daily nebresken
Wednesday, february 16, 1977
Zorinsky should stay
in spite of frustrations
Freshman Sen. Edward Zorinsky 's comments
about the U.S. Senate are feelings that we've
thought, but always hoped were not true.
Zorinsky came home to Omaha this week
complaining about a two-hour Senate debate over
whether to abolish the Senate barbershop.
Zorinsky said because of this, he almost quit
his job, but his wife talked him out of it.
Zorinsky 's frustration casts him in a good and a
bad light.
His constituents should be pleased that
Zorinsky views the barbershop topic as much too
trivial to spend two hours of government time.
It makes us wonder what other trivial matters
Congress dwells on that are never reported.
However, it's frightening to think that
Zorinsky so seriously considered resigning over
his disenchantment. Last fall Zorinsky said that
it was the federal bureaucracy, which frustrated
him as mayor, that prompted him to run for the
Senate.
"My goal is to decrease the bureaucracy of the
federal government and to allow the business and
farms of this nation to pursue their'own way of
life," Zorinsky said then.
Now that Zorinsky has run into bureaucracy
in his own camp, he can't believe it. Perhaps the
other senators are too blind to see the bureau
cracy and the foolishness they're perpetuating.
Congress has been playing this way for years,
and we hope Zorinsky doesn't seriously think
of picking up his marbles and going home.
Particularly ironic in light of Zorinsky 's revela
tion, is the bill before Congress to increase Con
gressional salaries from $44,600 to $57,500.
Congressmen already are earning far more than
most Americans.
If Zorinsky 's example of the barbershop debate
is an everyday occurrence, a $13,000 salary raise
certainly seems unwarranted.
' i sc3
t9Gt,
l-BrirMiMMBMB
Withdrawing money, washing dishes
all in a night's work for Esmerelda
It was dark and snowing, hard. The wind blew needles
of ice into my face as I approached the door. My feet
quickened.
I knew she would be there. I clutched the envelope in
my pocket and went through the door. A blast of warm
air greeted me and soon I was walking on carpet, wall to
wall. Thin, sweet tones of music filtered through the
stillness. ,
The lights were dim, because it was After Hours.
The stainless steel face of the automatic teller stared
placidly from its place in the wall.
Let's call her Esmerelda-not her real name.
Esmerelda, as advertised in the colorful brochures
warp nine
sent out by the bank to all of its customers, would
perform all kinds of valuable services. Almost all, anyway.
Walk the dog
She would deposit your money, transfer your money,
withdraw your money, do the laundry, wash the dishes,
and walk the dog,
I wasn't sure I trusted her. Stealthily I took the deposit
envelope out of my pocket and wrote on it the necessary
information. .
rJa?h - i UmmMki ...
( AT LEAST 1 6T THE PICK)
J0F WE UTTER.
Esmerejda can be clever. You have to keep art eye on
her.
Once I tried to transfer fifty bucks from my savings
to my checking account. She took it out of my checking
account, and with electronic efficiency, deposited the
money right back into it.
Checks bounced for a week.
And I'd heard horror stories about deposit envelopes
being eaten alive, disappearing into Esmerelda's wiry
gut never again to see the light of day .
, Desperate
But I was desperate. I needed the nio.iey.
Cautiously I fed her my plastic card. Something inside
clicked, whirred, and a sign lit up. It blinked seductively.
Next step. Punched in my secret code number, known
only to me, half the bank employes and my pet gerbil.
Esmerelda hummed to herself for a moment, clicked,
whirred, and the sign lit up again.
It was late, and my train of thought, like Amtrac,
, derailed. What if, I wondered, these teller machines
were provided with a conscience? It would be a nice
touch. '
Think about it. You'd punch in the amount of money
you wanted, and a sign would immediately light up:
Is this withdrawal really necessary?
That would be enough to discourage most spendthrifts.
If you were desperate, you would punch the Yes button.
She would respond: ...
You need this money to:
A. Spend on a good book.
B. Buy a cheap bottle of wine.
C. Give to the United Fund.
D. AH of the above.
Sorry. -
If you punched in B, for example, a buzzer would go
off and the light would say: Sorry, make another choice.
At that point even I would give up, and live, to fight
another day.
This system would be a way for the bank to protect
their customers more than they already do, and save some
cash in the bargain.
At that point a buzzer did go off, bringing me back to
reality. I'd waited too long. Esmerelda took my money
and card as well. It would be mailed to me in a few days,
the sign winked.
And winked, and winked, and winked.
Mcry f.lsGrory
Warnke's unilateral disarmament views ruffle feathers
Jimmy Carter's choice of Paul Warnke as head of the
Arms Control and Disarmament Agency has ruffled the
feathers of Capitol Hill hawks. Warnke, for heaven's sake,
really believes in that stuff. What is the world coming to?
Even before the appointment was announced, circul
ation of an anonymous memo with "revelations" of posi
tions which Warnke has been shouting from the housetops
for several years began. It had been prepared against the
naming of Warnke as secretary of defense, the post his
admirers thought he deserved.
All week, generals and admirals before the Armed Ser
vices Committee have been invited by indignant members
to give their views about the unspeakable consequences of
Warnke's stated, opposition to one or another of their pet
weapons systems.
him about, Nunn declares, and forbade his staff to distri
bute it once he discovered that it was unsigned.
"I'm not the leader of any organized anything," says
Nunn.
Even Sen. Henry Jackson, D-Wash., one of the Penta
gon's best friends, has not, according to his sides, decided
to turn thumbs down to Warnke. "He is an agnostic, but
concerned," is how he is described.
That doesn't sound like all-out war or even the makings
of a repeat of the rout that ended the appointment of
Washington
winds
The anonymous memorandum makes the worst of all
possible charges: that Warnke favors "unilateral disarmam
ent." "Disarmament" is bad enough amoug the hard
liners. "Unilateral" is a curse. Remember how it branded
those who during the Vietnam era were rash enough to
advocate "unilateral" U. S. withdrawal-which is, of
course, what happened in the end.
Anonymous author
The most striking aspect of the anti-Wamke cabal is
that no one will claim leadership. Cries of "author,
author" about the memorandum have been in vain. Sen.
Sam Nunn, D-Ga., was pained to be identified in a
Washington Star editorial as one of those circulating it He
provided a single copy to a fellow Democrat who asked
PLUCKED-
Theodore C. Sorensen as CIA director.
There are several vital differences. The first is that
Carter will go to the wall for Warnke, if for no other
reason than that he cannot afford another defeat on a
national security nomination.
The second is that Warnke.' is no Sorensen, a remote
and resented White House figure from the past. He is well
known and well liked on Capitol Hill. Many Democratic
senators, most conspicuously Geofge McGovern and
Edmund Muskie, are indebted to him for campaign advice
and expertise on defense matters.
No difficulty :
He is a law partner of Clark Clifford, with whom he
served as deputy secretary of defense. He assisted in the
turning around of Lyndon Johnson on the war. He has no
difficult noncombatant military status, such as unnerved
certain Democratic senators in their contemplation of
Sorensen. Warnke was in the Coast Guard in World War II.
There's no difficulty, as there was in Sorensen's case,
about classified documents or profit therefrom.
, . Certain members of the Armed Services Committee are
demanding that Warnke be called on the carpet to explain
what they regard as his unconscionable equanimity in the
face of possible Soviet nuclear "superiority."
Actually, Warnke would be delighted, according to his
friends, to make such an appearance. He would welcome a
public airing on the whole defense question, the Pentagon '
budget, the Soviet arms buildup. He thinks it is high time
for dialogue.
Carter's reference to the elimination of nuclear
weapons in his Inaugural speech was taken as a Utopian
flight. But he followed it up with a vigorous statement in
favor of a total nuclear test ban. All-out support of
Warnke would be the final proof that he wasn't just
whistling Dixie.
(Copyright 1877 ttMrtington Stir Syndicate tncf