Page 4-Saturday, December 1, 1979--The Michigan Daily
I
Race for The White House
GlieArdtgt Bl
Ninety Years o f Editorial Freedom
Vol. LXXXX, No. 71
News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed ,by students at the University of Michigan
_ _
Ii ~AGLAD VOU A SKIPAT QL*SiE11,MIW. V PFW-- ."
Pass the SALT, please
. . .
N AN UNPRECEDENTED display
of ignorance and total disregard for
the facts, the Senate's Armed Services
committee has recommended that the
Senate not ratify SALT II. The panel is
calling the strategic arms treaty "un-
fair, unverifiable, and not in the
,national security interests of the
United States."
In fact, it is that ill-advised recom-
mendation, not the treaty, which is un-
fair, .unverifiable, and not in the
national security interests of the
United States.
The recommendation is unfair partly
because most of the members of Ar-
med Services are hardliners who made
their opposition to SALT public even
before the opening of the hearings. The.
treaty was not debated in an impartial
forum to ascertain the facts, but rather
the hearings turned into a soap-box
for its demogogic hardline members to
bemoan America's impotence in the
world and to press for a massive in-
fusion of defense funds. The members
of the- Armed Services Committee
were less concerned with hearing the
merits of the treaty than with finding
selected facts to reinforce their own
predetermined positions.
The charge that the treaty cannot be
verified in an unverifiable charge,
based on rhetoric with no foundation in
fact. The administration has obtained
assurances from the Soviets, backed
up by satellite technology and reinfor-
ced by our own monitoring stations
from Anarctica to Istanbul. The ad-
ministration experts in the Defense
department, the state department, and*
the White House have testified as to their
satisfaction with SALT II's verifiability,
and those who have raised the non-issue
of potential Soviet cheating include an ex-
astronaut, an ex-Secretary of state, and
an arrmy general who was fired for not
knowing when to shut up. Clearly, if those
who will be charged with responsibility
for implementing SALT are satisfied
with its verifiability, the peanut gallery
should not have the authoritative final
word.onthe subject.
Lastly, the Armed Services Committee
Report is not in the "national security in-
terest of the United States." Even the
administration admits that the treaty is
flawed and far from- perfect, but this
country is better off with SALT than
without it. The treaty is not an isolated
pact which, in itself, should be expected
to limit strategic arms and deplete
missile arsenals. Rather, SALT is a
process, and this pact is a part of that
continuing process which lays the foun-
dation for future negotiations while
keeping the growth of nuclear stockpiles
incheck.
Now, with the Iranian crisis entering
its second month, the attention of the
government is turned towards the tur-
bulent Persian Gulf, forcing the delay of
the SALT debate until next year. And
when the ,treaty is taken up after the
Christmas recess, 1980 politics will
replace logic and reason in the most im-
portant debate in the Senate of this Car-
ter presidency. If the treaty had any
chance of passing in the circus at-
mosphere of presidential election-year
politics, this Armed Services Committee
recommmendation obliviated the
possibility. This decision will go down in
history as one of the darkest days in
America's 204 years of independent
government, ranking right up there
alongside the Tonkin Gulf resolution as
an embarrassing display of
congressional ignorance.
Candidates now must
WASHINGTON
WINDOW
face the realities
WASHINGTON - Suitably, itl
is now cold reality time for the
Republicans and Democrats who
announced their aspirations for
the presidency with such high
hopes and giddy hoopla in the
warmer months of the pre-
election year.
For the ten men at last count
who seek the GOP nomination, it
should now be clear that there
are going to be obstacles ranging
from difficult to immense for
every one of them. Each may en-
tertain fantasies about preem-
ptive victories in New Hampshire
or Iowa or some other state, but
they also must realize that what
is ahead is more likely a slugging
match than a one punch
knockout.
FOR RONALD REAGAN, who
is assigned the front runner's role
on the basis of his standing in the
polls, it should be clear that being
the favorite is not going to make
him the candidate. Other
By Arnold Sawislak
Republicans are out to stop him
and they will not confine.them-
selves to issue disagreements in
trying to do so. Yes, they will
suggest or declare that he is too
old to be president.
For John Connally, it must
have dawned by now that sheer
energy and decisiveness is not
going to be enough to win the
nomination. Even if the other
candidates are sticks, the con-
trast alone will not win the day.
He is going to have to sell himself
as a man of dignity and
Republican principle; his op-
ponents will be suggesting other-
wise.
George Bush must see that he
cannot hide too long behind the
mists of anonymity. He pulled off
a major upset in the Maine GOP
straw poll, finished respectably
in the Florida mock ballot and if
more of the same happens before
the delegate season begins will
have to leave his safe refuge
among the also rans and become
a target among the leaders.
HOWARD BAKER already has
seen that being Senate
Republican Leader doesn't buy
much in the presidential contest,
especially the organizing time he
lost while attending
congressional duties. le is going
to have to win something big
quickly to merit a place in the top
echelon of the candidate list.
There are fewer Democrats,
but the reality is just as numbing.
For President Carter, it is the
chilling recognition that he may
never get a chance to defend his
record in the November election;
that his hard-won building of
political connections across the
country may be summarily swept
away by the mere entry of a Ken-
nedy.
For Sen. Kennedy, the flip side
of Carter's coin. After the straw
vote in Florida, it must be ob-
vious to Kennedy that Carter is
going to fight every step of the
way and that he is not without
either friends or political skills.
Kennedy is young enough to run
again another year but if he puts
the family mystique on the line
and fails, is another try possible?
Gov. Brown? The reality has
been clear for some time:
politicians in other parts of the
country don't take him seriously.
Of course., he can change that. All
he has to do is beat, convincingly
and early, the incumbent
president and the last of the Ken-
nedy Brothers.
Arnold Sawislak's
Washington Window column
has been appearing quite
frequently on this page.
Spacey Jane
By Tom Stevens
able fittOt"'gan D atlli
(OMEON, REALLY
WNY ARE WEc WOO@
180 AAPI4?/
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