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Commentary Oregon Daily Emerald Thesday, July 19, 2005 Bret Furtwangler | Graphic artist NEWS STAFF (541)346-5511 SHADRA BEESLEY EDITOR IN CHIEF GABE BRADLEY NEWS EDITOR NICHOLAS WILBUR NEWS REPORTER SHAWN MILLER SPORTS EDITOR RYAN NYBURG POISE EDITOR AILF.E SLATER COMMENTARY EDITOR TIM BOBOSKY PHOTO AND ONLINE EDITOR WENDY KIEFFER DESIGN EDITOR IENNY GERWICK COPY CHIEF BRET FURTWANGLER GRAPHIC ARTIST BUSINESS (541)346-5511 JUDY RIEDL GENERAL MANAGER KATHY CARBONE BUSINESS MANAGER ALEX CORBIN ALAN FULLERTON RYAN JOHNSON DISTRIBUTION ADVERTISING (541)346-3712 MELISSA GUST ADVERTISING DIRECTOR MIA LEIDELMEYER SALES MANAGER KELLEE KAUFTHEIL STEPHEN MILLER KATIE STRINGER CODY WILSON SALES REPRESENTATIVES CLASSIFIED _ (541)3464343 TRINA SHANAMAN CLASSIFIED MANAGER KORALYNN BASHAM KAIY GAGNON KERI SPANGLER CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING ASSOCIATES PRODUCTION (541) 3464381 MICHELE ROSS PRODUCTION MANAGER KIRA PARK PRODUCTION COORDINATOR The Oregon Daily Emerald Is pub lished daily Monday through Fn day during the school year by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. Inc., at the University of Ore gon, Eugene, Ore. The Emerald operates independently of the University with offices in Suite 300 of the Erb Memorial Union. The Emerald is private property. Unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law. ■ In my opinion The Rove reprimand: Where is it? Political leaders are becoming a little too much like celebrities. Their pic tures are in the paper each morning; their every action is monitored and re ported by the media. With the kind of press coverage modern politicians re ceive, one would expect government officials to exude an extremely high level of accountability. And yet, just the opposite has occurred. It has been all over national head lines that Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove was the confidential informant who gave journalist Matthew Cooper the identification of Valerie Plame as a CIA operative. Cooper spoke with Rove while putting together a story on Am bassador Joseph Wilson, vocal critic of the war in Iraq and husband to Plame. It eventually became clear that Plame’s post gave her the power to hire her husband, who went on to analyze reports on Saddam Hussein’s possible tracking of Uranium. By revealing Plame’s name, and therefore her earlier assistance in providing Wilson with the job of analyzing documents, Rove apparently hoped to de-value Wilson’s professional conclusion that there was no solid evidence to attack Iraq. Although some remain unsure of Rove’s guilt, it was reported in the New York Times on Monday that Cooper almost went to jail for refus ing to disclose the source from which he later discovered Plame’s name. Yet, now that the source (Karl Rove) is out in the open, legal action in the Cooper/Plame matter has come to a screeching halt. How is it that Coop er could be imprisoned because Plame’s identity was released, but ab solutely no action has been taken now that the identity of Cooper’s orig inal informant is known? Because of AILEE SLATER FURTHER FROM PERFECTION his position as a prominent member of government, no one is willing to step forward and take real action against, or investigate Rove. Bush promised that he would fire anyone in his administration who leaked classified information. Although there is some debate about Karl Rove’s exact words, it is known for sure that Rove at the very least exposed the fact that Joseph Wilson’s wife was an un dercover CIA agent in Iraq. With any prior information about Wilson’s life or with the help of a phone book, getting Valerie Plame’s name would be an in stantaneous task for any reporter. Kdrl Rove has not been removed from his position as deputy chief of staff. The interesting thing is that as an appointed position, the deputy chief of staff cannot be impeached, only fired by the president himself. The debate within the public and the government continues as to Rove’s level of guilt; the only thing we can assume is that Rove is not now, nor will ever be, held truly account able for his action. If Bush hasn’t kept his promise of firing the leak by now, he probably never will. In fact, he even issued a revised statement: Bush now claims that he will fire anyone who has committed a crime. Because it has not yet been determined if Rove’s action was criminal, Bush will probably never have to worry about keeping either of his promises. Again, an influential politician who believes that he can say one thing, do another, and still hope to keep this country together. Especially amusing is Bush’s quote, “It’s best if people wait until the inves tigation is complete before you jump to conclusions. I don't know all the facts.” A peculiar position to take, con sidering Bush’s strong stance in favor of a pre-emptive attack in Iraq without a full scale investigation into the coun try’s true WMD threat. I guess justice is different when the potentially guilty party is a friend and co-worker. In a democratic system such as the United States, it is of the utmost impor tance that politicians are held to the same (if not higher) standard that they promote. More importantly, members of the government must hold one an other accountable: It is all too easy to develop political corruption when indi vidual officials discover that they can get away with breaking the rules and have their friends cover for them. The facts come down to these: Wil son was silenced when he attempted to disprove evidence for the war in Iraq, and his wife was put in danger by a man from the organization pro moting the war. Whether Rove’s com promise of Plame’s identity was for spite or by accident, the deputy chief of staff must still face the conse quences that come with having re sponsibility and making a mistake. Bush’s decision to support Karl Rove is a poor show of character from him self to his country, and therefore his country to the rest of the world. aileeslater@ daily emerald, com OREGON DAILY EMERALD LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor and guest commentaries are encouraged, and should be sent to letters@dailyemerald.com or submitted at the Oregon Daily Emerald office, EMU Suite 300. Electronic submissions are preferred. Letters are limited to 250 words, and guest commentaries to 550 words. Authors are limited to one submission per calendar month. Submissions should include phone number and address for venfication. The Emerald reserves the right to edit for space, gammar and style. Guest submissions are published at the discretion of the Emerald. ■ Editorial Government must make education top priority On July 1, 2005, the interest rates on stu dent loans jumped 1.97 percent; producing a hefty 70 percent increase from last year’s rate. As though the affordability of higher educa tion were not in jeopardy enough: Already this year, President Bush has disallowed any increase in the Pell Grant (after being explicitly told that his action would result in an enroll ment decline), while simultaneously plowing through the war in Iraq with whatever Ameri can tax dollars he can get his hands on. Bush has already racked up a huge national deficit, making it likely that the problem of funding higher education will not be solved any time soon. It is not fair to college students that every time a budget shortfall occurs, we are the ones getting stiffed. As important as it may be for the United States to complete its mission in Iraq, it is also the job of our government to figure out how to budget and spend wisely in order to create the best nation possible. Any good money manager knows that pouring re sources into just one venture is never a good idea, as it will probably create an imbalance in final profit. Every single mother in this nation knows that getting a weekly paint job on her SUV automatically means her family will not have food, much less a good education. Par ents of all class levels almost always recog nize the ultimate importance and weight that an education carries. It is not sufficient for President Bush to say that there isn’t enough money to allow lower and middle class students to attend college: George W. Bush signed up to do a job and create the best United States possible. Tliition is steadily rising, and no one but the government has any power to make sure students without financial resources can still get an education. With smaller scholarships and higher tuition, even the smartest young students of this country will be unable to earn degrees. The students who do earn de grees will spend the rest of their lives paying off student loans, having that much less money to send their own children to college. The higher loan interest rate increases the cost associated with getting a higher educa tion and thus decreases the amount of peo ple that are able to afford it. Taking money out of education funding and charging high er tuition and interest rates sends a danger ous message to aspiring college students: Your government doesn’t think it’s impor tant for you to go to college. Not important enough for it to help you out, anyway. The United States and the rest of the world has shown, time and time again, that a lack of education leads to poverty, crime, disappearances in equal rights, and a down fall in a nations’ overall quality of life. If the United States truly wants to keep itself safe, political leaders ought to put more energy, and more funds, into building a nation of in telligent citizens. Every stand for education is a step in the right direction. President Bush should take a long look at his recent budget proposals, as well as the state of stu dent loan interest rates, and evaluate the ap parent priorities of this country. EDITORIAL BOARD Shadra Beesley Ailee Slater Editor in Chief Commentary Editor Tim Bobosky Photo and Online Editor
