Jill Docking called The Eagle editorial board Friday to dispel rampant gossip, including on this blog, that she might be Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ running mate. Not true, said Docking, a Wichita Democrat who ran for U.S. Senate in 1996.
“I will do whatever I can to support this governor,” said Docking. “However, serving as lieutenant governor is not something she and I have talked about, and it’s not something I’d be interested in at this time in my life.”
The governor is expected to announce the choice next week.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Good for Gov. Kathleen Sebelius for removing all doubt about the state commitment to affordable airfares at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport by signing the funding mechanism as part of the legislative session’s final budget bill for fiscal 2007. Because of the hard work of the area delegation and business and local government leaders, $5 million a year for five years will come from the state, via the Regional Economic Area Partnership, to support the crucial regional effort to add low-fare airlines and routes to Wichita’s air service. As this program helps ensure that Mid-Continent’s flights and ridership will increase, it is sure to stimulate the Kansas economy as a whole. Well done.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
My column Friday tackled head-on the problem of assimilation of foreigners and their stubborn refusal to give up native customs and language.
I’m speaking, of course, of the Swedish-Americans in Lindsborg (“Little Sweden USA”) and those stubborn German enclaves.
“Valkommen,” indeed.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
It took four years, but it was still satisfying that former Enron executives Ken Lay (in photo) and Jeffrey Skilling were finally been found guilty — and on all counts. Both plan to appeal Thursday’s verdicts, of course. But as The Washington Post reported: “Now the two men, who together invested close to $70 million in their defense, face the possibility of spending the rest of their lives in prison and living in history as the ringleaders of a fraud at a company whose name became synonymous with accounting tricks and rule-breaking.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Republican members of Congress have been awfully tolerant of the Bush administration’s generous self-empowerment regarding the holding of terrorist suspects, the withholding of documents and more. So it’s been fascinating to watch the congressional push-back against the Justice Department’s bribery investigation of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., particularly the unprecedented raid of his Capitol Hill office (see photo). House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., is right to be protective of the separation of powers. Meanwhile, President Bush ordered Thursday that the seized records be sealed for 45 days, to give federal prosecutors and Congress time to try to resolve the dispute.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Surely Americans want to believe President Bush when he optimistically characterizes Iraq, as he did Monday, as having reached a “turning point” by gaining a “free and constitutional government” over the weekend. But one measure of how things are going looks bad: The administration’s own Voice of America bureau in Baghdad remains closed six months after the car of its sole reporter, Alisha Ryu, was ambushed. Her security guard was later shot and killed. Ryu told The Washington Post this week, “For all journalists, it’s really become impossible to move around.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Most Mexicans are upset about the proposed border fences, but at least some are starting to look inward — which has long been needed. Here’s what The New York Times reported:
“The old blame game — in which Mexico attributed illegal migration to the voracious American demand for labor and accused lawmakers of xenophobia — has given way to a far more soul-searching discussion, at least in quarters where policies are made and influenced, about how little Mexico has done to try to keep its people home.
“’For too long, Mexico has boasted about immigrants leaving, calling them national heroes, instead of describing them as actors in a national tragedy,’ said Jorge Santibáñez, president of the College of the Northern Border. ‘And it has boasted about the growth in remittances’ — the money immigrants send home — ‘as an indicator of success, when it is really an indicator of failure.’”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The Sedgwick County legislative deligation gets grief — often from this editorial board — for not having more clout in Topeka. “You need to be more like Johnson County,” is the common refrain. But Kenneth Daniel, publisher of the Topeka-based Web-site www.ksmallbiz.com, argues the opposite in a recent commentary:
“Even though Johnson County has about 18 percent of the senators and 18 percent of the representatives, their clout pales compared to Sedgwick County, which has virtually the same number in each house. My spin is that the Wichita area legislators are mostly looking out for Kansas, while many or even most Johnson County legislators are mostly looking out for their local interests, no matter how it hurts other areas.”
Perhaps. But it would be nice if Sedgwick County lawmakers would be a bit more parochial.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
COWTOWN BOARD MEETS IN BUNKER AT UNDISCLOSED LOCATION; Plan for Fixing Museum’s Budget Also Undisclosed
VICENTE FOX NABBED BY MINUTEMEN VIGILANTES DURING U.S. VISIT; Mexican Leader ‘Failed to Produce Green Card,’ Group Says
FIREWORKS, CANNONS INCORPORATED INTO ARENA DESIGN; Last-Ditch Attempt to Create ‘Wow’ Factor
Posted by Randy Scholfield
As Gov. Kathleen Sebelius announces her re-election plans Friday, she’ll do so from an enviable position in terms of public opinion. The Democrat earned an impressive 61 percent approval rating in the latest SurveyUSA poll of this Republican state, 2 points higher than a month ago and 7 points higher than a year ago. That compares with Republican Sens. Sam Brownback’s 48 percent and Pat Roberts’ 49 percent and President Bush’s 35 percent in Kansas this month. Reading into polls is always risky, but it surely is lucky for Sebelius that illegal immigration is mostly a federal issue.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
In case you didn’t see it, I’m including below a letter to the editor in today’s Eagle about the recent blogger meet-up. Also, fyi: I’m trying to schedule a gathering at The Eagle. Looks as if Thursday, June 22, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. might be the best date and time for us. What do you think?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
True Americans
I am certainly glad I went to a recent meet-up of the bloggers who post comments on The Eagle editorial board’s WE Blog, a lively group indeed — and civil, considering the differing views. I felt totally welcome and was at ease with everyone. It was a pleasure, and I must admit I was somewhat surprised at the diversity. It felt more like a family reunion than a bunch of people who knew one another only from some words and disjointed names.
The views differ as much as the faces, but they all have the same thoughts in mind. They all have the same goals in sight and the same desires in their hearts. What is best for America and the love of this country drew them together in one place. They are not happy to sit silent while the world spins by or be distracted by what is on the television. It was America — people of different lives and different views but all together, different beliefs all wanting a common thing. Word spreads one person at a time, until a chorus is heard.
I would rather sit with any one of these people than spend a lifetime with a world full of those berating the latest to fall off “American Idol.”
R.D. Liebst
Augusta
The profile on the Clinton marriage in Tuesday’s New York Times is still generating a lot of buzz, but I don’t really see why. The primary focus of the piece is how "since leaving the White House, Bill and Hillary Clinton have built largely separate lives — partly because of the demands of their distinct career paths and partly as a result of political calculations." Yeah, well what would anyone expect? Bill is busy being an ex-president and working on projects such as AIDS in Africa and tsunami relief, and Hillary is occupied with being a senator and possibly running for president. And as the piece noted, it is understandably important politically to show Hillary as her own person. What the article and its attention do reveal, as columnist David Broder notes on today’s Eagle Opinion pages, is that "the drama of the Clintons’ personal life will be a hot topic if she runs for president." Another reason to hope she doesn’t.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
"Personally, I believe abortion is wrong," Gov. Kathleen Sebelius wrote last week in her message accompanying a veto of an abortion-reporting bill. She also noted that abortions in Kansas have declined while she has been governor, and promised that "my administration will continue to work to reduce these numbers even more."
Sound good? Not to some pro-life supporters.
"Gov. Sebelius’ attempt in her veto explanation to portray herself as pro-life is outrageous," Kathy Ostrowski, legislative director of Kansans for Life, told The Topeka Capital-Journal. "She cannot reinvent the term, no matter how carefully she chooses her words."
But Sebelius’ spokeswoman responded that the governor wasn’t trying to mislead and has been very clear about her personal beliefs as a Catholic and her support for a woman’s right to privacy.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The American Civil Liberties Union gets a lot of grief but has been remarkably consistent over the years in supporting civil liberties — regardless of whether it’s a liberal or a conservative cause. But that consistency may not extend to its own board members.
The ACLU is considering a new standard in which its board members would be discouraged from publicly criticizing ACLU policies and internal administration, The New York Times reported. Some board members are flummoxed. "You sure that didn’t come out of Dick Cheney’s office?" former ACLU board member Nat Hentoff asked. "For the national board to consider promulgating a gag order on its members — I can’t think of anything more contrary to the reason the ACLU exists."
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
In an editorialthis week, we wished the Commission on Judicial Qualifications would be more open with the public about judicial ethics violations. But the frustration doesn’t stop there. Kansans have a hard time generally knowing how to judge judges — a particular problem in Sedgwick County, where we still elect District Court judges. On this point, one important new measure just passed the Legislature and was signed Friday by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius; it creates a 13-member commission of lawyers and nonlawyers that will survey court users and evaluate judges’ performance based on "ability, integrity, impartiality, communication skills, professionalism, temperament and administrative capacity." That sounds like good information. Unfortunately, to avoid politicization, the results will be kept private and only for "self-improvement" for elective District Court judges, but made widely available regarding judges and justices subject to retention elections. The advocates behind this didn’t want the survey results to politicize local elections, but that means the performance evaluations can’t inform elections either. That’s not fair to voters.
Meanwhile, interestingly, conservatives are petitioning to make Johnson County’s judgeships elective, prompting The Kansas City Star to editorialize: "Voters should look very suspiciously on efforts to infuse big money and politics into the selection of judges."
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The bids to host the 2008 Republican National Convention are in, as of Monday, from Cleveland, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York City (again) and Tampa-St. Petersburg. Meanwhile, bidding closed Friday for the 2008 Democratic National Convention; cities in the running are New York (yet again), New Orleans, Denver and Minneapolis.
Which reminds us: Why not Kansas City, Mo., which hasn’t hosted one since the Republicans gathered there in 1976? Kansas City was among communities that looked into hosting the 2008 Republican convention but stopped short of a bid. Its mayor told The Kansas City Star Tuesday that GOP leaders didn’t think they could raise the needed $40 million or more in time, but are eyeing 2012.
Of course, one reason the Kansans who attended in 1976 have such fond memories is that it featured something unknown in conventions today: suspense. President Ford won the nomination with 1,187 votes, compared with Ronald Reagan’s 1,070.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
It’s not every day that a U.S. attorney general threatens to prosecute a newspaper over a story, thank goodness. But Alberto Gonzales rattled that saber Sunday at The New York Times, over the newspaper’s revelation of the Bush administration’s domestic spying. An editorial in today’s Times notes that Gonzales’ "claim that a century-old espionage law could be used to muzzle the press" signals "the administration cares about enforcing laws the way Congress intended." If so, the editorial drily concludes, Gonzales "could suggest that the administration follow Congress’ clear and specific intent for the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act: outlawing wiretaps of Americans without warrants." Sounds like a plan.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Rankings often are subjective and, as a result, may not have much value. Nonetheless, it was interesting to see how Kansas’ congressional delegation stacked up in a new ranking of the most powerful lawmakers. As Alan Bjerga, The Eagle’s Washington, D.C., reporter, noted Sunday, lawmakers were evaluated based on 15 characteristics of power, such as position, influence and activity. Kansas came in 16th among all states in delegation power. Surprisingly — and this undermines the rankings’ credibility — Rep. Jim Ryun was Kansas’ highest-ranked House member compared with his peers. Ryun was 48th, or in the top 11 percent. Rep. Todd Tiahrt was close behind at No. 50. Rep. Jerry Moran was No. 172, and our state’s lone Democrat, Dennis Moore, was a distant No. 354. In the Senate, Pat Roberts ranked in the top quarter of senators at No. 24, and presidential hopeful Sam Brownback came in at No. 37.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
As Gov. Kathleen Sebelius weighs her choices of a second-term running mate, she might be eyeing history, too. If she chooses a woman for the lieutenant governor spot and they win in November, “it would appear to be the first time in American history that an all-female ticket has won election at a state level,” Bob Beatty, Washburn University political science professor, told The Hutchinson News. The female name most mentioned since Lt. Gov. John Moore announced his retirement last week? Jill Docking (in photo), a Wichita Democrat who ran for the U.S. Senate in 1996.
Joe Aistrup, who chairs Kansas State University’s political science department, told the News the question is whether “Kansas is prepared to have two women on the top of the ticket. I don’t see why not.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Now that gas prices have eased off a bit, maybe Americans are supposed to be cooling off, too. But some senators were still worked up enough Tuesday to give Deborah Platt Majoras, chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, and other witnesses a hard time. An FTC report released Monday attributed the sharp increase in fuel costs to market forces, not price gouging. But Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said that “there’s something really fishy” about using the supply-and-demand theory “as a cover to defend bad conduct.” And this from Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark.: “What other industry behaves like the oil industry (where) when the cost of the raw material increases, their profits multiply?”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Now that the White House has a former Fox News anchor as its spokesman, its official message apparently is that it watches CNN, too. In the wake of a photographer having been told that Air Force One’s TV could not be changed from Fox to CNN and the leak of a hotel checklist for Vice President Dick Cheney mandating his TV be tuned to Fox News, Snow told the press corps last week that staffers had been watching the hearing for CIA director nominee Michael Hayden on CNN. “There is no official channel at the White House,” Snow told The New York Times.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Has the Bush administration denied reality on so many subjects — including global warming — that the American public is hungry for some old-fashioned facts? Here’s Washington Post columnist Sebastian Mallaby’s take on how the GOP may unintentionally be helping Al Gore and his global-warming documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth.”:
“Ordinarily this film would never have been made, let alone scheduled for release in hundreds of theaters. But President Bush and the congressional Republicans have created a Ross Perot moment: a hunger for a leader with diagrams and charts, for a nerd who lays out basic facts ignored by blinkered government. By their contempt for expert opinion on everything from Iraqi reconstruction to the cost of their tax cuts, Republicans have turned Diagram Gore into a hero.”
Meanwhile, Bush said Monday that he doubted that he would see Gore’s film.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
How shocking to learn that the personal information of 26.5 million military veterans was stolen in a Maryland burglary, after an employee recklessly took the information home. And as long as the data remains unrecovered, how can there be, as Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said, “no reason to believe at this time that the identities of these veterans have been compromised”? At least the government bothered to let the public know of this alarming security breach (albeit 19 days later). Of course, that also means that if the burglars didn’t realize what they had before, they do now.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Boeing chairman and CEO James McNerney (in photo) talks about the importance of ethical behavior to a company’s bottom line. So the Chicago Tribune recounted in an editorial last week how much unethical behavior has cost Boeing in recent years. Included in that calculation were Boeing’s tentative agreement to pay $615 million to settle two federal criminal investigations; the four-month prison sentence for Michael Sears, Boeing’s former chief financial officer; the resignations of former CEO Phil Condit and his successor, Harry Stonecipher; and Boeing being banned for a year from bidding on $1 billion worth of government rocket-launch contracts. “The new leadership vows that those days are over at Boeing,” the editorial said, noting that the company has “learned winning at any cost can carry a very high price.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee