News opinion 2008-04-26 Andanh.com

Limit legislators' ethical conflicts Tue, 22 Apr 2008 02:06 EDT
Rep. John Will Stacy, D-West Liberty, told Herald-Leader reporter John Cheves that "any legislator, if he's an automobile dealer or if he works for some kind of public agency, like a university, you know, he's obviously going to try to help that entity. I mean, that's his job as a legislator."

Well, no, not really.

But you'd never know it from the Kentucky General Assembly.

One in five legislators have sponsored measures that would directly benefit their outside businesses, investments, employers or industries, according to a Herald-Leader analysis.

The legislature could shore up public confidence and improve its own tarnished image by enacting restrictions on members carrying legislation that benefits their own industries or employers. Same goes for awarding committee chairmanships to lawmakers with such conflicts of interest.

Vote Smart survey Tue, 22 Apr 2008 02:06 EDT
If one wonders how a lawmaker would put self-interest over public good, look first at the general unwillingness of political candidates to tell voters what they believe.

Only five of 28 candidates for Kentucky's congressional seats were willing to answer questions in a national, non-partisan survey. That's 18 percent.

Of the total 195 candidates for the General Assembly, only 28 took the time to respond. That's a return rate of 14 percent.

Kentucky candidates continue to be among the lowest responders of any state to the Political Courage Test, designed by journalists, political scientists and representatives of major and third parties.

The test has been distributed for more than a decade by Project Vote Smart, a research group whose founders include Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Newt Gingrich, Barry Goldwater, John McCain and Geraldine Ferraro.

War minutes Tue, 22 Apr 2008 08:15 EDT

Water projects will benefit our community Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:21:46 -0500
It was good news for our area that the General Assembly approved state funding for two major county water projects and allowed for an alternative water supply study for Bowling Green Municipal Utilities. The Warren County Water District will receive $1.45 million to install a 2 million gallon, elevated water tank and water line on Three Springs Road. This is good news for this area and its residents considering the rate at which this area is growing. Over the past few years, the district has added 600 to 800 new customers a year. Currently, the district has 23,600 customers, 1,600 of which are commercial and industrial users. The tank will help improve water pressure for residents south of Natcher Parkway in Hidden River Estates and other neighboring subdivisions, as well as allow treated water to keep flowing to customers in cases of power outages or other situations. The tank will take care of this area for the next 40 to 50 years. The district has also received $500,000 to increase transmission capacity in the Nashville Road area. Area legislators and others deserve praise for getting funds allocated for this important project. The funding is still not immune to a veto by Gov. Steve Beshear, but we hope that he realizes the importance of this project to our community and doesn’t veto it. Without the funding from the state, the water district would have had to raise customers’ rates. We are hopeful that won’t be the case. Bowling Green Municipal Utilities was also received funding from the state. BGMU will receive two allotments of funding for a water study, one for $150,000 and another for $200,000. The study will look at the feasibility of saving some water behind the Barren River Lake dam for BGMU. In times of need, BGMU would be able to call upon the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to release some of its allotted water. This would definitely come in handy if we were to experience a drought like much of the Southeast endured last summer.

Debates in peril Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:21:26 -0500
There may not be any more presidential debates between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, partly because of the bad aroma that ABC’s interrogation prior to Pennsylvania’s primary left behind in many noses. In fact, when you consider the rising risks that televised debates pose in the age of YouTube, especially for frontrunners, we’ll be lucky to see any more presidential debates at all. North Carolina’s Democratic Party has cancelled the debate that CBS had hoped to broadcast on April 27, in advance of the state’s May 6 primary. It was expected to be the last of what seems to be an endless string of primary face-offs. Clinton had agreed to it, but Obama wouldn’t commit. Clinton’s campaign criticized Obama for that, but he shrugged off the criticism. He told reporters that he would rather spend his time meeting directly with voters. Considering the pummeling he took on ABC, who could blame him? Besides, he said, after 21 debates the two candidates can recite each other’s lines by heart. Right. That’s the trouble. If they did recite each other’s lines, the two liberal Democrats wouldn’t sound all that different from how they sound now, at least, not on the big important issues. As a result, they almost invite questions about the small stuff, the hot-button “gotcha” questions that make exciting television. Obama looked like he’d rather be anyplace other than the Pennsylvania debate, a heat-seeking scandal probe moderated by ABC anchormen Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos. For about half of its 90 minutes, Obama faced questions that gave more importance to whether he likes wearing American flag lapel pins than how he would deal with job losses, health care, the Iraq war or rising fuel prices. Clinton seemed only slightly more at ease as she pushed herself through yet another explanation and apology for exaggerating the sniper fire she never actually encountered in Bosnia. E-mails of complaint poured into ABC and later into North Carolina’s Democratic Party. State Chairman Jerry Meek, quoted in the Wall Street Journal, said many of the messages he received “felt the ABC debate didn’t touch on the most important issues and they were concerned that might happen again.” Gee, do ya think? That ominous possibility was revealed by a guy who really ought to know. In a New York Times interview, CBS producer Don Hewitt, who directed and produced the John Kennedy-Richard Nixon debate in 1960, explained that debates entail “a big dose of show biz” and “trying to keep an audience.” “When you’re in television,” Hewitt said, “that’s your job.” Indeed, a lot of Democrats are angry at ABC for doing what they do best, which is to put on a TV show. That’s like inviting yourself into a bear’s cave and being surprised that you are mauled. Republicans were just as unhappy when their candidates were asked in an MSNBC/Politico.com debate, “Is there anybody on the stage that does NOT believe in evolution?” The half-dozen candidates stood stunned for a moment before three of them raised their hands. Gotcha! In entertainment terms, the moment made great TV. But it was not really fair to the candidates or their audience. The ABC debate exposed an uncomfortable truth: TV and other new-age electronic media don’t just cover election campaigns. They have increasingly become the campaign. Contrary to popular belief, presidential debates are not written into the Constitution. They did not even begin with Abraham Lincoln. He was a former congressman running for Sen. Stephen Douglas’ seat when the two toured Illinois in a famous series of debates in 1858. No, the first presidential debate was also the first televised debate, the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon face-off in the studios at WBBM-TV, the CBS-owned station in Chicago. “That night,” Russell Baker of The New York Times, later wrote, “image replaced the printed word as the natural language of politics.” The image has only become more important since then - and more easily distorted. Of course, candidates have responded by feeding an industry of spin doctors that has grown since the early 1960s from the dozens into the thousands. If debate formats do more to diminish their client-candidates than to get their campaigns’ messages out, don’t be surprised if more candidates stop showing up. And, if voters feel more insulted by the debate questioners than the candidates, they won’t object. If so, presidential debates could face an ironic end. They could be wiped out by the medium that created them.

Who won what? Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:42:00 EST
What should be the easiest question in politics after an election -- who won? -- somehow can be devilishly difficult in presidential primaries.

Why tuition taxes? Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:49:00 EST
The Council on Postsecondary Education should do what its president, Brad Cowgill, suggests -- focus seriously, and skeptically, on the tuition increases being promoted at Kentucky's public colleges and universities.

Americans continue to be bamboozled about the Iraq war Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:50:00 EST
Anyone offering to follow George W. Bush into the White House should probably have his or her head examined; at least that's what I think. But somebody has to do it.

Gas price gouging Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:53:00 EST
On April 22, the price of oil futures increased from $117.48 to $119.37. Simple math shows this to be a 1.61 percent increase. On the same day the price of gas at stations in my area rose from $3.41 to $3.69, an increase of 8.2 percent -- five times the increase of the cost of crude!

Will "twists" Galbraith's ideas Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:52:00 EST
George Will and I must've read different editions of "The Affuent Society"; John Kenneth Galbraith's classic book on economics in the age of plenty.

Gasoline prices: reaping what Democrats have sown Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:53:00 EST
For years, Democrats have systematically refused to consider opening up federal lands for oil exploration, they won't allow new oil refineries to be built and they've thrown up road blocks to the construction of additional nuclear power plants.

The Democrats' nightmare Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:54:00 EST
For battle-weary Democrats, the big news out of Pennsylvania is pretty simple: Their nightmare continues.

Osama crashes the party Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:54:00 EST
What was so shocking, terrible and unfair about flashing Osama bin Laden's ugly mug on a political advertisement? Hillary Clinton's TV spot was the first Democratic ad to make pictorial reference to the al-Qaida terrorist. It was about time.

Meet John 'Dubya' McCain Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:55:00 EST
John McCain knows a lot less about foreign policy than he'd have us believe. This, anyway, is the impression that's been growing in recent weeks, not least because of a much-discussed New York Times story published recently that painted a growing divide in his campaign between "pragmatists" and "neoconservatives.

Pologomy vs. Foster Care Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:40:00 EST

Older women's wants, voting habits not a mystery Thu, 24 Apr 2008 02:04 EDT
What Women Want, the 2000 comedy starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt, has been on TV recently. "What Women Want" was a Newsweek's cover story in March and "what women want and how they will vote" is gist for political discussions on CNN's Inside Politics.

As an older woman, I know a bit about what we want and don't want.

We don't want TV commercials and sitcoms to continue to stereotype us.

We don't want commercials that undervalue us and underestimate our intelligence by portraying us as simpletons who talk to our medications.

"Thank you, Aleve!" women in ads say as they hike up a mountain or frolic on a beach.

Make utility cut high leakage rate Thu, 24 Apr 2008 02:04 EDT
Around the world, the search is on for ways to use resources more efficiently. Even oil companies preach conservation.

But in Lexington, millions of gallons of treated water are wasted because of leaks in Kentucky American Water's distribution system.

This unaccounted-for water loss is about 17 percent, while the national average is 12 percent, according to records on file with the state Public Service Commission.

Simply by reducing its leakage to the national average, Kentucky American could capture about half of the 6 million gallons a day that would initially be produced by a treatment plant that the utility wants to build on the Kentucky River north of Frankfort.

"Prior to saddling the ratepayers with a 50 percent increase in rates, it might be prudent to require (Kentucky American) to fix its leaky pipes," attorney Tom FitzGerald writes in a brief filed on behalf of a citizens group opposing the utility's plans.

Sewer agreement needs oversight Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:05 EDT
When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sued Lexington in November 2006 for violating the federal Clean Water Act, it seemed an end was in sight after years of filthy streams, sewage in basements and flooding every time we had a big rain.

Now, after more than a year of negotiations under Mayor Jim Newberry and this Urban County Council's courageous vote to increase the sewer fee to pay for the work, we're getting close to addressing the problem.

Monday was the deadline for comments to the EPA on a proposed $300 million consent decree. The EPA will consider those comments and either renegotiate parts of the deal or ask U.S. District Judge Karl Forrester to approve it as it now stands.

Both the EPA and Forrester must guarantee that the consent decree has the proper oversight to assure Lexington will solve, not just address, this critical public-safety problem.

The Fayette County Neighborhood Council, the citizens group that has advocated longest, loudest and most knowledgeably for fixing our sewers, is concerned that the consent decree may fall short in that area.

Democratic presidential nomination Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:22 EDT

Publisher’s Notebook: History Channel has dim view of the future
Producers of The History Channel evidently have a pessimistic outlook for the future of man.

Direct Kick: Stepping away from sports for a minute

Politicians are disconnected
On Wednesday morning, Hillary Clinton awoke with a new sense of determination after winning the crucial Pennsylvania Democratic primary.

YOUR VIEWS
Production was greatGolf sponsors thankedReal budget woes ahead

Plane crash training helps officials prepare Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:45:15 -0500
Over the years Bowling Green has witnessed emergency landings and plane crashes, one with fatalities, so it makes sense to be prepared for an accident if one were to occur. This is what the Bowling Green Fire Department and emergency medical services personnel were doing at the Bowling Green-Warren County Regional Airport this week. They were training through a simulated night crash with two victims. It is something that the fire department does each year in order to prepare for a disaster. The Federal Aviation Administration requires firefighters to make it to the mid-point of the longest runway within three minutes of the fire department confirming a call for help. The firefighters made it within this time period during this exercise. The night simulation was something the airport wanted to do so the fire department could get used to the multiple colors of the runway lights. Monday was the first of three simulated crashes with others planned. One was Wednesday and another is planned for Monday. These simulations allow each of the Bowling Green Fire Departments shifts to have a chance to participate. It is appropriate that all shifts are receiving training at the airport because an accident could occur at anytime of the day, although a majority of crashes occur in the daytime. It also allows firefighters to know what is expected of them if an accident were to occur. It is a chance for them to prepare for different scenarios that may occur if a crash did in fact happen. It also allows fire officials to watch how EMS personnel handle different situations at the airport as well. We never know when these firefighters and EMS personnel might be needed at the airport, but if they are needed in the future they will certainly be prepared for the worst as a result of this training.

Unusual politics Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:45:27 -0500
Just when you thought there was no one left to pander to, the three candidates for Leader of the Free World found an untapped demographic: the professional-wrestling audience. Talkin’ tough never looked sillier - nor a presidential race more embarrassing. Give people enough time and exposure and they’ll eventually become caricatures of themselves. This week, Hillary “Annie Oakley” Clinton, Barack “Howard Dean” Obama and John “I Was A POW” McCain proved the rule, surpassingly, with ads prepared for a special episode of World Wrestling Entertainment’s “Raw” that aired on the eve of the Pennsylvania primary. For her performance, Clinton wore a colorful scarf and introduced herself: “Hi. I’m Hillary Clinton, but tonight, in honor of the WWE, you can call me Hill-Rod. This election is starting to feel a lot like ‘King of the Ring.’ The only difference? The last man standing may just be a woman.” Hill-Rod? Would that be Hill-Rod The Obliterator? Perhaps in keeping with her new smackdown persona, Clinton was also talking tough to Iran this week. On Tuesday’s “Good Morning America,” she was asked what she would do if Iran attacked Israel with nuclear weapons. “I want the Iranians to know that if I’m the president, we will attack Iran,” Clinton said. “In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them.” Steady. In an apparent attempt to obliterate Obama, Clinton hauled out her own nuke in another ad leading up to the Pennsylvania primary, featuring that consummate boogeyman, Osama bin Laden. As in, whom can Americans trust when things really get scary? The ad includes the famous Harry Truman quote, which seemed to foreshadow Obama’s wrestler message. Said Truman: “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” Said Obama: “To the special interests who’ve been setting the agenda in Washington for too long (blahblahblah). I’ve got one question: Do you smell what Barack is cookin’?” Just a guess: Iranians? McCain’s goose? Or would that be the banded duck Hillary claims to have shot as first lady of Arkansas? At least Obama conveyed with a self-aware smile that he was in on his own joke. It can’t have been easy for this serious man to play along with this absurd ruse. For the record, both Clinton and Obama were asked by WWE’s vice president of communications, Gary Davis, to tape the videos. Davis said he hoped they would have fun with their message, but “we also want our fans to learn about you and your direction for our country.” Fair enough. But could there possibly be one living soul left who doesn’t yet know what Obama and Clinton have in mind? And if so, should he be voting? Unclear - and unfathomable - is why McCain, the elder statesman, felt compelled to play along. It’s not as though his tough-guy bona fides needed burnishing. Looking more like Popeye freshly fortified with spinach than a commander in chief, McCain traded his true hero for a pretend wise guy, punching the air with a pit-bull snarl. “Looks like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama want to settle their differences in the ring. Well, that’s fine with me. But lemme tell ya: If you want to be the man, you have to beat the man. Come November, it’ll be game over.” Yeeeeeeeeehhhhhhh. You tell ‘em Mac. OK, it’s all for fun and nobody got hurt. But on the same day that these aspiring commanders in chief were smooching up wrestling fans, Defense Secretary Robert Gates was ripping the U.S. Air Force and America’s generals for not doing enough to support troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. A few days earlier, a former senior Pentagon official called the war in Iraq “a major debacle.” McCain - as the only war veteran of the three and the candidate most committed to staying in Iraq - should have opted out of the silliness instead of squandering his gravitas. He might not have known that Gates was going to part the curtains on America’s military dysfunction, but those who intend to lead a nation at war can’t hope for dependable timing. Clinton’s ad posed the correct question: Whom are voters going to trust to be commander in chief? In this too-long campaign, in which Hill-Rod, Cookie and Slugger seek to out-cute each other for the connoisseurs of human mauling machines, the answer is increasingly less clear.

Two opinions Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:56:00 EST
Tom Layzell is a gentleman. He's an experienced educator, and easy to like. However, a quiet and deferential tenure as head of the Council on Postsecondary Education gives him no standing to lecture Gov. Steve Beshear.

Building a new GI Bill Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:59:00 EST
To date, 56 senators and more than 200 representatives have signed on to legislation to revamp GI educational benefits. They recognize that the men and women fighting today's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are not getting their due.

8664: bypass law? … Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:56:00 EST
During this state legislative session, the 8664 proponents testified before a House subcommittee that controls transportation spending. A member of the Bridgepointe Homeowners Association observed this hearing. During the presentation, 8664 made several statements that alarmed us:

More coverage for mini-marathon Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:57:00 EST
Local media shouldn't short-change shortMedia short-I was glad to see The CJ's article about the mini-marathon and hope that it's a precursor to more media coverage of this event.

Jimmy Carter doesn't get it Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:58:00 EST
Just what about total annihilation of the Jews by Palestinian, Arab and Muslim people does Jimmy Carter not understand? Carter's latest leap into the foreign policy breach resulted in his declaration that the terrorist organization Hamas had accepted Israel's "right to exist,"

Another comeback kid Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:58:00 EST
Hillary Clinton has been left for dead by most of the pundits, many of whom more or less openly yearn for consummation of their passionate love affair with Barack Obama. These pundits look to each other for constant reassurance. They didn't get it Tuesday night in Pennsylvania.

'I reported what I saw' Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:59:00 EST
Legendary CBS reporter Edward R. Murrow, born 100 years ago today, described the scene at Buchenwald when he entered the camp after liberation on April 16, 1945:

Lunch With...Patricia Barnstable Brown Fri, 25 Apr 2008 01:42:00 EST
It was, from the start, to benefit diabetes research. Tickets were $175, and everybody said, "Well nobody's going to pay that much to go to a Louisville party."

I'm celebrating Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:45:00 EST

Increase aid to veterans Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:24 EDT
The last thing a soldier or Marine serving in combat should have to worry about is losing a home in the ongoing housing crisis. But members of the armed services are at least as vulnerable as other young homeowners to high mortgage interest rates and foreclosures.

An amendment by Sen. John Kerry to a broader housing bill includes special provisions to help active-duty troops, reservists and Guard members hold onto their homes.

The bill is one of several measures before Congress that attempt to redress the sacrifices that the country is demanding of service members who are facing, in many cases, more than two deployments to the wars, sometimes for as long as 15 months.

Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., like Kerry, a Vietnam War veteran, is chief sponsor of a long-overdue update of the GI Bill offering education benefits to veterans.

The measures are coming from Congress, not the Bush administration because it still refuses to acknowledge the full impact of the two wars on the services. Administration officials, Kerry said last week, "are quick to have their photos taken with the troops, but when it comes to actually doing something for them, they're AWOL."

Hiring scandal not over yet Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:06 EDT
For those who dismissed the Fletcher administration's hiring scandal as insignificant, let's review the case of Sarah Missy McCray.

A longtime state employee, she was a personnel officer in the Transportation Cabinet who worked hard to process the paperwork to help find state jobs for well-connected Republicans.

But that did not insulate her from being part of a "hit list" compiled by Fletcher "disciples" willing to ignore state laws protecting merit-system employees from political firings. She was, after all, a registered Democrat.

When the grand jury investigating the hiring scheme called McCray to testify, she appeared. She had not been awarded the pre-emptive, gubernatorial pardon given her boss, former Transportation Secretary Bill Nighbert.

Her willingness to testify apparently irritated Nighbert so much that he denied her a bonus for good work, that had been approved by her supervisor.

WRFL here to stay Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:06 EDT
Even if you never venture "all the way to the left" on your FM radio dial (or arrive at 88.1 only by accident) one of the advantages of living in a college town is just knowing that something like WRFL is around.

The decidedly non-commercial sounds and commentary have been emanating from the University of Kentucky campus for 20 years. The student DJs sometimes sound as if they just rolled out of bed, but always as if they're having fun.

An accomplished group of WRFL alumni is gathering in Lexington to help celebrate the station's 20th anniversary this weekend with a series of music and arts events that are open to the public. (For details, go to the Web site www.wrfl.fm.)

One of the founders, Kakie Urch -- an editor, writer and multimedia producer in Palm Springs, Calif., and a former Herald-Leader intern -- recalls the birth of "Radio Free Lexington," a sobriquet she bestowed in a column in the Kentucky Kernel in 1987, in which she rallied the UK campus to support a student-run station.

"We sat in our leather jackets at the long board table in the Administration Building with the portraits of UK presidents from the 1800s forward looking down on us as Vice Chancellor for Administration Jack Blanton coached us patiently through the process of working with the administration," Urch remembered.

Economy Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:13 EDT

Spring is for God’s wonders
It was a beautiful morning yesterday.

Doctor prescribes ‘Molokai’
My doctor and I have an interesting relationship.

YOUR VIEW: Travel team selection process was not fair
It has recently come to my attention that a 10 and under girls travel soccer team has been established in Glasgow, but only a select few families were made aware of this.

Petraeus a good choice for top post Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:56:51 -0500
Gen. David Petraeus has shown that he is an excellent military commander and is largely responsible for progress on the ground in Iraq. He is a good choice to become the next commander of U.S. Central Command. If confirmed by the Senate, Petraeus would oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made the announcement Wednesday. Gates said he expected Petraeus to make the shift in late summer or early fall. “I don’t know anybody in the U.S. military better qualified to lead that effort,” Gates said. We concur. This is an excellent choice, considering Petraeus has vast knowledge on how counterinsurgency works and how to fight it. No one can be surprised if left-wing groups such as MoveOn.org and some liberal politicians try to make his nomination an issue, which is sad. Most fair-minded Americans recoiled in horror at the “General Betrayus” ads, which were a disgusting effort to stain the reputation of a distinguished soldier who has devoted his career to serving his country. Petraeus truly understands the nature of the enemy we are fighting in Iraq and will apply that knowledge to the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. Some have expressed concerns that removing Petraeus is not a good idea because it could interrupt momentum currently being made in Iraq. We believe that the man nominated to become his replacement, Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, is also an excellent choice. Odierno, currently commander of the Army’s 3rd Corps based at Ford Hood, Texas, finished in February a 15-month tour as the top deputy to Petraeus in Baghdad. It is likely that after working side-by-side with Petraeus over the past year, Odierno will put that knowledge to effective use against the insurgents. At a time when we are fighting terrorism on two fronts, it is vital that we have a man like David Petraeus leading the charge. He is an excellent choice for this top command and will not let us down.

Pennsylvania results Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:57:21 -0500
Hillary Clinton’s solid Pennsylvania primary victory may stem more from Democratic demographics than anything that happened in the bitter six-week campaign leading up to it. After all, the New York senator’s 9-point winning margin and showing with most major constituencies were almost identical to her performance seven weeks ago in neighboring Ohio. The initial reaction from pundits and the media is that she did more to keep her candidacy alive than to reduce the likelihood that Barack Obama ultimately will be the Democratic nominee to face Republican John McCain. But Obama’s failure to make more than modest inroads into groups that form the Democratic core only will encourage the questions about his patriotism and ties to controversial associates that marked the campaign. McCain made that quite clear Sunday when he was asked on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” if he believed that Obama “shares” his sense of patriotism. “I’m sure he’s very patriotic,” the Arizona senator began. Then, without prompting, he raised the question of Obama’s relationship with onetime radical leader William Ayers, denouncing the Illinois senator for his closeness to “an unrepentant terrorist.” Another sign that the GOP sees political mileage in this approach is Wednesday’s unveiling by the North Carolina Republican Party - over McCain’s objections - of an ad that questions the “judgment” of the two top Democratic gubernatorial candidates for backing Obama and shows a clip of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Still, despite their prevalence in last week’s televised debate and in day-to-day campaign coverage, there remains doubt how much these issues affected the outcome. Obama did marginally better in Pennsylvania than in Ohio among white voters and men, his final deficit was less than in early polls, voters saw Clinton’s campaign as the more negative, and most Democrats said race was not a factor in their votes. Besides, when exit pollsters asked if voters felt the two were interested in “people like you,” they rated them the same. Still, about a quarter of the Clinton voters said they would vote for McCain if she weren’t the nominee, and 18 percent said they would stay home in November. That would be disastrous for Obama, but the likelihood is that those numbers would fall in the general election, when contrasts between the nominees’ key positions became evident. Even as Clinton remains stronger among basic groups that the party needs in order to win such key states as Ohio and Pennsylvania, Obama continues to show that his appeal extends beyond those groups in a way that is also necessary for victory, since core Democrats are not enough to win an election. That was evident in Pennsylvania in his strong support among the 300,000 new Democrats who have joined the party since January. In a broader context, he continues to show almost daily an appeal beyond liberal Democrats that Clinton can’t match. Wednesday, Gov. Brad Henry of Oklahoma, the conservative Democratic governor of a “red” state, announced his support for Obama. He joins, from the last week, two respected conservative Democrats - former Sens. Sam Nunn of Georgia and David Boren of Oklahoma - and two notable Republicans - William Ruckelshaus, a key figure in past Republican administrations; and Julie Nixon Eisenhower, the daughter of former President Richard Nixon and the sister-in-law of another Obama backer, Susan Eisenhower. None has the political clout that Gov. Edward Rendell gave Clinton in Pennsylvania or Sen. Evan Bayh hopes to provide May 6 in Indiana. But they suggest the kind of coalition that remains possible for Obama, assuming he can survive the fierce challenge of the former first lady and legitimate questions about who he is and what he believes.

Mitch vs. Lilly Fri, 25 Apr 2008 22:41:00 EST
Mitch McConnell's friend-of-the-little-guy rhetoric each election cycle doesn't comport with his votes in Washington. In the latest example of saying one thing and voting the other way, he led Senate Republicans in blocking passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007.

The soft landing Fri, 25 Apr 2008 22:41:00 EST
Joseph E. Lambert is leaving his chief justice's seat for the featherbed that is the "senior status judge" system, thus assuring himself about $40,000 more a year in retirement pay for the rest of his life.

A Jewish refugee remembers Fri, 25 Apr 2008 22:41:00 EST
I am but one of nearly 1 million Jewish refugees from the Arab world who were compelled to leave their homes, separate from their families and emigrate to distant and unknown new lands.

Session accomplishments Fri, 25 Apr 2008 22:40:00 EST
While The C-J editorial board continues to call for raising taxes on working Kentuckians who are taxed enough already (a move opposed by our governor often during the fall campaign), even the Governor himself has acknowledged that the legislature's budget is better than his own plan which mandated 12 percent cuts on universities and no teacher raises. In contrast, by targeting our resources, this budget keeps Kentucky competitive by funding education and not increasing taxes.

Hillary's bull horn Fri, 25 Apr 2008 22:51:00 EST

Excavate Town Branch, turn Vine St. into garden Sat, 26 Apr 2008 02:06 EDT
Regarding the Herald-Leader's recent stories on structures proposed for Vine Street, I recall another plan for Vine Street reported by the Herald-Leader on Aug. 14, 2007, "Chandler wants water attraction."

It described U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler's plan to excavate and expose Lexington's Town Branch, which flows under Vine Street.

Lexington's horticulturalists -- commercial growers, community gardeners, garden clubs and farmers -- should reclaim local public policy, which for so long has served the interests of high-finance and gentrification.

They should insist that Town Branch, its valley and any contiguous vacant land be designated a horticulture resource. All future downtown planning, along with planning for the future of Lexington's various waterways, should include and promote riparian horticulture.

Although I live in Georgetown, I am concerned and knowledgeable about Lexington's waterways because I lived and gardened on high ground in Lexington for 10 years.

Inductees are special people
I am impressed each year by the inductees into the Glasgow-Barren County Athletic Hall of Fame.Yes, their athletic careers are impressive, or they wouldn’t be in the hall of fame.

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