Word: watt
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When controversy beckons, Jim Watt is always ready...
Interior Secretary James Watt and his legion of antagonists have a perverse symbiosis going: he has a talent for enraging them, and they seem happy for the regular opportunities to lambaste him. Last week was a regular free-for-all of Watt-inspired controversy. Much of it stemmed from an ill-advised letter the Interior Secretary wrote to Moshe Arens, the Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., in which Watt argued that "liberals of the [U.S.] Jewish community" who oppose his aggressive oil-development policies "will weaken our ability to be a good friend of Israel...
...White House spokesman called the letter "unfortunate" and "not the President's viewpoint," while Ronald Reagan himself made excuses for his impolitic Secretary at a midweek press conference. The obligatory resolution denouncing Watt was introduced by twelve Democratic Senators, including New York's Daniel Moynihan, who described the letter as "bareknuckled bigotry...
...epistolary pother had its genesis on June 13, when Watt and Arens sat together at a Washington banquet. Four days later, Watt reiterated his dinner-table chatter by mail...
...criticisms of Watt were twofold...