Having recently declared that “All politics passes through Iowa,” Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., is scheduled to make his fourth visit of the year to that state, this time to headline Saturday’s meeting of Iowans for Tax Relief in Des Moines. He’s one of five potential presidential candidates expected to glad-hand Iowans in October, never mind that the Iowa caucuses are 27 months away. The only other Republican to be seen as often in Iowa this year is Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas. We’re sure Brownback was just trying to be a gracious guest and all, but for what it’s worth: Kansas politics do not pass through Iowa.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the International Atomic Energy Agency and its director, Mohamed ElBaradei, “is not a kick in the legs to any country,” committee chairman Ole Danbolt Mjoes said Friday. Yeah, right. The Bush administration has been at war with ElBaradei over Iran and Iraq (where, as it turned out, ElBaradei was correct), and it has tried unsuccessfully to get him replaced, claiming he overlooks and doesn’t punish violations. This award sure looks more like a rebuke to Bush than an earned honor for ElBaradei.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., will speak at the Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas at the end of this month, the Lawrence Journal-World reported. The institute hopes to attract more 2008 presidential hopefuls as part of its “Contenders” lecture series.
But institute director Bill Lacy seemed uncertain that Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., would accept a formal invitation — which has yet to be offered — to speak in his home state.
“Given his strength in Kansas, it may not be as attractive to him as it would to some others,” Lacy said.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
Add conservative commentator Peggy Noonan to those grumbling about President Bush’s nomination of Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court. She wrote in The Wall Street Journal that the president would have been better served politically by a bench-clearing brawl:
“A fractious and sparring base would have come together arm in arm to fight for something all believe in: the beginning of the end of command-and-control liberalism on the U.S. Supreme Court. Senate Democrats, forced to confront a serious and principled conservative of known stature, would have damaged themselves in the fight. If in the end President Bush lost, he’d lose while advancing a cause that is right and doing serious damage to the other side. Then he could come back to win with the next nominee. And if he won he’d have won, rousing his base and reminding them why they’re Republicans.”
Or here’s a wacky alternative: Forget the politics and nominate someone else like Chief Justice John Roberts who has impeccable legal credentials.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
It’s a fairly common occurrence to listen to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and wonder: What is he thinking? Take his recent Senate testimony regarding insurgents sneaking into Iraqi security forces, which he said is a “problem faced by police forces in every major city in our country. The criminals infiltrate and sign up to join in the police force.” Huh? Naturally, Bill Johnson of the National Association of Police Organizations rightly responded: “The secretary’s comment was flippant and reflects a fundamental lack of understanding about what American police departments are all about.” Or Iraqi police departments?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Include Sedgwick County District Judge Gregory Waller among those who object to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last summer allowing the use of eminent domain for private developments. “I think it’s a terrible decision,” Waller said at an NAACP dinner in Hutchinson last weekend, according to The Hutchinson News. “You can be sitting fat and happy in your house, and if someone wants it for a shopping center, they can go to the Huchinson city council and use eminent domain to have you moved — and the Supreme Court says that’s OK.”
Waller, who received international attention for presiding over the BTK case, was also outspoken in responding to a question about the possibility of his one day serving on the Kansas Supreme Court. He said that minorities face an uphill battle making the high court, because the nominating committee restricts the governor’s choices.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
As some of you bloggers have noted, the Bush administration got nailed again by the Government Accountability Office for violating a ban on covert propaganda. This one was for the U.S. Department of Education having paid commentator Armstrong Williams to promote the No Child Left Behind Act. The department also violated the law by producing and distributing packaged news stories to local TV stations with fake reporters touting the virtues of NCLB. The Department of Health and Human Services got busted last year by the GAO for a similar fake-news scam promoting Medicare reform. Instead of spending tax money trying to con the public, what if the administration used that money to actually fund its programs?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
