1±1e. k(oRrQ 1 MG _____ 1\1 (A-16\1R `.1 .Saturday, January 1,1983 (The Dallas Morning News, 1983 Ablia% The dogmatic Bill Clements By DOUG HARLAN 1 F ANYONE had asked me to design a family crest for Gov. Bill Clements, it would have been an easy task. I would have cast away the traditional sym- bols of heraldry for the central figure and chosen, in- stead, a bulldog with the seat of someone's pants hang- ing from his mouth, wagging his tail and looking pleased as punch. That crest would have contained the proper degree of ambiguity. No one would know if the pants seat be- longed to a trespasser or to the mail- man or if the tail wagging was bull- dog playfulness or inner glee for having chomped a gluteus maximus, be it that of friend or foe. Clements' bulldog personality played a big role in his election in 1978 and his defeat in 1982. When Clements was elected, most Texans, as well as most Americans, were looking for strong and decisive leadership. JIMMY CARTER WAS mealymouthing his way through what seemed an unending presidential term, and Clements' Democratic opponent, John Hill, was mealymouthing his way through his campaign in or- der to protect what he thought was an insurmountable lead in the polls. Many Texans thought Dolph Briscoe had mealy- mouthed his way through three terms as governor. - Enter Clements, who couldn't mealymouth his way through a bowl of oatmeal. Wow! Candor for a change! By last year's elections, however, times had changed. Candor and single-mindedness, though still valuable commodities in the political exchange, weren't topping the market as they had before. : Lest some of you be too gleeful with the results, I urge you to give the bulldog a fair appraisal. Yes, Clem- ents is blunt and abrasive to many, but the flip side of that is that you always know what he thinks and Where he stands. . : In a profession where dissembling has been raised to the highest art form, that is a virtue worthy of praise. : Clements' fault is not his candor but his lack of smoothness in being candid, a problem that often re- sulted in miscommunication. In business you can say something like "I don't know a housewife qualified to • sit on the Public Utilities Commission" and get away with it. In politics, you can't. Clements' point, that service on the PUC requires a sophisticated political antenna and the ability to evaluate technical data, was lost. In the world of political symbols, he made a demeaning remark about the ability of housewives, a symbol used by Gov.-Elect Mark White to win votes. YET WORD IS THAT White's pledge to put a house- wife on the PUC will be met by the appointment of Austin Mayor Carol McClellan, hardly a housewife in the sense Clements meant. Even Republicans have criticized Clements since his loss. Some state executive committee members blamed him for the defeat of other Republican candi- dates around the state, asserting he siphoned up most of the money and ran an independent campaign. Baloney. Clements' turn-out-the-vote effort helped all Republican candidates, and he made personal ap- pearances in behalf of many Republicans, something other state-wide candidates have refused to do en- tirely. That's a bum rap. Despite four years in the public eye, Clements is largely misunderstood. He is more than the blunt-talk- ing, aggressive, bulldog personality we have seen. He has an unswerving commitment to do the right thing as he sees it, personal consequences to the contrary. Clements' performance as governor shows he has been a good trustee of public funds, striving to maxim- ize the buying power of our taxes through business- like management of public affairs. He leaves the state better off than he found it in that regard. HE HAS A RECORD of private generosity for broad public benefit, with distinguished service to the Boy Scouts as a shining example; he is immovably commit- ted to a high quality system of education, demon- strated by his public and private records, the belief of the Texas State Teachers Association and his pronun- ciation of "library" as "liberry" notwithstanding; his appointments proved his commitment to involve mi- norities in the mainstream of Texas politics; and his graciousness in defeat, surprising to many, proves the bulldog has more than a growl and a bite. Clements is far from perfect, like all the rest of us. But inside that bulldog personality is a good man with a good heart, committed to do what is right. Unfor- tunately, the accumulation of pants seats makes us for- get the bulldog's duty is to guard the house, which he does in the way he knows best. Doug Harlan is a San Antonio columnist.
