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Ready for a GOP takeover?

Many of my friends, if not most of them, think I live, breathe and eat politics 24/7.

They may be right. One of them posed the question to me this afternoon: “Are you ready for a Republican takeover of the Senate?”

Yes. I am.

Do I predict it will happen when the midterm elections are concluded this November? Not necessarily, but it’s looking like a distinct possibility.

A few Democratic Senate incumbents might be in trouble. What’s more likely, though, is that Republicans will pick up seats that had been held by Democrats in GOP-leaning states. South Dakota is likely to from Democrat to Republican; so might West Virginia.

Meanwhile, Louisiana’s Democratic incumbent could lose to a GOP challenger. Arkansas was thought to be vulnerable to a GOP switch, but the Democratic incumbent there is making a comeback.

I’m not sure a GOP takeover of the Senate will be a bad thing. The Rs already control the House and pretty much have made a hash out of the governing process by its obstructing so many constructive initiatives.

If the GOP grabs the Senate, we’re looking at the possibility of Capitol Hill actually trying to govern. Recall the 1995 Congress, which turned from fully Democratic control to fully Republican. A Democrat, Bill Clinton, occupied the White House. The speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, turned almost immediately from fire-breathing zealot to someone who actually could deal with the president. He also had the Senate at his back.

Will history repeat itself? The current speaker, John Boehner, seems capable of striking deals — even though he has to say some mean things about the White House to placate the tea party wing of his party. If the Senate flips to GOP control, then we’ll see if the Republican-controlled Capitol Hill can actually produce legislation the president will sign.

Warning No. 1: If you seize control of Capitol Hill, you rascally Republicans, don’t try to toss the Affordable Care Act overboard. The president does have veto authority and you’ll need far more than a simple majority to override a presidential veto. The Supreme Court has upheld the law, which now is working.

Having said all this, I think it is simply wise to see what the voters decide in November.

The current crop of Republicans has shown quite a talent for overplaying its hand — e.g., the on-going ACA repeal circus, not to mention the IRS and Benghazi nonsense.

Although I am prepared for a GOP takeover, I am far from ready to concede it is a done deal.

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Some thoughts on Abramson

What am I missing here about Jill Abramson’s firing as executive editor of the New York Times?

I keep coming back to the threshold question: Was she doing the job or wasn’t she?

The NYT’s brain trust said she wasn’t, so they let her go.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/jill-abramson-wake-forest-graduation-nytimes-new-york-times-firing-106824.html?hp=t1

I saw commentators over the weekend suggest that Abramson was being held to a different standard because she’s a woman. Really? I’ve always adhered to the policy that if you’re doing what your bosses want, then you’re in the clear. If not, then you get whacked. Pure and simple. I don’t understand the double standard argument. Someone will have to help me out.

One more quick point.

Salary reportedly has become an issue of public discussion. I have no idea what Abramson earned as executive editor, or whether it equaled what her immediate predecessor, Bill Keller, earned.

Back when I was working full time as a journalist, I always was instructed that my salary was privileged information, to be known only by myself, my immediate supervisors and the person in charge of cutting the checks every pay period. I followed that policy to the letter during my more than three decades in daily journalism. I never told anyone my salary, nor did I ever ask anyone what they earned.

There were times over the years when I more or less put two-and-two together to presume what someone was earning, but I never — not a single time — discussed it openly.

Abramson got canned. As the sanitized version of the saying goes: Stuff happens.

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Button it up, Mr. VP

Dick Cheney continues to astound me.

The former vice president of the United States just won’t go away quietly. He keeps yammering and blathering about what a horrible job Barack Obama has done as president. He proclaims the president has demonstrated “weakness” in the face of foreign threats. He talks about the “danger” posed by the Obama foreign policy doctrine.

What utter crap!

Cheney the chicken hawk — who got all those draft deferments during the Vietnam War — keeps harping on the need for “military response” to any overseas crisis. Give me a bleeping break.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2014/05/18/cheney_obama_has_demonstrated_repeatedly_that_he_can_be_pushed_around.html

Cheney was at it again over the weekend, Monday-morning-quarterbacking recent moves by the Obama administration.

My hope would be that one day Cheney would follow the lead of the man in whose presidency he served, George W. Bush, and just clam up and let the one president we have do his job. President Bush, as has his father, George H.W. Bush, have been the models of post-presidential decorum as it regards the men who succeeded them in office.

In fairness, I cannot let slip a slap at President Clinton, who’s spouted his share of criticism at George W. Bush, who succeeded in him in the White House.

Presidents and vice presidents should assume a role of “elder statesmen,” which by definition keeps them elevated from the partisan political posturing that occupies current officeholders.

They’ve all had their time in the arena. They’ve all made mistakes. Yes, that means Vice President Cheney has made them, too — although he is so very loath to admit to the doozies that occurred on his watch.

Cheney’s post-vice presidential arrogance just is too much for me to take.

Put a sock in it, Mr. Vice President.

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Some scandals you take personally

Allow me this admission.

Some political controversies are more personal than others. Some of them skip across my radar and then they’re gone; others have this way of hitting you personally.

The Veterans Administration health care scandal hits quite close to home. White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said today that President Obama is “outraged,” and “mad as hell” over allegations that veterans have died while awaiting health care. The president vows to get to the very bottom of what’s going on, McDonough said, and vows to correct all of it.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-live/2014/05/mcdonough-obama-madder-than-hell-on-va-scandal-188734.html?hp=l1

There had better be some major fixes, even if it requires heads to roll — starting with Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, who I happen to admire greatly. If it turns out he was oblivious to what happened at those VA hospitals, then he should go.

At issue is whether a reported 40-plus vets died while waiting for health care in Phoenix, Ariz., and that their wait times were disguised by phony records.

Why do I take this matter so personally? I enrolled at the Amarillo VA medical center a year ago. My friends tell me it must be nice to get “free medical care.” I correct them: “No, it’s prepaid.” Two years in the Army purchased that health care and I expect the government to take top-notch care of all of us who served.

So far so good at the Thomas Creek Medical Center in Amarillo. I’ve been more than happy with the care I’ve gotten. There’s a provision to add: I haven’t yet gotten sick. I enjoy good health and to date my regular checkups have gone well. I appreciate the respect shown by the VA hospital staff.

But this scandal — and I’ll call it that, because it rises to that level — needs to be resolved quickly and thoroughly all at once.

I’ll accept Denis McDonough’s assessment that the commander in chief is “mad as hell.” He damn well better be angry. He also needs to demonstrate that anger in a timely and highly visible manner.

One top Veterans Affairs official is gone. There well might have to be more of them shown the door. There also should be criminal proceedings launched against anyone shown to be culpable in the deaths of those veterans.

Yeah, some of these scandals pack a more powerful punch than others. This one hurts.

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When a pristine peak blew its top

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP2dreOI8gI

Admit it. You’ve thought at least once in your life that there are things in this world you thought you’d never see, certainly not up close.

I’ve had a few of those thoughts in my life. But if you live long enough and are fortunate travel and see a few places around the world, you get to check many of those things off your “bucket list.”

I never thought I’d ever witness a volcano explode, even though I grew up in a part of the country — the Pacific Northwest — that features a range of mountains, the Cascades, that includes a string of dormant and extinct volcanos stretching from British Columbia to northern California.

On May 18, 1980, that all changed.

Mount St. Helens, a once-pristine peak that sits about 60 or so miles northeast of my hometown of Portland, Ore., erupted in a massive cloud of gas, ash, rock and magma. The prevailing wind took the massive cloud northeast over the Yakima Valley, Spokane, the Idaho Panhandle and over much of Montana.

The world had been following this story for months prior to the explosive moment. The U.S. Geological Service had sent a team of scientists to study the earthquakes that had been rumbling under the peak since February 1980. Washington Gov. Dixie Lee Ray had issued warnings to residents around the base of the peak to get out. Most of them did.

One who didn’t leave was a crusty old fellow named Harry Truman. “I ain’t goin’,” he’d say, or words to that effect. He and his cats stayed put and were buried under several hundred feet of volcanic mud.

It was a Sunday morning when the mountain blew. We didn’t see it actually explode from our house in Portland, as it was overcast that day … imagine that, eh? But it erupted and blew roughly 1,500 feet off the summit of what used to be a nearly perfect cone-shaped peak, one of several that dominates the horizon north and east of Portland.

We would see subsequent eruptions later that summer. One, in July, sent an ash cloud actually higher into the air that the May 18, 1980 cataclysmic blast. The mountain has experienced minor eruptive episodes in the years since and I believe the USGS still classifies St. Helens as an active volcano.

Arguably the most memorable quote of that remarkable moment came from a USGS scientist, who, when the mountain blew was perched on a ridge across Spirit Lake. David Johnston had been monitoring the mountain for weeks, reading seismic equipment and feeding data back to his headquarters in nearby Vancouver, Wash., just across the Columbia River from Portland.

Then the blast occurred, prompting Johnston to exclaim: “Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it!”

Then, in an instant, David Johnston was vaporized.

The rest of us remember the event well.

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'Share the road,' will ya, bikers?

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You’ve seen those yellow roadside signs with the motorcycle silhouette and the words “Share The Road.”

I get the admonition. I try like the dickens to share the road with all vehicles.

Then this happened today: My wife and I were tooling west on Plains Boulevard in Amarillo when a dude on a souped-up Harley came roaring by, exceeding the posted speed limit by, oh, maybe 20 mph. The sound startled my wife and me. He roared by.

It brought to mind a question my wife has asked many times over the years: Why are automobile motorists asked to “share the road” with motorcycle riders when so many motorcyclists seem unable or unwilling to drive respectably?

Good question.

I get the concern she’s expressing here. How often do we see motorcyclists darting in and out of traffic, switching lanes suddenly, often driving — as the fellow on that big ol’ Harley — much faster than the speed limit?

Now the motorcycle rider lobby wants the rest of us to “share the road” and give them proper respect?

I don’t need a sign campaign to remind me of the need to treat all motorists with respect. I only hope to witness a bit more respect paid back in return.

Granted, the vast majority of motorcyclists seem adequately respectful to those of us who drive cars and trucks. I am guessing most car-and-truck drivers respect motorcyclists as well.

While I’m on a rant, allow me one more observation.

The “Share The Road” campaign reminds me of the signs you see on the back end of 18-wheel trailers, which tell motorists “If I can’t see you in my rear-view mirrors, you’re following too closely.”

Interesting, yes? These warnings come from the world’s premier tailgaters, the drivers at the wheel of vehicles that need many times more distance to stop than Mom and the Kids in the minivan.

Oh, the hypocrisy of it all.

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No threat to freedom of speech

So … I’m watching a bit of news at work the other day when a colleague walks up and says of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, “I don’t think he should have to pay a damn thing for what he said. Whatever happened to freedom of speech?”

He wasn’t finished. Then he took off on the controversy over that New Hampshire police chief who called President Obama an “n-word,” and then said he wasn’t going to apologize for saying it. “He’s got a right to say what he wants,” my colleague said.

He said a bunch of other things. I chose not to engage him at that moment, as there were customers present.

I’ll answer him here.

Freedom of speech? He thinks it’s threatened by so-called “political correctness.” That’s what I got from him. If that’s the case, he’s wrong.

Donald Sterling has the right to say the things he did to his, uh, girlfriend. You know, the stuff about his disliking her hanging out with black athletes and bringing them to his basketball games. He can say those things.

The National Basketball Association to which he belongs as a team owner, however, has the right to impose certain codes of conduct upon team owners, players, coaches, ball boys and girls, and cheerleaders. Sterling broke the rules when he spouted off as he did with those reprehensible comments about African-Americans. His comments entered the public domain and the NBA has acted according to its bylaws.

It banned him for life, fined him $2.5 million and is pressuring other team owners to get him relieved of his team.

As for the n-word-spouting police chief, he also has the right to say what he said. He’s also a public official in a community that has the right to demand better of the people it pays with the taxpayer money.

The Constitution’s First Amendment isn’t in jeopardy here. It still stands. The Neanderthal cop and the sad-sack NBA team owner have just been caught saying things decent human beings shouldn’t say about other human beings.

Long live freedom of speech — and long live those who demand better of those who say disgraceful things.

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Bring on the Belmont!

How ’bout that California Chrome, winning the Preakness Stakes today?

My interest in horse racing has just increased manyfold. Why? Well, California Chrome has a chance to become the first Triple Crown winner since 1978.

Affirmed was the latest horse to win the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes.

Seattle Slew did it the year before. Secretariat won it in 1973 by smashing the Belmont field in that fantastic runaway 1,000-length victory … or at least it seemed that way.

Affirmed had to work real hard to win the Triple Crown, which in its way makes his victories even more memorial. Alydar, another great horse, raced Affirmed nose to nose every galloping step on the way only to come up short by, oh, that much.

Horse racing doesn’t never has piqued my interest much. It does, though, when a horse is in position to win the Triple Crown.

I know what I’ll be doing when they sound the bugle in Elmont, N.Y. I’ll be rooting for California Chrome.

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VA honcho quits

The health care scandal at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has claimed its first administrative victim.

Or has it?

Robert Petzel, the VA’s top health official, quit on Friday. Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki accepted his resignation.

But wait.

Petzel had announced his intention to leave the department before news broke about the scandal in Phoenix, where veteran reportedly have died while awaiting health care.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/veterans-affairs-resign-robert-petzel-health-official-scandal-106772.html?hp=l13

The White House has dispatched its deputy chief of staff to conduct a top-to-bottom review of Veterans Affairs health practices in light of this unfolding scandal. Shinseki has said he’s “mad as hell,” as has President Obama.

At issue is the wait time for veterans, who were supposed to be on an expedited list to receive health care, but instead were delayed at times for weeks and months. What’s more, the VA concocted bogus data that purported to show the vets were experiencing “normal” wait times. Turns out they weren’t, not by a long shot.

House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Fla., called Petzel’s resignation the “pinnacle of political doublespeak,” given that he had already planned to leave the department. He said his announcement “doesn’t pass the smell test.”

Someone needs to pass the air freshener.

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We owe our armed forces everything

You know, today would be a good day to offer a handshake and word of good wishes to someone you might see who happens to be wearing a military uniform.

It’s Armed Forces Day. Such public displays of respect and admiration would demonstrate just how far we’ve come as a nation and a people.

http://news.msn.com/us/surprise-military-homecomings#image=18

It wasn’t always this way.

Those of us who have served in the military in an earlier time remember how it used to be. Thank heavens the nation now displays openly its admiration for those who don the uniform and who thrust themselves into harm’s way — voluntarily, I should add — to protect and defend the nation they love.

The nation’s emotional attachment to our men and women in uniform turned dramatically during the Persian Gulf War of 1990-91. It was a brief, but decisive action. It came just 15 years after the Vietnam War, which didn’t end quite so well for the United States. Americans looked for a reason — as if it wasn’t there all along — to show support openly for the men and women who answered the call to liberate a nation from the grip of a dictator.

One of the elements of that rebirth that hasn’t gotten enough attention is that in many communities, the primary cheerleaders were Vietnam War veterans, many of whom had been had been slighted and scorned when they returned home from war. We were living in Beaumont during the Gulf War and we watched a stunning and lively parade of returning service personnel who had been activated. It did my heart proud to salute those young Americans as they rode by.

Moreover, it did my heart even prouder to salute a flatbed trailer full of Vietnam War vets as they soaked up the long-awaited affection they had deserved all along.

It’s Armed Forces Day. I hope to see someone in uniform today to tell them how proud I am of them and their service.

***

Indeed, while I’m at it, I want to give a shout-out to two members of my family — a cousin in the Army and a nephew in the Air Force — for their on-going service to this great and proud nation.

Thank you, Shani and Andrew.

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