Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was asked as recently as December 2005 by talking head Bill O’Reilly about putting National Guard troops on the border:
“Well, the National Guard is really, first of all, not trained for that mission,” Chertoff said, adding, “I think it would be a horribly over-expensive and very difficult way to manage this problem. Unless you would be prepared to leave those people in the National Guard day and night for month after month after month, you would eventually have to come to grips with the challenge in a more comprehensive way.”
Posted by Randy Scholfield
It would hardly be surprising if Gov. Kathleen Sebelius vetoed the bill keeping secret the names of people who get permits to carry concealed guns in Kansas, given that she vetoed the conceal-carry bill itself. If she’s looking for other reasons, too, the fact that legislators rushed it through without any public hearing is a good one. With 90 days at their disposal, lawmakers should have had plenty to time to publicly weigh such an important open-government issue and no need to flout their own rules to pass this bill. A better way to handle this, as it happens, was promoted by the architect of the conceal-carry bill, state Sen. Phil Journey, R-Haysville. Lawmakers could have followed his counsel to allow public release of the names and county of residence for permit holders, but not addresses or Social Security numbers. A Sebelius veto would allow lawmakers to rethink the secret-records bill next year.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
At a time when reports from Iraq seem bleak at best, columnist Cal Thomas expresses his hope “that success may be closer than we think” in this column on today’s Opinion pages. He quotes from documents seized by U.S. soldiers last month and reportedly authored by an al-Qaida operative that depict the insurgency as disorganized and faltering. He concludes: “These documents ought to encourage not only the U.S. government, but also American public opinion, that the virtues of patience and commitment are likely to achieve the stated objectives of freedom and a self-sustaining Iraqi government.”
You’d like to share Thomas’ optimism, but news reports Tuesday still painted another picture: The new government remains unformed (with a May 22 deadline looming), at least 511 Iraqis have been killed this month, and at least three more U.S. soldiers have died this week.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Most of the Democrats eyeing the White House in 2008 are members of Congress. But if the party heeds recent history and realizes that lawmakers have too much of a vote paper trail and too little executive experience, it will go with a Democratic governor, a la Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Iowa’s Tom Vilsack and New Mexico’s Bill Richardson (in photo) are among the perceived contenders, but they aren’t among the most popular Democratic governors, according to the latest SurveyUSA poll. Those are West Virginia’s Joe Manchin (75 percent approval), Montana’s Brian Schweitzer (74 percent), Wyoming’s Dave Freudenthal (68 percent), Oklahoma’s Brad Henry (67 percent) and New Hampshire’s John Lynch (66 percent). (Kansas’ Kathleen Sebelius comes close, with 59 percent, which is what Richardson got, too.) Maybe some of these guys have disqualifying characteristics — like Michigan’s Jennifer Granholm, born in Canada (but also at 40 percent) — but if Democrats want to win, going to the states seems to make more sense than going back to the poisonous congressional well.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
President Bush certainly sounded unequivocal Tuesday in assuring Americans that “we do not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval.” But it’s hard not to parse the words: Does he mean with a warrant, or some kind of tacit approval? Does it depend on the definition of “we” or “listen”? You have to hope this doesn’t come back to haunt him, as did his April 2004 assurance that “any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires — a wiretap requires a court order.” And as so many have asked as each shoe has dropped about National Security Agency spying and data collection: Where is the congressional oversight? One crucial chance to answer that question will come Thursday, when the Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., holds a confirmation hearing for Gen. Michael Hayden, who is Bush’s nominee to head the CIA and also the NSA’s former boss.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
A statistic recently pointed to by the Kansas Department of Transportation fuels an unfortunate stereotype: Only 52 percent of Kansas drivers of pickup trucks bother to buckle up. That’s more than 20 points below the national average of 73 percent for this rugged demographic, and far off the (still too few) 69 percent of Kansas drivers and front-seat passengers who wear seat belts these days. Rather than pass a primary seat-belt law, state lawmakers would like to think that all adults can be trusted to exercise common sense and use their vehicles’ most basic piece of safety equipment. If pickup drivers don’t think seat belts are a necessity, surely the people who love them can persuade them otherwise.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Libya’s amazing re-entry into the world community continued this week, with the Bush administration’s restoration of diplomatic relations and removal of Libya from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. It’s still hard not to be skeptical about Moammar Gadhafi’s transformation from terrorist to statesman, but it could serve as an example for other global troublemakers with an urge to go legit. Plus, like it or not, what the world needs right now is more oil-rich nations open for business.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Speaking of Libya, check out formerly jailed reporter Judith Miller’s discussion in The Wall Street Journal of how that country came to surrender its weapons of mass destruction. Ma’atouq Mohamed Ma’atouq, head of Libya’s nuclear program, told her doing so was painful: “I had to prepare the scientists and the technical experts who had worked so hard on different aspects of the program” at seven locations. “It wasn’t easy. This was my program. It was like killing my own baby.” The second part of the essay is in the Journal today.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
