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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (May 31, 2016)
OPINION 6A Founded in 1873 STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes Democratic presidential candidate, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks at a campaign rally at the Port of Los Angeles Friday. The problem with Bernie Sanders wants to stop two big bipartisan deals ‘N ewly Powerful Sanders Flexes Senate Muscles,” trum- peted Politico last week. The story reported that U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders was urging senators to ditch “some of the most signiicant bipartisan deals pending in Congress this year.” One is the bipartisan solution to Puerto Rico’s debt crisis. The other is the landmark overhaul of chemical safety laws, which Politico termed “the irst major environmental legislation in a generation.” These two rearguard President Lyndon Johnson actions illustrate the essence understood that process intu- of Bernie Sanders’ world itively. It is how he man- view. They describe his mis- aged the enormous accom- understanding of the legisla- plishment of the Civil Rights tive process. They reveal his Act of 1964. Sanders has no limitations, especially as they afinity for that process. At heart, Bernie Sanders would apply to a prospective is a scold. But that doesn’t chief executive. Sen. Sanders knows what make a leader. And the man he believes is wrong with never has built a legislative these two packages that are coalition. poised to move through the This is not a pitch for Senate. And of course there Hillary Clinton, who has is always something wrong her problems, or Donald with legislation. But the leg- Trump, who really has his islative process is about com- problems. But it is a plea promise and accommoda- to recognize that Sanders tion. It is about achieving the would be hopelessly mis- art of the possible. cast as president. Passenger rail should come irst Trafic congestion, energy conservation are the imperatives P assengers and freight have always competed for precedence on rail lines. For 40 years, passenger trains have come irst. Now that is being challenged. The U.S. Surface Transportation Board will be deciding whether to accept the argu- ment of freight railroads, which argue that Amtrak’s tacit priority on rail lines should be changed. The Wall Street Journal’s story last week on this case describes the conlicting worlds. Amtrak ridership is up markedly. With fossil fuels in decline, freight lines are struggling and need an advantage. The Surface Transportation Board will likely parse this dispute ive different ways. But at the end of the day, its decision will be about America’s future. And one way of describing that is that we must nurture and gener- ate new mass transportation solutions. That imperative is driven by growing traf- ic congestion and the need for energy conservation as it relates to climate change. Put simply, rail passengers replace drivers and vehicles on the highway. Freight trains travel more slowly than passenger trains. On-time performance is everything for the Amtrak rail passenger network. Giving freight trains pre- cedence would be a giant step in the wrong direction. THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MAY 31, 2016 A lot of history surrounds the Seaside Golf Course ne of the city’s historic properties is getting a O save. SOUTHERN EXPOSURE “Some very good golf was played,” reported the July 5, 1923, Seaside Sig- nal, “with four birdies negotiated and a number of holes brilliantly played.” Charlie Cartwright II bought the place in 1931. Cartwright was the grandson of Charles Morrison Cart- wright, one of the “pioneers of 1853,” a state legislator and namesake for Seaside’s Cartwright Park. Charlie Cartwright II maintained the golf course and built the Par-Tee Room and Lounge extension in 1954. “This place was hopping, it was alive,” Sweeney said. “This was the place to go. It was the best dinner house in Seaside.” Charlie Cartwright, who died in 2003 at 94, sold the golf course to Fred Fulmer Jr. in 1971. Like others who grew up in the 1950s and ’60s, Seaside’s Phil Warmbrodt and Cassie Sweeney had fond memories of the Seaside Golf B y Course and its famed restaurant, the R.J. Par-Tee Dining Room. M aRx “The three premier dinner houses in the 1950s and 1960s were the Par-Tee Room, the Crab Broiler, and Harrah’s downtown,” Warmbrodt said. “They had wedding, receptions, prom dinners — this was the spot.” ing the inest cuisine in all the West.” Warmbrodt and Sweeney, who also In its heyday, the resort boasted a own Borland Electric in Gearhart, are race track, stable of race horses, groves the new owners of the Par-Tee and its of trees, vast lawns and a stream with a 125 acres, including the nine-hole Sea- wooden bridge. side Golf Course. According to Lucia, “the nation’s New owners “Our goal is to revive the course elite — Wall Street bankers, Com- After Fulmer’s sons Wayne and because it had gone downhill so bad stock nabobs, tycoons, congressmen, Fred III died, Fulmer’s daughter in the last 10 years,” Warmbrodt said. legislators locked to Seaside House,” Vickie sold it to the Warmbrodts this “The irst two weeks we’ve done noth- transporting them to the hotel over a spring in a deal brokered by Cas- ing but clean. We just took out 18 dump road paved with clamshells. cade Sotheby’s International, Far- trucks full of trash. Six big zan Kamali and Sally 30-foot containers.” Conrad. In acquiring the They both love golf and Sweeney said she plans 125-acre property, they to revive the breakfast and also acquired the old Ful- lunch business, open from 8 take golf vacations when mer house next door. a.m. to 3 p.m. for the restau- “We were able to com- they can. But what they mandeer rant with the bar open until 9 this with a unique p.m. in the summer. “We’re deal,” Warmbrodt said. really want to share expanding the bar with more “We bought the corpora- is the rich history of seating, and patio with out- tion intact, which won’t side seating,” she said. “We take place until around the golf course and its have a big clientele for Sun- June 1.” day brunch.” The bones of the build- property. Warmbrodt, 64 and ing are “excellent,” Warm- Sweeney, 63, are both Sea- brodt said. “It’s very sound.” side High School grads. They’ve But by the 1900s Seaside House Plans for the upstairs remain uncer- owned Borland Electric in Gearhart was empty. The former grand hotel tain. “We want to get the breakfast and for 23 years. was converted to a medical facility lunch clientele built up before we open They both love golf and take golf during the war. upstairs in the Par-Tee room,” he said. vacations when they can. After the war, Seaside House was Meanwhile, the couple is moving But what they really want to share dismantled, making way for the Sea- next door with the former Cartwright is the rich history of the golf course side Golf Course in 1923. The course house next to the putting green. and its property. was designed by a celebrity of his “It kind of just happened,” Swee- day, Chandler Egan, the last summer ney said. “We were just getting ready The ‘last word in elegance’ games Olympic gold-medal winner to go to Tucson. We’re a little tired, but Oregon Coast historian Ellis Lucia for golf, held in 1904 in St. Louis. we’re loving it.” described Ben Holladay’s Seaside Egan went on to settle in the Paciic “It’s way more than what we antic- House as “the last word in elegance.” Northwest, where he designed golf ipated, but we brought Borland’s back Holladay, a Portland land devel- courses from Pebble Beach to Seattle, to success,” Warmbrodt said. oper and railroad builder known as including Seaside’s. “We want to make it alive again,” the “giant of the Old West,” bought On opening day, Oregon’s state Sweeney added. “For people to enjoy the property in 1870 and designed an champion Clare Griswold and it. To make it hopping.” Italian villa with “some 50 luxurious Rudolph Wilhelm, both of the Port- R.J. Marx is The Daily Astorian’s guest rooms, thickly-carpeted Victo- land Golf Club, defeated O.F. Will- South County reporter and editor of rian parlors, bars and lounges, game ing of Waverly Country Club and John the Seaside Signal and Cannon Beach rooms and a splendid dining hall serv- Rebstock of Portland “1-up.” Gazette. The ghosts of old sex scandals Into the void created by Gin- grich’s depar- ture stepped e are now being forced speaker-to-be to relive the decades- Robert L. Liv- ingston of old sex scandals of Bill Louisiana. Clinton, as Donald Trump But, as The tries desperately to shield and Chicago Tri- bune reported at inoculate himself from well- Charles the time: Blow earned charges of misogyny. “On the eve I say, if we must go there, let’s go of the House debate to impeach all the way. Let’s do this dirty laundry, President Clinton for lying about as Kelly Rowland, former Destiny’s sex with Monica Lewinsky, House Speaker-elect Bob Livingston told Child member, once crooned. his Republican colleagues Thursday First, multiple women have night that he had strayed from his accused Clinton of things rang- marriage and had adulterous affairs. ing from sexual misconduct to rape. Only a few hours after Livingston Paula Jones famously brought a sex- decided to proceed with the impeach- ual harassment case against Clin- ment debate despite U.S. forces being ton. The case was dismissed, but on engaged in hostilities in Iraq, he admit- appeal, faced with the prospect of ted in a GOP caucus that he had ‘on having to testify under oath, Clinton occasion’ committed inidelity and in settled the case out of court. ‘doing so nearly cost me my marriage Clinton has maintained that he had and family.’” inappropriate sexual relationships And Livingston wasn’t the only with only two women: Republican moving to Gennifer Flowers, a impeach Clinton for model and actress, and lying about a sexual It’s all Monica Lewinsky, a affair who would be incredibly forced out of the shad- White House intern. Clinton was ows for his own sexual impeached on charges distasteful, scandals. of perjury and obstruc- Dennis Hastert, yes, but tion of justice in con- who became speaker nection with his affair in 1999, pleaded guilty it also with Lewinsky. last year to illegally doesn’t Let’s just say this: structuring bank with- Clinton was as wrong drawals in order to pay jibe. as the day is long for his what prosecutors con- affairs. There is no way tend was hush money around that. to a man Hastert had But the problem was that many sexually abused as a child. Indeed, of the men condemning the beam as The Times reported in April, fed- in Clinton’s eye were then shown to eral prosecutors asserted that Hastert have one in their own. “molested at least four boys, as young Newt Gingrich, who was so as 14, when he worked as a high school incredibly disliked that he stepped wrestling coach decades ago,” before down not only from his speakership the Clinton impeachment hearings. in the House of Representatives, but Henry Hyde, chairman of the House also from Congress altogether, later Judiciary Committee, who The Times admitted cheating on his irst wife reported had raised “the specter of the (with whom he discussed divorce Watergate era” when discussing Clin- terms while she was in the hospital for ton, admitted to a journalist during the cancer) and on his second (that cheat- proceedings that he’d had a ive-year ing occurred while Gingrich led the affair with a married woman decades Clinton impeachment proceedings). earlier. By CHARLES BLOW New York Times News Service W Dan Burton, House Government Reform and Oversight Committee chairman, who The Washington Post described as “one of President Clinton’s most persistent and combative critics,” was forced to admit that he had a secret love child. And, just last week, The Times reported: “Kenneth W. Starr, the former inde- pendent counsel who delivered a report that served as the basis for President Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1998, was removed as president of Baylor University on Thursday after an investi- gation found the university mishandled accusations of sexual assault against football players.” The sweep of karma and the level of hypocrisy is just staggering. No wonder nearly two-thirds of Americans opposed Clinton’s impeachment, and he emerged from the impeachment with record-high approval ratings. Now, Trump wants to dip into this muck again, even though he has had his own extramarital affair. Indeed, nine days after Clinton admitted his affair with Lewinsky, Trump seemed to support him and ind kinship, saying, “Paula Jones is a loser, but the fact is that she may be responsi- ble for bringing down a president indi- rectly.” Trump also mused on the pros- pect of his own run for public ofice, saying, “Can you imagine how contro- versial that’d be? You think about him with the women. How about me with the women? Can you imagine …” I can, actually. Last week, when Trump lawyer Michael Cohen was confronted on CNN with Trump’s defenses of Clin- ton during the sex scandals, Cohen responded that at the time Trump was simply trying to “protect a friend.” And yet, this is the same camp lambasting Hillary Clinton as an “enabler” for try- ing to protect a husband? It’s all incredibly distasteful, yes, but it also doesn’t jibe. And, aside from the unshakable feeling that there is something tragically off about using a husband’s philandering as a weapon against a betrayed wife, I also doubt the public will have much stomach for these stories, just as it didn’t in the 1990s. Dirty laundry, done.