GOP governors ended their meeting in Texas on Thursday by cautioning the party’s 2010 candidates to go easy on President Obama. “We need to be careful. We need to treat the president respectfully,” said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who chairs the Republican Governors Association, noting that the nation’s first African-American president enjoys a “residuary of good will.” Somehow it’s hard to imagine that warning will be heeded by conservative media or by conservative candidates in red states such as Kansas, where Obama’s approval rating was just 41 percent late last month (in a SurveyUSA poll co-sponsored by KWCH, Channel 12).
Some questions left over from Thursday’s editorial on the Kansas Coliseum’s uncertain future, in the wake of the Sedgwick County Commission’s vote against negotiating with any developer right now:
– How could the committee reviewing the proposals not take into consideration the fact that its preferred developer, North American Management-Kansas, also is involved in trying to get approval for a Native American casino nearby?
– The public outcry over the proposal last summer to close the Coliseum complex came from the groups that use its pavilions for dog, horse, gun shows and more. Where were the passionate defenders of the Britt Brown Arena? Do they have any ideas for how to keep it open and productive?
RealClearPolitics’ Tom Bevan and Mike Memoli have cast their imaginations beyond Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty, and drawn up a list of GOP dark horses for 2012: South Dakota Sen. John Thune (in photo), Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn and former Vice President Dick Cheney, and, calling them the “best of the rest,” Gen. David Petraeus and Reps. Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, Mike Pence of Indiana and Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.
Two takes on the prospects of a Sarah Palin presidential nomination in 2012, offered Sunday by participants on ABC’s “This Week” roundtable:
– “She’s a joke. I just can’t take her seriously. We’ve got serious problems in the country. . . . The idea that this potential talk show host is considered seriously for the Republican nomination. Believe me — it’ll never happen,” said New York Times conservative columnist David Brooks.
– “You cannot underestimate the degree to which women will be drawn to her story, and that’s who she’s speaking to. These are people who are ignored, who nobody counts into their thinking,” said Gwen Ifill, moderator of PBS’ “Washington Week.”
Meanwhile, only 28 percent of Americans surveyed think that Palin is qualified to be president, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll. And Newsweek is taking heat over its cover photo of Palin posing in running gear.
Given the conservative challenges in several states against incumbents who are viewed as RINOs (Republicans in name only), would Ronald Reagan, if judged on his record, be pure enough for the GOP circa 2009? Newsweek’s Evan Thomas noted that “Reagan piously gave lip service to the right-wing social agenda while doing nothing to further it by legislation; he also chose George H.W. Bush to be his vice president and allowed the ultrapragmatic James A. Baker III to run the White House.” MSNBC’s First Read blog further observed that Reagan “raised taxes” and “increased the size of the deficit.”
The strong emotions over the now-scrapped proposal for a central-northeast Lord’s Diner satellite extended to the Wichita City Council bench Tuesday, notably with the sharply worded expressions of regret by council members Sue Schlapp and Paul Gray. Now, those who opposed the idea of a soup kitchen at 21st and Grove need to deliver on council member Lavonta Williams’ assurances that the hungry will be fed and the city-owned building will not remain blighted. Calling it probably the “most complicated” issue of his time on the council bench, Mayor Carl Brewer challenged the neighborhood to be as passionate in solving the hunger problem as it was in fighting the proposal. “At the end of the day, we want every citizen that’s in need or that’s hungry to be taken care of,” Brewer said.
It’s not “treasonous,” as the blogosphere has suggested, but President Obama needs to stop bowing to foreign dignitaries. Not only does it look bad for the leader of the free world to bow to anyone, but his bow to Emperor Akihito of Japan over the weekend wasn’t even culturally correct, reported ABC News. One academic with knowledge of the Japanese Empire said the “handshake/forward lurch was so jarring and inappropriate” that it recalled President Bush’s back rub of the German chancellor. Then again, said the unnamed scholarly critic, “if Obama can get the dollar to stop bowing to the yen, I take it all back.” Obama similarly dipped at the waist in April upon meeting King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
Some of the members of John McCain’s presidential campaign are working hard to refute tales that his running mate, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, tells in her book, “Going Rogue.” Former Bush White House and McCain campaign aide Nicolle Wallace, for example, calls everything Palin says involving her “just fabricated.” Give McCain credit for trying hard to remain respectful of Palin and her family, in recent interviews and otherwise. According to NBC, the Arizona senator has specifically asked his former staffers not to do interviews to rebut Palin’s charges.
In a New York Post commentary, former Kansas GOP chairman Kris Kobach described Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to try five Guantanamo Bay detainees in civilian court as “blatantly political,” arguing that it “jeopardizes the interests of the nation.” Kobach, a former Bush Justice Department official who is running for Kansas secretary of state next year, criticized Holder for “blurring the line between ordinary crimes and acts of war,” for making New York City “an enticing target for terrorists around the world” (wasn’t it already?) and for delaying justice. “Once these terrorists are placed into the civilian justice system, an avalanche of motions from their lawyers will ensue,” he wrote. “Military commissions can avoid these delays.”
All 10 months of the Obama era have been a letdown in the view of Boston Phoenix columnist Steven Stark. He argues that the president has made rookie mistakes, shown a disinterest in governing and been surprisingly divisive. And “in his quest to surpass what he’s done before and reprise his role as the nation’s Moses,” Stark wrote, “Obama appears to be on the verge of an ‘historic’ remake of one-sixth of the American economy, namely health care — despite the fact that a solid majority of Americans oppose the change. Whatever the merits, pushing for major societal change without bringing society along is a guarantee of prolonged strife, and is as unprecedented in its own way as his election was. It is — dare we say it? — very George W. Bush-like in its disregard of the popular will; meaning that, in the ultimate irony, history may pair these two as mirror reflections of one another.”
School districts across the nation are caught between decreasing funding and rising expectations. Ron Steiger, assistant chief budget officer for the Miami-Dade County public schools in Florida, described in an Education Week commentary how his district dealt with a $50 million midyear state funding cut by shrinking the size of the central office staff by 25 percent, relocating employees to the classroom, and refocusing the budget on direct student support and smaller class sizes. “We benchmarked ourselves against other large districts, and made changes that saved millions on transportation, food service and school administration,” he wrote. “We drastically cut overtime and nonessential spending on supplies” — steps that help put the district “in its strongest financial position in a decade,” he said.
It isn’t easy to find ways to use dollars more flexibly, Steiger said: But “to create districts that can flexibly streamline during financial crises, we must start with open and honest conversations about where dollars are being spent, and why. That conversation is difficult and requires a great deal of political will, which, in our case, the superintendent and school board had.”
The following satirical headlines come from borowitzreport.com and theonion.com:
LOU DOBBS LEAVES CNN FOR CARTOON NETWORK
SENATE PASSES BLAME BY VOTE OF 91-8
OBAMA’S DECLARATION OF SWINE FLU EMERGENCY PROMPTS PRO-SWINE-FLU REPUBLICAN RESPONSE
STEVEN TYLER LAID OFF FROM AEROSMITH AS BAND’S JOBLESS RATE HITS 20 PERCENT
FOX NEWS REPORTS: MILLIONS OF GRANNIES FLEE U.S. AS DEATH PANELS LOOM; Glenn Beck: ‘Run for Your Lives’
NORTHWEST PILOTS NOT IN COCKPIT; Found at Home Hiding in Box; ‘Happy Ending,’ Airline Spokesman Says
Unlike the former vice president, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., wouldn’t describe President Obama’s decision-making on Afghanistan troop levels as “dithering,” but Roberts told Topeka TV station WIBW that Obama has “got to get off the dime. He’s got to make a decision.” While Obama goes through one comprehensive review after another, Roberts said, “you’re endangering the support of our allies, who wonder if we’re really going to be there. You’re certainly endangering our relationship with (Afghan President Hamid) Karzai, regardless of what you think of him, and I think you’re endangering a lot of young men and women who are under a great deal of pressure over there and their lives are at stake.”
The 2010 Legislature expects to re-examine the death penalty and debate a state smoking ban, as well as deal with a budget crisis. But it should be brief, noted Topeka Capital-Journal columnist Ric Anderson. “If there’s ever been a year for a short session, this is it,” he wrote. “Last year, it cost $78,158 per day for the Legislature to be in session. This year, the price tag will be slightly higher because of an increase in the per diem compensation given to lawmakers, which means a 90-day session would cost well more than $7 million. Cut the session to 45 days, though, and there’s $3.5 million that could be spent somewhere else in the budget. Granted, that’s a drop in the bucket when the latest projections show revenue is $235 million short, but every little bit helps.”
To encourage lawmakers to get in and out as quickly as possible, Anderson proposed “adopting a temporary rule change allowing legislators to throw their shoes at anyone who proposes frivolous proclamations or bills, like naming an official state spore or imposing a ban on declawing cats.”
“We’ve got a whole generation who will be negatively impacted . . . by the idiots and fools in Washington and Topeka that have been making policy.” — 2010 Commission member and former Kansas GOP chairman Dennis Jones of Lakin
“We’ve cut so deep in the meat, it’s tragic.” — Lawrence schools superintendent Rick Doll
“You can’t get blood out of a turnip. By joining it, we’re draining what resources we have left.” — Silver Lake school board president Sam Grant, who opposes joining another Schools for Fair Funding lawsuit against the state
“Almost half of Congress are millionaires. Isn’t that unbelievable? So, apparently, Congress is pretty good at managing their own money.” — Jay Leno
“CBS News is reporting that President Obama has decided to send 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Obama says it’s all part of his plan to finally deliver on the campaign promises made by John McCain.” — Jimmy Fallon
“Outspoken anti-immigration anchor Lou Dobbs is leaving CNN. . . . He’ll be replaced by a guy named Juan, who will do the same job for $5 an hour.” — Conan O’Brien
“On Monday, Oprah Winfrey and Sarah Palin will sit down and they’re going to talk for an entire hour. And I was thinking, too bad John McCain didn’t do that with her before he chose her as his running mate.” — David Letterman
On the same day that Democrats lost the New Jersey and Virginia governors’ mansions, the state-by-state push to limit taxes and spending lost momentum. Maine voters nixed a Taxpayer Bill of Rights measure 60 to 40 percent. Washington state voters defeated similar legislation 57 to 43 percent. In both cases, wrote Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, opponents “made a case for what government does, why it’s important and why cutbacks in public services can be harmful to citizens and the common good.” He further observed: “It’s true that Washington and Maine have been reliably Democratic in recent presidential elections. But this is precisely why the defeat of these anti-tax measures was so important. Anti-government crusaders were getting ready to argue that if TABOR measures could pass in blue states, theirs was the wave of the future.”
