge in that case ordered Agnew
to repay $248,735, including $101,235 in
interest, because the money “belongs
to the people of Maryland.”
The California Fair Political Prac-
tices Commission accused senior aides
to Democratic Gov. Edmund G.
“Jerry” Brown Jr. of destroying,
concealing and altering evidence
during the commission’s investigation
of improprieties in the governor’s of-
fice.
The agency said it was unable to
confirm allegations that a computer
leased by the governor’s office for
$51,000 in public funds was illegally
used to prepare lists of names for use in
future political campaigns. At the
commission’s suggestion, however, the
district attorneys of Sacramento and
Los Angeles are inveitlgating for
possible violations of criminal law.
Those currently serving as state
executives generally are superior to
their predecessors, but the continuing
presence of rotten apples in the
gubernatorial barrel suggests that
there remains room for considerable
improvement.
SAPULPA DAILY HERALD
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of Sapulpa. Inc.
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The Wagman File
The politics
of the tax vote
In 1851, Isaac Singer was granted a
patent for his sewing machine. Singer
set up business in Boston with a capital
of 40 dollars.
In 1898, a peace protocol was signed
ending the SpanishAmerican War after
hostilities had lasted three months and
22 days. The United States acquired
Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines,
and annexed Hawaii.
In 1978, Pope Paul the Sixth was
buried in SL Peter’s after an outdoor
funeral attended by thousands.
• A thought for the day:
American author Silas Weir Mitchell
said: “Death’s but one more
tomorrow.”
WASHINGTON (NEA)—Adminis-
tration officials are saying that their
stunning House victory on the tax-cut
bill marked the beginning of the
nation's economic recovery. But most
of this town’s politicians and political
operatives—Republicans and
Democrats alike—are more concerned
with the political ramifications of the
vote than with the economic ones.
Said Rep. Bill Lowery, R-Calif.,
following the balloting: "What the vote
shows, especially in the margin of
victory, is that we (the Republicans)
now have operative control on the
House floor.”
But a different view was expressed
by a fellow member of the California
congressional delegation. He is
Democrat Mervyn Dymally, a former
lieutenant governor of the state and a
longtime observer of Ronald Reagan.
“Ronald Reagan has long been one of
the most effective communicators in
American politics," said Dymally.
“One-on-one he can sell almost
anything—especially when he is
dealing with an issue like tax reduction
that is obviously very popular with the
voters back home.
“The result is a testimony to
Reagan’s effectiveness as a lobbyist
and does not mean that the Democrats
who voted with the president on this one
will necessarily do so in the future on
other issues.”
A influential Democrat on the staff of
House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill
agreed with Dymally but put the matter
more crassly. “The vote proves that
nothing is new in politics,” he sMd
shortly after the Republican triumph.
"It only reaffirms that if he is willing to
give up enough, a president can buy a
victory on a particular issue.
“Even going back to the days of
(President) Johnson, I have never seen
a White House promise the kinds of
things that were promised here in the
last 24 hours to win votes. Our nation’s
entire energy policy may have to be
rewritten to make good on the promises
delivered to the energy-state
delegations to win their votes.”
The key questions being asked by
most politicians in the aftermath of the
House vote are: Have Reagan and the
Republicans taken control of the House
and will they have smooth sailing on
future important votes? Or was the
White House simply able to promise its
way to victory on this one popular issue
and will it have to start all over the next
time it faces a critical test on the House
floor?
Most experts say that it is still too
early to tell whether the administration
has indeed forged a new coalition. An
answer may come with the showdowns
later this year over Social Security and
the Voting Rights Act extension.
The tax and budget votes are likely to
have political ramifications over an
even longer term. Many Democrats arc
not all that upset with the president's
victories because they believe that the
success or failure of his economic
program will be the central issue of the
1982 congressional campaigns and the
1984 presidential race.
If the economy is not performing as
the Republicans have forecast by fiscal
1983 and if lagging revenues resulting
from the tax cuts require massive
deficits or deep spending cuts, the
Democrats will have a ready-made
issue on which to base their 1984
campaign for the White House.
“The president’s economic program
is now in place,” noted O’Neill after the
tax vote. “He has gotten what he
wanted and now will have to face his
political future on its results.”
And as one Democratic operative put
it: “If we're right and the economy
continues In bad shape—continued high
interest, continued high Inflation,
potentially huge deficits—I think you
will see us back in the White House in
1985. If, however, the Reagan plan
works, we won’t have a chance. It will
be either four more years of Reagan or
four years of George Bush."
Julian Bond
Hard times
for the states
“The voters have to see some blood.”
“We anticipate difficult times
ahead.”
“I think we’re all in some trouble.”
These prophets of doom aren’t
defeated Democrats still smarting
from their latest licking at the hands of
the new Republicrat majority in the
U.S. House of Representatives.
They are, instead, state legislators,
Republicans and Democrats alike, who
believe that President Reagan and the
Congress have placed them—in the
words of one—“between a rock and a
hard place.”
Six months ago, many state
lawmakers happily anticipated the
shift in power from Washington to the
state capitals. The new president’s
“new federalism” promosed to reduce
taxes and return government to the
people by placing power closer to
home.
The men and women who sit under
the domes of the 50 state capitols had
looked forward to playing a major role
in the distribution of federal funds
within their states. They relished the
notion of directing spending for health,
education and welfare without federal
regulation.
Today the anticipation has soured.
The legislators who gathered recently
in Atlanta for the National Conference
of State Legislatures are beginning to
wonder what will happen when they
propose raising taxes to replace the
money that Congress and the president
have taken away.
Under the Reagan-Stockman theory,
federal tax cuts to individuals and
corporations will stimulate economic
growth and produce an increase in
state and federal tax collections. But
many state officials fear that this will
not happen fast enough to prevent a
fiscal crisis.
No fewer than 27 of the 50 states have
a 1981 reserve of less than 3 percent of
their current general-fund spending.
More than half of these are close to
deficits. Only 10 states have surpluses
of 10 percent or more.
These fragile state economies will
have to compensate for the 25 percent
reductions in many federal aid
programs that have been mandated by
Congress.
"Our surplus is $22 million,” a New
Jersey legislator said, "and we face $1
billion in federal aid reductions in the
next three years. We have not made
provisions for that.”
“There’s no way the economy is
going to reverse itself in time,” said a
Florida state representative.
“I couldn’t sleep nights if I had my
job in one of the 40 states with less than
a 10 percent surplus,” remarked a state
senator from relatively well-to-do
Kansas.
These legislators—and others—also
fear that the voters’ cost consciousness
will be redirected toward Albany and
Sacramento and the other state
capitals after Washington has been
squeezed dry.
Many state and local lawmakers are
understandably worried at the prospect
of being caught between those
demanding cuts in state spending to
match those just passed at the federal
level and those expecting state
governments to continue highly valued
education, health and social service
programs.
A mint julep at breakfast
“Amnesty?... Reagan’s given them amnesty?... Yeah, I can see
point.”
his
Q. Who wn the U S. President who drank a mbit julep
every monring for breakfint?
A. John Tyler. At leaat that dubious report remains in
the historical footnotes. Tyler war the President, widowed
and remarried in office, who wound up with 15 chfldren.
Some beachcombers in Australia make a pretty fair
JWnl tortobe shells, driftwood. They’re licensed
by the government.
Q. What bird takes the longest to grow up?
A. The California condor. From hatefaout to firat flight,
one year.
Florida gets more vacationers every ytm from Ohio than
from any other state.
PIGEON PIE
Q. What’s wrong with eating pigeons?
A. Nothing, evidently. Did yon read about the pigeon-
eating craze in Lexington, Ky.? Oty sanitation wortcen
there some time back trapped some birds that had been
dirtying up the downtown am, and ate a few of same.
T—ty. they reported. Word spread. Pretty soon locals wste
requesting free birds. The department passed out train
sacks of live pigeons, ngeon pie became fairly popular
thereabouts. Abo baked pigeon. And pigeon stew.
What few people know about U.S. President Theodore
Roosevelt's names: One, he was a Junior, and two, hb
boyhood nickname was Teedfe, not Teddy.
Q. Where did Superman study journalism?
A. The storyline has it that dark Kent took such courses
at the Unherrity of Metropoib.
NO TALKING
No taking at the table. Except maybe for “Pam
the spuds” or some such. That was the common rale in the
logging camps of 50 yean ago. Camp cooks enforced it,
too. It b a curiority that the camp cooks were not
necesasrfly the biggsri or the strongest of the men there,
but they generally were known to be the toughest, and the
meanest, too, usually. Moat loggers didn't triffle with them.
Few recall anymore that the
means “self”
'auto” in uautomoble,,
Zebulon Pike, for whom Pice’s Peak was named, never
climbed It.
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Lake, Charles S. Sapulpa Daily Herald (Sapulpa, Okla.), Vol. 67, No. 284, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 12, 1981, newspaper, August 12, 1981; Sapulpa, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1504345/m1/4/: accessed April 25, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.