A long profile of Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., in The Washington Post, seemingly timed to coincide with his starring role in this week’s gay marriage vote, explored his cancer, humility (he calls himself a “flawed man”), embrace of Catholicism and presidential hopes: “I could be the right person with the right message at the right moment. And I could be completely wrong and I’ll still be happy about it.”
Some other revealing quotes:
- ‚”When we walk up to the McDonald’s counter, what if we looked at that person in the eye . . . and we said, ‘God bless you for that Big Mac?!’”
- ‚”What the world needs now is love, sweet love.”
- ‚”Instead of getting angry at somebody for opposing you on something, you’re just praying for them. You just pray blessings on them, blessings on their family.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Speaking of Sam Brownback, The Kansas City Star noted that he doesn’t even register as a presidential prospect among Las Vegas online oddsmaker SportingbetUSA.com, which has Rudy Giuliani at 10-1, Arizona Sen. John McCain at 6-1, Virginia Sen. George Allen at 7-1, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton at 3-1 and even constitutionally barred Bill Clinton at 300-1. “He’s a billion to one,” said Danny Sheridan, the USA Today oddsmaker, who also doesn’t list Brownback. “I wouldn’t spend any time looking at him.” Brownback’s office blamed his introduction of a bill to ban gambling on college sports.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., went public about his frustration with the Bush administration, releasing a letter he wrote to Vice President Dick Cheney. Much of the complaint was that Cheney went behind the back of the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman and secretly lobbied the other GOP committee members to block a hearing on the domestic spying program, and that the administration told phone company executives not to testify at any hearings. I’m not so concerned about the lack of protocol as I am with the administration’s efforts to escape any significant legislative or judicial oversight. Here is some of what Specter wrote:
“There is no doubt that the NSA program violates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act which sets forth the exclusive procedure for domestic wiretaps which requires the approval of the FISA Court. It may be that the President has inherent authority under Article II to trump that statute but the President does not have a blank check and the determination on whether the President has such Article II power calls for a balancing test which requires knowing what the surveillance program constitutes.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi won’t end the violence in Iraq, but it is sure good news. The leader of terrorists in Iraq has been responsible for hundreds of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings, and he has shown again and again that he doesn’t care whom he kills — innocent women and children, Americans, Arabs, Sunnis or Shiites. But, as President Bush said this morning, “now Zarqawi has met his end, and this violent man will never murder again."
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Iraq is such a mess that sometimes we forget or dismiss how bad it was when Saddam Hussein ruled. The New York Times reported last week about a mass grave that contained the bodies of at least 28 men who had been executed in 1991. An Iraqi chief investigative judge told the Times that the court had documentary evidence, and statements from witnesses, showing that at least 100,000 Shiites, and possibly 180,000, died in the 1991 repression. However, the killings are “not only a macabre marker in the history of Iraq under Mr. Hussein, but a harrowing footnote in American politics,” the article noted, as most of the deaths occurred after an uprising that, critics and survivors charge, President George H. W. Bush encouraged but then didn’t support.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
“The American economy is the strongest in the world and growing faster than that of any other major industrialized country,” Peter Wehner, director of the White House’s Office of Strategic Initiatives, wrote in The Washington Post. And he cited a number of strong indicators: The economy grew at an annual rate of 5.3 percent in the first quarter; employment is near an all-time high; the 4.6 percent unemployment rate is well below the average for each of the past four decades; real disposable personal income has risen almost 13 percent since President Bush took office; tax revenues total household net worth are at all-time highs.
But columnist Tom Teepen countered on Wednesday’s Opinion pages that one reason the public still lacks confidence in the economy is that the gains have mostly benefited the rich. He argued that family incomes for midrange earners fell for the fifth year in a row and that, while high gasoline prices don’t make the well-off sweat, “they turn up the heat on most folks.” He also noted that the number of Americans without health insurance is 45 million and counting, that many pensions are wobbly, and that college costs are leaving many families behind.
“And the unemployment rate, in practice, is not quite as smiley face as the White House makes it out to be,” Teepen wrote. “It is bolstered in part by former job seekers who have given up and dropped out of the work force.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The resignation of Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, doesn’t take effect until Friday, but he’s already complaining about those he will leave behind: USA Today quoted him as criticizing his Republican colleagues for “panic, depression and woe-is-me-ism,” and predicting they will lose control in November “if they continue the attitude they have right now.” But regarding the Democrats who’ve tarred the GOP as corrupt, he said: His departure “makes it very difficult for them to continue that strategy.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Wichita Festivals Inc. released its three band finalists for the Wichita Flight Festival in August, and any of them would work fine: Blues Traveler (the front-runner, according to Janet Wright), Kool and the Gang (‚”Ce-le-braaa-tion, come on!”) and the Commodores (er, not featuring Lionel Richie).
Wright said officials were looking for a “party band” rather than a sit-down for the Friday night event, which will cost $30.
The full list of 80 band options published in The Eagle raises some questions.
Eddie Money is really “not available” on that date? That’s hard to believe. Seems like he would be needing a gig. Same for Christopher Cross.
It was annoying, too, that Mr. Heartland, John Mellencamp, said he was “not interested” in the gig. What’s with that?
Whatever, it’s good that festival officials aren’t repeating with something like last year’s cover band of ABBA tunes. Wright admitted that didn’t go over too well.
I’m still holding out for Wayne Newton. Rock the house.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
How odd that President Bush found himself visiting Roswell, N.M., on 06/06/06. What’s more, the issue of the day was aliens — though the illegal immigrant kind.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
