Reaction to President-elect Barack Obama’s national security team has been mostly positive. The Politico Web site’s “five things the war Cabinet says about Obama”: He is an intellectual, who is more impressed by academic and governing credentials than familiarity and loyalty. He is willing to take big risks. He is very focused on governing – and prefers persuasion to force. He isn’t so disdainful of the “Washington insiders” after all. He is willing to jettison campaign promises to suit the political landscape. In an editorial headlined “Team of centrists,” the Washington Post characterizes Obama’s picks – Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, James L. Jones as national security adviser, Susan Rice as U.N. ambassador – as “proven pragmatists and team players.” The New York Times’ editorial said Obama “showed that he wants advisers with real authority who will not be afraid to disagree with him – two traits disastrously lacking in President Bush’s team.” The Wall Street Journal editorial board, though, foresees trouble in Obama’s choice of Clinton, calling it “either a political master stroke, or a classic illustration of the signature self-confidence that will come back to haunt him. We’re inclined toward the latter view, but then Mr. Obama is the one who has to live with her – and her husband.”
Quoting sources close to the congressman, National Journal’s Hotline blog reports that Rep. Dennis Moore, D-Lenexa, plans to call it quits after six terms in 2010. If so, that’s excellent news for Kansas Republicans, who have thrown opponents from Phill Kline to Kris Kobach to Nick Jordan at Moore and failed to dislodge him despite the 3rd Congressional District’s heavy GOP voter registration. The next question is whether Moore, a former Johnson County district attorney, intends to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated in 2010 by Sen. Sam Brownback. If so, Kansas could see three of its four members of the U.S. House competing for the job (both Republican Reps. Todd Tiahrt of Goddard and Jerry Moran of Hays have said they’d like the seat), and at least three new faces among its House delegation come 2011.
With moderate Republican Senate President Steve Morris of Hugoton having retained control of his chamber Monday, House Republicans made the real news, choosing Rep. Mike O’Neal (in photo), R-Hutchinson, to be speaker over one-term House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls. Some see it as payback for Neufeld’s failures to block expanded gambling in 2007 and overcome the governor’s coal-plant vetoes in 2008, but O’Neal’s leadership could be similar in terms of conservative ideology and partisan hardball. At least Morris and Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, R-Independence, can be counted on to continue the Senate’s traditional role of pulling the right-leaning House toward the middle.
The Wichita school district is losing about $119,000 in state funding for driver’s education training this school year, because of a little-known state budget raid during the past legislative session. A percentage of driver’s license fees goes to a safety fund that helps pay for driver’s education programs. But the current state budget approved by lawmakers and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius swiped $1.7 million from that fund to pay for general government services. As a result, school districts are now receiving a $38-per-student reimbursement for driver’s education, rather than the previous level of $108. Wichita expects to teach about 1,700 students this school year, which means a loss of about $119,000. To make matters worse, school districts weren’t told at the time about the cut. Linda Jones, USD 259’s chief financial officer, said she didn’t learn about the cut until last month.
The new proposal for a tax-increment finance district near the Intrust Bank Arena is a good compromise from an earlier plan approved by the Wichita City Council but opposed by Sedgwick County leaders. The proposal, which will have a public hearing at today’s council meeting, would make the TIF district about half as large as the earlier plan. That helps alleviate some of the county’s budget concerns yet still recognizes the responsibility the two governments share to improve the area around the arena and help bolster economic development.
Reaction to President-elect Barack Obama’s national security team has been mostly positive. The Politico Web site’s “five things the war Cabinet says about Obama”: He is an intellectual, who is more impressed by academic and governing credentials than familiarity and loyalty. He is willing to take big risks. He is very focused on governing – and prefers persuasion to force. He isn’t so disdainful of the “Washington insiders” after all. He is willing to jettison campaign promises to suit the political landscape. In an editorial headlined “Team of centrists,” the Washington Post characterizes Obama’s picks – Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, James L. Jones as national security adviser, Susan Rice as U.N. ambassador – as “proven pragmatists and team players.” The New York Times’ editorial said Obama “showed that he wants advisers with real authority who will not be afraid to disagree with him – two traits disastrously lacking in President Bush’s team.” The Wall Street Journal editorial board, though, foresees trouble in Obama’s choice of Clinton, calling it “either a political master stroke, or a classic illustration of the signature self-confidence that will come back to haunt him. We’re inclined toward the latter view, but then Mr. Obama is the one who has to live with her – and her husband.”
