Embattled Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, is expected to resign soon, according to reports today, but it’s unlikely to be a pickup seat for Democrats anytime soon, note political observers. Idaho is a solid red state, and President Bush won handily in 2004 with 69 percent of the vote. Both senators and both representatives are Republican, as is the governor, who would certainly appoint a Republican to replace Craig.
It’s nationally where Craig hurts the GOP, with yet another over-the-top scandal. That’s why party leaders are eager for him to step down.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Tony Snow had said he would leave his job as White House press secretary before the end of President’s Bush term. He announced a date today: Sept. 14. Snow, who has been undergoing chemotherapy for a recurrence of colon cancer, has said he was leaving because he needed to make more money (he is paid $168,000 a year as press secretary).
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
A key point in Iraq’s downward slide was what was initially hailed as a crowning achievement: its 2005 elections. David Ignatius wrote a column in the Washington Post reporting that the CIA warned in the summer and fall of 2004 that Iran was spending big money to help elect candidates friendly to Iran. In response, the CIA proposed secretly funding moderate Shiite candidates and reaching out to Sunni tribal leaders. The plan was initiated but was then stopped after Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Condoleezza Rice, then national security adviser, objected. Pelosi and Rice argued that the United States couldn’t celebrate Iraqi democracy while secretly trying to manipulate it. “Ethically, that was certainly a principled view,” Ignatius wrote. “But on the ground in Iraq, the start-stop maneuver had the effect of pulling the rug out from under moderate, secular Iraqis who might have contained extremist forces.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius told The Eagle editorial board Thursday that she opposes turning Kansas into a carbon-emitting generator of other states’ power, our editorial today reports. “I think it’s not acceptable or appropriate that we would build these merchant plants to sell energy to other folks and impose those health risks on Kansans,” she said.
Is that a signal that the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s approval of a new coal-fired plant near Holcomb isn’t a slam-dunk after all? Or was Sebelius just deftly injecting some distance between her personal view and KDHE’s decision, whatever it may be?
Also check out on our Opinion page a video clip of Sebelius joking about the “Coal-lovin’ Governor” music video. “I’ve now seen you dance on two videos, and let me just say that ‘Dancing With the Stars’ is not in your future anytime soon,” she told me. No disagreement here. Sebelius also was glad to hear that we decided against having Bucky Walters impersonate her in the video. “Having seen him as the Brownback Girl and now as Loretta Lynn,” she said, “I very much appreciate him not being me.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The U.S. military has developed an energy-beam ray gun designed to help disperse unruly crowds. Effective up to 500 yards, the invisible ray makes people feel like their skin is on fire, but reportedly causes no lasting harm.
Is this a step toward a more humane and nonlethal crowd control in places like Iraq and Afghanistan? Or are its effects akin to torture?
If it saves American and civilian lives, many will be ready to deploy the new weapon. But could it be misused or have unintended consequences?
What do you think, bloggers?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The following satirical headlines come from borowitzreport.com:
NBC LAUNCHES ‘TO CATCH A SENATOR’; Chris Hansen to Stake Out Airport Bathrooms
GONZALES TO SPEND MORE TIME EAVESDROPPING ON HIS FAMILY; ‘Domestic Surveillance Begins at Home,’ Former AG Says
ROVE’S LEGACY TAINTED BY STEROIDS; ‘Bush’s Brain’ Was Juicing, Experts Say
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
A draft of the Government Accountability Office’s report on Iraq shows near complete failure in meeting the progress benchmarks set by Congress, the Washington Post reported. The GAO determined that Iraq failed to meet all but three of the 18 benchmarks. It also disagreed with the White House on how much military progress the surge has made. While there have been fewer attacks against U.S. forces, "the average number of daily attacks against civilians remained about the same over the last six months," the report stated. The GAO also said that the drop in military readiness by Iraqi security forces was more severe than the White House has indicated, stating that the number of Iraqi army units capable of operating independently declined from 10 in March to six last month, the Post reported.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
It was strange enough that the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce chose former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to be the star speaker at its Dec. 4 annual community meeting, given the bad management example he set in prosecuting the Iraq war. It is stranger still that the chamber has now canceled Rumsfeld’s appearance without explanation. You’d think an organization with 2,100-plus members and a high community profile would be more transparent, but for whatever reason, the change of heart is for the best. Let’s hope this lapse in judgment doesn’t end up costing the chamber a lot of cash, and that it will seek future speakers who are true leadership icons. (Alberto Gonzales need not apply.)
Posted by Rhonda Holman
No hemming and hawing from GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney about the arrest and guilty plea of his now-former Idaho campaign chairman, Sen. Larry Craig: “Frankly, it’s disgusting,” Romney said on CNBC’s “Kudlow & Company” of the restroom incident that Craig insists was just a misunderstanding. “I think it reminds us of Mark Foley and Bill Clinton,” Romney added. He also said Craig had “disappointed the American people.”
Fellow candidate John McCain didn’t mince words either, telling Jay Leno: “It’s disgraceful.”
Mike Huckabee drew attention with this reaction on CBN News: “Frankly, Americans will forgive us for being sinners. They won’t forgive us for being hypocrites.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
All the news about the scandal involving Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, made the return this week of Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., all the more uplifting (Bob Woodruff did a nice report on ABC’s “Nightline”). Johnson suffered a brain hemorrhage eight months ago that left him unable to walk and barely able to speak. After months of rehabilitation, Johnson made his first public appearance Tuesday before supporters in Sioux Falls. He plans to be back at work in Washington, D.C., next week.
Though Johnson’s speech is still slow, his mind and sense of humor remain sharp. “I have an unfair edge over most of my colleagues right now,” he joked Tuesday. “My mind works faster than my mouth does.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Watch our latest satirical video about how the proposed coal power plant near Holcomb undermines Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ talk about “makin’ Kansas greener.” It was produced by The Eagle’s Opinion staff and stars Bucky Walters doing a scary impersonation of country singer Loretta Lynn.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Someone in Opinion Line, which is always on the cutting edge of public policy debates, wondered Wednesday when Sedgwick County is going to crack down on “sagging pants.” The city councils in Shreveport and Alexandria joined at least four other Louisiana towns Tuesday in voting to make the wearers of droopy drawers subject to fines and community service. Atlanta and other communities have considered such measures, which some argue are unconstitutional and racist.
In Sedgwick County or anywhere, though, it should be difficult to justify turning police into fashion police. As one man told the Shreveport leaders: “Are you going to have a ‘sagging’ court? The police have more important things to do than chase young boys and girls and say ‘pull your pants up.’”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
President Bush plans to ask Congress for an additional $50 billion in funding to help pay for the surge in Iraq, the Washington Post reported. This is on top of the $147 billion in supplemental funding already requested for Iraq and Afghanistan. The cost of the war in Iraq now calculates to more than $3 billion a week.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
After Reps. Mark Foley and Rick Renzi, lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Sens. David Vitter and Ted Stevens, Republicans didn’t think the scandals could get any worse. Wrong.
"The real question for Republicans in Washington is how low can you go, because we are approaching a level of ridiculousness," GOP strategist Scott Reed lamented to the New York Times about the scandal involving Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho. "You can’t make this stuff up. And the impact this is having on the grass-roots around the country is devastating. Republicans think the governing class in Washington are a bunch of buffoons who have total disregard for the principles of the party, the law of the land and the future of the country."
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Republicans still don’t have an obvious nominee for 2008, but they already have an obvious cause — to prevent four more Clinton years. That’s surely why Karl Rove took pains to attack Hillary Clinton on his way out the White House door this month. “As Hillary Clinton becomes the nominee,” GOP pollster B.J. Martino said at a weekend Midwest Republican Leadership Conference in Indiana, “Republican intensity will simultaneously spike.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Include Libertarians among those who are glad that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned. Shane Cory, executive director of the Libertarian Party, said in a statement that the resignation “is a welcomed conclusion to what will be seen as a dark time for justice in America.” He added: “I feel that the civil liberties of all Americans are at least a little bit safer now that Gonzales has resigned.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
When asked at a beauty pageant why one-fifth of Americans couldn’t locate the United States on a map, Miss Teen South Carolina, Lauren Caitlin Upton, delivered a rambling response that seemed to be evidence of the problem, speculating that many “U.S. Americans” lack maps and then for some reason mentioning South Africa and Iraq.
A YouTube video has turned the 18-year-old into a figure of fun. But Upton got a second crack at the question Tuesday:
“Well, personally, my friends and I, we know exactly where the United States is on our map. I don’t know anyone else who doesn’t. And if the statistics are correct, I believe there should be more emphasis on geography.”
That’s close enough for beauty pageant work. Go to the head of the class.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Kansas Attorney General Paul Morrison recently burnished his tough-guy image by taking on a Doberman. That’s right — a Topeka woman said her Labrador retriever was being viciously attacked by a Doberman pinscher when a truck pulled over and Morrison stepped out. He managed to separate the dogs.
The owner was grateful. “I mean, what other attorney generals in their states just stop in some neighborhood when they see something going on?” she asked.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, has a lot of explaining to do about his June arrest and guilty plea on charges of soliciting sex in an airport men’s restroom. Suspicions that Craig is gay have been following him for years, the Idaho Statesman reports today.
In May, the paper asked him in an interview if he was homosexual (he denied it) after a man claimed he had sex with Craig in a Washington, D.C., restroom, probably in 2004.
By the way, that’s the year Craig voted for the failed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. The social conservative also has opposed allowing gays in the military and extending civil rights protections to gays in the workplace.
He’s up for re-election in 2008, and unless Craig has some really good explanations for his restroom foot-tapping — restless leg syndrome? — his seat could be wide open next year.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
A compelling and informative Newsweek cover story tries to answer the question: Why can’t we catch Osama bin Laden?
Manhunts are never easy, the piece reminds us. But the search for the terrorist leader has been hampered by turf battles, risk aversion and the diversion of military resources and troops to Iraq.
The trail has gone cold. U.S. forces are relying on guesswork in finding bin Laden, with little actionable intelligence.
And al-Qaida is said to be close to launching another major attack: "It’s bad; it’s going to come," said a State Department counterterrorism expert.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
