The four-day impeachment trial of Rod Blagojevich has ended with the Illinois governor joining the ranks of the unemployed. He’s the first U.S. governor to be impeached in more than 20 years (since Arizona’s Evan Mecham). By the way, during his rambling 47-minute closing argument to the Illinois Senate today, he defended his legally challenged effort to import Canadian drugs by saying, “If you’re impeaching me, then we need to impeach to governors of Wisconsin, of Kansas, of Vermont,” because Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and others were involved in the drug plan, too. But there was a lot more behind the 59-0 vote than imported medicines. “We have this thing called impeachment and it’s bleeping golden and we’ve used it the right way,” said Democratic state Sen. James Meeks of Chicago, mocking the governor’s wiretapped words.
The local and state economies took another major blow as Cessna Aircraft announced today that it now expects to lay off 4,600 workers, 4,000 of them in Wichita. That’s 2,000 more than the company estimated just two weeks ago.
“When the GOP talks, nobody should listen,” columnist Bob Herbert wrote. “Republicans have argued, with the collaboration of much of the media, that they could radically cut taxes while simultaneously balancing the federal budget, when, in fact, big income-tax cuts inevitably lead to big budget deficits. We listened to the GOP and what do we have now? A trillion-dollar-plus deficit and an economy in shambles. This is the party that preached fiscal discipline and then cut taxes in time of war. This is the party that still wants to put the torch to Social Security and Medicare. This is a party that, given a choice between Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, would choose Ronald Reagan in a heartbeat.”
If next year’s must-see GOP primary – for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sam Brownback – were held now, Jerry Moran (in photo) would beat Todd Tiahrt 41 to 25 percent. That’s according to a poll conducted for Moran’s campaign by Glen Bolger of Public Opinion Strategies. “While it is still very early in the primary campaign, it is currently a lot better to be Jerry Moran than it is to be Todd Tiahrt,” Bolger said in a polling memo quoted by the Washington Post. We’d say it’s Tiahrt’s move, but he already made one Tuesday, announcing a Senate Campaign Steering Committee notable for its recognizable names (including Wichita big hitters Jack Pelton, Bill Hanna, Steve Martens and Jay Allbaugh) and geographical diversity.
Kansas’ 148th birthday finds the 34th state taking the economic bumps along with the rest of the nation and wondering how to pay its bills and seed its future. Fortunately, the moment bears no resemblance to the painful, bloody period that led up to statehood and made Kansas’ chosen motto, “Ad astra per aspera” (To the stars through difficulties), so apt. And Kansas’ past provides reason for optimism about its ability to rebound. As poet Harry Kemp wrote in 1912, “Kansas glories in her days to be, in her horizons limitless and vast. . . .”
The four-day impeachment trial of Rod Blagojevich has ended with the Illinois governor joining the ranks of the unemployed. He’s the first U.S. governor to be impeached in more than 20 years (since Arizona’s Evan Mecham). By the way, during his rambling 47-minute closing argument to the Illinois Senate today, he defended his legally challenged effort to import Canadian drugs by saying, “If you’re impeaching me, then we need to impeach to governors of Wisconsin, of Kansas, of Vermont,” because Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and others were involved in the drug plan, too. But there was a lot more behind the 59-0 vote than imported medicines. “We have this thing called impeachment and it’s bleeping golden and we’ve used it the right way,” said Democratic state Sen. James Meeks of Chicago, mocking the governor’s wiretapped words.
