Here’s the take of former Reagan and Bush I speechwriter Peggy Noonan on the GOP woes: “Rush Limbaugh declared on the radio this week, ‘I’m here to tell you, if either of these two guys (John McCain or Mike Huckabee) get the nomination, it’s going to destroy the Republican Party. It’s going to change it forever, be the end of it!’
“This is absurd,†she wrote. “George W. Bush destroyed the Republican Party, by which I mean he sundered it, broke its constituent pieces apart and set them against each other. He did this on spending, the size of government, war, the ability to prosecute war, immigration and other issues.
“Were there other causes? Yes, of course. But there was an immediate and essential cause.â€
As a Douglas County District Court judge since 2005, Stephen Six has earned $118,000 a year. As the state’s attorney general, Six will earn $96,000. The man Six is replacing, Paul Morrison, took a $50,000 pay cut to be promoted from a county district attorney to attorney general. Because both men are Democrats, many in the GOP-led Legislature may be unmoved by the suggestion that the attorney general’s salary is too low. But properly compensating the state’s top cop should have nothing to do with party affiliation. Besides, Six is only the seventh Democrat to hold the post; Kansas’ 147-year history is on the GOP’s side.
Proving the value of the show’s side deal with its writers, Barack Obama deadpanned a Top 10 list of campaign promises on Thursday’s “Late Show With David Letterman.†The highlights — that he’d pronounce “nuclear†correctly, rename the 10th month “Barack-tober,†“appoint Mitt Romney secretary of lookin’ good†and “put Regis on the nickel.†And “if you bring a gator to the White House, I’ll wrassle it,†he said. No. 1 would be a winner, if Obama would go through with it: “Three words: Vice President Oprah.â€
City Hall has been acquiring a reputation for tightfisted secrecy with public records, most recently confirmed by its refusal to release a videotape of the Jan. 7 incident in which a man drove his car through City Hall, causing an estimated $200,000 damage.
City Attorney Gary Rebenstorf claims the tape is evidence that, if made public now, could compromise a trial.
That’s a stretch, considering the tape already has been circulated among two City Council members and employees of several city departments. Doug Anstaett, executive director of the Kansas Press Association, called the city’s withholding of the tape “preposterous†and noted, “If several city officials have seen this tape and reportedly gotten quite a kick out of it, it apparently isn’t as confidential as law enforcement would lead us to believe.â€
City Council member Jim Skelton also voiced skepticism, saying, “If it’s evidence, either nobody sees it or everybody sees it.â€
Release the tape.
Here’s the take of former Reagan and Bush I speechwriter Peggy Noonan on the GOP woes: “Rush Limbaugh declared on the radio this week, ‘I’m here to tell you, if either of these two guys (John McCain or Mike Huckabee) get the nomination, it’s going to destroy the Republican Party. It’s going to change it forever, be the end of it!’
