Thirty-five years after Roe v. Wade, it’s rare to find a Republican willing to point out the apparent contradiction in Republicans opposing abortion rights yet favoring small government and privacy rights. “They turn away from those principles. I wonder if they can see the inconsistency in their position?†Senate Vice President John Vratil (in photo), R-Leawood, said this week. He also called abortion an “issue that government has no reason to get involved in.â€
Meanwhile, Eagle columnist Brent Castillo argues on today’s Opinion pages that science has made the case for the pro-life movement.
Monday’s rancorous Democratic debate and the campaigning since have made the prospect not just improbable but positively out of the question. But some commentators have been imagining the power of a Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton ticket. “He’s fired up, and she’s ready to go,†columnist Ellen Goodman put it. Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin has thought about it, too. “In this case, we wouldn’t just be combining a black and a woman, but the two narratives of the campaign: inspiration and experience, both of which are needed for change,†Goodwin said. “It would be a bold move but a great one.â€
President Bush reportedly was “pleased†that Congress failed Wednesday to override his veto of an expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. No doubt the estimated 4 million children the legislation could have helped aren’t as happy.
The bill, which Bush called “misguided,†has broad support in both chambers and has the bipartisan backing of state governors. And as Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., has noted, most of the criticisms of the bill are phony, including Bush’s current line that SCHIP pushes people out of the private insurance market.
Nonetheless, the House failed again to override Bush’s veto, this time by 15 votes. Reps. Nancy Boyda, D-Topeka, and Dennis Moore, D-Lenexa, voted to override. Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, voted not to override. Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Hays, didn’t vote.
Kansas may play a significant role in Barack Obama’s Feb. 5 primary strategy, according to an article in the Washington Post. Obama’s campaign believes that the six smaller state caucuses that day favor his grassroots organizing and ability to bring in independents and new voters. Minnesota, Colorado and Kansas are the “big three,†according to the piece.
The article reported that Obama’s team is actively seeking endorsements in those states and “may be close to securing the nod of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, sources close to the campaign said.†Sebelius’ spokeswoman Nicole Corcoran said Wednesday that there would be no endorsement of anyone until after Sebelius gives the Democratic response to President Bush’s State of the Union address on Monday — timing that was an “important requirement of the invitation,†Corcoran said.
The group trying to organize a presidential science and techology debate (see my column in support of the idea) got a big boost this week with an endorsement by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, one of the world’s most prestigious science organizations.
Here’s hoping more support will follow to make the debate a reality.
It’s been a while — thankfully — since Kansas had a debate about whether to designate this or that its official something or other. But some Tonganoxie schoolkids will lobby the House Agricultural and Natural Resources Committee today to name the bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) the official state fish. Let the defenders of walleye and crappie speak now or forever hold their peace.
Some will recall the ’90s debates over whether to designate the polka the official state ethnic dance and the square dance the official state folk dance (Richard took flak for a 1996 cartoon depicting same-sex square dancing). The Tonganoxie kids have a precedent to point to: In 1994, some OK Elementary School second-graders in Wichita won over legislators to making the barred tiger salamander the official state amphibian.
Thirty-five years after Roe v. Wade, it’s rare to find a Republican willing to point out the apparent contradiction in Republicans opposing abortion rights yet favoring small government and privacy rights. “They turn away from those principles. I wonder if they can see the inconsistency in their position?†Senate Vice President John Vratil (in photo), R-Leawood, said this week. He also called abortion an “issue that government has no reason to get involved in.â€
