Pag
~ridcay, July 30, 1976
THE M CH IGA N DAILY
-ridoy, July 30, 1 91~ TI* MI~H1GAN OAILY c-Three
ye- 'Three
Liberal Riegle seeks wider base
By PIILLIP BOKOVOY
Third in a Series of Four
Rep. Donald Riegle (B-Flint) is get-
ting plenty of mileage out of his image
as the young, dynamic liberal out to
capture the Democratic U. S. Senate
nomination. He visits college campuses
frequently, drumming up support among
these progressive constituencies, and
seems to have nurtured a good rapport
with the students he has talked to here'
at the University. He has enlisted many
of them in what is probably the best lo-
cal field organization in the state.
But the support that Riegle has.gar-
nered in other areas of the state hasn't
come quite as painlessly. Just one
month ago, after criss-crossing the state
for a year, he found himself 25 percent-
age points behind front-runner Richard
Austin.
BEFORE RIGOROUS campaigning
got underway a couple of months ago,
Riegle concentrated on building a rela-
tively small-group of dedicated support-
ers to help him through the long hard
days at the end of the campaign.
He visited old friends in their homes,
speaking informally of his political
philosophy and his concepts of how to
make Congress a more effective body
in terms of leading the country.
He explained that what the Congress
needed was a new breed of legislator-
one who would take the concerns of
people and translate this concern into
effective legislation. The Congress had
changed quite a bit in the 1974 elec-
tions with the addition of 30 or'so liberal
Democrats.
ONE OF THE main forces in bringing
these men and women to Washington
was the National Committee to Elect an
Effective Congress (NCEEC). Riegle
was and continues to be a primary force
in this organization.
The NCEEC picks races across the
country where they feel an entrenched
Democrat or a conservative Republican
has a chance of being defeated by a new
face. They throw a lot of resources into
these races with a remarkable rate of
success.
One of the most stunning surprises of
the 1974 U. S. Senate elections was the
election of Patrick Leahy, a young lib-
eral Democrat, from Vermont. Riegle
takes much credit and pride in having
been the person who persuaded Leahy,
who was guaranteed NCEEC support, to
leave his post as State's Attorney to
take on Republican Richard Mallary -
the hand - picked choice of retiring GOt'
Sen. George Aiken.
RIEGLE SAYS that he Can be more
effective in promoting this type of po-
litical transformation if he could be a
member of the more visible ,Senate.
Since there are only 100 people in the
Senate, Americans are more likely to
notice things that its members do in the
line of legislative solutions to problems.
Furthermore, since the Senator from
Michigan is so influential because of the
si-e of the state, he says more people
would be willing to hear what he has to
say about making the Congress more
responsive to the people.
One of the early doubts raised by
some people at an Ann Arbor organiza-
tional meeting was the fact that Riegle
had three years ago switched from the
Republican party to the Democratic
party.
Riegle explained that he had grown
increasingly disillusioned with Richard
Nixon's stand on the war in Viet Nam
and had sent him a letter asking him to
end the war as soon as possible. He had
seen Nixon in 1968 as the only candi-
date with a solution to end the war; but
when Nixon started to drag his feet on
ending it in 1972, Riegle came out
against Nixon's candidacy and support-
ed George McGovern. In February 1973,
he changed parties.
s refuse
By MIKE NORTON
Tension between members of Ann
Arbor's gay community and straight
customers erupted Wednesday night
in a brawl at the Blue Frogge, a
newly - opened discotheque and res-
taurant on Church St., in which sev-
eral persons were injured.
Eyewitness accounts of the inci-
dent are fragmentary and conflict-
ing. Many gays saw it as part of
a plan by the Frogge's management
to keep them away from the estab-
lishment; other observers consider-
ed it nothing more than a sponta-
neous outbreak of violence.
ALL ACCOUNTS agree, however,
that the trouble began when 30 to 40
gays arrived at the disco (which
,.; , Mm gMW~ntam
10 ave isco; figting erupts
opened exactly a week ago). -to leave, and offered them a re-
"They came in and all- sat down fund of the two-dollar cover charge.
together," said Monica Wheeler, who The guys, however, refused the of-
was in the bar at the time. "And they fer; and the manager decided to
started dancing together. Some of the close the disco for the night.
other customers didn't like it, and As customers were leaving, a ser-
they started hassling the gays - ies of minor scuffles apparently
calling them names and stuff." broke out, and there was a bitter
According to Wheeler, a 17-year-old exchange of insults between gays,
man "who was there on a false ID" straight customers, and bouncers.
traded insults with one of the gays What happened after the closing
and finally punched him in the of the Frogge is not quite clear, but
mouth. A bouncer separated the two unconfirmed accounts tell of a num-
and escorted them outside. ber of beating, incidents in the street
POLICE arrived some time later to outside. One eyewitness claims to
investigate the incident, and left have seen a group of gays clubbing
without addressing the customers. a woman in the street.
Wheeler said the Frogge manage- THE general manager of the Blue
ment then tried to persuade the an- Frogge, James Prybola, refused to
gry customers - most of them gays See STRAIGHTS, Page 2v
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Y _
55'
FIE ADDED that his family had al-
ways been Republican - his father was
a two-term Republican mayor of flint
-and it had seemed natural for him
to run as a Republican when he first
campaigned for the House of Represen
tatives
One of his opponents, Rep. James
O'Hara, has attacked Riegle for being
a "political transvestite", but the charge
does not bother Riegle because he says
he has always been liberal and changing
parties did not change his political phi-
losophy at all.
Ile cites the continued support he has
had both as a Republican and a Demo-
crat from the extremely liberal Flint
UAW as evidence that his basic politi-
cal philosophy has not changed.
See RIEGLE, Page 7
Rude awakening
harry Schonfeld says only one
thought crossed his mind when he saw
the shadows of M16 rifles: "Oh, my
God. You've got to be kidding." But
the nine armed FBI agents weren't.
The agents were dispatched to Schon-
feld's Denver home by an anonymous
tipster who said that Schonfeld was one
of two men being sought in connection
with the July 15 kidnaping of 26 Chow-
chilla, Calif. schoolchildren and their
bus driver. It took Schonfeld a few
minutes to prove to the agents that
he isn't James Schoenfeld, the man actu-
ally being sought. In spite of the intru-
sion, Schonfeld bears no grudges against
the agents. "They were very profession-
al," he said. "I think they treated me
with as much dignity and respect as
can be dxercised with a guy who's sleep-
ing in his pajamas at 2:30 a.m. But it
scared the hell out of me."
0
Happenings
... It's going to be another one o
those unbearable days, so call a couple
friends, go to the store and buy some
picnic stuffs, and head out to the beach,
because there sure isn't anything to do
around A2. Nothing is shaking.
"
Weather or not
Things will clear up today, as the
mercury will reach the 85 mark under
sunny skies. Look forward to another
uncomfortable night of attempted sleep,
as the low will be only a muggy 65.
Brennan: Hybrid Republican
By JIM TOBIN
Third in a series of four
"I'm not even sure that 'conservative'
and 'liberal' are words that even hase
any meani"g any more. Ie been looking
for somse tiay to describe myself; I think
Im sonetwhat of a populist, but I'm a
person who believes in formalism of gov-
ernsnt, oar constitutional system.
When I ran for Congress in 1955 1
cailed myself a 'constifntional Progres-
sit e,' and that gives me about as good a
handle as anything else I can think of."
-Thomias tlrennass
The trend of Michigan Republicanism
this political year seems to be a rejec-
tion of political labels, an appeal to
voters across the board. Former state
Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas
Brennan is no exception. Declaring him-
self a "maverick" who "can't be buf-
faloed" by party leaders or special in-
terests, Brennan has run for the U.S.
Senate nomination with a combination
of hard-line Republican views on domes-
tic affairs and a liberal international out-
look.
Whether out of a sincere belief that
his candidacy cannot be described by
traditional labels or out of a need to
attract voters of diverse political per-
suasion, Brennan has rejected the lib-
eral-conservative dichotomy of most
campaigns. At the same time, he attacks
Congressman Marvin Esch, his chief op-
ponent, for a lack of consistency in his
legislative record.
HOW WOULD Brennan classify him-
self if he had to choose between liberal
and conservative?
"I can't. I won't," he declares. "Then
I'm accepting someone else's definition
of the word. You define a conservative
as somebody who's very hawkish against
detente. I'm not. I'm described as a
kind of a Wendell Willkie guy. It's one
world, you've got to learn to live with it.
You identify black power as a very lib-
eral, almost a radical-left movement,
yet I feel very strongly that the black
people need to have political and eco-
nomic power."
Brennan, 48, faces Esch, ultra-conser-
vative former Congressman Robert Hu-
ber, and University Regent Deane-Baker
in the race. Esch is generally perceived
See BRENNAN, Page 10