Word: watt
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...Watt's latest blunder may cost...
Most political figures try to avoid controversy. Some have controversy thrust upon them. But Interior Secretary James G. Watt does things differently. He thrusts himself upon controversy with the fervor of an ancient Roman hurling himself on his own sword...
...zealous Westerner impaled himself again last week, in a way that drew angry stirrings from Congress and renewed pressure for Watt's resignation. The occasion was a breakfast meeting of some 200 U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbyists in Washington, D.C. Watt was talking about a five-member commission that he had appointed at congressional behest to review Interior's much debated program of coal leasing on public lands, which has been called a multimillion-dollar giveaway at taxpayers' expense. Watt may have meant to extol his choice of commissioners, but what came out was something else...
Some of the lobbyists laughed aloud, but many greeted the remark with stony silence. Afterward, Panel Member Donald C. Alexander, a former Internal Revenue Service commissioner, called Watt's remark "inappropriate and irrelevant. Since I can't fit into the category dealing with religion, and I'm not black and not a woman, that leaves only one group, and I don't feel I should be left one group, and I don't feel I should be left out. I think the Secretary might have thought I'm mentally handicapped...
Commission Member Richard L. Gordon, a professor at Pennsylvania State University who is Jewish and has a paralyzed right arm, said he was "disturbed" by Watt's remarks. Panelist Julia Walsh, a Washington investment counselor, said she resented the implication "that I am the token woman." David Linowes, a Jew and a professor of economics at the University of Illinois, and Andrew Brimmer, a black and a former member of the Federal Reserve Board, called Watt's remarks "unfortunate...