I’m not a big fan of U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich. It’s not that he’s done anything grossly objectionable, it’s merely that he’s flown mostly under my radar during all the years I’ve been interested in civic affairs.

But he said something the other day that resonates. The longest-serving – ever – member of Congress said Capitol Hill has gotten too nasty, too mean, too bitter, too partisan, too angry, too … well, take your pick.

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/305521-toasted-as-longest-serving-dingell-urges-greater-civility-in-congress

He longs for a return to the days when Democrats and Republicans used to work together for the common good, such as when Democratic President Lyndon Johnson worked hand in hand with Republican U.S. Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois to get the Voting Rights Bill passed in the mid-1960s. Dingell was there for it.

It’s a new day now. We have the likes of, oh, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas questioning decorated Vietnam War vets’ appreciation for the military. Remember when then-Democratic U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York launched into a frothing, screaming soliloquy on the House floor, calling his GOP colleagues every name in the book?

Dingell remembers a day when both politicians of both parties were Americans first and Democrats or Republicans second. These days it’s the other way around.

Effective governance doesn’t function well under the current toxic environment.

I have concluded this about Republican politicians: They should shut their pie holes when the subject of abortion comes up.

U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., is the latest Republican inductee into the Political Hall of Shameful Comments They Wish They Could Take Back.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/12/rep-franks-tries-to-clear-up-rape-comment/?hpt=hp_bn3

Franks said the other day that the “incidents of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low.” He was speaking about a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks. The bill does not exempt pregnancies that result from rape, an event that Franks said doesn’t warrant an exemption because there are so few of them.

Hmmm.

OK, now he says his comments were “taken out of context,” that he meant to reference rape-caused pregnancies in which the baby is in the womb for more than six months.

We all know by now what two other recent GOP pols said about rape. Former U.S. Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri said infamously in 2012 that women’s bodies have a way of preventing pregnancy after the woman is raped, making a ridiculous reference to what he called “legitimate rape.” Then came former Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock’s comment that a pregnancy caused by a rape was “God’s will.” Both men lost their bids for higher office.

Now we have Trent Franks stepping into a realm into which he knows nothing.

I don’t particularly care how Franks intends to “clarify” his remarks. He has spoken stupidly about the hottest of hot-button issues.

In the future, when the topic of abortion comes up, simply do this: Shut. Up.

We all love firefighters. They put their lives on the line whenever the alarm goes off. They’re the real deal.

This morning, I witnessed a brief exchange between a group of Amarillo firefighters and a little boy who I guess is around 4 or 5 years of age.

The firemen, about eight of them, were shopping for groceries at the United Supermarket at 45th and Bell around 10:30 a.m. The little boy saw them in the produce department and spoke out, apparently recognizing that they were firemen; I’m not sure how he would know that, as they weren’t wearing their fire-proof suits and hats, so I’m guessing someone said something to him.

Some of the firemen walked over the youngster to engage him in some conversation. The youngster’s grin said so much.

I think I overheard one of the men ask the boy if he wanted to be a firefighter someday. I’m pretty sure the boy said yes. “Give me a high five,” one of the firemen said to the youngster, who happily obliged.

Those men made one youngster’s day.

And to be honest, just by watching what happened, they made mine, too.

Well done, fellas, and thanks for your service to the community.

It always intrigues me that whenever Panhandle media make note of the region’s legislative delegation, they find a way to omit the name of one of its best.

State Sen. Bob Duncan, a Republican who lives in Lubbock, is on Texas Monthly’s list of 10 best legislators. Duncan’s Senate district sprawls through much of West Texas’s South Plains region, but it does include a tiny corner of the Panhandle.

It’s good – for me, at least – to know the region is represented by someone who’s held in fairly universal esteem by those who watch Texas government’s wheels grind along.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/best-and-worst-legislators-2013

None of the Panhandle’s other lawmakers made the “Best” or “Worst” lists. Good to know that our delegation isn’t embarrassing itself – and the rest of us – by “honored” with dubious distinctions such as being on the “10 Worst” list published every other year by Texas Monthly. But it is disappointing, at least a little, to see that we haven’t made the “Best” list this year.

We don’t lack for hard-working legislators. Republican state Reps. John Smithee and Four Price of Amarillo are serious fellows who take their jobs seriously. Smithee’s been doing it longer (since 1985) than any of the Panhandle delegation and, thus, has earned the title of “dean” of the bunch. Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, the “other” Panhandle senator, also is a serious fellow who has yet to make a splash big enough for the Texas Monthly gurus to notice.

It’s not that Texas Monthly is the end-all to this kind of recognition. It’s just that the magazine’s lists are cause for celebration or derision when their names are revealed.

I’ll now give a hand-clap to Bob Duncan, one of the best of the state’s 181 state legislators. He’s one of ours to boot.

In my new job, I’ve been advising young men and women that they should value their true friends, because they are so rare. Cherish them, I say, because they will be the individuals you’ll count on when you need them, or when so much time passes that you can renew your relationship as if no time at all had passed.

I had the distinct pleasure just the other day of renewing my relationship with three fine men. Dennis, Mark, Tim and I got together for the first time in a decade to laugh our backsides off at some of the goofy things we did as kids and to poke fun at some of the individuals we encountered back in The Day.

I’ve known these guys about as long as I’ve known anyone. Dennis and I go back to the seventh grade, where we were enrolled in the same junior high school home room. Mark and Tim came along just a few years later, but we hit it off immediately as our paths crossed at the McDonald’s restaurant that employed all of us.

Well, we gathered once more in Portland, Ore., where we all came of age. The visit was brief, just one evening, which we spent at Tim’s brother’s house and then on to a night club in Hillsboro, a Portland suburb that used to be a country burg, but which has grown into a city of nearly 100,000 residents.

We listened to some rock-and-roll music from a band that included Tim’s brother, Jay, on the drums. I knew about Jay’s drumming skills, but saw them in the flesh for the first time just the other night. The boy can play.

Communities change, yes? But friendships – the kind the four of us have forged – remain intact. I cherish them all.

I was sitting this morning in the terminal at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston when I witnessed and overheard the following:

An airport employee pushed a woman to the gate in a wheelchair. The woman in the chair appeared to be of Muslim faith, as she was wearing a scarf that covered her hair. The airport employee parked the woman at the end of a row of seats and then bid her goodbye by saying the following: “God bless you, even though you’re a Muslim. God bless you.”

I looked up … and laughed out loud. I don’t believe the airport employee heard me, as she just kept on walking away. But a fellow across the way did. We exchanged smiles and head shakes. I asked him, “Did I just hear what I thought I heard?” He nodded yes.

I believe I witnessed a well-intended remark jump seriously off the rails.

Nice try, Mme. Airport Employee … but you missed the mark.

E.W. Jackson is running to become lieutenant governor of the 12th-most populous state in the United States of America.

He’s the nominee of a party dominated by white males. He’s an African-American clergyman.

I submit that if this the GOP’s idea of outreach in an effort to broaden its base, it has just taken a gigantic step – make that many gigantic steps – backward.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/05/republican-candidate-evolution-false-because-chimps-cant-talk/

The stuff that’s pouring out of this gentleman’s mouth is simply stunning, as the attached link illustrates.

I’m rendered virtually speechless by the rants put out by this individual.

Here’s another link that explains how Jackson believes yoga leads to satanic possession:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/05/ew-jackson-yoga-satanic-possession_n_3392386.html

Jackson also has said President Obama views the world through a “Muslim perspective,” and has compared Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan.

This, folks, represents precisely the wrong kind of outreach for a once-great political party.

President Obama has just announced two of the more interesting appointments I’ve seen for as long as I can remember.

What interests me about them is that they come at the same time and they both seem to be the president’s response to critics’ scathing commentary on two simmering controversies.

Susan Rice is leaving her job as United Nations ambassador to become head of the National Security Council. Samantha Power will succeed Rice as U.S. ambassador to the U.N.

Rice donned the bulls-eye when she began reciting the Obama administration’s talking points after the Benghazi, Libya fire fight in September 2012 that resulted in the deaths of four American diplomats, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens. Never mind that Rice, as U.N. ambassador, wasn’t privy to all the details leading up to the event. She spoke badly about the events and was left, to borrow a Watergate phrase, to “twist slowly on the wind.” She’s become a target – along with the president and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – of congressional Republican critics ever since.

Her appointment as national security adviser does not need U.S. Senate approval.

Power is a writer and an academic who began her professional career as a journalist, covering the war in Yugoslavia. Why is this so interesting? Because the president and Attorney General Eric Holder are in hot water with the media over the Justice Department’s seizing of Associated Press reporters’ and editors’ phone records. Media executives are still steamed over that one. Power’s appointment appears possibly to be an attempt to head off some of that anger.

Power’s appointment does recover Senate confirmation and she’s expected to be confirmed.

My trick knee is telling that – with these appointments – Barack Obama is going to hunker down for a long and bruising battle with congressional Republicans at least through the 2014 mid-term elections. More than likely, the battle won’t end there, but will end on the day the president’s time in the hot seat concludes.

It looks as though Alex Rodriguez’s ticket to the Baseball Hall of Fame has just been canceled.

Or it’s about to be, if Major League Baseball does what it is threatening to do, which is suspend the tainted New York Yankees superstar for using performance enhancing drugs.

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/06/04/mlb-preparing-to-suspend-ryan-braun-alex-rodriguez-and-others-involved-in-biogenesis-clinic/related/

A-Rod, once thought to be baseball’s new home run king – once he passed Barry Bond’s total of 762 career home runs – well could be finished as a professional baseball player. He’s been hurt and hasn’t yet played this year. He has 647 HRs so far in his career. That could be where it ends.

He’s not the only superstar who’s facing suspension. Another one is Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers, a one-time National League most valuable player who once was cleared of an earlier allegation of PED use.

Where does all this go? Straight to the tabloids if these suspensions come through.

For me – who once used to follow baseball intently long before the advent of free agency, zillion-dollar contracts and suspicions of cheating – I’ve just about had enough of reading about these clowns.

Bonds left the game under a seriously dark cloud. He hit more home runs than anyone else, but there is not a shred of doubt in my mind that he cheated his way to the top of the HR ladder. Those suspicions among knowledgeable baseball observers kept him far short of Hall of Fame entry when they counted the ballots earlier this year.

What’s more, Henry Aaron is still the home run king in my eyes.

A Texas tea party “patriot” says he misspoke about Republicans’ desire to keep African Americans from voting.

Just when I thought the tea party crowd was revealing its true colors …

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/06/04/gop-distances-itself-tea-party-leaders-remarks/

Ken Emanuelson admitted that he made a mistake when he said the GOP doesn’t want African Americans to vote because they usually vote overwhelmingly Democratic, according to the Texas Tribune.

The Tribune reported it this way: “That was a mistake,” he said in an email. “I hold no position of authority within the Republican Party and it wasn’t my place to opine on behalf of the desires of the Republican Party.”

Emanuelson’s initial comment drew a strong rebuke from Texas Democrats and state Republican leaders sought to distance themselves from his remarks.

I truly want to believe him when he says he misspoke. But something deep down makes me wonder if the tea party wing of the Republican Party actually harbors some kind of desire to inhibit voting among demographic groups that favor those dreaded Democrats.

African Americans aren’t the only such group. Labor unions lean Democrat; so do Hispanics, the fastest-growing minority in the country and in Texas potentially the most powerful group of voters. Suburban women? Sure thing.

I’m struck by the struggles that the late Sen. Barry Goldwater’s press flack used to wage whenever the fiery Arizona Republican would spew some of his more passionate rhetoric. “What the senator meant to say” became something of a mantra for Goldwater’s PR team.

In most cases, it’s not that the person who says such things disavows precisely what he or she has said, it’s that he or she simply regrets being careless enough to say it.