As expected, the gay marriage amendment didn’t get the two-thirds vote needed to pass the U.S. Senate. Not only that, it couldn’t even get half the votes, failing today 49-48. That’s only one more vote than the measure got in 2004. But, hey — GOP lawmakers can tell social conservatives that they took a stand for marriage.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
It’s notable that the Phelps clan apparently is willing to follow new state and federal funeral protest laws, although it still refuses to be constrained by common human decency.
The group plans to picket funerals at more than 120 national cemeteries in coming months, and did so at Marine Lance Cpl. Kevin Lucas’ funeral Tuesday at Arlington National Cemetery. But at least the new federal law appears to be keeping this little circus of hate-mongers at a respectful distance, and to afford some privacy to grieving family members.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The race for Kansas attorney general should be the most interesting and competitive of all the statewide contests this November. And it began with a bang Tuesday, as Republican-turned-Democrat Paul Morrison (in photo) officially launched his campaign by launching into incumbent Republican Phill Kline.
Morrison contrasted his considerable courtroom experience as Johnson County’s district attorney with the experience of Kline. He noted that Kline “has never tried a single case in his entire career” and let his law license lapse three times. “Phill Kline’s world is a world of posturing, politics and press conferences, where very, very little real work in the fight against crime actually ever gets done,” Morrison said.
Count on Kline to aggressively contest that. And though Morrison’s trial experience is a great asset, it also means that there is a long record to search for examples of him being “soft on crime.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Here are some highlights from the study issued Monday by the Center for Public Integrity, as reported by The Washington Post:
Republican and Democratic lawmakers accepted nearly $50 million in trips from January 2000 through June 2005.
House and Senate members and their aides were away from Washington for more than 81,000 days — a combined 222 years — on at least 23,000 trips.
About 2,300 of the trips cost $5,000 or more, at least 500 cost $10,000 or more, and 16 cost $25,000 or more.
Lawmakers and their staffers were treated to $25,000 corporate-jet rides and $500-a-night hotel rooms.
Lawmakers accepted thousands of costly jaunts — one worth more than $30,000 — to some of the world’s choicest destinations: at least 200 trips to Paris, 150 to Hawaii and 140 to Italy.
Of the 25 individual lawmakers who accepted more than $120,000 worth of travel during the period, 17 were Democrats.
There likely is a place for some sponsored fact-finding and educational trips. But as the report noted, “some trips seem to have been little more than pricey vacations. . . . In many instances, trip sponsors appeared to be buying access to elected officials or their advisers.”
Meanwhile, Congress remains deadlocked on whether to impose new ethics standards.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
“This core group is a highly concentrated version of the Bush base, one that appears to be motivated more by general principles and a comfort level with the president than by specific issues or political trends,” The New York Times reported last weekend about residents in Provo, Utah, and other places in which President Bush’s poll numbers have remained high. “They tend to be impressed by Mr. Bush’s faith and convinced that he understands their lives and values.”
Such perspectives are part of human nature, particularly when faith is a component. If you like and admire someone, you tend to be quick to forgive. And if you don’t like the person, you can rush to find faults. Thus, President Clinton could do nothing right in the minds of many conservatives, and many liberals feel the same about President Bush.
I’ve often wondered if so many conservatives would be OK with the NSA wiretapping if President Clinton — or Hillary — had authorized it, or if they would still be so supportive of the war in Iraq if the Clinton administration had mismanaged it. Conversely, would liberals not really care if Bush had an affair with his intern, then lied about it under oath?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
There is a new reason to wonder whether a Kansas House panel’s inquiry will shed any light on the already acknowledged contact between a state Supreme Court justice and two state senators: The senators, Senate President Steve Morris (in photo), R-Hugoton, and Sen. Pete Brungardt, R-Salina, have rightly resisted testifying before the committee, on the constitutional principle that lawmakers are not required to answer for their “speech and debate.” Given that, it seems unlikely that they would be any more willing to give sworn depositions — one idea suggested by Rep. Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson, the panel’s chairman. Still, Republican Sens. Terry Bruce of Hutchinson, Jim Barnett of Emporia, Pat Apple of Louisburg and Susan Wagle of Wichita are all scheduled to testify Thursday. Shouldn’t these senators also be uneasy about submitting to the other chamber’s probe?
Meanwhile, The Hutchinson News noted that each of the 10 members on the House committee will get round-trip mileage reimbursements, a salary of $83 a day and expenses of $99 a day.
And the fact that this dubious inquiry has barely begun didn’t deter the conservative Kansas Judicial Watch from calling for the resignations or impeachment of all members of the Kansas Supreme Court; it cited Justice Lawton Nuss’ filing last week indicating that he and other justices received a copy of the legislative cost study and other information not part of the legal record for the school finance case.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
It was politically arduous to toughen the state’s child-safety seat law to include booster seats for older kids this year, so the new law may not be an easy sell with parents either when it kicks in July 1. But yet-another study has just backed up state lawmakers: Looking at data from 1998 to 2003 involving nearly 9,000 children, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia concluded that kids 2 to 6 were 28 percent less likely to die in car crashes if they were in the backseat buckled either in a car seat or a booster seat rather than in a seat belt.
It was already the law to buckle up these kids. Kansas has just updated what it considers the age-appropriate restraint to reflect such research: 4- through 7-year-olds need to ride in booster seats if they weigh 80 pounds or less or are shorter than 4-foot-9.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
