Daily Archives: July 27, 2009

Will Gates episode change anything?

July 27, 200912:33 p.m.

gatescuffsTalking about race has been all the rage since news broke of the arrest of Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. But will it amount to anything? Judging from recent history, Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart predicts the flap “will end as quickly as it began, with no clearer understanding of the roots of the racial reactions that fueled it.” Attorney General Eric Holder said in February that we are a “nation of cowards” when discussing race. President Obama, trying to repair the damage he did with his “stupidly” comment, said Friday that “these are issues that are still very sensitive here in America.” On ABC’s “This Week” Sunday, columnist George Will declared that “we converse about race too much.” But it remains, responded Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, “as Condoleezza Rice said sometime ago, our birth defect because we won’t have a real, honest, candid conversation, George, and that’s the problem.”

By Rhonda Holman | Filed under President Obama | Comments (164)

No big savings from selling state cars

July 27, 20096:02 a.m.

Obama VeepstakesFormer Gov. Kathleen Sebelius made a big show in 2003 of eliminating the state’s central motor pool and selling underused state vehicles. But reviews by state auditors have calculated that the state hasn’t saved much money, because it has had to spend more than it used to renting cars and reimbursing state employees for using their private cars. A new report also found that at least nine Kansas government employees last year rented vehicles for more than 300 days, the Topeka Capital-Journal reported. That doesn’t make sense to state Rep. John Grange, R-El Dorado, given that the average person is on the job only about 250 days annually. “That smacks of somebody doing something that was not right,” Grange said.

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Kansas government | Comments (15)

Open thread 7/27

July 27, 20096:01 a.m.

thescream2

By The Editors | Filed under Open thread | Comments (291)

Afraid to challenge Six?

July 27, 20096:00 a.m.

New AGAttorney General Steve Six was appointed to his job in 2008 by then-Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, making his 2010 campaign his first for the job — and seemingly making the Democrat vulnerable to GOP challengers. But are the decisions of two prominent Republican attorneys to run instead for secretary of state a sign of Six’s perceived strength? Kris Kobach, former Kansas GOP chairman, and Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, R-Independence, are expected to face off in a GOP primary to succeed retiring Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh. Six has less well-known competition, though: Junction City prosecutor Ralph DeZago, a former assistant attorney general, announced this month that he intends to run for the Republican nomination to be Kansas’ top cop.

By Rhonda Holman | Filed under Kansas government | Comments (6)