The Washington Post’s series on Vice President Dick Cheney tells us a lot we already suspected about the most powerful and secretive vice president in history.
He likes things his way.
But it’s galling nonetheless to read how Cheney rams through his views and undermines an open, give-and-take process of White House decision making.
Here’s Cheney in 1999, talking to a group of historians: "The process of moving paper in and out of the Oval Office, who gets involved in the meetings, who does the president listen to, who gets a chance to talk to him before he makes a decision, is absolutely critical. It has to be managed in such a way that it has integrity."
In practice, Cheney’s process on advising the president on crucial decisions such as redefining torture was to cut out of the loop Cabinet members and officials who might offer opposing views, whether former Secretary of State Colin Powell or former Attorney General John Ashcroft.
They were furious and dumbfounded to discover Cheney had sandbagged them.
Cheney never walked his talk on integrity. What’s really dangerous about him, though, is that he simply doesn’t care what anyone else thinks.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
As critics feared, the U.S. military’s "surge" — now at full force — involves far too few troops to make a real difference. We still don’t have enough troops to do the job — that is, not only to clear insurgent areas in Baghdad and elsewhere but also hold them.
Two U.S. generals confirmed that analysis this past weekend, saying Iraqi forces were too weak to hold onto gains secured by U.S. operations. "There’s got to be more Iraqi security forces," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said.
After several years of training, where are they?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The U.S. Supreme Court made it clear to the nation’s public schoolchildren Monday that their limited First Amendment protections don’t apply to self-expression that appears to be pro-drug. The justices ruled 5-4 against the Alaska kid suspended from high school in 2002 for unfurling a 14-foot-long banner reading “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” at a school-sanctioned event. We shouldn’t read too much into the decision, just as the principal probably shouldn’t have read so much into a sign the kid claimed he meant as a joke. (Then again, that kid, now 23, pleaded guilty to a drug charge in Texas in 2003.) But it’s hard not to wonder if this outcome would have been different if the justices’ average age was younger than 67.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
“It is morning in Greensburg, population uncertain.” That’s how a sobering article in Sunday’s New York Times began, updating national readers on the town’s progress since the May 4 tornado. The article pondered how much of the storm’s damage will turn out to be permanent because Greensburg, like so many rural towns in Kansas, had experienced many years of decline before the tornado struck. Fifty-eight-year-old Jon Clark acknowledged that many residents won’t come back and said: “It’s a real thorny issue. Was this storm a mercy killing?”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Kansas has 34 school districts with enrollments of fewer than 200 students — 34 reasons state lawmakers and policymakers should not shy away from the issue of school consolidation. But even voluntary mergers can be difficult. After hearing the pros and cons of a proposed merger by the Eastern Heights and West Smith County school districts in north-central Kansas earlier this month, the State Board of Education tabled the districts’ request that local voters go to the polls on a consolidation, effectively canceling an election planned for today.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
When Lavonta Williams takes her oath this morning and joins the Wichita City Council, representing District 1, the council membership will be complete for the first time since former District 5 council member Bob Martz died in January. It will be good to see the community fully represented again. But council members should not forget the pain involved in picking a successor for Mayor Carl Brewer as District 1 member, with its maddening 20 tie votes one week and magical unanimity the next. Council members should adopt a strategy for the future to deal with tie votes. And, as council member Jim Skelton has stressed, there remains a need to review and update council policies more broadly, before the next procedural crisis strikes.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
