How many strikes will Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele get before he’s out? The problem with his latest mistake — calling Afghanistan “a war of Obama’s choosing” and “not something the United States actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in” — is that Steele hurt more than his credibility. He also put the GOP in the uncomfortable position of casting doubt on the mission and the nation’s warfighters. It’s hard to unseat a GOP chairman, but Steele now is damaged goods with a correspondingly damaged ability to raise party funds. On National Review’s blog the Corner, Kevin D. Williamson calls for Steele to be replaced by Sarah Palin, saying she could “raise tons of money and help recruit good candidates.”
The public overwhelmingly thinks the United States needs a fundamental overhaul of its energy policies, and 59 percent expect alternative forms to replace oil as a major source within 25 years, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll. But 51 percent are unwilling to pay higher gas prices to help develop new fuel sources. However, 76 percent of those surveyed favor more government regulations on offshore drilling, and 49 percent said the risks were too great to increase offshore drilling (while 42 percent favored more drilling).
Good for the House Agriculture Committee for voting last week to ease trade and travel restrictions with Cuba. Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Hays, who was one of the sponsors of the legislation, said that the vote was “a victory for America’s farmers and ranchers.” Jerry McReynolds, a Kansas farmer who is president of the National Association of Wheat Growers, said that the United States is “long overdue to make commonsense changes to our policy concerning Cuba, which has done nothing but hamstring agriculture’s competitiveness in this neighboring market and hurt our agricultural economy.”
If Kansas respondents to a SurveyUSA poll were being honest, law enforcement shouldn’t have much need to stop drivers under the new primary seat-belt law. In the poll, sponsored by KWCH, Channel 12, a whopping 88 percent of drivers said they “almost always” wear their seat belt. (The Kansas Department of Transportation says the seat-belt usage rate is more like 77 percent.) Though 51 percent told SurveyUSA that the $5 fine for being caught without a seat belt was too low, 49 percent said they thought the new law would motivate more drivers to buckle up.
