Though there are sexist elements in the Harriet Miers firestorm, the fundamental problem is her resume. She’s done a lot, but she hasn’t done a lot of the things that prepare a lawyer to sit on the highest court in the land. So it was disappointing that first lady Laura Bush went for the gender angle on Tuesday’s “Today” show, when Matt Lauer asked her whether sexism was playing a role in the criticism of Miers. “It’s possible. I think that’s possible. . . . I think people are not looking at her accomplishments.” Oh, but they are, and they don’t seem reassuring or relevant. Part of wanting to see women take their rightful places in public life is knowing when their gender is beside the point.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
New Kansas education commissioner Bob Corkins wanted to hire a consultant (Daniel Harden, another finalist for the job) for $15,000 to help ease his transition to the new post. It’s an unusual request: State administrators are assumed to know enough to just start work.
On Tuesday, the Kansas State Board of Education didn’t take up the idea, which already had attracted a storm of criticism, but here’s what it should have done:
Split Corkins’ wildly generous $140,000 salary and hire Harden as co-commissioner. Why not get two commissioners for the price of one? And the move would double the chances that we have a commissioner who actually knows what he’s doing.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
If Bob Corkins knew what he ought to know to be Kansas’ new education commissioner, should he need to spend $15,000 on a consultant to help him settle into the job? Surely not. Yet Corkins has asked his bosses on the State Board of Education to tap Washburn University professor Daniel Harden, who was a finalist for Corkins’ job, to advise him for the next six months. The conservative board members whose six votes prevailed in hiring Corkins likely won’t deny him this request, but it seems especially nervy coming from someone whose career has been spent urging elected officials to spend less.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
When Americans complain about the price of gas, somebody always steps up and reminds them how lucky they are not to be driving in Europe or elsewhere. This Washington Post story shows that citizens around the globe are feeling our pain this time, too, though the pump prices vary wildly — as do the government responses. Wonder how high the price would have to get before Americans protested in the streets, as Nigerians around that country ($1.74 a gallon) and farmers and truck drivers in Paris ($6.81 a gallon) have in recent weeks.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
It surely came as a surprise to some Kansans that Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., was among the nine senators who voted against the measure last week banning the use of “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” against detainees in the war on terrorism. Roberts, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, knows more than most of his colleagues about what goes on in detainee interrogations, what is being learned from them, and the scope of the charges and numerous investigations of prisoner abuse. “The information we get from interrogating these terrorists is the most valuable information we get. It saves lives — period,” Roberts told me. He also says you can’t telegraph to terrorists what to expect if they’re captured or it “will be the first chapter in the al-Qaida terrorist manual.” Still, 90 senators voted against torture. Roberts didn’t. That looks bad (even though the measure may never make it into law). What do you think?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
We’ve recently posted a blog item and published a Mitch Albom column about the study that found that only 75 percent of men wash their hands after going to the bathroom. That reminded Eagle reader John Banman of this old “Far Side” cartoon.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The images from the South Asian earthquake tear at the heart. So many dead, including schoolchildren. So much destruction and need and sorrow, visited on people who had so little to begin with. With Americans just beginning to rebound from hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the U.S. military stretched by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there’s a chance that Pakistan and the other affected countries might not get the attention or help they must have to dig their way out of this disaster. Those in nations such as the United States must give as they can to relief agencies, and call on their governments to help this devastated region recover.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
