Attorney General Paul Morrison announced today that he will file 19 misdemeanor charges against Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller. But they aren’t the charges that former Attorney General Phill Kline had tried to file, Associated Press reported. Morrison said that Tiller had a "technical violation" of state law by not relying on a financially and legally independent doctor in getting a second opinion on some late-term abortions. Morrison said he uncovered these violations during his office’s investigation of the case, and he said that the charges Kline had sought were "incorrect and based on a political agenda."
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
If the U.S. Supreme Court’s rulingtoday on school busing doesn’t compel the Wichita school district change its policy, it should at least motivate the district to end forced busing. The high court ruled that the Louisville and Seattle school districts were improperly using race to determine where a student could go to school. Wichita’s busing policy, which applies only to African-American and white students, is outdated and unfair and also deserves to end.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Rudy Giuliani Wednesday blamed former President Bill Clinton for failing to respond forcefully enough to terrorism after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
What a difference a presidential campaign makes.
Just last September, the former New York City mayor defended Clinton’s record amid debate over whether Clinton or Bush did enough to stop the Sept. 11 attacks.
“The idea of trying to cast blame on President Clinton is just wrong for many, many reasons, not the least of which is I don’t think he deserves it,” Giuliani said at the time.
The mayor no doubt would like to shift attention to someone else, considering recent scrutiny of his own spotty anti-terror record. He faces charges that he failed to equip New York firefighters at ground zero with adequate respirators despite repeated EPA directives to do so; and he reportedly dropped out of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group to focus on paid speaking engagements.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Sam Brownback, whose past support for comprehensive immigration reform does not go over well among many potential GOP presidential voters, was seen as a surprise “yes” vote Tuesday on the Senate procedural vote on immigration. His campaign office’s clarification, in part: Brownback “voted to bring the bill back to the floor for debate and for amendments to be offered. This does NOT mean that Senator Brownback supports the immigration bill itself — he feels the bill needs to be improved.”
That certainly sounds like the makings of a “no” on today’s test vote.
Meanwhile, on the issue of the senator’s 81 missed votes this year, a Brownback spokesman told Associated Press: “He would try his best to come back for any vote where he was absolutely needed for the outcome.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
In a Washington Post commentary, Sally Quinn paints a scenario in which Republicans take advantage of Vice President Dick Cheney’s problems by pushing him to retire now and installing an heir for 2008. She suggests Fred Thompson and writes, “Cheney is scheduled this summer for surgery to replace his pacemaker, which needs new batteries. So if the president is willing, and Republicans are able, they have a convenient reason to replace him: doctor’s orders.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
