A Rasmussen poll confirms the conventional wisdom that state Sen. Jim Barnett, R-Emporia, is the front runner among GOP challengers to Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Still, it suggests she would beat Barnett with 49 percent of the vote to his 36 percent. If former House Speaker Robin Jennison of Healy emerges the winner of the Aug. 1 primary, the poll said, he’d only get 31 percent of the vote against Sebelius.
And with the GOP contenders numbering seven as of last week’s filing deadline, The Kansas City Star’s Buzz Blog passed along this inevitable label for the race, credited to an unnamed “wag”: “Snow White vs. the Seven Dwarfs.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Credit goes to Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Hays, for his ongoing efforts to make it easier to sell U.S. agricultural products to Cuba, leading to a House vote last week to override a Bush administration move complicating such sales. There are ways of making Cuban dictator Fidel Castro continue to sweat without hurting U.S. farmers. As Moran told his colleagues, “At least in the agricultural world, there is an understanding that unilateral sanctions don’t work.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
So many debates have been raging lately in Congress and at dinner tables about what constitutes a family that the term “family values” has almost become divisive. But today we must come together to celebrate fathers’ love for their children. Surely we can agree that it is a gift too grand to be repaid in full. Americans should set aside their differences and spend the rest of the year working to see that more children experience that love.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
In part because of the unflagging advocacy of Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., the U.S. Senate last week designated $60 million in the $94.5 billion emergency spending bill to fund a United Nations peacekeeping force in the Darfur region of Sudan. Another plus: Money to pay for it will come from cuts to the excessive U.S. embassy building project in Baghdad. There are plenty of uncertainties ahead as to how the U.N. force will proceed, and whether it can stop the slaughter. But as Brownback said, “The situation is simple: If we don’t act, people will die.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Credit recruitment for the increased number of Democrats running for the Kansas House this year, about 10 more than each of the past three election cycles. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius even made some pleas. But House Minority Leader Dennis McKinney, D-Greensburg, (in photo) told Harris News Service about something else that may be going on: “A farmer in Kingman County told me one time our country has a little trouble staying in between ditches. We don’t want too much government, too much taxes but there are things that need to be done for the long-term good of our communities. That’s probably what’s spurred this.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
A bouquet of sunflowers to Paul Harris, columnist for British newspaper The Observer, for most of his "Ode to Kansas" last week. “I love Kansas,” he wrote. “It is one of my favourite spots in all of America.” As he hit the usual plot points about evolution, abortion, “Wizard of Oz,” gunfighters and Bleeding Kansas, he also observed that “Kansas is not flat” and that politically, “Kansas is constantly reinventing itself. It is a place of great and rapid change. It always has been.” And though it’s no fun to see our state characterized as “a blank canvas,” Harris at least didn’t stop there: “It is waiting to be drawn upon. It is the promise, despite everything, of opportunity. That is Kansas.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Texas Monthly columnist Paul Burka thought of 10 things the Lone Star State’s own President Bush could do to save his presidency, including:
“Fire Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rove” and “Replace them with Condi, Colin and Karen.”
‚”Invite President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, of Iran, and head of state Kim Jong Il, of North Korea, to a quail hunt with you-know-who on the Armstrong Ranch.”
“Invade Dubai — we can win that one.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
