Despite Friday’s strawman vote in the House about immediately withdrawing troops from Iraq, there is a growing bipartisan movement in Congress to pressure the Bush White House to provide a credible exit strategy. It looks like a turning point in congressional and public attitudes toward the war.
The Senate voted last week for the White House to provide a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq as well as quarterly progress reports on the war. Congress as an institution is “rearing up and asserting itself,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., (in photo) a decorated veteran of two wars and one of Congress’ most hawkish Democrats, Thursday called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops, saying that the Iraq war was a “flawed policy wrapped in illusion.”
Predictably, Bush defenders quickly attacked Murtha, painting the widely respected defense expert with a Michael Moore anti-war brush. But for White House officials, attacking the messengers is a losing battle. They need to provide a plan that will produce stability in Iraq, and show the way home for our troops.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
One of the thorns in the side of Kansas Republican Party chairman Tim Shallenburger is Wichita’s Mark Gietzen, leader of the Kansas Republican Coalition for Life and a former Sedgwick County GOP chairman. It was at a recent Wichita Pachyderm Club meeting that Gietzen scolded Shallenburger for “welcoming pro-aborts” into the GOP’s tent. And if Shallenburger thought Gietzen would back off after last week’s headlines about Shallenburger threatening to quit over the ideological split, he thought wrong. Gietzen was quoted by The Topeka Capital-Journal as saying he’d welcome Shallenburger’s resignation, offering this odd quote evoking the U.S. Supreme Court nomination switcheroo of Samuel Alito for Harriet Miers, and even the late Rosa Parks: “Tim Shallenburger is Miers. We need to get him out and Alito in. We need to do some housecleaning. The Miers thing has refreshed everyone. We don’t have to take the back of the bus anymore.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Good for Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., for not being content to forget about the nation’s oil needs even though pump prices are no longer over $3 or even $2. He’s the chief GOP co-sponsor of bipartisan legislation introduced Wednesday aimed at cutting U.S. oil consumption by 2.5 million barrels a day over the next 10 years. Its proposed tax breaks and loan guarantees are the sort of incentives that automakers need to step up their efforts to develop alternative-fuel technologies — including biomass fuels that would be good for Kansas farmers as well as American drivers. It’s nice to see that energy conservation isn’t just a virtue anymore in Washington, D.C.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer focused on the Kansas State Board of Education’s evolution decision — calling it a “national embarrassment” — in his column for The Washington Post. He pointed out the folly of placing religion at odds with science, noting that both Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein were religious. He wrote:
“How ridiculous to make evolution the enemy of God. What could be more elegant, more simple, more brilliant, more economical, more creative, indeed more divine than a planet with millions of life forms, distinct and yet interactive, all ultimately derived from accumulated variations in a single double-stranded molecule, pliable and fecund enough to give us mollusks and mice, Newton and Einstein? Even if it did give us the Kansas State Board of Education, too.”
Posted by Melissa Cooley
Arenas in many cities are having to downsize, The Wall Street Journal recently reported. Because there are fewer and fewer big sellout concerts, arenas are creating smaller “theaters” within the arenas. And it’s more than just curtaining off some sections. Some arenas have custom-made dividers, mood lighting and even chandeliers that descend from the rafters. Is that part of Sedgwick County’s downtown arena plans? Does it need to be?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
