“The story can go one of two ways: It can disappear and join thousands of other blips on the campaign radar screen to date or it can persist and become a larger narrative about the problems with Obama’s message,” Chris Cillizza wrote in his Washington Post blog about Barack Obama’s “Bittergate” controversy. Cillizza pondered which factors could influence the direction the story goes. For example, the pope’s visit could help push the story off cable TV. But Hillary Clinton’s new campaign ad (see below) tries to make sure the controversy stays alive.
It was encouraging that Pope Benedict XVI, writing on the eve of his U.S. visit, said that he was “deeply ashamed” of the church’s clergy sexual abuse scandal, which since 2002 has revealed 5,000 victims and cost the church $2 billion. He vowed to “do what is possible so this cannot happen again in the future.” The church, he said, is doing screening to ensure that pedophiles do not become priests.
A large part of the scandal, too, was that some church leaders tried to hide problem priests, moving them from parish to parish instead of removing them from positions of authority.
The pope’s statement is a welcome sign that the church understands the need to openly and directly address the problem.
Among the economic casualties of the Bush administration, count former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who is having trouble finding work, according to news reports. Gonzales reportedly has sent feelers out to top law firms but has found no takers.It’s a sign of how discredited Gonzales has become, even in Republican circles, largely because of widespread charges that he lied in testimony to Congress about dismissal of top federal prosecutors and surveillance programs.Before he was forced to resign last year, he was widely perceived as someone who prized loyalty to the president more than adherence to the rule of law.
On the McClatchy news site, economist Linda Bilmes, co-author of “The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict,” explains why the Iraq war isn’t giving the economy a “war bump”:
Unlike World War II, the Iraq war “has had a net negative effect on the economy. This is for several reasons. First, the money that we spend every month goes largely to operational costs (fuel, laundry, cooking, transportation, repairs), much of which is performed by subcontractors from the Philippines, Nepal and other countries. So in effect, the dollars spent do not have any positive return for the U.S. economy. Second, because we have borrowed all the money to fight the war, largely from abroad, we have added to the deficit and to the national debt, which means we have to pay more interest and adds a burden onto the economy. Third, the war has contributed to the increase in oil prices, which of course take money out of the hands of consumers, and lower business margins, and transfer it to the oil producers.”
In a commentary in the Jewish Press newspaper, City University of New York professor Ron Rubin endorsed Sam Brownback to be John McCain’s running mate, having been impressed by the Kansas senator’s “conservative bona fides” and recent speech at a Jerusalem conference: “Given Brownback’s strong intellect, vigor, and exemplary position on Israel, his position on the McCain ticket in November could spell the difference in key Electoral College states such as Florida, California, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania.”
The subheading that Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, chose for his “tanker blog” says it all: “the outrage.” The congressman is using the blog, on his congressional Web site, to pass along news and views about the Air Force’s decision to let Northrop Grumman and European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. build its new refueling tankers. Tiahrt’s Monday post linked to a letter he wrote to Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne calling the evidence of EADS’ corruption “overwhelming” and demanding more answers.
