The New York Times didn’t back up its article questioning whether John McCain had an improper relationship — physical or professional — with a lobbyist eight years ago. McCain and the woman deny that they had an affair or that McCain gave special treatment to companies that the women represented. The Times’ only evidence of a possible affair was some former staffers who said that they were concerned about the amount of time McCain was spending with the woman and that they intervened to protect McCain from himself. McCain says that his staff never talked to him about this and that he and the women were just friends.
The article was in the context of how McCain has built his political image on being a warrior against special interests, yet his dealings haven’t always seemed to match his crusading rhetoric — the same argument that President Bush made when he campaigned against McCain in 2000.
The legislative debate on the Holcomb power-plant bill has sparked a rash of dim-bulbed comments from pro-coal Kansas lawmakers on carbon dioxide, which scientists overwhelmingly agree is a key greenhouse gas driving climate change.
Sen. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler: “CO2 is not a harmful substance. It’s an average, ordinary part of our human life anywhere on this Earth. It’s in this room. I’m a farmer, and we love CO2. It’s a good thing.â€
Rep. Forrest Knox, R-Altoona: (sarcastically) “No, we don’t want to regulate that icky stuff that comes out of your soft drink.â€
Rep. Don Myers, R-Derby, dismissing concerns that CO2 is a pollutant: “It is all around us and you breathe it.â€
Sigh. Have any of them heard about the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that CO2 is a pollutant that can and should be regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency? Guess not. Welcome to the Kansas global warming discussion. No research required. Just jump right in.
Barack Obama’s GOP opponents capitalized on a comment that his wife made this week — though in doing so they may have reinforced Obama’s message about needing to rise above divide-and-conquer politics. Michelle Obama said during a campaign rally that “for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country, and not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change.â€
John McCain’s campaign dispatched his wife, Cindy, to declare that “I have, and always will be, proud of my country.†Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin accused Mrs. Obama of being self-absorbed. “What planet is she living on? Since when was now the only time the American people have ever been ‘hungry for change’?†Malkin wrote.
Barack Obama responded that people were taking the statement out of context and trying to make a big deal out it. “What she meant was, this is the first time that she’s been proud of the politics of America,†he said. “Because she’s pretty cynical about the political process, and with good reason, and she’s not alone. But she has seen large numbers of people get involved in the process, and she’s encouraged.â€
It’s extraordinary enough that a sitting U.S. Supreme Court justice would express any view on such a timely legal issue as torture, more so because of what Justice Antonin Scalia told the BBC about what he called “so-called†torture — that it’s unconstitutional only as punishment, not as an interrogation tool.
“Is it really so easy to determine that smacking someone in the face to determine where he has hidden the bomb that is about to blow up Los Angeles is prohibited in the Constitution?†Scalia asked.
“It would be absurd to say you couldn’t do that. And once you acknowledge that, we’re into a different game. How close does the threat have to be? And how severe can the infliction of pain be?â€
As a letter writer wonders in today’s Reader Views: “If it is OK to torture for the sake of obtaining information, how long will it be before the local police begin using this tool?â€
Cal Thomas tried to deflate the hope that Barack Obama is inspiring, but he picked the wrong quote to open his column in Wednesday’s Opinion pages. Thomas used “Hope is a dangerous thing,†a line from the film “The Shawshank Redemption,†to warn that unfulfilled hope can lead to despair. But the point of that movie was the transformational power of hope. It was about how hope can help you triumph over circumstances that cynics (such as Thomas) say can’t be overcome.
And, by the way, the hope of the two prisoners featured in the movie ultimately was fulfilled.
The New York Times didn’t back up its article questioning whether John McCain had an improper relationship — physical or professional — with a lobbyist eight years ago. McCain and the woman deny that they had an affair or that McCain gave special treatment to companies that the women represented. The Times’ only evidence of a possible affair was some former staffers who said that they were concerned about the amount of time McCain was spending with the woman and that they intervened to protect McCain from himself. McCain says that his staff never talked to him about this and that he and the women were just friends.
