It seems that low poll numbers may have the White House grasping at straws — or maybe it’s straw. President Bush is now enlisting the help of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in selling the war in Iraq. A Washington Post column said that an e-mail went out to USDA appointees, asking that they incorporate White House talking points on Iraq into every speech they give. And just in case anyone at the USDA was wondering how to seamlessly transition from Iraq to, say, tomatoes, the White House provided this ready-made segue: “The Iraqis have also discussed specific products, like tomatoes, which they are anxious to export into the world community.”
Posted by Melissa Cooley
You no doubt have heard by now about a German interviewer asking President Bush about the best moment of his five-year presidency. Bush said it was the time he caught a 7-pound largemouth bass at his Texas ranch.
When asked a similar legacy question, Jimmy Carter said that it was the Camp David Accords peace agreement. President Clinton mentioned ending the war in Kosovo.
Bush? Caught a bass.
Obviously, Bush was joking. Still, his big-fish response sounds absurdly small-fry coming from the president of the United States.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
A new Harvard study found that more than half of adolescents who make pledges to abstain from sex until marriage break their vow within a year. Some conservative groups contest the findings, arguing that the study was based on 10-year-old data and that more recent studies seem to indicate that virginity pledges do work. But regardless of whether one-half, one-third or one-fourth of teens break their pledge within a year, a lot of teens are having sex. As a result — and contrary to a proposal before the State Board of Education — it makes sense to have sex education classes emphasize abstinence but also teach students about contraception.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., continues to draw fire for his slow-going inquiry into how the Bush administration handled prewar intelligence about Iraq and his apparent reluctance to hold the White House accountable on other issues, such as the warrantless domestic eavesdropping. Roberts’ latest blow came Sunday from The New York Times editorial board, which said he’s running the Iraq inquiry “in a way that makes it unlikely that anything useful will come of it” but nevertheless urged: “The least Mr. Roberts and his committee can do is to finish the flawed investigation and make the results public.” Such impatience is well-founded. As we said in an Eagle editorial nearly three years ago on Roberts’ inquiry — “what is at stake is the credibility of the American intelligence system.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
President Bush’s bad year so far has been a boon for Jay Leno, David Letterman and Conan O’Brien, who are averaging 102 Bush jokes a month on their late-night TV shows compared with 45 monthly last year. Fueled by the Dubai ports deal and Iraq, Bush’s current rate is still short of Bill Clinton’s 140-a-month rate during the Lewinsky affair. And is it better to be skewered on late-night TV as a hound or a dolt?
Two recent Leno examples:
“Today President Bush said global warming is happening much quicker than he thought, but then his staff pulled him aside and told him, ‘It’s just spring time.’”
“When President Bush was in New Orleans, he said, ‘We pray there is no hurricane coming this year.’ This is what we call faith-based disaster planning.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
All the wringing of hands about why-oh-why Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., would agree to give the commencement address at the Rev. Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University on Saturday has seemed very silly. It assumes McCain is something other than a conservative (his voting record says he is), as it suggests that the views of a guest must align with the views of his host. Falwell effectively addressed the odd controversy in a New York Times commentary headlined “An Invitation, Not an Endorsement.” But he did say: “Mr. McCain is the front-runner for the nomination and is the kind of conservative candidate whom I would have little trouble supporting.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
It ought to be enough that a judicial panel and two legislative committees are probing the lunch conversation of Kansas Supreme Court Justice Lawton Nuss and two state senators. But it’s not, apparently, for state Sen. Phil Journey, R-Haysville, who told The Topeka Capital-Journal that the judicial commission and House panel also should look at possible communications on school finance by other justices and lawmakers. “That’s where the real issue lies,” Journey said.
Oh, please. The contact between the justice and the senators was a bad mistake, no question. But the real issue for Journey and his colleagues is how to constitutionally fund schools.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
