The Hays Daily News from Hays, Kansas • Page 6

AS THE HAYS DAILY NEWS OPINION FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 12,2004 Editorial Bush's Cabinet Fountain of youth slowly evaporates As close advisers depart, president would do well to find fewer extremists hey say a leader Is only as good as the people with whom he surrounds himself. That could be especially true of President George Bush, once more in a second term. It could be argued that It was not so much Bush himself but some of his advisers and Cabinet members such as Attorney General John Ashcroft and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who were the real lightning rods that sparked distaste with administration policies in the first Bush term. Bush has an opportunity now to replace some of those controversial figures in his inner circle and bring on board people who will fashion his administration and position Bush to be the "unlter" he says he wants to be. The first good news came right away with the announcement of Ashcroft's resignation.

Ashcroft arguably was the most radical on the Cabinet and the most controversial for his aggressive terrorist witch hunt, which trampled on civil liberties along the way. Rumsfeld would be a welcome departure as well, in favor of someone who both is both less hawkish yet more sensi- live to the needs of troops on the ground and their families at home. Secretary of State Colin Powell also is rumored to be exiting. He, however, is maybe the most competent and levelheaded on the team. When he is not being told what to say, he is rational, and he seems a highly capable diplomat.

Ashcroft's resignation is especially encouraging. Unfortunately, Bush quickly named a replacement White House counsel Alberto Gonzales who may not respect civil liberties any more than Ashcroft. Gonzales was the lawyer who advised Bush that the United States did not need to recognize al-Qai- da detainees as prisoners of war and could dispense with the usual protections of the Geneva Convention. That position may have resonated in the angry days following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, but it also may have led to the kind of prisoner abuses that were discovered at Abu Ghraib in Iraq.

If Bush simply reshuffles his closest advisers with more of the same polarizing extremists, then he will be vulnerable to more bad advice and will not achieve any unification of the nation. Instead, the president has the opportunity to strengthen the weaknesses in his team. And to re-energize disenfranchised Americans. editorial by John D. Montgomery The editorials represent the opinion and institutional voice of The Hays Daily News but are signed by the author for the reader's information.

Guest editorials are from other newspapers and do not necessarily represent the views of The Hays Daily News. Other content on this page represents the views of the signed columnist or letter-writer. The Opinion Page is intended to be a community forum. Guest editorials and syndicated columnists are selected to present a variety of opinion. Reader Forum Public invited to 13th annual Festival of Faith on Sunday The annual Festival of Faith, a hallmark of the Christian community of Hays, will be Sunday.

This year marks the 13th observance of this significant gathering of the churches of Ellis County. This gathering of the churches provides a means for expressing their unity of faith through worship. Set this year against the backdrop of a dramatic time, those in the gathered congregation will share the strength of theltjhtetoric faith and thi iiniqHienefes of.rneirunity under the lordship of Christ. e' bargeman-, vas'npon which'a 1 attempts to portray the vastness and magnificence of the Christian message of faith and grace, those qualities that define the The Ashcroft legacy AUSTIN, Texas Awwww, Ashcroft! My man. The one I liked best of the whole Cabinet, the most consistently entertaining, the most dcliciously inept, the most amazingly wrong-headed.

Ashcroft, my personal Bush administration icon. And besides, he's so sexy. How can we forget the golden moments? The clay he covered up the "nekkid tit" on a statue of the Spirit of Justice in the Justice Department headquarters bo- cause we can't have that kind of thing. His fabulous record, especially the day he finally told his top terror guy he just didn't "want to hear about it." And then there's his even more fabulous record. Indicting Zacarias Moussaoui as the "20th hijacker" when it turned out, oops, that was somebody else.

What a showcase for American justice that trial lias been. And the famous case of Jose Padilla, the alleged "dirty bomber" who not only didn't have any dirty bombs, he didn't even have a plan to get one. Notwithstanding all this, Padilla, a U.S. citizen, has been declared an enemy combatant and held incommunicado for three years. He does not have a right to a speedy trial or indeed any trial at all.

Ho is not allowed to talk to a lawyer, not allowed to know the charges against him, not allowed to confront his accusers. I repeat, this is an American citizen, and the same thing can happen to any of us. Courtesy of Ashcroft's contribution to American law, the Patriot Act. Ashcroft and the Feds rounded up and, in many cases, abused the rights of Arab citizens, non-citizens, green-card holders, student visa holders and anyone and everyone of the Arab persuasion. People were held for months (even years) without charge and their families were not told where they were or what they were charged with.

Some were deported for visa violations, and others who had come here as refugees from political persecution up and left after their fun experience with American justice. During the recent campaign, Ashcroft claimed the Justice Department had successfully prosecuted 300 terrorists. These "successful prosecutions" were under the federal law that makes It a crime to provide "material support" to anyone remotely connected with terrorism and Include such crimes as petty theft, making fake driver's licenses and unlicensed money transfers. The median sentence for these convicted "terrorists?" Two weeks. But none of this prevented our A.G.

from going after some other menaces to our safety and security, such as people who grow marijuana for medical purposes even In states where that's legal and ha- COMMENTARY Denial Is not just a river in Egypt. Any 12-stepper will tell you that. Denial is that state of mind that allows one to imagine the impossible, to ignore likely outcomes and probabilities, to forget very real physical constraints. I'm susceptible to such flights of fancy at times. Take Monday night for example.

I was in the glare of a brightly lit Gross Memorial Coliseum, bouncing 29tf inches of inflated leather bladder on the gleaming hardwood floor. Close to 1,000 fans were on the edge of their bleachers, anxious to see what kind of fight the Rotary Free-Wheelers were going to put up against the visiting Harlem Ambassadors. I started the game on the bench. Maybe it was because my basketball prowess was unknown, maybe it was because I hadn't married into Coach Rick Keltner's family I don't know. More likely it was the 33X on the back of my jersey that indicated I probably would wear out quicker than others.

Or that I proudly displayed a nickname given to me as a child "Peanuts." Don't even think that this is some kind of Charlie Brown reference. Poor ol' Chuck never could kick the ball. Or win a game. Or get the girl. My namesake moniker actually came from a winner, Harry "Peanuts" Lowery.

Never mind that he played for the Chicago Cubs or that he didn't even know how to spell his own surname. He was a gifted centerfielder who later coached third base for my beloved Northsiders. Patrick Lowry COMMENTARY But I digress. Whatever the reason for my placement at the beginning of Monday's contest, I had a bird's eye view of the tipoff, which led to an Ambassador slam dunk in, oh, about half a second. The rout was on.

I patiently awaited my turn. I had positioned myself next to Coach K's assistant, Patty Stull, in order to be noticed. As at least 115 others were rotated in and out current and former FHSU players, guys with broken noses, 4-year- olds who apparently were well-established on the Musical Chairs circuit, former football players and retired ping- pong professionals, hotdog-clutching spectators caught up in the confusion on the way back from the concession stand I realized what my role was going to be. I was the "secret weapon." In fact, as the seconds ticked down in the fourth quarter, I began to believe that I was the "top secret weapon." Finally, my name was called. Actually, it wasn't even my name but no one else was responding to Coach K's barking so I jumped up, removed my warm-up pants, folded them and neatly placed them under my chair, retied my sneakers, executed a couple of toe-touches (well, close enough), cracked my knuckles, stepped onto the hallowed floor and was promptly hit in the side of the head by a pass intended for a cherry- picking Ambassador.

Down but not out, my vision somewhat blurred, I saw the ball. Perhaps it was the softness of my cranium (like so many others, I too was dropped on my head as a child) that did not allow the ball to carom very far. I reached for it and slowly dribbled closer to the basket. Three teammates were undefended right under the basket, but I couldn't throw it to them. For I was open as well.

And this was why I had been recruited. My moment of zen had arrived. I raised the ball straight above my head, took aim and let fly a perfect rainbow shot. It almost was blocked by the Scoreboard high above. As my right hand followed through, I followed the flight of my 32-foot jumper.

It would have been a swish if it had gone in. The problem was, I was 33 feet away from the rim. Before I could recover, the Ambassadors had slam-dunked six more points. And I was back on the bench. Four days later, I'm still sore.

Not because I missed the shot. No, this is a physical thing. My muscles, joints and bones all remind me that my playing days should be long behind me. But de Nile still calls. And I always listen.

Patrick Lowry Is the executive editor of the Hays Dally News. people of God. The festival enables churches of all denominations to convey to the community of Hays that their purpose is to bear the name of Christ with dignity and nobility. The Festival of Faith becomes the celebrated hour in which people of all congregations declare that their dreams focus on Christ's purpose and that, as God's people, his intentions become their united aspiration. We worship best not in solo, but in concert; the Festival of Faith becomes the instrument across which God draws the bow of His Holy Spirit to provide for -us, new song of hope arid' the flame for another Pentecost.

Please make your plans to be present -7 at 3 p.m. Sunday at Beach Schmidt Performing Arts Center. The Rev. William C. Miller 2302 Plum 2008: America's not liberals are rassing doctors in Oregon, where assisted suicide was legalized by referendum.

Actually, Ashcroft's DOJ has a pretty good record on white-collar crime, and I'm not talking just about the genius it took to nail that menace to all we hold dear, Martha Stewart. DOJ went after the Enron players in classic work-your- way-up fashion and may yet nab them. 1 think Ashcroft was the Clown than Darth Vader. True, his post statement has an ominous ring: "To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve." OK, it's a statement. But all the man really wanted to do was fight Internet porn and harass doctors for performing abortions.

He wanted more executions, he gave more rights to gun owners and ho subpoenaed the medical records of abortion providers. He had his priorities straight. So he never quite got democracy. What an unusual day that was when lie simply refused to provide a Senate committee with a Justice Department memo on why torture should be legal. Ashcroft just never appreciated judicial or congressional oversight because he didn't quite grasp the separation of powers.

Hey, he lost a political race to a dead guy what do you want from him? Ashcroft was installed as attorney general of the United States as a sop to the religious right. All his right-wing crusades, including the famous tit, were meant to solidify the Republican base in the so-called culture wars. Unfortunately, a more urgent war came a threat Ashcroft had glaringly failed to recognize, according to the FBI and Ashcroft and others saw it as an opportunity to destroy constitutional protections that had annoyed law enforcement agents for years. The Fourth Amendment is pretty much gone now, and the First is under fire. And should you complain about these phantoms of lost liberty, you are just aiding he terrorists.

What a record. He blew the fight against terrorism, but he covered up tits on statues. The sad thing is, I understand he's really a nice man. Molly Mns Is a columnist (or The Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Many liberals are beside themselves.

Things were bearable when they could delude themselves into blaming their loss of power on a "stolen" election, But with this decisive defeat, they're thinking, "It's not our America anymore." As New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote, "But what troubled me yesterday was my feeling that this election was tipped because of an outpouring of support for George Bush by people who don't just favor different policies than I do they favor a whole different kind of America. We don't just disagree on what America should be doing; we disagree on what America is." Liberals can live with their belief that nearly half the people are stupid. It was even tolerable to be out of power because they knew it would only be a matter of time before they recaptured power following a proper tutorial of the unwashed masses. But now that they feel that America has truly slipped out of their grasp, they are even angrier than they were in 2000. Their angst proceeds from an arrogant feeling of superiority and entitlement that tells them they alone should be in power and that conservatives should keep their intolerant, bigoted views to themselves.

They, are incredulous that they're not just under moronic rule but in a moronic nation. Yet, there's also that nagging doubt, that ray of hope that If they had just packaged themselves properly, they would have won the election, which would mean that a majority of Americans aren't Neanderthals after all and they wouldn't have to move to Canada. So in their post-election analysis, we're seeing this conflict. In one paragraph we see a rage born of hopeless defeatism, and hi the next, an expression David Limbaugh COMMENTARY A community is best served when residents are willing to discuss publicly. be part of the discussion by participating In the Reader Forum.

Please limit your submissions to 600 words- They will be edited for length and clarity. They must be that aD is not yet lost and that they can still salvage a better America, "our America," If we just put forward the right candidate with the right ZIP code, who will say the right things and with proper emotion we'll be back with a vengeance. Concerning moral issues, for example, they are bashing conservatives for promoting values while simultaneously beating themselves up for not promoting their own. On the one hand, they're saying, "How dare those holy rolling do-gooders inject morals and religion into the campaign?" As columnist Susanna Rodell puts it, "The religious bigots, who think it's Christian to hate gay people are winning the ideological battle in this country" On the other hand, they're saying, "Hey, they don't have a monopoly on religion, morals or values." As Rodell puts it, "We're going to have to put our values (you remember the ones: charity, love, that sort of thing) back into the public eye, and we're going to have to be loud about it." But it is in their proposed solutions to regaining power that they reveal they simply don't get the "morals" issue. To them it's more about appearances and the packaging of values than about the core beliefs supporting them.

As Margaret Carlson wrote of Kerry, "Always religious, he didn't frame what he stood for in Bush's language of good and evil, right and wrong. A Catholic, he lost Catholics, for God's sake." Always religious? Most people knew signed and include a name, address and daytime telephone number for verification. We reserve the right not to print a submission. We do not accept for publication on the editorial page poems, consumer complaints, business better. Kerry could not successfully pass himself off as a devout Catholic just because he said he was as an obligatory afterthought, no less.

And Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen wrote, "If you set out to create the perfect Democratic presidential candidate, you would probably choose someone from the South or the border states and someone who is comfortable talking the language of religion and values, since John Kerry was not." No, Margaret. No, Richard. It's not about pious appearances, it's not about talking the religious talk. It's about actually it. It's about walking the walk, even against the intimidating forces of secular political correctness, These liberals ought to go with their first instinct, that they do idealize a different America than do most Americans, who are decidedly conservative, and not just on values.

(The liberals are so convinced that President Bush botched Iraq, they are attributing their defeat primarily to moral issues, which is partially true. But I happen to believe the main reason the president won is because he has been an effective wartime president, and the people trust that he will continue to be.) I've been saying for some time now that the idea of an equally divided America is a myth. (If the Old Media hadn't been hi the tank for Kerry, there's no telling what the scope of Bush's victory would have been.) For the liberals to regain authority absent external circumstances, which there could easily be, or a major realignment in the electorate, they're going to have to do more than find a candidate who merely pays lip-service to the "right" things but who means them. David Umbaugh is an author and political commentator. nials or group letters.

Mail them to Reader Forum, The Hays Daily News, 507 Main, Hays KS 67601 also can send them by at KmtrffQdillynew8.net. Include an address and daytime telephone number..