“If we agree on 90 percent of this stuff and are spending all our time on television arguing about 1, 2, 3 percent of the spending . . . that starts sounding more like politics,” Barack Obama told a gathering of governors today, responding to complaints about the federal stimulus bill. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (in photo) and a few other GOP governors have made political hay by saying that they might not accept a small portion of the stimulus funds because of the federal strings attached — though other governors, including GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, have offered to take any money that other states turn down. Meanwhile, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is compiling a “Hypocrisy Hall of Fame” of House Republicans who railed against the stimulus bill but have since praised the federal money going to their home districts.
Nothing is more American than Hollywood, right? But even that industry has been so globalized that Sunday’s Oscars might have been handed out in Sydney, London or Mumbai. The only acting winner born in the USA was best actor Sean Penn. Best picture “Slumdog Millionaire” was produced by a British company, co-financed by a French distributor, released by a company owned by Aussie Rupert Murdoch, and filmed with a largely Indian cast and crew. Supporting actor winners were Penelope Cruz (Spain) and the late Heath Ledger (Australia). Even the show’s engaging host was foreign-born, Aussie Hugh Jackman, apparently a first (if you count Bob Hope as American). Michael Medved blogged: “While the movie industry relies on the international market for more and more of its revenues, the televised Oscar broadcast won’t get healthy again until it reconnects with the American mainstream.”
“There’s an old story that says you can’t kill a frog by dropping him in boiling water. He reacts so quickly to the sudden heat that he jumps out before he’s hurt. But if you put him in cold water and then warm it up gradually, he never decides to jump until it’s too late. He’s cooked. Men are just as foolish. If you take away their freedom overnight, you’ve got a violent revolution on your hands. But steal it from them gradually under the guise of security or stimulus or recovery, and you can paralyze an entire generation.” — Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., during a floor speech in which he also quoted the Berenstain Bears’ “Trouble With Money” and warned that the stimulus bill created a “nanny state based upon a new form of American socialism”
Kansans aren’t fooled by the ads and mailings that dodge campaign finance disclosure law by deftly telling people how to vote without using the words “vote for” or “vote against.” Last week the Kansas House had a welcome moment of clarity on the issue of these ads, voting 68-52 to require groups that spend more than $500 a year on pre-election ads naming candidates to disclose their donors. Unfortunately, lawmakers had a change of heart the next day, rejecting the law change on a 69-54 vote. But the first vote highlights the problem and should fuel further debate. Americans for Prosperity-Kansas may be the most obvious target of the bill, but it has had bipartisan company in the shadows in recent election cycles, including from groups associated with Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller. As state Rep. Raj Goyle (in photo), D-Wichita, told The Eagle editorial board, the measure wouldn’t restrict any political activity but would require these groups to file campaign reports, just as all candidates, political-action groups and political parties do now.
Whatever the motive, the Kansas Senate did the right thing last week in approving a bill that would raise the state’s bottom-of-the-barrel minimum wage of $2.65 an hour to the federal level. Will the more conservative House do likewise? It certainly should. The state minimum wage may be a “phony issue,” said state Sen. Dick Kelsey, R-Goddard, because it applies to few businesses and as few as 20,000 Kansas workers. But if so, it cannot also be the socialist threat to the free market that business lobbyists have annually insisted it is. Either way, Republicans should join the effort to make $7.25 the state’s minimum.
An analysis in the Hill newspaper of next year’s blockbuster Kansas GOP primary for U.S. Senate noted that “discerning any major differences between Kansas GOP Reps. Jerry Moran and Todd Tiahrt requires a microscope.” But it observed that Moran’s conservatism has an independent streak while Tiahrt is “a hard-right” party-liner. “There’s an opinion out there that Tiahrt is a Republican’s Republican, and Moran is more driven by himself,” an unnamed state GOP operative told the newspaper.
Something to reassure Gov. Kathleen Sebelius in case she’s worried about what Kansans will think of her if she changes her mind about joining President Barack Obama’s Cabinet: 62 percent of Kansans in a SurveyUSA poll last week for KWCH, Channel 12, said she should accept a nomination to be secretary of health and human services, about the same amount who said it would either help Kansas (37 percent) or have no effect (26 percent) on the state. Asked whether she’d be a good candidate for the job, 59 percent said “yes.”
“The theater was all in their own minds and in their own making.” — Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, after the budget standoff with GOP legislative leaders
“She blinked, and that’s helpful.” — Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, R-Independence, on Sebelius’ decision to sign the budget bill
“We’ve had 113 tax cuts for business since 1987.” — Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley (in photo), D-Topeka, urging that delaying the phase-in of state tax cuts be part of the budget debate
“The Bush and Obama administrations have compensated foolishness and irresponsibility” by bailing out bankers, auto companies, profligate states and foolish homeowners, acknowledged columnist David Brooks. But, he concluded, “in times like these, government is fundamentally in the business of stabilizing the economic system as a whole.” As a result, he said, the government “has to help stabilize people who have been idiots.”
“President Obama signed the stimulus bill in Denver, Colo. He picked Denver because our debt is now a mile high.” — Jay Leno
“Obama’s spending package passed through Congress with almost no Republican support, but Obama says he’s still focused on bringing real bipartisanship to government. He even went so far as to send every Republican in Congress a jar of peanuts.” — Jimmy Kimmel
“Here’s how bad it is: Now when you go to the airport and you have to put all your change in that pan to pass through the metal detectors? They’re not giving it back.” — David Letterman
“California state legislators want to solve our state’s giant deficit by taxing marijuana. Meanwhile, Oregon wants to increase a tax on beer, while New York wants to tax Internet porn. You know what this means? By the end of spring break, this whole thing could be paid for.” — Leno
Former Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline told a Johnson County district judge on Jan. 8 that he wouldn’t take any abortion records, copies, summaries or notes with him when he left office. Yet the very next day, his office mailed summaries and other documents to Kline’s new office in Virginia — though the mailing was returned because of an incomplete address.
An attorney for Kline said it was an unintentional mistake that the records were shipped to Virginia. If so, that’s one monster of a mistake — though it’s in keeping with how badly Kline mishandled these records.
Court testimony has revealed that the records were stored at times in a subordinate’s dining room and in a car trunk. In December, the Kansas Supreme Court scolded Kline for his “grossly incompetent” handling of the records and said that he exhibited little, if any, respect for the rule of law.
Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., must be the loneliest man in Congress about now. Not that he deserves otherwise, given how his every statement only fuels questions about how he came to be appointed by since-impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich to the Senate seat. Lately Burris has even seemed to suggest that trying to raise money for the ex-governor was defensible because he found no willing donors. The Chicago Sun-Times editorialized that he’s “lost the last shred of credibility.” The Chicago Tribune also called for his resignation and said, “The hole just gets deeper and deeper, and Burris keeps digging.”
“There are nine bodies — all of them young men — that have been lying in a Mumbai hospital morgue since Nov. 29,” wrote columnist and best-selling author Thomas Friedman. “They may be stranded there for a while because no local Muslim charity is willing to bury them in its cemetery. This is good news.” Not only has the Indian Muslim community refused to bury them, it has said they are “murderers,” not “martyrs,” and aren’t true Muslims. Friedman said such repudiation is the only effective way to stop suicide bombers. “When a culture and a faith community delegitimizes this kind of behavior, openly, loudly and consistently,” he wrote, “it is more important than metal detectors or extra police.”
“A wonky, reassuring-looking politician who can navigate a centrist version of health care reform through Congress while igniting as little partisan fire as possible from either side.” — Campaign Diaries blog
“One step forward for the Obama administration who adds a quality Cabinet member. Two giant leaps back for Democrats — and Kansans — hoping to capture a Senate seat in 2010.” — Scout Finch on the Daily Kos
“Once official, her selection would add to Obama’s growing pro-abortion record as president.” — Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com
“President Obama would remove the highest-profile Democrat who opposed moving captured terrorists from Guantanamo Bay to Leavenworth.” — Jim Geraghty at National Review Online
“Besides her obviously stellar qualifications, it will be nice to have a Cabinet member whose last name sounds like a starship. Or a Battlestar. Either one works.” — Tommy Christopher on the Political Machine blog
“I did not mean to kill the leader of the occupation forces. I was expressing what’s inside of me and what’s inside the Iraqi people from north to south and from west to east.” — Muntadhar al-Zeidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush last year
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is the leading candidate for secretary of health and human services, the New York Times reported, though no final decision has been made. Sebelius’ strengths include her eight years as insurance commissioner and her six years as governor working with Medicaid. The downside is that she doesn’t have Washington, D.C., experience, though it is possible that Barack Obama might appoint a separate “health czar” to oversee policy initiatives.
“I think it would be good for Kansas to have a member of the president’s Cabinet,” said state Sen. Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, R-Independence. Sen. Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, said that Sebelius’ association with Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller might arise in the nomination process.
It turns out the Obama team, in concert with the congressional Democrats, isn’t that good at this governing business. It could have gone for the middle ground on the stimulus plan and pulled in far more Republican support. Moreover, Republicans were worried there for a bit that the New Politics and gooey spirit of bipartisanship might have been for real, making it tricky to battle the popular new administration and appeal to apolitical swing voters. In short, the Republicans have the good fortune to be counterpunching against a White House experiencing a rocky start. The White House’s travails won’t last forever, but they have stripped the mystique of political “shock and awe” from the Obama team. They have given Republicans a much-needed reminder that their opposition is vulnerable to the same errors and miscues that bedeviled them when they were in charge. — Jennifer Rubin, CommentaryMagazine.com
Hmm. President Obama has been in office for four weeks. He’s signed the Lilly Ledbetter measure into law over Republican objections. He’s signed SCHIP expansion into law over Republican objections. He’s signed several executive orders on key national and internal policies over Republican objections, and he’s signed an ambitious stimulus package over Republican objections. But the congressional GOP has its head held high because its leaders came up with a reckless and irresponsible economic worldview, and convinced the party to rally around it. They’re thrilled because, in the midst of a genuine economic crisis, the party, with near unanimity, agreed not to have any constructive policy role whatsoever. — Steve Benen, WashingtonMonthly.com
The Environmental Protection Agency has moved closer to regulating carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants. Just before it left office, the Bush administration declared that the EPA would not limit emissions, even though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that carbon dioxide should be considered a pollutant. But on Wednesday new EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson ordered a review of that memorandum. John Stowell, a vice president for Duke Energy, said he wasn’t surprised by the announcement and that industry officials expect the federal government to impose a cap on greenhouse-gas emissions, which would significantly increase the cost of the plants.
Meanwhile, Great Plains Alliance for Clean Energy, a Topeka-based group that opposes the building of two new coal plants near Holcomb, released a survey this week showing that, by 64 to 18 percent, Kansans prefer expanding renewable energy production, such as wind power, to building coal plants.
It’s frustrating that state Sen. Jean Schodorf, R-Wichita, changed her mind Wednesday and voted against a bill to protect journalists from having to disclose sources and unpublished notes, unless ordered by a court. Schodorf said she planned to vote for the “shield law” during Senate Judiciary Committee action on the bill but decided it needed more review — even though the proposal has been studied for years. Sen. Les Donovan, R-Wichita, also voted against the bill. This issue is important, because whistle-blowers may be reluctant to come forward with information vital to the public if the media can’t protect their confidentiality. Also, media are supposed to be independent news gatherers, not an investigative arm of government.
Adm. Mike Mullen (in photo), chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote a commentary arguing that the United States can’t win in Afghanistan unless it wins the trust of the Afghan and Pakistani people. He argued that Abu Ghraib and civilian casualties have undermined that trust. But the Washington Post’s Planet War blog questioned whether the bigger issue is security: “The U.S. loses the battle of hearts and minds because it’s losing the battle, pure and simple, not because of civilian casualties. Is Mullen so isolated that he can’t see that?”
