All posts by kanelis2012

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GOP ‘playing with fire’ over debt limit

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is the latest Washington, D.C. official to turn himself into a Sunday news show hologram, making five appearances today on broadcast and cable TV to deliver a stern message.

Failure to increase the nation’s debt limit would be catastrophic to the economy, Lew said.

Is anyone listening on the Republican side of the aisle?

http://thehill.com/video/sunday-shows/326799-lew-congress-is-playing-with-fire

The debt limit stands at $16.7 trillion. If Congress doesn’t approve a measure to boost it by Oct. 17, the nation’s ability to pay its debts runs out. The United States would default on its obligations.

The Republican-led House of Representatives, though, is digging in on that one. The GOP wants to defund the Affordable Care Act so badly it has produced a partial government shutdown. GOP showboats like Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas say they’ll do “whatever it takes to defund Obamacare.”

Does that mean destroying people’s retirement accounts, downgrading the nation’s worldwide credit rating, forcing a stock market collapse? Is that what they mean by “whatever it takes”?

Lew’s message is stark. I happen to believe his prognosis. Does anyone in power in D.C. care about those of us out here who are going to pay the price for their foolishness?

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Ethics group takes aim at Neugebauer

You have to love an ethics watchdog group that challenges a blowhard politician for chastising a public service employee who simply was doing her job — as ordered by the very same blowhard politician.

At least I do.

http://www.ibtimes.com/randy-neugebauer-crew-wants-investigation-texas-gop-congressman-verbal-attack-us-park-ranger-video

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has filed an ethics complaint against West Texas Republican U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer of Lubbock who earlier this week scolded a national park ranger for keeping folks out of the World War II Veterans Memorial in Washington. She was acting on orders because of the partial government shutdown that Neugebauer voted to enact.

He confronted the ranger and told her she should be “ashamed” for refusing to let people into the memorial. Neugebauer was trying to score points because Honor Flight attendees were coming from Texas to tour the WWII memorial.

“My beef wasn’t with the park ranger,” the congressman told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal on Friday. “My beef is with the Park Service and with the administration.”

OK, fine. Why, then, did he believe it was necessary to scold the park ranger in public, have it recorded on video and then distributed around the world?

“Obviously, the Park Police employee had no role whatsoever in the decision to shut down the federal government,” CREW executive director Melanie Sloan wrote in her complaint letter. “Instead, as is well recognized, the shutdown was forced by members of the House of Representatives, including Rep. Neugebauer, who have refused to vote for a resolution to fund government operations unless the president acquiesces to an ever-changing series of demands, the most recent of which was a delay in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.”

Go get ‘im, CREW.

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Boehner’s backside is on the line

Poor John Boehner.

He wanted more than anything to be speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. He got his wish when Nancy Pelosi handed the gavel to him as the 112th Congress convened in 2011. But now he’s like the dog who kept chasing the car … but didn’t know what to do when he caught it.

The Republican speaker is being whipsawed by factions within his own party.

Does he “cave” to demand to end the government shutdown by agreeing to put a Democratic measure to fund the government to a vote? Doing so would anger the tea party clique that is calling the shots in the GOP caucus.

http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/03/20804176-john-boehners-legacy-on-the-line-in-shutdown?lite&ocid=msnhp&pos=1

Does he want to remain speaker or — as he insists — does he want to do what’s best for the country and get the government, all of it, back in action?

Therein lies his dilemma. He must appease the raucous minority within his own caucus or he must do what most of the rest of us want, which is to end this ridiculous stalemate.

He is the speaker of the House, which defines him as a very powerful politician. He’s second in line to the presidency, after the vice president. He can make the speaker’s office as weak or as strong as he wants.

My sense is that Boehner wants to be seen as a strong speaker in the mold of, say, Texas Democrat Sam Rayburn. He’s wired to cut deal with the other side, just as Rayburn was during his many years as speaker.

However, he’s got that faction within his own party that thinks it knows best. It doesn’t know anything. Its members have no institutional knowledge of what happened to their caucus the last time they orchestrated a government shutdown in 1995. They had their heads handed to them at the next election.

Another speaker, Newt Gingrich, knows what happened. He’s been trying to counsel his tea party pals about the folly of their mission. It’s been to no avail.

Meanwhile, the current Man of the House is being flummoxed. Poor guy. Maybe he shouldn’t have wanted to be speaker quite so badly.

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‘Civil war’ not a new thing in U.S. politics

Intraparty warfare has engulfed the Republican Party.

It’s the tea party vs. the establishment wing. Not sure yet who’s winning. To be honest, I don’t really care who wins this one. Rest assured, the GOP will emerge from it eventually. I’m not sure it will be any stronger as a result. Then again, I don’t really care about that, either.

It fascinates me, though, to see the GOP entangled in this imbroglio, this struggle for what’s left of its soul. Why? Because I thought I’d seen the worst of the worst political party civil wars. It happened to the Democrats back in the 1960s and early 1970s.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/republican-civil-war

Some of us remember those times. The Vietnam War was raging. It was hawks vs. doves back then.

The hawks were led by some stalwart Democrats. I can think of the late Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson of Washington and the late Vice President (and later Sen.) Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota — who, by the way, served in the Senate before being elected VP in 1964. The doves were led by equally stalwart Democrats, such as the late Sens. Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, George McGovern of South Dakota and (my first real political hero) Robert F. Kennedy of New York.

They fought equally hard for the soul of the Democratic Party. They all were patriots. They loved their country in equal measure, just as Republicans love their country today. They fought with each other back then over the terms of how we should prosecute and eventually end the Vietnam War.

One interesting similarity emerges between then and now. The Democratic hawks accused the doves of being not quite patriotic enough. Today, we hear the “tea party patriots” accusing establishment Republicans and even those dreaded Democrats of, um, being somewhat impure and tainted, that they aren’t the true believers.

The Democrats’ civil war ended eventually. It took a constitutional crisis, Watergate, to coalesce Democrats behind a winning candidate, Jimmy Carter in 1976. They hit a major bump four years later when the economy tanked and Iranian militants took Americans hostage on President Carter’s watch. Republican Ronald Reagan took the White House back in 1980. Bill Clinton recaptured it for the Democrats in 1992.

How will the current GOP battle end is anyone’s guess. The tea party is calling the cadence within the party, which still comprises some smart folks who know how to make government work.

I’m going to sit back and watch this one play out.

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TxDOT ends D/FW nightmare

The Texas Department of Transportation has brought an end to the nightmare of trying to get into Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport by automobile.

I read today that TxDOT has completed signage that’s supposed to make it clear — and not clear as mud — for motorists trying to find long- and short-term parking into the immense air terminal.

I know about these things, having been caught trying to blunder my way into a terminal to catch a flight from D/FW home to Amarillo.

Actually, my son was at the wheel at the time; my wife and I were passengers in his car. We circled the terminal seemingly forever before we accidentally found the off-ramp that led us to our destination, which we could see from the car; we just couldn’t find our way to it.

But I’m glad to know TxDOT has finished this job.

TxDOT is full of some smart civil engineers who I’m sure know how to make our travel lives easier while they construct, reconstruct and re-do our state’s roads and highways.

Some adequate construction signage would be a good start.

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‘Politicization’ of vets memorials continues

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is right when he urges all parties to avoid politicizing veterans memorials while part of the federal government remains shut down.

He talks a good game, but he and his colleagues play something quite different.

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/texas-on-the-potomac/2013/10/john-cornyn-dont-politicize-veterans-memorials/

Cornyn made his statements in front of the World War II Memorial. Then came Sen. Ted Cruz, Cornyn’s fellow Texas Republican, to welcome Honor Flight veterans from Texas to the memorial. What did Cruz do? He blamed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for the mess that has engulfed Washington.

Members of the House and Senate, by their presence at these memorials, in effect politicize their very existence and make pawns out of the veterans who come to visit them.

The National Park Service that runs these memorials has been forced to shut down because Democrats and Republicans cannot agree on a simple spending measure to fund their operation. Just the other day a West Texas congressional Republican, Randy Neugebauer of Lubbock, put on a disgraceful display of grandstanding by upbraiding a park ranger for doing her job, which was to keep people from entering one of these veterans memorials.

Was he politicizing the memorial? Ummm, yes.

I believe Sen. Cornyn and other members of both congressional chambers — from both political parties — should concentrate on settling this issue and avoid public displays that, by definition, lead to the politicization of solemn memorials meant to honor brave Americans who fought and died in defense of this country.

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Texas governor’s race about to get interesting

OK, here we go. Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis made official Thursday what most folks knew already, that she wants to become the next governor of her state.

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/10/03/wendy-davis-finally-jumps-governors-race/

I’m waiting now to hear more about what she thinks about issues other than a woman’s right to end a pregnancy, which is what vaulted to national fame earlier this year.

She talked in Haltom City about education and about restoring some sense of trust among Texans in their government, that Austin is as interested in rank-and-file Texans as it is in corporate donors and political action groups.

Davis is the one Democrat right now who can wrest control of the governor’s office from Republicans. I’m not suggesting she’ll win in November 2014; she’s just the best Democrat in the field at the moment.

Davis will face a formidable challenge against The Republican Candidate, whether it’s state Attorney General Greg Abbott (the current GOP favorite) or former state GOP chairman Tom Pauken (who’s running as the “true conservative”).

The smart money is pretty smart so far, thinking that Abbott is the prohibitive favorite. Davis now is virtual a shoo-in to be the Democratic nominee.

It’s been a good while since Texans have had an interest-grabbing race for governor. We have one now.

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Outburst makes me miss Larry Combest

Randy Neugebauer’s disgraceful outburst against a U.S. National Park Service employee has brought unflattering comparisons between the West Texas congressman and the man who preceded him in that office.

Neugebauer, a Lubbock Republican, confronted a park ranger this week as she was seeking to enforce a rule banning visitors from entering an open-air exhibit on the Washington D.C. Mall. The exhibit was the World War II veterans memorial and Neugebauer, whose votes in the House of Representatives contributed to the partial government shutdown now in its fourth day, upbraided the ranger for refusing to let people in. “You should be ashamed,” he told the ranger. The exchange was caught on video and has gone viral.

It was an idiotic example of what’s transpiring now in D.C. The people responsible for this mess are now becoming the chief grandstanders.

I thought of Republican Larry Combest, who represented the same 19th Congressional District from 1985 until 2002, when he resigned unexpectedly to return to private life.

Combest came from a different era. He is just as conservative as Neugebauer but he saw up close the good side of divided government. Combest once served on the late Sen. John Tower’s staff and he would tell me of the times Tower would argue ferociously with the likes of the late Sen. Hubert Humphrey, who was just as liberal as Tower was conservative. Tower and Humphrey would debate on the Senate floor and then walk out arm in arm after the session was gaveled to a close. The men were foes — never enemies — while they were on the clock, but friends when time expired.

Combest understood that. His best friend in the House was a Democrat, Charlie Stenholm of Abilene, with whom he served on the Agriculture Committee. Stenholm lost his congressional seat in 2004; his district was paired with Neugebauer’s district. The GOP-led Texas Legislature made sure Neugebauer would win by stacking the new district with true-blue Republican voters.

I’ve long wondered how Combest voted in that election.

I got to know Combest pretty well over many years. For a time, from the early 1990s until 2001, his congressional district included the Randall County portion of Amarillo. Thus, he was a frequent visitor to the newspaper where I worked. I don’t know Neugebauer; I know only of him. What I witnessed this week was thoroughly disagreeable.

I have tried in the past day or so to imagine Larry Combest confronting that park ranger. The image just doesn’t register. Gentlemen know better than to make spectacles of themselves.

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Moving more deeply into 21st century

I am proud to announce that as of today I have taken yet another baby step farther into the 21st century.

My wife and I purchased a hybrid automobile, one of those vehicles that runs on electricity and gasoline. We intend to get incredible fuel mileage from this little 2010 Toyota Prius. We’ll need to save our pennies, given that our beastly 3/4-ton Dodge Ram pickup — which we have nicknamed Big Jake — will be consuming plenty of fuel as we haul our fifth wheel travel vehicle hither and yon.

But that’s not the best part of my 21st-century journey. Oh, no. The cool thing I did today was get my cell phone programmed into this little buggy so that I can answer the damn thing while I’m driving my car.

It’s pretty simple. Phone rings, I hit the little button on the steering wheel with the picture of the phone receiver off the phone; then I talk. When the conversation is over, I hit the button below the first one and hang up; that button has a picture of a phone with the receiver sitting on it. No sweat, no strain.

Plus, I won’t be breaking the law if I try to fumble for my cell phone while driving the car. You see, Amarillo joined other cities in banning the use of hand held cell phones and other telecommunications gadgets while you’re driving a motor vehicle. I don’t know precisely how the Amarillo Police Department is enforcing this new rule, as I haven’t seen a cop pull a motorist over who’s been gabbing or texting while driving.

Whatever. No one will catch me breaking the law.

I’m proud of myself for continuing this journey into contemporary society. If they install technology, though, that allows drivers to text while driving, I’m afraid my head will explode.

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West Texas lawmaker shames himself

A West Texas member of Congress has done something I didn’t think was possible. He has shamed himself while seeking to shame another government employee.

U.S Randy Neugebauer, R-Lubbock, confronted a U.S. Parks Department employee today and told her she should be ashamed of herself for enforcing a rule handed down by Neugebauer and his congressional colleagues.

http://gawker.com/gop-congressman-makes-park-ranger-apologize-for-shutdow-1440577868

This demonstration of unbridled arrogance illustrates graphically the idiocy of what’s happening at this very moment in Washington, D.C.

Neugebauer, who represents the sprawling 19th District of West Texas, has been in Congress for a little while. He succeeded Larry Combest in the House after Combest resigned suddenly in early 2003. Neugebauer then sought a full term in a newly redrawn district against another West Texas stalwart, conservative Democratic U.S. Rep. Charlie Stenholm. Neugebauer won, thanks to the way the newly configured district was redrawn to favor the Republican.

Now he’s seeking to become a tea party darling. He’s been voting against funds for the Affordable Care Act and demands that it be repealed. His actions, along with many in the House, have helped create the situation that has brought us the government shutdown.

The Park Service is one of the agencies that’s been closed. The shutdown has forced park rangers to enforce a rule that prevents tourists from enjoying the parks.

And so Neugebauer confronts a park ranger and tells her she should be ashamed because she was doing the job she was ordered to do?

He has shamed himself.