“Removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision — and this is a fight America can and must win,†President Bush said today at the Pentagon. While acknowledging that there is “understandable debate over whether the war was worth fighting,†he said that our invasion “removed a tyrant, liberated a country and rescued millions from unspeakable horrors.†But wasn’t the purpose of the invasion to eliminate weapons of mass destruction?
Meanwhile, Vice President Dick Cheney continued to defend the invasion as a struggle against terrorism following Sept. 11. “The United States made a decision: to hunt down the evil of terrorism and kill it where it grows, to hold the supporters of terror to account and to confront regimes that harbor terrorists and threaten the peace,†Cheney said Tuesday in Iraq. But didn’t an exhaustive Pentagon review conclude yet again that there was no operational link between Saddam’s regime and al-Qaida?
It’s unwise to place too much predictive value on the questions that U.S. Supreme Court justices ask during oral arguments; sometimes they are playing devil’s advocate rather than expressing their own leanings. Still, several justices clearly were skeptical Tuesday of the constitutionality of a Washington, D.C., ban on handguns. “In my view, (the Second Amendment is) saying there is a general right to bear arms, quite without reference to a militia,†said Justice Anthony Kennedy, a key swing vote. If a majority agrees, that would be a historic shift from past court interpretations and would open up challenges to other gun laws.
Infidelity update: David Paterson, the brand-new governor of New York, responded to rumors by acknowledging he had an affair several years ago when his marriage was “going sour.†His wife says she was unfaithful, too. Meanwhile, a former New Jersey governor, “gay American†Jim McGreevey, claims he and his now-estranged wife had threesomes with a male aide for two years before McGreevey became governor; she denies it. Why do powerful people think their secrets will stay secret, especially those who live in the floodlight of the New York media? As for why fidelity seems such a rarity these days, this New York Times story notes that “sexual promiscuity is rampant throughout nature, and true faithfulness a fond fantasy.â€
The contract for Air Force refueling tankers isn’t the only one that needs scrutiny. Congress needs to get to the bottom of why costs have nearly doubled for the new Marine One helicopters. The fleet of 28 new supersophisticated helicopters has increased in price from $6.1 billion when the contract was signed in 2005 to $11.2 billion today, the Washington Post reported. That comes to $400 million per helicopter, which is more than the most recent Air Force One airplane cost, adjusted for inflation. Lockheed Martin, which is heading up the team that is building the helicopters, has blamed some of the cost overruns on the Navy adding more requirements, but the Navy says it hasn’t changed the contract.
Because rabies vaccines for dogs last for three years and there appears to be no medical reason for administering them more often, the city of Wichita should change its policy of requiring yearly rabies vaccinations. In addition to being an unnecessary expense, annual rabies shots can lead to serious health reactions in some dogs. And contrary to the fears of some local veterinarians and Wichita’s environmental services department, other cities that have changed the vaccine requirement from one to three years have not seen an increase in rabies cases.
Kansas Attorney General Stephen Six has appointed a campaign treasurer, allowing him to raise money to run for his job in 2010. His spokeswoman said “it’s not indicative of any future plans,†but consider what Six said last month at a Democratic caucus in Lawrence — “I hope the next time I’m at one of these I get announced as an elected official†— and he sure looks like he’s warming up for a run. Anybody think Phill Kline will challenge him?
Having crisscrossed Iowa last year in unsuccessful pursuit of the GOP presidential nomination, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., has hit the road in Kansas. He reportedly plans to visit all 105 counties, which sounds like good prep work for a gubernatorial run in 2010. On Monday, he spoke to Wichita’s Downtown Rotary Club and attended the groundbreaking for the Jabara technical training center.
Having called Brownback on his absenteeism during his campaign, we should now note that his percentage of missed roll call votes in the Senate is down to 25.8 percent, dropping him from third place last year to seventh among vote missers (after Tim Johnson, John McCain, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd and Hillary Clinton).
“Removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision — and this is a fight America can and must win,†President Bush said today at the Pentagon. While acknowledging that there is “understandable debate over whether the war was worth fighting,†he said that our invasion “removed a tyrant, liberated a country and rescued millions from unspeakable horrors.†But wasn’t the purpose of the invasion to eliminate weapons of mass destruction?
