From all the excitement about Scott Brown and his stunning upset in Massachusetts’ Senate race, you’d think he fit the GOP’s conservative ideal. But he doesn’t. “Brown fits in well in pro-choice, pro-gay marriage Massachusetts. If Brown entered a Kansas GOP primary race, he’d be run into Colorado on a rail,” wrote Fort Hays State University political science professor Chapman Rackaway in the Hays Daily News. “Somehow I doubt the National Republican Senatorial Committee is going to encourage their candidates to start favoring abortion and gun control on the trail this year.”
“It’s really become this Rorschach test for your personal interests and anxieties,” author Rebecca Keegan said about the variety of groups taking offense with the movie “Avatar.” The New York Times reported that the movie, which is setting box-office records and won the Golden Globe award for best picture, “has been criticized by social and political conservatives who bristle at its depictions of religion and the use of military force, feminists who feel that the male avatar bodies are stronger and more muscular than their female counterparts, anti-smoking advocates who object to a character who lights up cigarettes, not to mention fans of Soviet-era Russian science fiction, the Chinese and the Vatican.” The Chinese think the movie is “a parable for Chinese people whose dwellings have been forcibly razed by local governments to make way for new construction.”
When The Eagle editorial board gave credit to Sedgwick County District Judge Warren Wilbert for responding to a Kansas Supreme Court ruling by opening part of jury selection in the Scott Roeder trial to the media, we were hoping for better than we got: less than two hours of openness on Thursday afternoon, after five days of closed questioning. So much closed-door time, including the attorneys’ final striking of jurors, leaves a lot to wonder about, especially when the private questioning was promised to be reserved for “sensitive personal issues.” Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 last week that the Constitution’s guarantee of a “speedy and public trial” means judges may not ordinarily close their courtrooms during jury selection, setting aside the conviction of a Georgia man for cocaine trafficking. “Trial courts are obligated to take every reasonable measure to accommodate public attendance at criminal trials,” the high court said.
“The only thing we should be capping is the hot air coming out of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.” — Rep. Lynn Jenkins (in photo), R-Topeka, referring to the cap-and-trade bill
“His proposal was the opening pitch. It was never intended to finish the game.” — Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, on the Legislature’s cold response to the governor’s proposed sales-tax increase
Conan “O’Brien gets 45M buyout — that would cover Kansas’ 10 percent Medicaid cut — twice.” — Lawrence Journal-World reporter Scott Rothschild, on Twitter
“Is it just me or does Martha Coakley look and talk like Kathleen Sebelius?” — Vicki Holland Tiahrt, wife of Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, on Twitter
