It wasn’t surprising that a legislative panel concluded that Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson, broke no state ethical rules by working as lead attorney in a lawsuit against the state. But what O’Neal refuses to acknowledge is that “complying with the rules” doesn’t make his actions right. That’s why the panel also concluded that the Legislature needs to change the obscure rule that allowed this conflict of interest. “We find this statute troubling and feel it has led to the appearance of impropriety and cast a shadow of suspicion and public criticism over the Kansas House,” the panel’s report said.
President Obama said that the tea party movement involves people who “are legitimately concerned about the deficit, who are legitimately concerned that the federal government may be taking on too much.” But, he told NBC’s “Today” show, there is also a “core group” of people who question whether he is a U.S. citizen and believe he is a socialist. He said that polarization and anger are spun up by “24/7 news cycle, cable chatter and talk radio and the Internet and the blogs, all of which try to feed the most extreme sides of any issue instead of trying to narrow differences and solve problems.”
Thursday is when the U.S. Census Bureau hopes to have as many completed 2010 forms back from Americans as possible. As of Tuesday, response rates in Kansas and Sedgwick County were 56 and 50 percent, respectively, compared with the nation’s 50 percent. The cost-saving cause of boosting mail-in response has motivated the bureau to spend $338 million on ads in 28 languages and $2.5 million on a Super Bowl ad, and to reach out to the conservative demographic by sponsoring a NASCAR entry and tapping Marie Osmond to talk up participation in Las Vegas and on QVC. Why worry about conservative response? Because of the anti-government noncompliance promoted by Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., who thinks the data might be misused (though it’s unlawful to share information even with other agencies). Pondering the simple form, Time magazine’s Nancy Gibbs wrote: “Bachmann may think the census is too intrusive; I just wish it were more so. As long as we’re spending all this money to reach so many people, imagine what we could find out. Which do you favor, Leno or Letterman? Smooth or chunky? Faith or works? Liberty or equality?”
Rep. Jerry Moran (left), R-Hays, increased his lead over Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, in the latest SurveyUSA poll, co-sponsored by KWCH, Channel 12 in Wichita. According to a survey of likely GOP primary voters, Moran leads Tiahrt in the race for the U.S. Senate by 42 to 32 percent — though 21 percent of those surveyed were undecided. Moran leads among conservatives by 42 to 34 percent, and he leads in the vote-rich battleground of northeast Kansas by 43 to 24 percent. The only region or demographic where Tiahrt is leading is southeast Kansas, where he is up 52 to 28 percent.
