By pleading guilty today, lobbyist Jack Abramoff (shown in hat leaving federal court) avoids being in the center ring of a trial on federal charges of conspiracy, tax evasion and mail fraud. Now the questions become which public officials were part of Abramoff’s acknowledged conspiracy, beyond Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, and whether the American public will care enough to demand change.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Much was said about how badly 2005 went for President Bush, but history doesn’t bode well for 2006. USA Today noted Monday that it “was in the sixth year of their presidencies that Bill Clinton was impeached and Richard Nixon was forced to resign, that Ronald Reagan and Dwight Eisenhower faced the worst scandals of their tenures and that Franklin Roosevelt encountered increased resistance to New Deal legislation.” Then again, as Bush media adviser Mark McKinnon said in the same story, “This president has a real pattern of defying conventional wisdom.” And former House Speaker Newt Gingrich predicted Sunday that Bush will “continue to shape history” this year and beyond. “I don’t think he’ll be a lame duck until the last day — when he waves goodbye after the inaugural of the new president,” he said.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Those still hoping to see more of the Enron crooks held accountable had to be encouraged by the guilty plea entered by Richard Causey, the company’s former top accountant. With someone so knowledgeable about what went wrong having switched sides, the challenge of defending former chairman Ken Lay and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling against fraud and conspiracy charges now becomes a lot tougher.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Kansas Education Commissioner Bob Corkins’ talk about using state funds for private school vouchers hasn’t lined up the necessary votes on the State Board of Education for even a limited program, at least not yet. Member Ken Willard (in photo) of Hutchinson, who usually votes with the board’s conservative majority, recently said he thinks that vouchers need more study and that a proposal is unlikely to win board approval in time for the 2006 legislative session. The Legislature could take up the issue without the state board’s recommendation, but none of this bodes well for those counting on Corkins to launch vouchers out of the gate.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
If we can’t beat China in the classroom, maybe we can at least distract Chinese children from their studies. Nickelodeon, MTV and others are trying to gain greater access to the Chinese children’s television market. The Chinese government doesn’t approve of many of the U.S. kids programs, particular ones that seem very disrespectful to adults — which is most of them. But even if the shows get on TV, many Chinese parents likely won’t let their kids watch them, because they place such importance on education. When they do allow their kids to watch TV, it tends to be such Chinese TV shows as “Seeking Answers to 100 Questions,” “Reading Books,” “Chess Boy” and “Studying the Arts.” What? No “Rugrats”?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The United States was criticized last year by a United Nations official for being cheap in responding to the Asian tsunami. But here are some impressive statistics about the generosity of the American public, as noted in a Wall Street Journal editorial:
U.S. citizens gave $1.78 billion to tsunami relief, dwarfing the donations of other developed nations.
Since October, American have given $78 million toward relief following the Pakistan earthquakes.
The total value of private donations in response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita has reached an estimated $3.12 billion.
Americans donate a quarter-trillion dollars a year to churches and charities, more than the entire gross domestic product of most countries.
And, of course, the Journal’s editorial pointed out that “all of this comes on top of the $1 trillion in taxes that Americans pay each year to support government income-transfer and benefit programs.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
An Opinion Line contributor said he has been waiting for The Wichita Eagle to print Tom Brokaw’s derogatory remark about east Wichita on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Well, here it is, from the Dec. 25 show. You can decide how derogatory it is:
“There’s no way he (former FEMA director Michael Brown) should have had that job, Tim. He just — he simply was not prepared to have that job. Jamie Lee Witt, setting the politics aside, was one of the best appointments that Bill Clinton ever made. He went through Hurricane Andrew and they went through the California earthquakes. And I thought when he first came to Washington that he was probably just an Arkansas crony of the president’s. He was first-rate as a FEMA director. And ‘Good Job, Brownie’ will be, you know — President Bush will be living with that one for a long time. This guy wouldn’t have been, you know, a store manager for Wal-Mart in east Wichita.”
He has a point. The east-side Wal-Marts do seem to function quite a bit better than FEMA did after Hurricane Katrina.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
