Editorial
J Nebraskan
S University of Nebraska-Uncoin
Curt Wagner, Editor, 472 1766
Mike Reillcy, Editorial Page Editor
Diana Johnson, Managing Editor
Lee Rood, Associate News Editor
Bob Nelson, Wire Page Editor
Andy Pollock, Columnist
Micki Haller, Entertainment Editor
Use time more wisely
Tax system should be issue at session
The Nebraska Legislature’s current special session
has been laid back, to say the least.
Take Monday, few example. State senators met for
less than an hour before taking off for a reception. Thirty
three senators spent last weekend at a retreat at Platte
River State Park, where they participated in a program
called New Horizons.
According to The Lincoln Star, the program is aimed at
developing a visionary approach to dealing with the
state’s problems and getting private citizens to join with
senators in finding ways to solve them.
I It’s not exactly the most intense material in the world.
The special session was called this month for a good
reason — so the state senators could discuss their long
overdue salary increase. But in the meantime, they’re left
with a lot of spare time — time that could be spent dis
I cussing otner important issues.
One of those topics is the state’s income tax system,
which will definitely pop up when the regular session
starts in January.
Sen. James McFarland of Lincoln has pushed to have
the issue solved at the current session, but so far has
found only seven other senators willing to expand the
session to discuss his resolution.
Why the rush? McFarland hopes to adjust the income
tax rates before the first of the year. If passed, his pro
posal would credit the new income tax system being
implemented this year with raising income tax liability for
Nebraskans by $60 million, accoiding to an Omaha
World-Herald article.
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day. Although waiting until the 1989 session would give
senators more time to look at the overall picture of the tax
system, they would be wise in following McFarland’s
lead and start putting the legislative mechanics in motion.
— Mike Retliey
_ for the Daily Nebraskan
-
DN ignores UNL bowling team
Football, baseball, volleyball,
swimming, basketball. What hap
pened to bowling?
What I mean is that whenever you
read the Daily Nebraskan sports page
you always hear something about
how well all the other teams are
doing.
I have only seen one small article
about the University of Nebraska
Lincoln bowling team, and that was
right after tryouts. There are quite a
few people out there who don’t even
know we have a bowling team.
I agree that all the other UNL
teams are great but wc also have a
great bowling team. Starting the sea
son, the team was ranked 2nd in the
nation. Even though I didn’t make the
bowling team, I would still like tc
pick up the DN and read about ho*
the team is doing.
Eric Kirchnei
frcshmai
business managemen
Equal rights: Equal combat
After reading the story about
equality in the military (DN, Nov.
10), I have only one thing to say: Bull!
♦ Military service will never be truly
equal until women are forced to serve
in combat positions just like men. 1
realize that federal law prohibits this,
but in my eyes, this law makes abso
lutely no sense.
To all females out there who are
still trying to prove that they can do a
job as well as a man, try this: If you
ever decide to join the military,
demand a position that may, in ih<
future, require actual combat. If yoi
feel that you have the same ability a
a man, prove it.
All the women who demand equa
rights without accepting the equa
responsibilities that go along will
them are just practicing reverse sex
ism.
Andrew Meye
freshmai
pre-me<
Signed staff editorials represent the
official policy of the fall 1988 Daily Ne
braskan. Policy is set by the Daily Ne
braskan Editorial Board. Its members are
Curt Wagner, editor; Mike Reilley, edito
rial page editor; Diana Johnson, manag
ing editor; Lee Rood, associate news
editor; Andy Pollock, columnist; Bob
Nelnon, wire page editor; and Micki
Haller, ottertatnment editor.
the students or the NU Boaid ol
Regents.
Editorial columns represent the opin
ion of the author.
The Daily Nebraskan’s publishers ar<
the regents, who established the UNI
Publications Board to supervise the dail]
production of the paper.
According to policy set by the regents
responsibility for the editorial content o
Dukakis lost election because ...
He played the political game like he’d play a game of heanhag
idge in Fori Worth, Texas, has
immed up nicely the reason
hy Mike Dukakis flopped as
the Democratic candidate.
As the judge pul it: “He forgot the
first rule of knife fighting — there are
no rules.”
The judge also summarized the
reason why George Bush was suc
cessful: “He appealed to traditional
American values — bigotry, envy,
greed, chauvinism and fear.”
That’s as accurate an analysis of
this election as I’ve heard, and it’s
probably more precise than most of
the phony reasons people gave to exit
pollsters.
Dukakis’ problem is that he never
did understand what George Wash
;ngton Plunkett, an old New York
Tammany Hall political boss, meant
when he said: “Politics ain’t bean
bag.”
He thought he could glide along
playing Mr. Nice Guy, slaying above
the fray, loftily ignoring the kicks in
the shins he was getting from Bush.
That might have worked if he had
a forceful magnetic personality. But
he doesn’t. Zorba the Greek talked of
having “fire in his belly,’’ which gave
him his burning zest for life. Dukakis
the Greek acted like he had vanilla
yogurt in his belly and a zest for
reading lime sheets and production
reports.
Mario Cuomo might have pulled
1 off the nice guy role because, as an
L orator, he has the magic gift.
But I doubt if Cuomo would have
just stood there, as Dukakis did
months ago, letting Bush get away
• with the cheap, irrelevant shots on
i prison furloughs, the pledge and the
i ACLU.
Cuomo has a short fuse, as New
i York reporters have learned, and it
i wouldn't have taken him long to slam
1 Bush in the head with the huge
■ federal prison furlough program, with
conservative George Will’s descrip
tion of Bush as a “lap dog” and with
r Bush’s feeble claims that, gosh, he
i
didn t know whal was going on dur
ing the Iran Arms deal.
Bui Dukakis and his inept advisers
thought he could gel away with drop
ping words as dry as dust and keeping
that dopey, Steve Martin smile plas
tered on his face.
Had Mayor Daley been alive, he
would have sat Dukakis down and
explained the basics: “When some
body hits you, you hit them right back.
If you don’t, you look weak. Hit ‘cm
and him ‘em now.”
Or as another Chicago politician
put it: "Two things you can’t let an
opponent get away with — telling lies
about you or telling the truth about
you.”
_ _I—-L
Instead, Dukakis let charges splat
ter against him and stick like glue,
aid he look* a weak and, at times,
foolish
During the debate, when the clod
fiom able TV asked Dukakis how he
would feel if his wife was raped and
murdered, there were any number of
effective responses he could have
made.
He could have turned on the re
porter and barked: ‘‘That is a disgust
ing, inappropriate question.” Every
body likes seeing wise-guy reporters
pul in their place.
Or he could have glared and said:
“If that happened, I would have tried
to kill the guy with my own hands, as
any man would have done. You know
lltat. But it doesn’t alter my position
on capital punishment, although I
respect the views of those who feel
otherwise.”
Instead, he showed as much fire as
if he’d been asked how he would feel
M nis wiie naa oecn pmciicu mi un
elevator. Maybe he should have spent
less time reading about housing pro
grams in Sweden and more time
watching pop-culture movies like
Charles Bronson’s “Death Wish.’
Meanwhile, Bush got away with
the biggest blunder by either candi
date — the selection of J. Danforth
Quayle, draft-dodger and airhead, as
his running mate.
He got away with it because
Dukakis couldn’t say much, having
spent the fighting years of the Korean
War in college on a campus defer
ment. And Lloyd Bentsen couldn’t
say much because his kids managed
to get into reserve units, just as
Quayle did.
But by walking the high road, they
chose not to use surrogate hitmen to
do the job on Quayle. There are
Democrats who served and fought
and they would have dogged Bush
and Quayle on the war wimp issue.
They could have clobbered
Quayle on his family’s close tics to
the John Birch Society, which has far
less to brag about than the ACLU.
And Quayle’s wife’s family’s devo
tion to one of the nation ’ s looniest far
right preachers.
But, no, Dukakis went on acting as
if politics was indeed the game ol
bcanbag.
It turns out dial an old newspaper
friend of mine, who has taught for
many years at a Massachusetts col
lege, was right. He wrote me last year
and said that I should not be fooled by
Dukakis’ pose as a “true ethnic.’
He had watched Dukakis up close
and said: “He’s what I call a limousine
ethnic. He’s a cold fish and before it s
over, that’s going to show.”
Dukakis lost because he was a poor
candidate and had lousy advisers and
ran a second-rate campaign.
But he’s a modem Democrat, so
what else is new?
C19SI By The Chicle Tribune
1 Campus Notes
by Brian Shellito
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