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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 23, 1996)
VIEWPOINTS E Oif QRiAt $ OPIMIOMS llIHRS TO fMMOiTQR On first and goal, GOP keeps jumping off-sides ■ OUR OPINION: Back to back embarrassments plague the Republicans High! smack in the middle of an important presidential election year, and only a year-and a half after Repub licans l>mamo the majority in Coflgrws, the Republk an Party still can't Mem to shake it* bad public-imago problem. The party'* image ailment has attached itaelf to the GOP like a lingering, aggra vating head cold that refuses to go away. A depressed political immune system aside, the dual barely had lime to set tle over the uproar caused by U S. Sen Bob Park wood's public disgrace before U.S. Rep Wes (Cooley (another Republican) came tripping and stumbling onto the national stage Now the national media are scrambling all over themselves to report on a never-ending laundry list of the man's misdeeds It's no wonder Cooley's persona] and political life has turned into a Journalistic feeding frenzy — the guy is a walk ing media event. Cooley is being grilled, roasted and raked over the coal* because he allegedly falsified marriage docu ments In ordur to remain eli gible for a government loan: he claimed at one point, under oath, to have earned a law degree and a master's degree (both untrue) and because he has made state ments about being a part of MM 007-like top secret underworld These are just a few of the allegations Coo ley is facing Where did the Republi cans find this guy? How did he get elected? Possibly the Mime way former U S. Rep Den Rostenknwski, • Demo* crat accused end convicted of severe! improprieties, did — by a lot of people forfei ting to < heck end verify hie background. Whoops Yes. • person's past can catch up with them. Especially if that per son lives under the intense scrutiny of the public eye. Thanks to the blessings of an open society and a public snd media that serve as watchdogs, the truth is bound to come out sooner or later. And in the middle of thia political free-for-all (or ia it a free fall?) Bob Dole has pulled out all the stops in nta bid for the presidency. Like him or not. the man should be respected for his recent mow from Congress While his move ia all politi cal, it’s still a gutsy and wise one Dole has effectively dis tanced himself from Repub lican-controlled Washington and will be sble to claim that any further GOP mls cues will have been made without hi* presence or influence Though Dole a power play might not be enough to bring him from way behind in the polls for a victory over Clinton, it ia an all-or nothing attempt and Dole is playing it for all he's worth This ia Dole's one and only dum.* at the While House. Though the odds are stacked against him. it's always fun to watch some one try to puli off a darxling trick play. We can only watch to see where Dole’s Hail Man ends — in the end stone or out of bounds. ear . 25 *»»»*» wa» i JDQUTSGOMC AJFTERTWE ycmwi. V UHfRS Save tilt press? Th* Lane P»«i Club it at »n important orotaroad* Th* dub hat ttaadiiy tin rtutMHi in main barthip sine* it* founding W*. th* core group of people that h*» hold it togtther, do not wtcit to *«*» th* dub dm, but unlsta com* other* are willing to thouldor **m* of th* wort w* think th* chapter i* terminal TH* prett dub hat limped •long with lilil* mum of tup putt TH* 110 mumlwrthip dure hare barely mretd pontage h* mwtlittm To be honeat. our moil *uc ceatful program* have been underwritten by th* Willamette Valley (iiapter of th* Society of Profetskmal Journalist* SP) it lineally taund Th* thaptsr it planning to hold professional development programs in tan* County and fill th* gap. if the prere dub jut phated out Thre* of th* five tan* Prett < Job board member* alto tit on th* SPf board By nerving on bolb board* w* often feet at though we are duplicating tarvica* and dou bling our work It it the current hoard * feeling that, with tha JUT chapter still growing, the two organisation* are working at croat purpose* Should the dub b* revived? Merged With the Willamette Val ley Chapter of the Sodary of Pro fottional Journalist*? What do you think? Gwyrw Copeland Lan* Prow C»ub PreaKJanl Small problem Americana are vary angry with th* large increase in gasoline price* At bad at price gouging by th* latg* oil companies it; it la tar from t'wir worst action* Shell and other oil companire tupport tha brutal dictatorship of Sony Ahacha in Nigeria, who executed playwright Ken Saro Wiwa and many other activist* Shall hat cauted terrible envi ronmental devastation in the homeland of the Ogoni people: tometimm running pipeline* right through people'* yards Unocal and other* tupport the brutal military dicialorthip in Burma Phillips. Texaco. Shell and many other oil companire hare king been involved in Indonesia and support the regime of Suhar to, who slaughtered a million of hi* own people in 1985. in 1975, the regime was involved in an invasion into East Timor killing 200,000 East Tim onus# and imprisoning thou sands of others, including women and children in concen tration camps where they often died of starvation This atroci ty is still occurring and the oil companies are over there explor ing for off in the Timor gap between Australia and East Tim or. These a» the real crimes of oil companies! Price gouging of American consumers is of small : onsequence in comparison Gary Sodboroogb BeWtower. CaMomta Inauguration On May 20. Lee Tenghut was inaugurated as Taiwan's first nationally recognised president to be elec ted by popular vola. Obviously, the transformation of Taiwan to a democratic country has been tremendously enhanced by this act. Two months ago, lust before Taiwan's general election, Chi na attempted to cause the Tai wanese not to vote through the use of intimidating "war games" and missile teats Ironically, the opposite hap pened The Taiwanese people united in the election of the new president The unification was seen at the University when the Chinese Student Associate and the Tai wanese Student Organisation cooperated in a protest demon stration against China's aggres •ion Both organizations, though tenanted on some philosophy cal and political issues, repre sent Taiwanese students TSO would tike to send our best wishes to President Lee Teng-hui. We would alto like to thank CSA few its concern for Taiwan during its time of crisis and acknowledge CSA's participa tion during this truly monten tous time in our country's his tory. SNng-dyeChen President ot TSO Secret taping Sen. Bill Dwyer and Commit tinner Jerry Rust called a prat* conference on May 13 lo announce their collaboration in defending the right of clergy to have privileged, confidential dis cusaiont with inmates in lame County and state correction* institution*. The letter said: We are here to defend our free dom of religion. We are here to ensure the proper reparation of church and state To that end, we call for the following five actions. • We hereby call for an inde pendent investigation to deter mine how long and to what extent has the secret taping of inmate confession* to the mem her* of clergy been going on Under whore instruction? Mow many cases could this apply to? It has been intimated in our brief discussions with church officials thai this may have hap pened in other counties in Ore gon Therefore, tlie district attar ney'» investigation should be statewide In addition, we would ask the attorney general to issue an advisory opinion regarding surreptitiously taped inmate confession* • The immediate destruction of alt materials, note*. Iran script*, tape* from this confes •ion and any other confession that was obtained in a like man n«r is mandatory • The district attorney and the sheriff must voluntarily adopt a policy that would prohibit such taping in the future. If uneamry. I will ask policy/ordinance to be enac ted in Lane County to pro hibit such taping in the future • Sen Bill Dwyer will seek a state statute that will spell out in unmistakable language that such taping is to be prohibited in the state of Oregon. • The quality of Justice in lame County has been badly t ompromised by this incident Apologia* from all officials upon whose watch this occurred should be made If confession is good fur the soul, then a confes sion of emir by the district attor ney is in order. Bill Dwyer Former state senator Jerry Rust Former Lane County Commttatoner
