4A
opinion
Saturday, October 3, 2015 | west hawaii today
W
ASHINGTON —
The Republican
Party’s “Freedom
Caucus,” which has several
less-charitable nicknames
on Capitol Hill, is the
dog that caught the car.
Now what?
Having (sort of)
unseated Speaker John
Boehner, these 37 or
so uber-conservative
House members are
now scrambling for
“a real leader.”
Except that they
aren’t really because
they have no one with
the skills, experience or
legislative record to offer.
The “brat pack,” as they
are also known, had a
leader in Boehner but
were too self-obsessed
to recognize it or to see
much beyond their own
immediate gratification
and pontifical aspirations.
They came to
Washington not to govern
but to fight. But what does
one make of a little boys’
club with nothing to show
for themselves other than
a record of disruption and
a talent for tantrums?
“These are the guys who
couldn’t get a prom date,”
one House member said
to me privately, “They’d
rather rape and pillage
than do the hard work.
They can’t get to first base
much less hit a home run.”
This person is plainly
not a fan, but nor are other
Republican congressmen
who roll their eyes about
caucus members who
lecture them about the
Constitution and rant
about the debt. “Oh,
thanks for telling us,
moron,” says my hilltop
muse. “We didn’t know.”
Now they can brag that
they’ve deposed the speaker
himself, which isn’t really
true. Boehner probably
could have prevailed in
getting re-elected, but what
for? His leadership style
has always been to lead
where his members want to
go. Unfortunately, this led
to the shutdown of 2013
and he wasn’t willing to
lead them there again —
especially not over, of all
things, defunding Planned
Parenthood. The most pro-
life speaker in history knew
this was the wrong battle
at exactly the wrong time.
The opposition “won”
not because of superior
skills or strategy but
because Boehner is far
more principled than
they. He just plays
a longer game and
understands what these
pretenders are incapable
of seeing. Shutting down
the government hurts
Republicans — and it will
hurt the GOP’s chances of
winning the White House
next year. Meanwhile, the
narrative that Boehner
was an ineffective leader,
a storyline long advanced
by the Freedom Caucus
and beloved by President
Barack Obama (hint, hint,
boys). Only a conservative
could love Boehner’s
record, which included
cutting $2.4 trillion from
the deficit mostly from the
spending side and without
tax increases. Boehner has
been a leader in free trade
and is the only speaker
to successfully sue the
president over separation
of powers. Finally, and
ironically, he was a tireless
campaigner and fundraiser
— even for his persecutors.
Boehner’s successor
will almost certainly be
Majority Leader Kevin
McCarthy, who was one of
the self-declared “young
guns” of the House, a
posse that also included
House Ways and Means
Chairman Paul Ryan and
former Rep. Eric Cantor
of Virginia. Cantor, the
then-majority leader,
was defeated in 2014 by
economics professor and
now-Freedom Caucus
member Dave Brat.
The No. 2 position of
majority leader is also up
for grabs among Majority
Whip Steve Scalise, known
for having once spoken to
a white supremacist group
and Georgia Rep. Tom
Price, who has received the
powerful endorsements
from Ryan and Texas
Rep. Jeb Hensarling.
Missing from the contest
is the lone woman in the
GOP leadership, Cathy
McMorris Rodgers, who
considered running but
announced Monday
night that she would
not. Currently the first
woman to chair the House
Republican Conference
since its creation, she also
would have been the first
female majority leader
in history. (Democrat
Nancy Pelosi was minority
leader before becoming
speaker in 2007.)
There is a sense among
many women on the hill
that the boys won again,
as in, we’ve got a girl in the
No. 4 job, we don’t need
her in No. 2. Although
this may be true to some
extent, others see an
alternative scenario — a
long-game strategy in
the Boehner tradition.
Rodgers is well liked and
may have elected to bide
her time. She’s a steady
presence and a leader to
be reckoned with — and
she’s not going anywhere.
The Freedom Caucus,
alas, isn’t either, thanks
to gerrymandering
that makes their jobs
secure except from an
even more-conservative
Republican challenger.
One hopes for sanity’s
sake that voters in the
relevant districts will begin
to see that though they
love a fighter, they need
one who has something
to offer upon winning,
other than whining.
Kathleen Parker’s email address is
.
A
nd now it’s Roseburg, Ore. Another
peaceful community has been
shattered by inexplicable violence
and the chilling words “active shooter.”
Another group of stunned residents
has watched in disbelief as emergency
vehicles scream down their streets. It’s
our national nightmare, and we just
can’t — or won’t — wake up. We can
complain — rightly — about our country
being awash with guns. We can complain
— rightly — about the crying need to take
more seriously the issue of mental health
and the need to get counseling to those
who need it. But the early reporting out
of Umpqua Community College, where
nine people were dead and as many 20
are injured, shows that everyday people
also have an important role to play.
The suspected gunman seems to
have discussed his plans online the
night before the shooting, even warning
others not to go to the school on
Thursday. If you see or hear something,
you simply have to say something.
There have been more than 40
shootings on school campuses this year,
according to the Everytown for Gun
Safety advocacy group. And that doesn’t
include the slaughter in a Charleston,
S.C., church by a young man who also had
talked about his plans before he killed
nine people. Silence is not an option.
Oregon massacre
demands that
people speak up
The GOP brat pack
Kathleen Parker |
The Washington Post
Editorial |
Newsday (TNS)
Hawaii’s population
growth scary
Being that Hawaii is
an island chain and not
a humongous continent,
its population growth for
the time period of 2000 to
2010 stood at a staggering
12.3 percent rate, which
is alarming. It more than
smothered the rest of the
American states’ rate of
9.7 percent by a mile for
the same time period.
As of 2013, Hawaii’s
population stood at around
1.4 million people, which
is staggering. No wonder
you have traffic jams and
escalating crime rates in
Hawaii. There’s too many
people. If not focused on by
the media and government,
Hawaii definitely will see
stresses on Mother Earth
and the socioeconomic
sectors of society in
so-called paradise. One
impact overpopulation
will have in Hawaii is
on the oh-so-important
health care sector.
Overpopulation is
a global problem but,
especially in Hawaii,
it can take its toll on
the geographic and
socioeconomic sectors
of so-called paradise.
It is definitely the time
for people to focus and
act on the problem of
overpopulation in Hawaii.
Dean Nagasako
Honokaa
Leave the weeds
where they are
With all this rain we
have been having, the top
soil is getting washed away
and the only thing keeping
the soil in place are those
terrible weeds. My sister
has asked me to get rid
of the weeds but now is
not the time to do that.
We cannot stop the
rain and the flooding but
we can protect our own
gardens and land from
being eroded. Leave those
weed where they are
and save your top soil.
Colleen Miyose-Wallis
Kailua-Kona
Letters
| Your Voice
I
t was likely embarrassing for the
United Nations Human Rights Council
when, in a statement released last
week and attributed to a group of human-
rights experts, it called on Saudi Arabia to
immediately halt executions of children. After
all, Saudi Arabia is a member of the board.
But as Saudi King Salman considers
giving his blessing to the sentence
handed Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, the
case should also prove an embarrassment
to the United States, whose alliances of
convenience continue to force American
values into compromising positions.
Al-Nimr, arrested in 2012 at age 17,
is to be beheaded and his body publicly
crucified in a spectacle more commonly
found in regions controlled by Islamic
State than that of a longtime U.S. ally.
Al-Nimr was convicted of terrorism
for his participation in the Arab Spring
demonstrations, which included such
heinous acts as protesting, chanting
anti-government slogans and using
social media to express views critical of
the kingdom’s absolute monarchy.
The government also alleges he sheltered
wanted men and participated in anti-
government riots, but has provided
no evidence of those claims beyond a
confession of dubious merit commonly
produced at Saudi Arabian show trials,
which are largely conducted in secret.
In reality, the death sentence probably
has more to do with the fact that al-Nimr
is the nephew of an influential cleric
critical of the government, who has also
been sentenced to death. It reeks of North
Korean-style generational punishment.
Saudi Arabia has executed 134
people this year, most, it is believed,
by public beheading, according to the
United Nations. Further, according to
Amnesty International, Saudi Arabia
is one of the top three executioners in
the world, behind China and Iran.
The United States likely has no pull
with those other two states, but Saudi
Arabia’s position as a favored American
ally affords the U.S. government the
ability to relentlessly pursue the cause
of al-Nimr. It should do so until he, and
other prisoners held in contravention of
American standards of the rule of law,
receive a proper trial or are released.
And then, perhaps, we should reconsider
our relationships with tyrannical nations.
Does the US really
need allies who
behead, crucify
dissidents?
Editorial |
The Orange
County Register (TNS)
