Even though it’s been an appalling seven months since Election Day, it still may take those of a certain age some time to adjust to the idea of Al Franken — of Stuart Smalley and the “Al Franken Decade” fame — as a member of the U.S. Senate. (Check out his Mick Jagger clip on YouTube.) Today’s Minnesota Supreme Court ruling certainly seems to make the career change official, though, unless incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman has more legal options up his sleeve.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., got the diagnosis right on health care on“Fox News Sunday,” acknowledging problems with access and cost. But surely his prescription would fall short for many of the 45 million Americans who are uninsured: “Let’s equalize tax treatment” of employer-provided and individually purchased health care, he said, “target prevention and wellness, do something about medical malpractice junk lawsuits against doctors and hospitals that drive up the cost of health care. All of those things could be achieved on a broad bipartisan basis and not wreck the finest health care system in the world.”
As the GOP Senate primary unfolds over the next year between Rep. Todd Tiahrt of Goddard and Rep. Jerry Moran of Hays, Tiahrt can now point to an early show of strength in crucial northeast Kansas: He won 165 votes to Moran’s 46 in the Olathe Republican Party picnic and straw poll over the weekend. According to the Kansas City Star, Tiahrt was there with a busload of supporters from the Wichita area. Moran did not attend. No surprise that Sam Brownback and Kris Kobach ran away in the polling for governor and secretary of state, respectively. The 2012 presidential nomination race came down to Sarah Palin (76 votes), Mike Huckabee (54) and Mitt Romney (52).
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., has received praise for his leadership in persuading the Senate to pass a resolution June 18 that formally apologizes for slavery and Jim Crow laws. But the Web site Politico reports that Brownback also was responsible for inserting language in the Senate version that has angered some members of the Congressional Black Caucus — by stipulating that the resolution does not authorize reparations for descendants of slaves — and derailed hopes of reconciling the two chambers’ resolutions so a joint ceremony could be held. The House passed its version last summer. “I wish we could have had my version passed in the Senate, but it’s still a historic achievement,” said Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., who has been pursuing a compromise.
In 1989, a first-class stamp cost 25 cents and a semester of in-state tuition at the University of Kansas was $578. If the cost of the former had risen as fast as the cost of the latter, notes Topeka Capital-Journal columnist Ric Anderson, the stamp would go for $1.32 today rather than 44 cents. (An incoming KU freshman will pay $3,645 per semester this fall, as of tuition increases approved last week.)
Given the loot stolen by investor Bernard Madoff and the lives he ruined, the maximum 150-year sentence imposed today seems just — if symbolic, given that he’s 71. But Madoff and one of his accountants, who also has been criminally charged, represent just a sliver of the global financial collapse. Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford faces charges of bilking investors, too. But where are the other perp walks, prison sentences and accountability for what has cost so many investors so much?
Two of the first three U.S. senators to commit to voting against the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor were Kansans: Sen. Pat Roberts on May 28 and Sen. Sam Brownback on June 24. The third is Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla. The three have more in common than geography and party: They all voted against Sotomayor’s nomination to the federal appeals bench in 1998. Her hearings don’t start until mid-July, but Brownback said last week: “In her writings, Judge Sotomayor has rejected the principle of impartiality and embraces the novel idea that a judge’s personal life story should come into play in the courtroom. I’m not sure why Judge Sotomayor believes the law is somehow different when interpreted by people of different backgrounds. I think Judge Sotomayor is absolutely wrong, and that we do a disservice to law and society when we don’t transcend our personal sympathies and prejudices.”
Last spring the city of Wichita didn’t get far in Topeka with a legislative proposal to allow higher fines for speeders along Kellogg and other statistically deadly roadways in the state, despite Kellogg’s 2008 death toll of seven. But last week city officials got some more ammunition, as part of a radar blitz that resulted in 22 citations on 60 mph Kellogg — one driver going 107 mph and another (with a revoked license) going 85 mph. Such recklessness defies belief and justifies officers’ special attention to Kellogg. But the question remains: Would a driver willing to go 107 mph and risk a $291 minimum fine be fazed by the threat of a $592 fine?
Considering that Sedgwick County voters approved a downtown arena nearly five years ago, nobody would say that the process has been speedy from start to finish. But it was surprising to learn last week that Dondlinger and Sons might have the Intrust Bank Arena finished by Nov. 1 rather than the contractual date of Jan. 22. How often do multimillion-dollar construction projects come in ahead of schedule? Anticipation was further stoked by recent announcements about the arena leasing club seats, booking the Class 6A and 5A wrestling tournaments for February, and bidding to host first- and second-round games in the 2011, 2012 or 2013 NCAA Tournament. Pretty soon, those who’ve long dreamed of a downtown arena will be able to take their seats in one.
Faced with a deep state spending cut, the Kansas Board of Regents and the state’s universities had to find more money somewhere for the fall. Unfortunately, the natural place to look was to students and their families, in the form of newly approved tuition increases ranging from 3.9 to 8.5 percent. Wichita State University is to be credited for trying to use stimulus money to offset the pain with automatic scholarships for in-state students. Still, there’s no telling how many wannabe students will be deterred by any tuition increase — and there have been many this decade. Put “more affordable tuition” on the lengthening list of things the state needs to work on once the economy improves.
The good will that Kansans had for President Obama at his inauguration, when he had a 62 percent approval rating in the SurveyUSA poll, continues to erode. The latest poll, co-sponsored by KWCH, Channel 12, showed Kansans split 49 to 49 percent on whether they approve or disapprove of the job he’s doing. He polls best in northeast Kansas (52 percent approval) and worst out west (64 percent disapproval). Still, he’s ahead of where he started in the state on Election Day, when he lost to John McCain 41.6 to 56.6 percent.
Meanwhile, new Gov. Mark Parkinson lost some ground in public opinion in a matter of weeks on the job, sliding from 52 percent approval a month ago to 46 percent in mid-June — the same point Kathleen Sebelius was in the poll before joining Obama’s Cabinet.
“Outside of the Capitol, no one knows who I am. They don’t know that I’m the governor.” — Gov. Mark Parkinson, on his new blog, on trying to get a pizza delivered to Cedar Crest and being mistaken in St. Louis for a member of his security detail
“Rep. Tiahrt’s campaign logo looks like he stole it off of a note passed to him by a 13 year-old girl.” — An unnamed “former state party official” to Politico’s Shenanigans blog, about the logo’s “T” and heart
Republicans want President Obama to spell out the punishments if the Iranian regime doesn’t change its ways. But in declining to rattle the saber, the president shows admirable restraint. The fact is that the slightest inflection in Obama’s voice will be used by the regime in Iran to brand its opposition as American puppets, as agents of the Great Satan, and give them the cover needed to continue clubbing the dissenters to the ground. Complicating all this is that Israel might attack, to knock down the growing Iranian nuclear capacity that threatens Israel. Such an attack might destabilize the Iranian regime, but it would certainly provide another anti-American rallying cry for radical Islamists throughout the world, at a time when Obama is reaching out to Muslim nations. Saber-rattling won’t serve American interests now. What’s required is restraint and clear-headedness. And that’s what Obama is delivering. — John Kass, Chicago Tribune
In his press conference Tuesday, the president finally condemned the outrages in Iran. But he also kept alive the idea that the current Iranian regime could be a fruitful negotiation partner, despite what has already happened in that country. He wouldn’t even cancel plans to invite Iranian officials to Fourth of July barbecues at American embassies. That amounts to tacit approval of the bloodshed and fraud that we’ve already seen and acceptance of the ultimate triumph of the regime. And it won’t work. For years, conservatives or, if you prefer, neoconservatives have said that the Iranian regime can’t be negotiated with. None of the evidence was sufficient for Obama, in part because anything associated with President Bush’s freedom agenda was deemed absurd and ideologically rigid. Well, Bush is gone. Obama has extended his hand. And the regime is supplying fresh evidence of the absurdity of his approach. All that’s left for Obama now is to abandon his own ideological rigidity and start over. — Jonah Goldberg, Tribune Media Services
The uproar over David Letterman’s unfunny joke about Sarah Palin’s daughter demonstrated that even a deft comedian gets his timing wrong. According to the nonpartisan Center for Media and Public Affairs, the late-night tally of jokes about Bristol Palin’s pregnancy included, as of mid-March: Conan O’Brien, 20; Jay Leno, 15; Letterman, eight; Jon Stewart, four. Some were twofers, joking about the sexual activity of John Edwards and pro hockey players. “Saturday Night Live” even did a joke about incest — just a few weeks before Sarah Palin was a guest on the show. Letterman didn’t help himself by getting his teenage Palins confused in the latest joke. But “why did this one draw such a reaction?” asked Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Michael Smerconish. “Letterman’s timing was waaaay off.”
You’d like to think that when the U.S. House passes a bill described as “historic,” it would be with a sizable majority. Not so the energy bill that passed today 219-212. “This is a revolution,” said co-sponsoring Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. The action keeps House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s promise to pass the bill by the Fourth of July, but so many questions remain as it moves to the Senate. Among them: Will it cost $175 per household (by 2020, according to CBO)? Or $3,100 per household (as the GOP contends, citing MIT data)? No surprise that Kansas Republican Reps. Todd Tiahrt, Jerry Moran and Lynn Jenkins voted “no” while Democrat Dennis Moore voted “yes.”
President Obama and the media looked pretty chummy at last week’s Radio and TV Correspondents Association Dinner. But the honeymoon officially ended at Tuesday’s press conference, says New York Daily News columnist Michael Goodwin, with the pointed questions about Iran and more and Obama’s sometimes testy responses. Goodwin writes: “The reality is that polls show rising doubt about President Obama’s handling of the economy and wide disapproval about exploding deficits. The reality is that even many Democrats worry the White House health plan is messy and unaffordable. The reality is that ranks of independents who voted for him find Obama far more liberal than they expected.” For Obama, it only gets harder from here, Goodwin notes.
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s extramarital affair has 60 percent of South Carolinians ready for his resignation, according to a SurveyUSA poll. Larger majorities thought he had no right to disappear without informing the public (63 percent) or his staff (77 percent) of his whereabouts. The Charlotte Observer editorialized: “If you’re a governor, you do not go off without staying in touch with your office — whether you’re backpacking on the trail or bawling in Buenos Aires.” The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C., stopped short of calling for Sanford’s resignation but called it “inexcusable” that he left the state vulnerable by refusing to “take the simple step of turning his authority temporarily over to the lieutenant governor while he was out of the country.”
The physicians skeptical about President Obama’s health care reform include Obama’s physician for the 22 years until he became president. “I’m not sure he really understands what we face in primary care,” Chicago internist David Scheiner told Forbes. He also was critical of Obama’s choice of former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to be his secretary of Health and Human Services, because she once lobbied for the state’s trial lawyers. “He doesn’t see all the pain, it’s so tragic out here,” Scheiner said. “Obama’s wonderful, but on this one I’m not sure if he’s getting the right input.” Scheiner’s preference isn’t for a free market solution or for leaving the status quo alone but for “Medicare for all,” he said.
South Carolina Gov. Mark “Sanford admitted to having an affair in Argentina. I’m like, great, now we’re outsourcing mistresses.” — Craig Ferguson
“President Obama will throw out the first pitch at the All-Star game in St. Louis. That’s pretty cool. Yeah. But Joe Biden will be on hand to commit the first error.” — Jimmy Fallon
“Here’s a big story, ladies and gentlemen. Yesterday, there was an earthquake in Alaska. I’m kind of afraid to say anything.” — David Letterman
There are sound reasons for limiting the legal rights of public schoolchildren, and for banning prescription and even over-the-counter drugs at school. But it was a relief to see the U.S. Supreme Court draw the line today at strip-searching 13-year-old girls in search of ibuprofen — and with a strong 8-1 majority, leaving only Justice Clarence Thomas to defend the authorities at an Arizona middle school.
