Turns out that more White House aides used political e-mail accounts than originally reported. And that those accounts often were used to conduct official government business, which is prohibited. And that — surprise, surprise — thousands of those e-mails have been deleted and aren’t retrievable.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee determined that at least 88 White House officials had e-mail accounts with the Republican National Committee. The Bush administration had previously said that about 50 aides had such accounts, the Washington Post reported.
White House officials have said the accounts were meant to keep partisan political activities separate from official government matters. But Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said the e-mails were really about "engaging in an effort to avoid oversight and accountability by ignoring the laws meant to ensure a public record of official government business."
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
To his credit, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney was gracious in accepting Sen. Sam Brownback’s apology for an e-mail questioning Romney’s Mormon religion that was forwarded by one of Brownback’s campaign staffers in Iowa. "Now and then campaign workers make mistakes," Romney said. "It’s a good thing when people who are friends like he and I are can reach out and point out that was unintended."
Romney said Brownback told him that "religious attacks don’t have any place in politics." Brownback’s spokesman also said that Brownback was "personally hurt" by what happened and that the staffer had been reprimanded.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Sen. Lindsey Graham (in photo), R-S.C., continues to be hopeful that Congress can pass immigration reform and that the surge strategy can work in Iraq. But he was aptly harsh Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” about the job performance of Congress, and not just that of the Democrats. He noted the public approval rating of Congress is “20-something percent” and asked: “Who the hell are the 20-something percent? How could you like what you see in Washington? How could you be favorable to your government when every hard problem is demonized and never solved?”
The most recent Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll put public approval of Congress at 27 percent, down from 36 percent in January.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The Wichita City Council will try again today to break the embarrassing 3-3 logjam over the vacant District 1 seat. And the spotlight will be on Mayor Carl Brewer, who needs to step up and make a public case for who he thinks is the best choice. If that’s still Lavonta Williams, who received his vote last week, Brewer needs to explain why.
It’s time for Brewer to exert leadership and try to bring the council together. And though council members need to make up their own minds, they should give some weight and deference to Brewer’s opinion, given his standing as mayor and because he is the former representative of the district and knows it well.
Both sides should reject purely partisan motivations for choosing who will fill this nonpartisan seat.
This really should be about who would best serve the city and reflect and represent the concerns of residents of the district.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
It’s unfortunate that instead of working together to fight neighborhood blight, the city of Wichita and Sunflower Community Action often have acted like adversaries. Now two Sunflower members, J.J. Selmon and Louis Goseland, have been found guilty of trespassing while protesting at the home of City Manager George Kolb. They were sentenced Friday to 30 days in jail but will be allowed to serve their punishment by being on probation. Instead of putting so much effort and resources into antagonizing and prosecuting each other, the two sides should commit to a constructive partnership that benefits them both.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger thinks Hispanic immigrants should stop watching Spanish-speaking media to learn English. “You’ve got to turn off the Spanish television set,” he said last week at the annual convention of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. “You’re just forced to speak English, and that just makes you learn the language faster.” Schwarzenegger is correct that immersion can speed up learning a language. But the bigger barrier likely is the three-year waiting period to get into many English language classes.
Posted by Andie Clum
