EDITORIAL House bank scandal needs full disclosure When the House rubber-chock scandal first broke last September, nobody thought much about it. So a few Representatives didn’t keep careful track of their checking accounts. Big deal. However, as the depth of the financial chicanery came to the surface, it turned into a big deal Constitu ents wanted to know how their Representatives, who control billions of taxpayer dollars, could be so blatant ly fast and loose with their personal finances. So the House Ethics Committee (to borrow a worn out cliche, a contradiction in terms if there ever was one) convened to decide what to do with the most hei nous abusers of the now-closed House bank. After months of scrutinizing records and agonizing over details, the ethics committee finally gave its con clusion: It would release the names of the Iff current and five former Representatives who had the worst bounced che< k records during a td-month period The collective sigh you just heard coming from Foggy Bottom was the till other pas! and present mem bers who won't have their names released Once again, Congress has revealed what it really thinks about the American public Voters aren't capa ble of making rational judgments on the issue, or so the thinking goes What an; the Representatives afr<»iii of? Arc thi-s stared that if their names are on the list, the constitu ents hack home won't take too kindly to it? That they niigat even vole the hnan daily wayward member out of office? You fxit their bounced checks they are. By releasing only 24 names, the committee members are covering their backsides. By sacri ficing the 19 i omrades left in the I louse, the commit tee has taken some heat off of the other abusers. Better to lose a few than a lot. A Representative who consistently abused the system and wrote bad checks on a regular basis should and probably will get the boot Adding on ironic twist to the decision is the! fact that the committee members don't know the names of the offenders All the records are coded to prevent the committee from making deci sions on a personal basis. By limiting the amount of names released, the committee members are doing their best not to zap their friends The gang of 24 ran up some impressively bad fi nancial nxtords, and there is no doubt they belong in the public dog house. To get on the list, a member had to have overdrafts totaling more than their next pay check 20 percent of the time during the 39-month peri od. In addition, the Washington Post has reported that one bouncy member wrote close to 1 .(KM) bad checks, and 45 wrote more than 100. Almost 1,000 checks?!! No wonder the ethics committee is worried The decision to release only 24 names was not a unanimous one. The vote from the hi partisan (seven Democrats, seven Republicans) committee was 10-4 All the Democrats and three of the Republicans formed the majority vote. It shouldn't be curious why the Republicans are pushing for complete disclosure. After all. Democrats have a 102-seat majority in the House — they, by sheer weight of numbers, have more to lose by a full release of the names. No matter what their motives, the Republicans are right. A full disclosure of the names is necessary. A de mocracy allows the people to decide what is important and what isn't. By making all the offenders known, the voters will have a comparison upon which to make a decision. A Representative who bounced one check probably isn't going to get tossed out of office because of it — voters can forgive small aberrations. But a Representa tive who consistently abused the system and wrote had chei ks on a regular basis should and probabi) will got the boot. By not releasing all the names, the ethics commit tee has taken on the responsibility of telling voters what is and isn't important. It didn't work for Jennifer Bills and JoSonja Watson, it shouldn't work for Con gress. t jl , **> 5&‘, ' r » * L 17rTl k; Lenin and Joe Camel: What a team I THE FINE PRINT BY OON PETERS Flipping through the paper Tuesday. I < ante •«' ross two interesting stories The firs! whs about how the the I S surgeon general and ihe American Medical Assoc ia lion have slammed K I Rovn oliis Tobacco Co for using its Sue Carnal" to promote Camel cigarettes The second equally fascinat ing stun was about how tilt* Kremlin has been flooded with letters ever *im e Corin's maga zine announced lust November that tile preserved bodv of Vla dimir llvic.h Lenin was for sale Offers ranging from SLOW) to $27 million have found their wav to the Russian Security Ministry In and of themselves the sto Ties seem to have little to do with University students Bui wait, look, a little i loser Both could bring untold ru lies to our little ru-< k of the w oods W r .III know Wild! Mllll Ill II' minimi shape the University is In With u large infusion of cash. It might get upgrade*! to "mistiri»l*It* And wo .ill know how slow tho stall* will t»o In gotlfng US some ol those notes s.irv funds Well, well no more It's lime to lake responsibility for our selves If the slate won't fork over tho money, we ll just have to go get some, si ruples fie damned When I first heard about tho Camel dei islon, I was a little skeptical To me, the idea of the surgeon general and the AMA deciding what is and isn't good advertising seems fishy No doubt they think any c iga rette advertising is bud, hut ''|oo Camel" is even worse lx cause it is a highly rec ogm/ublo figure among voting kids However. I’m not even going to get into that argument If 1 write one more smoking col umn, tin- anti-smoking zealots on campus will probable fire bomb my true k So after careful considera tion 1 am going to hue k the at tempt to oust Joe Camel from the advertising scene* Quite simply, he will make one hell of a mascot for the University Sure, the Duck is an interest ing and unique mascot, even if it's a lilt w impy Rut Joe Camel gracing the football team's hol msls well, theres a handy ( on< opt Of course, all the stu dents would nerd I shirts with the new logo < ;h«ngo the mus tot and watch tha money start rolling in from the momorabil lu Arc vou listening Mvlcs Bland' Go talk, to the Camel people Maybe some kind td deal ran he arranged Maybe "K J Reynolds Court I’hat ought to do it 1‘nrt two of mv plan is much simpler the purchase of Len in s tomb Quite simply, the University should get in on the bidding Niter all, tile University Is go ing t. spend S.lO.OfM) to move some statues Surety the admin istration could tome up with some i ash for tins important purchase, rigid' Now I know we ( an t afford to mati h the S-!7 million a Min nesotii amateur historian has of fered iiul (lie University does have an Inside edge This is a institute of higher learning The Kremlin would certainly see the merits of putting the father of tiie Soviet Union in scholar ly repose Would Lenin be happy being put on display by some circus huckster, or gracing the en trance lobbv of a multinational (capitalist) conglomerate'' I think not And once Lenin was at the University, wow. the possibili ties are limitless Think what a draw the tomb would lie He would be un matched as a recruiter And the slogans would be fantastic How does this grab you At other universities, you study Lenin We have him.” Not had, eh? We could slick old Lenin III front of the L\U Or better set, put him in Suite 1 and charge admission Poof, no more fi nnncial worries At b buck a look. Lenin would make up the purchase cost in a matter of days So see, the University's fi nancial woes can easily be solved All it takes is a little ag gressive marketing Diversity is constantly stressed here at the University With Joe Camel as mascot and Vlad In the EMU, tiie University would certainly be alxiut as diverse as it could get Letters to the editor must be limited to no more than vf>u words, legible, signed and the identification of the writer must be verified when the letter is submitted. 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