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.