If Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff’s border tour with anti-immigration lawmakers this week is a sign that President Bush is ready to give up on comprehensive reform, that will be unfortunate. Then again, some sort of House-Senate compromise is better than none, especially if it includes a way for the 11 million illegal immigrants already working here to do so legally. A proposed compromise authored by Chertoff’s hosts, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Tex., and Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., would do that — after border security is tightened. But it would also require those here illegally to report to “Ellis Island” centers in Mexico to apply for work permits. Would people really do that? Or would they just remain in the shadows of the American economy? One good move this week: Homeland Security announced it will stop the “catch and release” of non-Mexican illegal immigrants, few of whom showed up for their deportation hearings.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
It’s great to see a groundswell of support building for Old Cowtown Museum — and gratifying that many of the offers of help are coming from outside the city. Cowboy singer Michael Martin Murphey of “Wildfire” fame has offered to perform a special Christmas benefit concert for Cowtown — a terrific idea.
But why stop there? Having an entertainer of Murphey’s stature as a regular at Cowtown would be a big draw. Another booster, True West magazine, is telling its 192,000 readers to send donations to the museum, which it calls a “national treasure.”
Wichita is on the national map as a major Western history hub. In fact, Murphey rightly says that Cowtown “could be and should be the ‘Williamsburg of the American West.’”
Now it’s up to locals to start seeing Cowtown’s huge potential. As our editorial today notes, Wichita can’t let Cowtown ride into the sunset.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
FYI: If you look at the right rail, you’ll see that we are starting an archive based on blog topic. It will take us a while to build this up, but I hope it will be a useful tool for those who are interested in particular subjects.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Bill Clinton seemed to be taking more pleasure in Monday’s 10th anniversary of welfare reform than he did his 60th birthday Saturday (though the latter will be celebrated by the Rolling Stones in late October). Writing in the New York Times this week, Clinton noted that three members of his administration resigned in protest of the reform and said, “The last 10 years have shown that we did in fact end welfare as we knew it, creating a new beginning for millions of Americans.” The key, he argued, was the bill’s bipartisanship. Now, he said, “We should address the inadequacies of the latest welfare reauthorization in a bipartisan manner, by giving states the flexibility to consider higher education as a category of ‘work,’ and by doing more to help people get the education they need and the jobs they deserve.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Democrats will have about as much luck attracting evangelical voters as Republicans have had wooing African-Americans, Peter Brown argued in an op-ed piece in Tuesday’s Opinion pages. This despite the fact that evangelicals may be more in line with Democrats on the environment and some other issues.
His reason: “Voters — regardless of race, ethnicity or religion — make their political choices based on their overall comfort level with the views and values of a candidate. And evangelical Christians favor traditional social values, tend to be skeptical of government and fond of the military. That is why they vote Republican.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Now that Kansas Supreme Court Justice Lawton Nuss has been admonished by the Commission on Judicial Qualifications, it’s hard to argue with the call by state Rep. Jim Ward, D-Wichita, for the House panel investigating the Nuss matter to give it up. “Now we have all the facts. At this point, what else can you do? Why would we spend money to continue to beat this dead horse?” Ward asked in the Topeka Capital-Journal. The judicial ethics panel also was able to hear from the senators involved in Nuss’ inappropriate conversation about the school finance case, something the House panel hasn’t been able to do because of senators’ resistance on constitutional grounds. Ward also said that despite several weeks of campaigning in his district, “I’ve not heard one comment about this outside the dome.” Enough.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
GOP gubernatorial candidate Jim Barnett had called for Justice Nuss to resign over his ethics lapse. So when the Commission on Judicial Qualifications admonished Nuss, Barnett cited it as further evidence that the state needs a new way of picking justices and told the Capital-Journal: “I’m not surprised that judges have decided another judge hadn’t done anything wrong.”
For the record, though, the 14-member commission, chosen by the Supreme Court, includes four laypeople as well as six retired or active judges and four lawyers. Its current lay members are Bruce Buchanan of Hutchinson, Mary Davidson Cohen of Leawood, Christina Pannbacker of Washington and Carolyn A. Tillotson of Leavenworth.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
