Maybe it really is a new era, judging from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 94-2 confirmation vote in the Senate. The New York Times’ Gail Collins marveled: “Can you remember back when Hillary was first elected to the Senate eight years ago, and the Republican majority leader made the wistful suggestion that she might be hit by lightning before she was sworn in? Do you remember that just last year she was supposed to be the most divisive figure in American politics? Now, the Republicans can find only two people cranky enough to vote against putting her fourth in line of succession to the presidency.”
Washington, D.C., did a remarkable job coping with an Inauguration Day crowd estimated at 1.8 million. There were reports of temporarily lost children, medical emergencies and suspicious packages. And investigations are under way of the checkpoint problems that kept thousands of ticketholders from their seats. But there were no fatalities connected to the four-day celebration, and the Secret Service-led security operation involving 50,000 law enforcement and military personnel made no arrests Tuesday – quite a feat for a city long ago dubbed the nation’s “murder capital.”
Praise is due former President George W. Bush for commuting the prison sentences of the two former U.S. Border Patrol agents who had shot a Mexican drug smuggler in 2005. Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean (in photo) should not have tried to cover up their actions, but many Americans have defended the agents for having just done their jobs in the shooting.
Meanwhile, Bush also deserves credit for resisting the temptation to pre-emptively pardon former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales or any other members of his administration relating to torture or other anti-terrorism measures. Nor did he pardon convicted Republican felons such as Ted Stevens or Randy “Duke” Cunningham. In the end, Bush granted 189 pardons and 11 commutations, fewer than half those of Presidents Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan.
“I hope Obama really is a closet radical,” wrote columnist and best-selling author Thomas Friedman. “Not radical left or right, just a radical, because this is a radical moment. It is a moment for radical departures from business as usual in so many areas. We can’t thrive as a country any longer by coasting on our reputation, by postponing solutions to every big problem that might involve some pain and by telling ourselves that dramatic new initiatives – like a gasoline tax, national health care or banking reform – are too hard or ‘off the table.’ So my most fervent hope about President Obama is that he will be as radical as this moment – that he will put everything on the table.”
Barack Obama took a crucial step in restoring America’s reputation around the world by ordering Thursday that the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, be closed within a year and that the United States stop torturing detainees. These moves should aid the fight against terrorism by helping us form stronger alliances with other countries and removing a recruitment tool used by terrorist groups. Intelligence experts also have said that torturing detainees has hurt the war effort, because the information extracted is unreliable and inadmissible in legal proceedings. The challenge will be determining what to do with some of the detainees now held at Gitmo, especially when lawmakers in Kansas and elsewhere are trying to block prisoners from being moved to military facilities in their home states.
Kansas Senate Republican leaders announced Thursday that they want to cut $300 million from the state’s current-year budget – though they didn’t say how or where they would cut. State tax revenue dropped dramatically the past two months and may continue to do so, so more budget cuts likely are needed. But cutting $300 million would be difficult, given that the current fiscal year is already more than half over and schools and state agencies signed contracts for this year based on their promised funding. State budget director Duane Goossen argued that it would be better to wait until January revenue numbers are in before deciding to make cuts that drastic.
Maybe it really is a new era, judging from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 94-2 confirmation vote in the Senate. The New York Times’ Gail Collins marveled: “Can you remember back when Hillary was first elected to the Senate eight years ago, and the Republican majority leader made the wistful suggestion that she might be hit by lightning before she was sworn in? Do you remember that just last year she was supposed to be the most divisive figure in American politics? Now, the Republicans can find only two people cranky enough to vote against putting her fourth in line of succession to the presidency.”
