Some rare and welcome good news from Iraq: U.S. military leaders say they’ve made major gains against al-Qaida in Iraq in recent months, crippling the terrorist group’s ability to function. The White House is rightly wary of declaring “mission accomplished,” considering its past experience. Still, Bush administration officials often point to al-Qaida in Iraq as America’s deadliest enemy there and as justification for continuing the war. If that reason no longer applies, it could give new ammunition to those arguing for a major troop withdrawal.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
However Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid turns out, she’s already rewritten one rule of presidential politics — that women can’t raise enough money to be competitive. The latest fundraising reports show her with $35 million banked for the primaries, compared with Barack Obama’s $32 million, John Edwards’ $12.4 million, Rudy Giuliani’s $11.6 million and Mitt Romney’s $9.2 million. Most surprising of all of the dizzyingly high numbers
are the $52.8 million, $43.8 million, $38.6 million and $30.1 million that Romney, Obama, Clinton and Giuliani, respectively, already have spent this year, with three months to go before anybody votes.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Sam Brownback’s coffers are quite a contrast to those in the front of the presidential pack, with only $817,000 contributed in the third quarter and only $94,000 on hand. On how he can improve on his 2 percent in the polls in Iowa, Brownback told the Boston Globe editorial board: “We’re trying some different plays.” He’d better be quick about it.
Brownback’s work toward a bipartisan congressional resolution apologizing for slavery and segregation is another example of how admirably consistent he is about human rights across the spectrum — or “pro-life, whole life,” as he puts it. But it’s difficult to see how much the issue will do for him in the Republican primaries, especially in Iowa, where African-Americans make up 2.3 percent of the population.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Appeals to fairness and common sense have failed to convince the major political parties of the need to junk the wrecked presidential primary system, which is why Florida and Michigan have turned rebellious. Maybe the NBA has the answer, writes Charles Euchner in the Boston Globe. “Using an NBA-style lottery to rotate states would not only provide a balanced sequence of states by population, but also regional location, economic diversity, ethnic diversity, urban/suburban/rural balance, and so on.”
In today’s Opinion pages, columnist Davis Merritt argues that the “Democrats’ unseemly and unending jockeying for early presidential primary dates” could cost them in next year’s elections.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Someone suggests in today’s Opinion Line that President Bush’s SCHIP veto was an early Christmas present for Democrats. If so, another is Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, who is continuing his legal fight over his guilty plea in a sex-sting arrest and who says in an hour-long NBC interview to air tonight that Mitt Romney, who had chosen Craig as his congressional fundraising co-chairman, “not only threw me under his campaign bus, he backed up and ran over me again.”
Clearly, though, Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize was an early Christmas present for Republicans (the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol said on “Fox News Sunday” that “it’s a prize given by bloviators to a bloviator for nothing”).
Any other early gift giving to add to the list, bloggers?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The largest city in the state not only needs but can support a top-quality ice-skating rink. That was the thinking behind City Hall’s leadership on building the Wichita Ice Center more than a decade ago. Now, it is being confirmed by Rink Management Services, which took over operation of the city-owned rink last fall and has guided it back to impressive financial health — $26,000 in the black and $82,000 ahead of budget as of August. City officials deserve credit for acting decisively to rescue the ailing rink from its former management. Clearly, general manager Brenda Glidewell and others at the facility have the right idea on marketing and operations. The next step is reopening the restaurant, which should further serve the rink’s back-in-black bottom line.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Wichitans baffled as to how controversy and plumbing could go together might want to tune in to today’s City Council meeting (9 a.m. on Cox Cable Channel 7), which will feature speakers on either side of a proposal to adopt a new plumbing code. The Sedgwick County district attorney’s office has confirmed it is investigating whether a related Aug. 22 city plumbing board meeting violated state law. As the issue advances, here’s hoping that council members put the highest value on which code best serves consumers.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Former Clinton administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich defends Barack Obama against Bill Clinton’s charge that he lacks experience: “When he ran in 1992, Bill Clinton had been the governor of a small, rural southern state; as such, he had only limited experience with national issues and no foreign policy experience to speak of. Incidentally, at this point in the 2008 presidential election, Hillary Clinton has served as an elected official in the U.S. Senate for not quite eight years, and before that a first lady in the White House. Obama has so far held elective office for almost 12 years, at both levels of government — first as an Illinois state senator and then as a U.S. senator. Before that he was a community organizer among Chicago’s poor, and then a civil rights lawyer — two experiences that in my view are critically relevant to anyone seeking to become president of all Americans.”
Posted by Randy Scholfield