For a speech that mentioned "freedom" 17 times, President Bush’s fifth State of the Union address also included some welcome, forward-looking talk about the need to break the U.S. addiction to Mideast oil, get competitive on math and science and the like.
The question is how compliant Congress wants to be — especially with midterm elections looming and Bush a second-termer with lagging poll numbers. Can Bush turn his standing ovations into enough productive action on behalf of the American people to keep the full Congress in Republican hands and the remainder of his presidency relevant?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
President Bush has a lot riding on his State of the Union address. Democrats seem poised to make midterm gains in November, and his low approval ratings threaten his ability to lead on major reforms. Can he regain some political capital or is he already a lame duck? What did you like and dislike about the speech? What was missing? Are his proposals realistic or a lot of political pandering? Tell us what you think, both during the speech and afterward.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Dave Barry’s blog is plugging our live State of the Union coverage tonight, and he links to our blog. So we may get some new visitors. One of Barry’s bloggers has already warned: “Do they not know what sort hangs out here?” Should be fun.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
President Bush ran on a promise to appoint conservatives to the U.S. Supreme Court. He had to wait 4½ years for a chance to do so, but with last fall’s confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts and this morning’s 58-42 Senate confirmation vote of Samuel Alito, that sizable piece of Bush’s legacy fell into place. As the replacement for moderate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Alito is expected to steer the court to the right on defining issues from abortion to affirmative action. Democratic senators unhappy about that ideological shift did a disservice to the Senate’s role in the process with their lame (and, for some, disingenuous) attempt at a filibuster Monday. In the end, Alito proved well-qualified for a seat on the nation’s highest court, and Democrats got a hard lesson in how much elections matter.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Coretta Scott King was known as the “first lady of civil rights,” but just how much she contributed to her husband’s civil rights legacy often is not fully appreciated. She was a full partner with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and helped shape his stand on issues such as the Vietnam War and women’s rights. When he was struck down by an assassin’s bullet, she courageously led a march he had planned.
Her later work was crucial to identifying his legacy with broader social concerns such as ending poverty, gang violence, and war. And without her leadership and determination, there likely would not be a federal Martin Luther King Jr. Day or a King Center in Atlanta. Her controlling stewardship of King’s legacy sometimes drew criticism, but there’s no disputing that she will be remembered as a great civil rights leader in her own regard.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline might have some legal basis to argue that, under Kansas law, any evidence of underage sexual activity is evidence of a crime and therefore should be reported by doctors, nurses and other health care professionals.
But as we argue in an editorial on today’s Opinion page, there’s good reason to worry that such a broad-brush approach could violate physician-patient privacy and discourage teens from seeking medical advice and treatment. Moreover, Kline’s motivations don’t inspire confidence: Where does his zeal in cracking down on sex offenders end and his zeal in pushing an anti-abortion agenda begin? It’s not always clear.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The Sedgwick County Commission is scheduled to consider a resolution Wednesday asking the state to create a buffer zone to protect families “from unwarranted harassment during funerals and memorial services.” It should approve it.
The Kansas Legislature this week is holding hearings on just such a proposal, sponsored by Sedgwick County Republican Sens. Carolyn McGinn and Jean Schodorf, that would impose a 300-foot buffer zone around funerals to protect grieving family members from the ghoulish protests of the Phelps “church” or any other group out to harass and disrupt services.
Unfortunately, it’s a needed law. The only concern here is finding the right balance between freedom of speech rights and what most people see as the legitimate right to privacy inherent in a funeral service.
I think this legislation, if carefully crafted, can withstand court scrutiny — and protect the rights (and safety) of both sides.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Some optimists are hoping that Hamas will moderate its views now that it has to govern. But that’s not happening yet. Khaled Meshal, the exiled political leader of Hamas, said this weekend that Hamas would not “submit to pressure to recognize Israel, because the occupation is illegitimate and we will not abandon our rights,” The New York Times reported. And he insisted that “resistance is a legitimate right that we will practice and protect.”
Meanwhile, the Bush administration has already made up its mind. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that the United State will no longer provide aid to the Palestinian government (but will provide some humanitarian aid). And she said Monday while in Europe (in photo) trying to convince Russian, European Union and United Nations officials to also cease their governmental aid, “You cannot be on one hand dedicated to peace and on the other dedicated to violence.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
State Sen. Vicki Schmidt, R-Topeka, succeeded in persuading the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee last week to advance a bill to allow high school swimmers and divers to also practice with nonschool club teams year-round. It’s of concern that lawmakers are meddling in the rules of the Kansas State High School Activities Association, which forbids such crossover participation. Another thing: Why should such dual training apply only to swimming and not to teen sports across the board? And anytime one lawmaker is pushing a bill inspired by personal experience — Schmidt’s two sons are talented swimmers — the rest of the Legislature needs to ask: Is this legislation really necessary?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
We’re going to try an experiment Tuesday night: A ‘live’ blog discussion during President Bush’s State of the Union address. What we will do is start a string, and then you can post your reactions — what you agree with, what you don’t — while the speech is going on. And, of course, the comments can continue after the speech. Hope you are available and will join the discussion.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Another top government scientist is claiming that the Bush administration is trying to silence him because his research doesn’t match the White House’s political views. James E. Hansen (in photo), director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said that officials at NASA had ordered a review of his coming lectures, papers, postings on the Goddard Web site and requests for interviews from journalists after he gave a lecture last month calling for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming, The New York Times reported.
Dean Acosta from the NASA public affairs office said that there is no effort to silence Hansen; Acosta said that policy statements should be left to policymakers and appointed agency spokesmen. And Mary L. Cleave, deputy associated administrator of NASA’s Office of Earth Science, told The Washington Post that the restrictions on giving interviews were meant as “protection” to make sure the scientists weren’t misquoted.
That’s not how Hansen and others see it. “They’re trying to control what’s getting out to the public,” he said.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
A new large-scale research study found that, after adjusting for socioeconomic differences, public school students outperform their private school peers on fourth- and eighth-grade standardized math tests, The New York Times reported. In fact, the study found that students at self-described conservative Christian schools were as much as one year behind comparable counterparts in public schools.
Vouchers and charter school supporters point out that the study gave only a snapshot of performance and didn’t show how students progressed over time. But that snapshot at least tries to address an argument that Wichita public school officials have long made: Unless you adjust for student demographics, school comparisons are not very comparable.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
President Bush will have his work cut out for him when he gives his State of the Union address Tuesday. In a recent USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll, by more than 2-to-1, those surveyed said things have gotten worse in the United States over the past five years. It may take more than a speech to convince them otherwise.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
Here is an example of how slight changes to a poll question can change the responses. The latest New York Times/CBS News poll on wiretapping had a question noting that “After 9/11, George W. Bush authorized government wiretaps on some phone calls in the U.S. without getting court warrants.” It then asked: “Do you approve or disapprove of this?” Fifty percent disapproved, and 46 percent approved. But when the same poll question substituted “President Bush” for “George W. Bush” and added the phrase, “saying this was necessary to reduce the threat of terrorism,” the disapproval numbers dipped to 46 percent, and the approvals climbed to 53 percent. No wonder Bush, Karl Rove and other administration officials have been conducting a public relations offensive in recent days, linking wiretapping to terrorism and national security.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Best wishes to Rep. Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson, for his latest attempt to shove the state out of the way of local governments looking to consolidate. As it is, local consolidations require the Legislature’s blessing. But such efforts are difficult enough to pull off at the local level. The state shouldn’t have to sign off, too — especially when Kansas ranks fifth in the nation in per capita units of government.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Kansas wine lovers who would like to order wines directly by mail or the Internet from out-of-state wineries or local producers would get stomped on by a bill in the Legislature.
A proposal to allow direct shipments has been hijacked by the state’s liquor wholesalers, who want all wine shipments to go through them. As Norm Jennings, a member of the state’s wine and grape industry advisory council, told a Senate committee, the change could put many Kansas growers out of business.
Lawmakers should cut out the middlemen and preserve what should have been a needed simplification of Kansas law.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
It seems Americans can agree on one thing — that they deserve to know the details of Jack Abramoff’s White House meetings. A new poll shows that 76 percent of Americans believe the Bush administration should come clean about the contacts. And that includes 2 in 3 Republicans and 8 in 10 Democrats. It’s nice to know that members of both parties recognize the need to know what the crooked lobbyist was up to at the White House.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
Sen. Phil Journey, R-Haysville, the chairman of the Sedgwick County legislative delegation, has a commentary on today’s Opinion pages defending anti-gaming lawmakers such as himself who took campaign money for casinos. He argues that The Eagle oversimplified this issue, and that our editorial last week “reinforced the uninformed opinion of some that all politicians are crooks and that their participation in the political process has no real value.”
Baloney. The editorial said “there’s no evidence that any of these lawmakers changed their position on gaming, either for or against, because of the contributions.” And the issue really is simple. Area lawmakers have preached about the evils of gaming and the need to keep gaming money out of politics, yet they took campaign donations from northeast Kansas casinos that don’t want the competition of a Sedgwick County casino. What’s more, 19 of these lawmakers, including Journey, bullied the Sedgwick County Commission into not letting the public have its say on expanded gaming through a nonbinding vote.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
A lot of ink is spent discussing the GOP divide between moderates and conservatives, as an Eagle news article did Friday. The growing divide within the Democratic Party between liberals and centrists is also noteworthy but gets much less attention. The war in Iraq exposed some of this division, with many in the liberal base wanting aggressive opposition to President Bush and a withdrawal from Iraq, while centrists such as Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., and others cautioned against appearing weak on defense and security. The Samuel Alito confirmation is another sharp divide. Liberal groups are thrilled with the calls of Sens. John Kerry and Ted Kennedy for a filibuster, The Washington Post reported. But centrists see that as a quixotic fight that will make Democrats appear as obstructionists.
It’s a similar debate within both parties. Moderates argue that to win big elections and to govern, you need to move to the middle. But the liberal and conservative bases respond: What’s the point of getting elected if you have to water down your principles?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Members of Congress are arguing along party lines about whether the upcoming Senate Judiciary Committee hearings into the warrantless wiretapping constitute enough of a congressional inquiry, or whether other panels should get into the act. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who already had planned for his Senate Intelligence Committee to consider the spying, let his understandable frustration with Democrats show last week in a letter that noted, according to The New York Times: “I think we can all agree that intelligence issues, especially in the middle of a war, should not be used as fodder for political advantage. Doing so is unnecessary, unwise and potentially dangerous.” Congress needs to thoroughly and honestly examine whether the Bush administration broke the law by conducting wiretaps of U.S. citizens without a court warrant. But can’t everybody on Capitol Hill and the White House rise above politics and fight the war on terrorism together?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The nation gained its 34th state on Jan. 29, 1861, officially putting our home on the range on the map. Located at what would become the heart of the United States, Kansas can seem at the center of many defining American issues, too — from the bloody struggle over slavery and bar-splintering crusade against liquor to the more contemporary fights over abortion and evolution. “To the stars through difficulties” still fits.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
WICHITA LEGISLATIVE DELEGATION OFFERS IDEAS FOR VOTERS WANTING TO BUY LUNCH ACCESS; Options Include Banquet, Buffet and Express Drive-through
BIN LADEN, AL-ZARHAWI ADMIT TO ‘BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN’ RELATIONSHIP; ‘It Gets Lonely Hiding in the Hills,’ Says Terror Chief in Latest Tape
MINNESOTA DEVELOPERS BUY CITY HALL; Underused Building Will Be Another Loft Conversion
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The United States spent about $1.9 million on dozens of quick projects aimed at boosting the Fatah party’s image before this week’s Palestinian elections, The New York Times reported. Didn’t work; Hamas cleaned up at the polls. Perhaps that was because, in addition to its despicable terrorist actions, Hamas has gained public loyalty over the years by helping fund social-service projects that the corrupt Fatah government ignored. And a rush of last-minute public relations projects wasn’t enough to overcome years of governmental neglect and incompetence.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Oprah Winfrey was right this week to apologize for suggesting that it didn’t matter whether James Frey’s memoir “A Million Little Pieces” was strictly truthful or not. The publisher, Random House, is also furiously backpedaling, but only after Oprah called it on the carpet.
Turns out Frey embellished or made up several dramatic scenes and events. As a result, his book no longer has much credibility, although it still reportedly is selling well — as fiction?
When people read “nonfiction,” they should have confidence the events and details related are what actually happened, as best the author can determine.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The odds that gambling will expand in Kansas were bad to begin with, given how competing interests tend to cancel one another out in Topeka. Those odds just got worse, though, with declarations by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, that they’ll work against the efforts to get federal approval for off-reservation tribal casinos in Kansas. One such casino has been variously proposed for Park City, Harvey County and Sumner County. Others have been in the works for Wyandotte and Cherokee counties. But it’s highly unlikely that Interior Secretary Gale Norton would OK any off-reservation casino against the wishes of the state’s congressional delegation. “I think it’s in significant jeopardy,” Matt All, chief counsel to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, told Associated Press after hearing from Tiahrt and Brownback. That’s more bad news for Kansans who’d like to gamble closer to home — good news for Oklahoma and northeast Kansas tribal casinos.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
