September 5, 2007 – Capitol Hill Blue

Larry Craig should stay and fight

September 5, 2007

When you get past the hyperbole, the political posturing and the blatant partisanship you can’t escape the feeling that Sen. Larry Craig was railroaded.

Abandoned by his party, vilified by his critics and slammed by the right, Craig hinted Tuesday he may stay and fight.

He should. Larry Craig may be a hypocrite when it comes to gay issues but the rush to banish him from the halls of power says more about the homophobia of others.

Can Michael Vick redeem himself?

September 5, 2007

A couple of days ago, a dear friend sent me an email about Michael Vick. This sweet, kind, gentle grandmother said that Vick should be hung up by his…well, let’s just say “toes.”

Columnists and talk show hosts have attacked Vick with adjectives like “repugnant,” “reprehensible,” and “despicable.” And an internet search for “Michael Vick” plus nearly any imaginable epithet produces many thousands of hits, including 178,000 for a mild one like “jerk.”

The decider didn’t decide

September 5, 2007

The words seemed to be written with flashing neon lights, the way they demanded a reader’s attention — even though you had to read past some 1,400 other words before you got to them in the article that began on Page One of Sunday’s New York Times.

Shamelessness is worse than hypocrisy

September 5, 2007

“Hypocrisy,” noted the French writer La Rochefoucauld, “is a tribute vice pays to virtue.” In political life, charges of hypocrisy are commonplace; yet there, of all places, hypocrisy should be much preferred to the most common alternative, which is sheer shamelessness.

Irag tops Congressional to-do list

September 5, 2007

Congressman Brian Baird, D-Wash, was kidding when he said he brought his flak jacket back with him after visiting Iraq a few weeks ago.

Maybe he should have.

Baird, who initially opposed the war and as recently as May voted to set a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. forces, now says President Bush’s military surge is showing signs of working and that current troops levels should be maintained until at least spring.

Bridge over troubled politics

September 5, 2007

A 40-year-old highway bridge suddenly dropped into a major American river during the afternoon rush hour, with deadly results.

New bridge inspections were ordered, Congress held hearings, and bold federal programs were begun.

It was 1967 — the same year work near downtown Minneapolis was completed on the I-35W bridge, which dropped just as precipitously into the Mississippi River a month ago, sparking a fresh round of national soul-searching on bridge safety.

Wiccans not welcome

September 5, 2007

Roberta Stewart was the public face of a long but ultimately successful campaign to allow Wiccan symbols on the government-issued grave markers of fallen military members of the faith.

Her husband, Nevada Army National Guard Sgt. Patrick Stewart, died in a 2005 helicopter crash in Afghanistan, but rules forbade a Wiccan pentacle from being placed on his final resting place. His widow and other Wiccans pressed the issue, and the Department of Veterans Affairs relented earlier this year.

Patraeus hints at troop cuts

September 5, 2007

Iraq war commander General David Petraeus hinted at US troop cuts there by March, setting the stage for his pivotal testimony next week before Congress on President George W. Bush’s surge strategy.

“There are limits to what our military can provide, so, my recommendations have to be informed by — not driven by — but they have to be informed by the strain we have put on our military services,” Petraeus told ABC News Tuesday.

Larry Craig rethinks resignation

September 5, 2007

Sen. Larry Craig says he may still fight for his Senate seat, a spokesman says — if the lawmaker can clear his name with the Senate Ethics Committee and a Minnesota court where he pleaded guilty after his arrest in an airport men’s room sex sting.

Since announcing Saturday he intended to resign on Sept. 30, the Republican lawmaker who has represented Idaho for 27 years has hired a prominent lawyer to investigate the possibility of reversing his guilty plea.