While most of the attention on next year’s 4th Congressional District race has been on all the Republicans entering the field, Democratic state Rep. Raj Goyle has been raking in donations. He announced Tuesday that he had raised more than $403,000 during his first three months as a candidate. Half of the contributions were $100 or less.
As the Senate Finance Committee prepared to vote on its health reform bill this afternoon, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., got in touch with his Dodge City roots oratorically: “I am terribly concerned that we are riding hell for leather into a health care box canyon, full of spending quicksand, cactus tax hikes, policy briar patches, complete with CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) regulatory scorpions, rattlesnakes and bad news bears — something like riding your pickup over a whole tangle of barbed wire. And getting out of this, Mr. Chairman, and back on solid ground to make Medicare solvent is going to be a mighty rough and long ride.”
Reps. Jerry Moran, R-Hays, and Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, have been trying to out-conservative each other in their GOP primary contest next year for the U.S. Senate. Nearly every week, one or the other issues a press release aimed at appealing to some right-wing concern, real or imagined. Last week Moran introduced a resolution calling on President Obama to stop appointing “czars.” But as experts told a Senate panel last week, “czar” is a made-up media term, and such advisers have been common among past presidents. FactCheck.org determined that President George W. Bush had more such advisers than President Obama does. That caused Kenny Johnston, executive director of the Kansas Democratic Party, to observe: “For eight years Jerry Moran said nothing as Bush made a record number of executive appointments. To speak up now is nothing more than an attempt to court far-right primary voters.”
Kansas came in at eighth place on Washington Post blogger Chris Cillizza’s “top 10 list of best intraparty battles” in 2010. He wrote: “In small states where statewide openings come along once in a blue moon, the battle for the nominations are often epic. The primary between Reps. Jerry Moran and Todd Tiahrt is no exception. Both men have spent more than a decade serving in Congress and know each other’s voting records up and down. And the arrows are already being shot; to hear their detractors tell it, Moran is an indecisive Hamlet while Tiahrt is way out of depth in a statewide race. Both men have a legitimate path to the nomination and whoever wins the primary almost certainly will be the state’s next senator, given the atrocious record of Democrats winning statewide federal races in Kansas and the desultory Democratic field.”
There is much to be wary of in the energy bill that passed the House, but its national renewable energy standard, or RES, deserves the support of Kansas’ congressional delegation. That point got some welcome emphasis last week at the Kansas Wind and Renewable Energy Conference in Topeka, where Gov. Mark Parkinson encouraged attendees to lobby lawmakers accordingly. “Please do not assume that because your congressperson or senator comes before your group or your community and says they support wind power, that that means anything. If they’re not voting for an RES, they’re not supporting wind power. That’s the bottom line,” said Parkinson. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., supported an RES in a committee earlier this year, but a full Senate vote is pending. Kansas Republican Reps. Todd Tiahrt, Jerry Moran and Lynn Jenkins voted against the energy bill in June, and have expressed concerns about higher energy costs.
“It looks like some kind of pregnancy for south Wichita, I’m telling you.” — Vice Mayor Jim Skelton (in photo), arguing that the state should not allow the Cornejo & Sons construction and demolition landfill to grow
“What we don’t need to happen in Kansas is for an extremist brand of the out-of-touch politics of the Bush years moving into the governor’s office.” — Lt. Gov. Troy Findley, surprising people at the recent Demofest in Wichita with an obvious jab at Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.
“We’ll have good candidates. There’s plenty of time.” — State Treasurer Dennis McKinney, on Kansas Democrats’ prospects for 2010
“If you’re running for Congress or statewide office, you needed to start working last January.” — Rep. Scott Schwab, R-Olathe, questioning how Democrats can be competitive
“Thank goodness my GOP doesn’t look like old white guys who stand for bailouts, the French tanker and amnesty-McLame indeed!” — Vicki Tiahrt, wife of Rep. Todd Tiahrt, in a Twitter comment critical of Sen. John McCain and other endorsers of Rep. Jerry Moran for U.S. Senate
Rep. Jerry Moran (left), R-Hays, has opened up a significant lead over Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, in next year’s U.S. Senate race, according to the latest SurveyUSA poll, co-sponsored by KWCH, Channel 12. The survey has Moran leading Tiahrt 43 to 27 percent. Two caveats: The GOP primary is still 10 months away, so a lot can change. And the survey includes some unaffiliated voters, who would have to register as Republicans in order to vote in the GOP primary (though Moran still leads Tiahrt by 14 points among Republicans surveyed).
Of note in the survey, Moran leads Tiahrt among self-described pro-life voters by 10 points and among gun-owning voters by 16 points — two significant bases of support for Tiahrt. Moran also leads by 29 points among voters under age 50.
Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, wants to revoke ACORN’s tax-exempt status. But in making that case, Tiahrt doesn’t need to follow the example of talk-radio hosts and exaggerate the link between ACORN and President Obama. In a statement Tiahrt read recently on the House floor, he claimed that ACORN was “the political machine of President Obama” and said that Obama paid ACORN more than $800,000 to “help him win the White House.” But as FactCheck.org determined, Obama has had minimal association with ACORN since he helped represent the group and other plaintiffs in a “motor-voter” case in 1995. Obama’s campaign did pay ACORN $800,000 during the Democratic primary as part of a “get out the vote” effort. But that’s 0.1 percent of the more than $700 million Obama spent during the 2008 campaign.
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., is an architect of one of the better tools available to pressure Iran about its nuclear program. On “Fox News Sunday,” Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., noted that he and Brownback have a bill to “allow pension fund entities around the country to divest pension fund assets out of companies that are doing business with Iran’s energy sector, up to a $20 million level.” When the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act was introduced in May, Brownback said: “We must take every possible step to pressure the Iranian regime to abandon its illegal pursuit of nuclear weapons, its global sponsorship of terrorism and its brutal oppression of the Iranian people. Divestment can and should play a key role in this effort.”
It sounds like a fine idea — getting members of Congress to take a pledge to read “every word” of every bill before voting on it. But the Read to Vote “proposal would bring government to a standstill,” the Washington Post editorialized. Reading all 1,427 pages of the Waxman-Markey energy bill would take at least 12 hours. Realize that the House handled 7,441 bills and joint resolutions during the 110th Congress, and you can see the problem, especially if legislators also are expected to go to hearings, meet with constituents, help craft bills and conduct other business. Though big bills should not be rushed to a vote without time for review, the editorial argued, members of Congress need not be “shuttered for half of every workday just to read through ‘every word’ of every bill that might come to a vote. At some point, it’s fine for members of Congress to rely on expert staff members.” To their credit, though, Kansas Republican Reps. Todd Tiahrt, Jerry Moran and Lynn Jenkins are among the 118 members of Congress who’ve taken a separate pledge to read any health care reform legislation before they vote on it.
September was a rough month for President Obama in Kansas, judging from the latest SurveyUSA poll co-sponsored by KWCH, Channel 12. Only 39 percent of Kansans surveyed approve of the job he’s doing, down six percentage points in a month and down 23 points since he took office. The month ended with approval ratings for Sens. Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback slipping a few percentage points to 54 and 48 percent, respectively. Gov. Mark Parkinson saw his approval number rise four points to 53 percent, the highest in his five months in office.
– “In hindsight, thank goodness that I lost. My life would have been incredibly different.” — Gov. Mark Parkinson, reflecting on losing his first legislative race by 36 votes in 1978 when he was a junior at Wichita State University
– “Apple pie doesn’t get that.” — Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., speaking in Hesston, about a Gallup Poll showing that 80 percent are satisfied with the quality of their health care
– “Yo Westboro Baptist Church! I’m happy for you and Imma let you finish, but Adolf Hitler was the best anti-Semite of all time!” — A sign (inspired by Kanye West) countering the Topeka church’s recent protests outside Brooklyn synagogues
– “If everybody in this country didn’t smoke, ate right and exercised, we would have plenty of money to cover health care in this country.” — Former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, while at KU to accept the 2009 Dole Leadership Prize
“If the Democrats in the House and in the Senate think that the American public wants to have the government take over health care, then I think it will be at their own peril.” — Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, on Fox News
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., argued that a 72-hour delay between the Senate Finance Committee’s markup and vote on a health care reform bill was needed to give time for “the people that the providers have hired to keep up with all of the legislation that we pass around here, and the regulations that we pass around here, to say, ‘Hey, wait a minute. Have you considered this?’” That’s a reasonable suggestion, as lobbyists are an important part of the legislative process.
But the Democratic National Committee produced an ad claiming Roberts’ comments revealed how the GOP is protecting the health insurance industry. The “Colbert Report” on Comedy Central lampooned Roberts’ “bold admission” that the delay is really about giving time for health care lobbyists to change the bill. Host Stephen Colbert congratulated Roberts for coming “out of the closet” about his committed relationship with the pharmaceutical and insurance industries, noting the campaign donations Roberts has received from both groups. “I say, ‘Good for you, sir,” Colbert said of Roberts. “The truth shall set you free.”
The Kansas Democratic Party posted a YouTube video of Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, making another misstatement at a recent town hall meeting on health care. This time, Tiahrt said that a committee was going to determine what every doctor would make, and that the salaries would be between $85,000 and $95,000. But as FactCheck.org has reported, that’s not true. If there is a public insurance option, the government would set reimbursement rates, as it does for Medicare and Medicaid and as private insurance companies do. But nothing in the bill would set salaries for doctors.
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., was among the GOP lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee who rejected out of hand the health care reform compromise offered by committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont. Roberts said he had no confidence that the compromises ultimately would be honored. “All indications are that this bill will be pulled increasingly toward more cost, more regulations and more rationing as it continues through this process,” Roberts said Tuesday. He also downplayed the size of the health insurance problem, saying that the reforms would “gain insurance coverage for a relatively small number of uninsured Americans” and that “in Kansas and throughout this country, people largely just want to be left the heck alone.”
Kansas’ three GOP House members voted last week against a bill that
would stop subsidizing private lenders that provide federally guaranteed
student loans, and would use the estimated $80 billion in savings over
10 years to increase student grants and funding for other education
programs. Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, criticized the bill as another
government takeover that would leave families with fewer options and
more red tape. “We need to turn toward proven, free-market principles
and encourage job growth within the private sector,” he said in a
statement.
But Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., argued: “We were paying these
exorbitant subsidies to bankers who were taking government money,
loaning it to somebody else, getting government guarantees that the
loans would be paid back, and then taking all these profits.” Washington
Post columnist E.J. Dionne wrote that the loan program is “already a
government program. The bill simply eliminates corporate welfare.”
No surprise that a mailer for the U.S. Senate campaign of Rep. Todd
Tiahrt, R-Goddard, described his commitment to “fight for the rights of
the unborn.” But the names on the mailing list reportedly included Scott
Roeder, awaiting trial on charges of killing Wichita abortion doctor
George Tiller. “Oh, great,” a campaign spokesman told the Kansas City
Star. “We’ll make the vendor aware of it.”
Gov. Mark Parkinson told the Hutchinson News last week that Guantanamo Bay detainees “were never coming to Kansas.” He said that he received assurance more than a month ago that Fort Leavenworth wasn’t a likely destination. A Hutch News editorial criticized Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts for “whipping up some frenzy about Gitmo detainees potentially coming to Kansas,” and for blocking Obama administration appointments over the issue. “Brownback’s and Roberts’ theater smacks of cheap, and childish, politics,” the editorial said.
The multiplying endorsements in Kansas’ GOP primary for U.S. Senate are testing the assumption that the race pits a conservative, Rep. Todd Tiahrt, against a moderate, Rep. Jerry Moran. The Daily Kos observed: “Jim DeMint, best known as the most right-wing member of the U.S. Senate (and last seen endorsing Joe Wilson’s embarrassing tantrum against the president last week), endorsed Moran. This qualifies as a pretty big surprise, as the consensus had long been that Tiahrt was the more conservative of the two.” The Swing State Project blog noted that Moran also got conservative Sen. Tom Coburn’s endorsement last spring, and “the somewhat more mainstream figures of John McCain and Richard Burr will also headline Moran fundraisers in D.C.”
Good for Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., for renewing his push to get the federal government to honor its commitment to fully fund special education. Roberts and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, reintroduced a bill to increase federal funding over six years until the federal government fully funds special education, as it promised to do when it approved the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act in 1975. This year, thanks to an infusion of one-time stimulus money, federal funding will pay for 34 percent of special ed costs. “Congress made a promise to our schools and our children to share the cost of special education,” Roberts said in a statement. “It’s time that Congress relieve our state and local governments of the financial burden they have been forced to shoulder, especially in these tough economic times.”
“The next two years will make that look like child’s play.” — Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh (in photo), on the budget troubles of the 2009 legislative session
“I don’t know exactly how you define hypocrisy, but this may be close.” — Ellis County Democratic Party chairman Glenn Staab, on Sen. Sam Brownback’s touting the $1.7 million for a rail spur for the Siemens plant in Hutchinson from the stimulus package, which he voted against
“I thought the 11th Commandment might be, ‘Thou shalt not socialize.’” — North Newton resident Bruce Bradshaw, writing in the Newton Kansan about the talk of socialism at a recent Tiahrt town hall
Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts crossed the line when they blocked appointments to key administration positions, including the new secretary of the Army, in an effort to prevent Guantanamo Bay detainees from being transferred to Fort Leavenworth. So it was good that the Kansas senators removed their procedural hold Wednesday. They said in a statement that they were able to share their concerns with administration officials. “We are confident that because of this good-faith dialogue, detainees will not be transferred to Fort Leavenworth,” they said.
An Opinion Line contributor wondered why Rep. Todd Tiahrt and Sens. Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback hadn’t commented on Rep. Joe Wilson’s “You lie!” cry at President Obama last week. Well, Tiahrt, R-Goddard, and the other Kansans in the House did weigh in Tuesday, with their votes on a House-passed resolution of disapproval against Wilson’s outburst. Tiahrt voted “no,” as did Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Hays, and Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Topeka, and 164 other Republicans and 12 Democrats. Rep. Dennis Moore, D-Lenexa, voted “yes,” as did 232 other Democrats and seven Republicans.
Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, co-wrote a letter to President Obama with Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., pointing out how the U.S. trade representatives recently won a World Trade Organization ruling against Airbus for illegal subsidies, yet the U.S. Air Force is still considering purchasing refueling tankers from Airbus. “Our federal trade policies and defense procurement policies should work in coordination, not conflict,” the letter said. “We believe that American taxpayers must not be forced to foot the bill for products which benefited from illegal subsidies.”
