And so, at long last, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has decided to quit.
You have to wonder about the timing. Might it have helped the GOP had Rumsfeld bowed to the rising chorus of criticism and departed sometime before the election — say, a year or two ago?
We’ll never know. The question now is what this portends for the American strategy — or lack thereof — concerning Iraq. For Bush, maybe jettisoning the weighty baggage of Rumsfeld signals an acceptance that staying the course is not an option with the newly Democratic Congress.
Maybe it’s also a first reach across the aisle in an effort to salvage some sort of legacy in the two lame-duck years that remain in his presidency.
In any case, Rumsfeld’s departure is long overdue. And the man who will replace him, former CIA chief and Wichita native Robert Gates, has his work cut out.
Posted by Dave Knadler
It turns out that the revolution on the Kansas State Board of Education really did happen in August. Two incumbent conservatives, Ken Willard (in photo) of Hutchinson and John Bacon of Olathe, won re-election Tuesday. That denied moderates a chance at anything larger than the six-vote majority they secured in the GOP primary by ousting incumbent Connie Morris of St. Francis and favoring moderate Republican Jan Shaver of Independence for an open seat.
A board with six moderates (four Republicans and two Democrats) and the two remaining conservatives can be expected to revisit the 2005 decisions to adopt science standards that are at odds with mainstream science and to hire an education commissioner who lacked education or management experience. Such actions should bring more common sense to the board table. Still, it’s a shame that Jack Wempe of Lyons couldn’t unseat Willard. Wempe’s experience — as teacher, principal, superintendent, state legislator and chairman of the Kansas Board of Regents — would have served Kansans well on the troublesome state board, whatever its ideological makeup.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Nobody gave Nancy Boyda much of a second chance of beating Rep. Jim Ryun, R-Topeka, who dispatched her two years ago. But the Democrat ran a hard, aggressive campaign that tapped into the voters’ mood for change and even got President Bush’s attention. It also didn’t help that Ryun, for all his past prowess on the track, had a lackluster record to show for his five terms in Congress.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
