DECEMBER 28, 2018, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5
Opinion
Turning tho pago
By LYNDON ZAITZ
For all intents and purposes 2018
is fi nished. All that is left to do is to
declare our resolutions and ring in
the new year.
Some would say that
2018 was a less than stel-
lar year, both nationally
and internationally. But
2018 was a great year for
those who married, be-
came parents, graduated
from school, received a
huge promotion and raise or moved
into a new house.
There is nothing so promising
as a new year, A clean slate awaits
us to write our plans, dreams and
wishes upon. The gloom of winter
really can’t compare to the opti-
mism we can bring with each new
day. Though some animals hibernate
during winter, we humans can’t stay
in a warm, cozy bed for two or three
months. Whether we like it or not,
life comes at us every morning. Ob-
ligations, duties and responsibilities
await us. Many animals hibernate in
winter, but we humans cannot stay
in a warm, cozy bed for two or three
months and wait for warm spring
days.
I have found changing one’s nest
is a very good cure-all for winter
blues. When I need a change, a rear-
ranging of furniture and a purging of
storage goes a long way to give me a
new perspective.
When we fi nd ourselves in a day
to day routine that seems more ardu-
ous because of the gray, cold winter
weather, a change will do the pysche
good. It’s too wet and cold to do
any major gardening this
time of year. Look in-
ward. Make changes just
for sake of change—rear-
range the photos on your
walls, switch the sofa
around, move the televi-
sion to a different room.
The best thing? You don’t
need anyone’s permission to do that.
If your home, however, is practi-
cally perfect in every way, there may
be other changes during winter. For
those with the means to get a taste of
the tropics during winter, good for
you. For those without the means,
there are volunteer opportunities
abounding in the community.
Barring a change of scene, the
winter months are prime time for
improvement. Simple chores such
as washing all the interior windows
will pay off when spring’s fi rst rays
of sun start streaming through. Or,
go into the den and update your re-
sume, go through fi les and discard
what is not needed.
Spring is a new of renewal but
getting the process started early in
mid-winter is very cathartic. And
you’ll face 2019 with courage and
optimism. After all, the future be-
longs to those who plan for it.
on
my
mind
(Lyndon Zaitz is pubLishor of tho
Koizortimos)
If convictions equal success
By LARRY ELDER
President Donald Trump-haters
salivated over special counsel Robert
Mueller’s recent fi lings on ex-Trump
campaign manager Paul Manafort
and Trump former lawyer/”fi xer”
Michael Cohen. In both cases,
Mueller
recommends
lengthy
sentences, having accused them of
committing crimes, including, in the
case of Cohen, that Trump directed
him to violate campaign fi nance
laws in paying off porn star Stormy
Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen
McDougal.
If true, is an impeachable offense?
In 2013, the Federal Election
Commission leveled a $375,000 fi ne
against President Barack Obama’s
2008 presidential campaign for
failing to properly report almost
$2 million in 2008 campaign
contributions, along with other
violations. No criminal prosecutions.
Nobody went to jail.
In the case of President Trump’s
former national security adviser,
Michael Flynn, who pled guilty
to lying to the FBI, the special
counsel recommends no jail time.
Flynn, according to the fi ling, gave
the probe “substantial assistance.”
The fi ling described Flynn as “one
of the few people with long-term
and fi rsthand insight” into Mueller’s
investigation. But did Flynn give
evidence of a Trump “collusion” or
conspiracy with Russia to win the
election—the purpose the Mueller
investigation? So far, the investigation
has resulted in the convictions
of several Trump associates. Not
one of the convictions, however,
has had anything to do
with a Trump-Russian
“collusion.”
If the defi nition of a
successful special counsel
or special prosecutor is the
number of convictions he
or she obtains, then the
Whitewater investigation
into an allegedly crooked
Arkansas real-estate deal and a
crooked Little Rock bank was
an unmitigated success. True, that
probe’s big targets, Bill and Hillary
Clinton, were not charged, but
the investigation resulted in 14
convictions, including the then-
governor of Arkansas.
Webster
Hubbell,
Hillary
Clinton’s former law partner at
Little Rock’s Rose Law Firm, was
convicted. Hubbell, at the beginning
of the probe, held the No. 3 position
in the Justice Department. He
admitted to stealing from clients and
partners of his law fi rm and pled
guilty to mail fraud and tax evasion.
He was sentenced to 21 months in
prison. He was later indicted on an
additional 18 charges after resigning
from the DOJ. The New York Times
reported: “Some money Hubbell
received in 1994, for which the
prosecutor said he did ‘little or no
work,’ might have been given to
guost
coLumn
‘Drained’ federal agencies are swampier than ever
Throughout his campaign for
president, Donald J. Trump promised
time and again that he would drain
the “swamp.” The swamp Trump
referenced was the imagined one in
Washington, D.C., where all the old
freeloaders and deadbeats
lived off the public purse
but produced nothing but
large guts and bad ideas.
Trump said he’d do
something about the ma-
lingers by appointing re-
ally good people to his
administration’s cabinet
posts and other senior
positions. So, they were one by one
given the top jobs in the White House
but soon enough were recognized as
not only among the poor examples
they replaced from previous admin-
istrations but were found to be even
worse than their predecessors from as
far back as any living Americans could
remember.
Two of the worst violators and
among those early-on to be pointed
to the nearest exit were Health and
Human Service Secretary Tom Price
and Environmental Protection Agen-
cy Chief Scott Pruitt.
Interior Secretary Ryan
Zinke has remained in
his job but will soon fol-
low his former associates.
Zinke, a former Montana
congressman, has borne a
remarkable resemblance
to Pruitt in his approach
to established policy stan-
dards: fi t for them to break.
Zinke has become notorious in
a mere two years at accumulating
about a dozen inquiries into his
manipulation of public resources for
private use. By dismantling rules
that have protected the nation’s
wilderness and wildlife, he had led the
gono
h.
mcintyro
way for others who seek to rape by
his guidance and encouragement all
that environmentalists and naturalists
have worked for the past 100 years to
establish and protect.
According to the Center for
Western Priorities, there have been
many investigations by the Interior
Department’s inspector general and
other environmental groups. Several
of Zinke’s GOP predecessors, who
sought to privatize through personal
business interests the country’s many
wildlife refuges, parks, monuments,
and public lands, never came anywhere
near the list of Zinke’s achieved
turnovers.
Recently, the inspector general
opened another investigation into
Zinke’s role in a Montana land deal
involving the chairman of Halliburton.
The oil services company also stands
to benefi t from such policies as what
have been Zinke’s apparent disregard
for state interests in preservation
through his efforts to expand offshore
drilling, including Oregon’s border to
the Pacifi c Ocean.
He has dismissed the recreational
value of protected lands and done
was he could to exploit them for his
wealthy pals. Examples include logging
in the Cascade-Siskiyou National
Monument on the California-Oregon
border. Then, too, Zinke has worked
to terminate endangered species
protections.
Zinke has labored to turn over public
lands and formerly protected areas to
use by mining, golf course, hunting,
oil and gas exploration interests and
any other way persons of wealth and
corporations can take down trees, fi ll
the lakes and streams by leveling the
surrounding hills and mountains, and
kill the wildlife. Wish it were possible
for this writer to report faith in the
replacements for Price, Pruitt and
Zinke bringing security to the many
features of America we appreciate.
Likely unsettling to some Americans,
“rescues” may have a chance only with
new leadership at the top and a real
draining of the “swamp.”
(Gono H. McIntyro sharos his
opinion froquontLy in tho Koizortimos)
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discourage him from being more
candid with investigators. ... Much
of the income Hubbell received
in 1994 came from contracts
arranged by close friends
and supporters of the
Clintons,
suggesting
to investigators that
Hubbell
may
have
been given money to
discourage him from
cooperating with the
Whitewater independent
counsel’s offi ce.”
James McDougal, Clinton friend
and Whitewater business partner,
operated
Madison
Guaranty
Savings and Loan, the bank under
investigation.
Madison
failed
in 1989, costing taxpayers $60
million. McDougal was convicted
of 18 felony counts related to bad
loans made by his bank. After his
conviction, McDougal
agreed
to cooperate with the special
prosecutor.
Susan
McDougal,
James
McDougal’s former wife, was a
partner in the Whitewater land
deal and in Madison Guaranty. She
was convicted of four felony fraud
counts, but refused to cooperate
with the Whitewater prosecutors.
McDougal was sentenced to 18
months in jail on a civil contempt
charge, but still has refused to answer
questions before a grand jury. She
was later charged with criminal
contempt and obstruction of justice.
President Clinton gave her a full
pardon in the fi nal hours of his
presidency.
Hillary Clinton called her
husband a victim of a “vast right-
wing conspiracy.” Bill Clinton adviser
Paul Begala called independent
counsel Ken Starr “corrupt” and
his investigation a “witch hunt” and
“a scuzzy investigation” based on
“leaks and lies and manufactured
evidence.” Clinton senior strategist
Rahm
Emanuel
complained
of the “partisan pursuit of the
president.” The difference is that the
Whitewater convictions, as opposed
to the Mueller probe convictions at
this point, specifi cally related to the
purpose of the probe.
Clearly, some Trump associates
broke laws, and real-estate developer
Trump perhaps made misleading
statements about a proposed deal for
a real-estate project in Russia. But
since virtually every political pundit
predicted Trump’s landslide defeat in
2016, why the surprise that Trump
was simultaneously working on his
next act? As for the accusation that
Trump directed Cohen to make
payments to prevent his relationships
with Daniels and McDougal
from coming to light during the
campaign, what happened to the
Bill Clinton defense —“Everybody
lies about sex”? Trump critics
simultaneously called him an idiot
and the conductor of a scheme
intended to break campaign fi nance
laws by using his own money to pay
off mistresses.
The Department of Justice’s
Offi ce of Legal Counsel, in 2000,
wrote, “The indictment or criminal
prosecution of a sitting President
would unconstitutionally undermine
the capacity of the executive branch
to perform its constitutionally
assigned functions.” The recourse
is impeachment and then removal
from offi ce, following a trial in the
Senate. Unless the Mueller report
contains a lot more than what we
know, so far, neither is likely.
(Croators Syndicato)
2019 Legislature convenes in 3 weeks
Well Happy New Year! I hope ed to serve on this committee so
your holidays have been full of that I can better advocate for my
peace and harmony. I’m taking the agriculture friends. Seven members
time to enjoy the season and em- have been assigned to this commit-
tee, four Democrats and
brace a little quiet before
three Republicans. It
the new year comes. The
really should be a fun
2019 legislative session
group and I trust we
starts on January 14. This
will do good work for
is the earliest the legis-
rural communities. As
lature has ever begun as
you know, House Dis-
the new constitution-
trict 25 (Keizer to St.
al end of session date is
Paul to Newberg) is
June 30. This is a nice
very much a heavy ag-
and welcome change so
ricultural district with
that members can enjoy
between and
Independence Day with
from tho farms
around each of those
their families.
communities. From my
Even with being in
capitoL
fi rst term to now I have
the super-minority, I’m
By BILL POST
always promised to look
looking forward to serv-
out for and defend our
ing in the 80th legisla-
farmers as they are un-
ture as I just found out
I will be serving on the House der more and more pressures that
Committee on Judiciary and the can signifi cantly change their live-
House Committee on Agricul- lihoods and eventually change how
ture and Land Use as vice chair. All we as citizens live and thrive in Or-
committee assignments are made by egon. I am very much anticipating
Speaker of the House Tina Kotek. much good will be done via this
The Committee on Agriculture committee for the farmers, ranchers
and Land Use is a new committee and dairies in our district.
This will be my third term serv-
formed by the Speaker. I’m excit-
ing on the House Committee on
Judiciary. This is one of the toughest
committees to sit on as the majority
of the bills goes through this com-
mittee and issues are very complex.
I thoroughly enjoy being on this
committee as I ask the simple ques-
tions in the room that no one else
wants to ask, but everyone is think-
ing. Basically, I make sure every-
one who is watching knows what
is actually being discussed. Eleven
members have been assigned to this
committee, seven democrats and
four republicans. It should be an
interesting session, as many contro-
versial topics are expected to come
to the Judiciary Committee. I hope
to be your voice on that committee,
expressing the values that House
District 25 believes in and the rea-
son why you elected me to repre-
sent you.
As always, please feel free to stop
by my offi ce during session any
time. I love welcoming constituents
to the Capitol. Have a great rest of
your holiday season!
(BiLL Post roprosonts Houso Dis-
trict 25. Ho can bo roachod at 503-
986-1425 or via omaiL at rop. biL-
post@ orogonLogisLaturo.gov.)