President Bush made it clear Monday that he’s not going to fire embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, despite a lack of support among even some top Republicans after Gonzales’ conflicting statements about the fired eight U.S. attorneys and his weak testimony last week before a Senate committee. "As the hearings went forward, it was clear the attorney general broke no law, there’s no wrongdoing," Bush said.
No laws broken? That’s not a very high ethical standard, is it, for the nation’s top law enforcement official?
It’s yet another indication of Bush’s cronyism and willingness to tolerate mediocrity and poor performance at the expense of his own party.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., declared "this war is lost" last week, he was standing a few feet from state Sen. Donald Betts (in photo), D-Wichita, sponsor of legislation in Kansas calling for a change in course in Iraq. At the event in Washington, D.C., Reid and fellow Democratic Sens. Ted Kennedy and Sherrod Brown meant to call attention to the 29 states in which legislatures have taken up measures opposing President Bush’s troop surge. (Betts’ resolution only got as far as a Kansas Senate hearing in February.) But Reid’s poor choice of words has gotten most of the attention. The Kansas Republican Party called on Betts to apologize, saying his standing next to Reid "shows an apparent lack of respect for the sacrifice of the military men and women." Oh, please.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Boris Yeltsin, who died Monday at age 76, was an erratic statesman. But as Russia’s first freely elected leader, Yeltsin presided over a time of hope and excitement in Russia sharply at odds with the rollbacks of democracy being undertaken by Yeltsin’s handpicked successor, Vladimir Putin. It’s hard to forget that inspiring image of Yeltsin in a tank in August 1991, rallying thousands against communist hard-liners trying to topple Soviet reformer Mikhail Gorbachev. Wichita has its own vivid memories of the ebullient Yeltsin from June 1992, when he visited a pork processing plant, a family farm and Wichita State University, and praised the state for its populist history, pioneer heritage, role in abolition and agricultural legacy.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
On the subject of plagiarism, Hunter Thompson once said something to the effect of "You’re not really in trouble until you start plagiarizing your own work." By that standard I am in deep doodoo. Did this past week’s caption contest cartoon look a tad familiar to anyone? Maybe that’s because I DREW THE SAME DAMN CARTOON ALMOST EXACTLY A YEAR AGO! As Charlie Brown used to say, "AAAIIIGH!" I could mumble some lame excuse about how when you draw 225 or so cartoons every year over the course of 30 years it’s bound to happen, or something like that, but the sad truth is, this happened practically within the same year! Alert reader and sometimes-contest-winner Roger Neugent of Haysville is the one who shook me out of my stupor. The first cartoon pictured here is this week’s winner, Brad Allen’s caption. Then take a gander at the March 19, 2006 contest cartoon, also pictured.Same drawing, almost exactly. Sheesh. Roger gamely suggested "That ole dawg, Rufffin, just keeps pullin’ for a jackpot!" as caption for the repeated drawing. Then he suggested my dog, Al, say "Deja vu," which I used this week. That kind of makes Roger a partial winner and I’ll send him a print of the toon. My apologies to you all for wasting your time with a warmed-over repeat. As I told my editor, Phil, this just proves I need a vacation.
Oh, well. On to the other captions which came close to winning this week. Teresa and Rick Claiborne almost won with "That’s not Toto and this can’t be Kansas." Arkansas City’s Don Bennett also had a good one with "Listen again — It’s not ‘ruf-ruf.’ I think he’s saying ‘Ruffin - Ruffin.’" We especially liked the inventiveness of Jeffrey King’s caption: "The mailman gives him $20 in quarters every Monday. Says it saved him three pairs of pants this week alone!" Mark Meredith of Harper tied it into recent headlines with "It must have something to do with his food." Wichita’s Bruce Cole submitted, "Isn’t that our preacher’s dog?" Karen Wallace, also of Wichita, went for clever wordplay with "All dogs go to seven?" From John Reisch of Wichita came "Looks like a ‘Rover takeover’ in the county!" Belle Plaine’s Richard Julius sent in "If that grin gets any bigger, Phil Ruffin’s teeth will fall out!"
That’s it for this week. I’ll try to be mindful of what I’ve drawn and not repeat myself so blatantly in the future. Thanks again for the nudge, Roger. Now, I’m taking off the rest of the day to contemplate the advice of Hunter Thompson.
Eugene Robinson points out in is Washington Post column several credibility issues regarding top officials in the Bush administration, in particular Karl Rove (in photo), the political genius who can’t seem to figure out how this e-mail thing works.
It seems the Republican National Committee was thoughtful enough to provide Rove and other White House staffers with laptop computers and special e-mail addresses to ensure that partisan political business would not be conducted using White House e-mail addresses and equipment. Now the White House has conceded that some official business may have been conducted using the RNC e-mail accounts, and these e-mails have somehow been lost.
Robinson also discussed other incidences of alleged corruption among high-ranking U.S. officials. But the issue of corruption is not reserved for the current administration or politicians; it seems to be spreading throughout American government on all levels, as well as through corporate America. Why do so many look the other way?
Posted by Patrice Hein
The Pew Research Center recently surveyed Americans regarding their knowledge about public affairs and found that even with the explosion of information technology over the past 20 years, the level of knowledge has not increased.
As a matter of fact, only 69 percent of those surveyed could recall the name of Dick Cheney, the current vice president, whereas in 1989, 74 percent came up with the name of Dan Quayle. The most informed age group was older than 65, while the most uninformed age group was 18-29.
What does this say about the Information Age? Whatever its government does, the next generation may be too involved in YouTube and MySpace to notice.
Posted by Patrice Hein
The Kansas State Board of Education deserves credit for its swift work toward finding a state education commissioner to replace Bob Corkins (in photo). But the board gets no credit for transparency: The names of the five finalists have not been released, and the board’s April 26 interviews will be behind closed doors. It’s good to know that all five have education experience, that two are from Kansas and that chairman Bill Wagnon is “very pleased with the quality of the candidates.” But especially after the fiasco that resulted in Corkins’ hiring, Kansans deserve to know more about the hunt for the state’s next education czar.
Posted by Rhonda Holman