European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 3, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes april columns David Broder Oregon speaker int one of the Good old boys for some unexplained the Pacific coast has been More willing than most other parts of the nation to entrust real political and governmental Power to from san where Janet Gray Hayes was one of the first big City North to where Dixy Lee Ray served As governor in the late the voters have been willing to judge women politicians on their san which has Dianne Feinstein As mayor and Sala Burton and Barbara Boxer in the House of repro is the Center of feminist but now which sent Maureen Neuberger to the Senate in the 60s after the death of her Dick Neuberg May be about to outdo even san fran Cisco in the feminization of its Norma an Able Republican Law yer who stepped Down As Secretary of state at the end of is one of the Strong contenders to succeed Lam Duck Victor Atiyeh r next her old Job is held by Democrat Barbara a former and the speaker of the state House of representatives is a 51yearold port land Democrat named Vera whose Saga is As unique As her Katz is the Only woman speaker in any of the 50 according to the Center for the american woman and politics at Rutgers University Eagleton Institute of she is Only the second House speaker in the history of the United after Tish Kelly d of North a earlier in this women have become More numer Ous in the Legislatures during the past two but in just about half the states had no women serving in any legislative leadership in some it has been harder for women to gain Lead Carl Rowan Reship in legislative bodies than it has for them to win isolated statewide the electorate is More than 50 percent while the membership of the Legislatures is More than 87 percent it took 101 ballots for Katz to defeat the last of the male challengers for the Oregon speaker ship in the democratic caucus balloting last but that in a the easiest part of her Long struggle for recognition and before katzes her parents fled from Russia to Germany to escape the communists they fled from nazi Ger Many to France when she was an infant and when she was they walked out of through the pyrenees to Spain and then eventually making their Way to new York after she moved started a family and became involved in politics for the first time As a Volunteer in Robert Kennedy 1968 Oregon presidential primary after his she joined other liberals in lobbying the legislature on behalf of migrant Katz won her first term in the legislature in and quickly gained a reputation As a sometimes abrasive Battler for Liberal rang ing from Gay rights and tenants rights to uni pricing and alcoholism looking she a 1977 assignment to the House ways and Means committee which handles the state budget was the Start of her transformation As a legislator and her Rise to the Oregon Limber based Economy had suffered reducing and from 1981 president reagans budget cuts slowed the flow of Federal the legislature found itself constantly Strug gling to meet competing spending Katz focused her Energy and Intelli gence on testing the arguments of state including the and impressed her colleagues by her willingness to Challenge their positions in endless hours of the press established my credentials Over the she by my work on the and her own philosophy of government underwent what she called a painful the onetime Kennedy Liberal now reagans new federalism was hard to but it forced us to move toward new policies and weigh a great Many old the new speaker is now guiding the House toward a passage of a sales Long anathema to the state democratic and she is doing it with a combination of political muscle and tact that is earning her Good reviews from her As an her first action after her election was to reclaim the Power for the speaker to appoint both majority and minority members of All committees and their though armed with a Broad sense of Katz says she is still aware that in not one of the Good old her gender was a Barrier to her election be cause some people just  believe a woman was Tough enough to be but its not a problem the prob Lem now is that in not a conventional Liberal she is also not a conventional speaker of the House but there will certainly be More like c 1985 Post writers group 1 still its a of Alabama weft of Auk one Hundred of jew dollars 15 we May As abolish civil rights commission if the Congress wants to show president Rea Gan that it is sincere about reducing spending and the Federal it ought to vote swiftly to abolish the civil rights this is a  it makes no sense for american taxpayers to spend almost million this year on a commission that was created to promote racial Harmony and Justice but has become the nations single most effective perpetrator of racial polarization and its most ridiculous apologist for entrenched racial and sexual this commission was created with a mandate to Edu Cate americans about bigotry to the Point that they would become better human beings than they Ever thought they might Over the last four years this commission has spent almost million encouraging americans to be As mean spirited As they dare to the civil rights commission obviously has an obligation to protect the rights of americans of All colors or but one need not be a historian or a Philadelphia lawyer to know that when presi Dent Eisenhower asked Congress to create this and Congress did so in the purpose was to deliver something closer to firs class citizenship to americans who were being denied Basic under the leadership of Clarence the civil rights commission has become an arrogant enemy of the most most most hopeless people in the the civil rights commission was meant by Congress to be an ally of the civil rights his Deputy Morris Abrams and a majority of the commission Are waging War on the civil rights who All his life has supped at the Public trough and almost bankrupted the san Diego Urban league with his botched free Enterprise has turned the civil rights commission into nothing but a propaganda Organ for far right Pendleton has gone out of his Way to insult Blacks of unquestioned intellect and notable achieve ment Blacks held in the highest of esteem by almost 30 million americans of african because these Blacks wont Swallow the Reagan administrations Phi Pendleton says that Black leaders Are dragging the Black masses to a political to make his prophecy Pendleton is personally put Ting the Poison in the Pendleton labels the Blacks of the the Urban league and other groups people who endured cattle fire police jail terms and More As the new he has Given great Comfort to those Whites who recoil at any suggestion that White racism is still ram Pant in the head of the civil rights commission has done what the Kun flux klan could never do he has convinced White America that it can sleep better tonight after his declaration that Benjamin John Vernon the Black members of Are the new racists of there is something terribly even about a situation in which a chairman of the civil rights commission makes a career out of insulting Blacks while never exhorting his president to take note of the fact that Black employment has become locked at a depression level of 15 it is astonishing that this civil rights commission has not spoken to the nation in even about the fact that while the rest of America has emerged reason ably whole from the great recession of Only farm ers and Blacks have become permanent with disposable income of Middle class Black families drop Ping by some a recently three prominent Black republicans came to my House to Tell me How much they abhor Pendleton statements and the stance of the civil rights commis we want you to know that this Man does not have our one that immaterial in this i because he has the support of president Reagan sad to has no basis for judging Black Parren Mitchell of a Man whose fam ily has been in the forefront of the civil rights struggle for All my lifetime and has denounced Pendleton As a Congress ought to take notice of this and make the civil rights commission an immediate contribution to Ward a balanced and i dont want any lame arguments about How we  throw the baby out with the c 1985 news american Syndicate