OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MAY 12, 2015
Republicans climb on the clown bus
Founded in 1873
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
Hospital raises
its game
B
Columbia Memorial’s deal with
OHSU brings cancer care here
eing diagnosed with a serious illness and then confront-
ing a 100- to 200-mile commute for radiation treatment
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of living where we do. Cancer is bad enough without losing
dozens of days away from family, home and employment.
Building upon Clatsop
County’s already impressive
health care infrastructure, a
partnership formally announced
Saturday between Columbia
Memorial Hospital and Oregon
Health and Sciences University
to create the Knight Cancer
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this gap. The project is a new
18,000-square-foot comprehen-
sive cancer treatment center
and specialty clinic in Astoria.
Construction will start in 2016.
Creation of such an asset in a
county with fewer than 40,000
people is a stellar achievement
— the sort of community invest-
ment that sets the stage for addi-
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last week made clear their zeal
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yond OHSU’s hilltop location in
Portland to the rest of the state.
The partnership with CMH is a
major step toward this goal. It
has helped inspire similar talks
with local healthcare providers
in The Dalles and Coos Bay.
The fact that Astoria is the
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reach is a tribute to the lead-
ership of a number of local in-
dividuals. Several years ago,
CMH’s board and CEO Erik
Thorsen made a positive effort
to seek novel ways of address-
ing health needs, correctly iden-
tifying OHSU as the best place
to go to obtain the specialties
and depth of advanced care that
were lacking here. Both knew
n 2008, Mike Huckabee ran
for president as a likable
chucklehead who had lost 100
pounds.
And you can, too!
Now he’s running for president
as a grievance-burdened theocrat
who has lost his mind. In the in-
terim, he lent his name to infomer-
cials hawking
a dubious di-
abetes treat-
ment of cinna-
mon and some
other concoc-
tion, putting
the Huckster
in Huckabee.
In
2005,
Carly Fiorina
was fired as
Timothy
chief execu-
Egan
tive officer of
Hewlett-Pack-
ard, after laying off nearly 30,000
people and overseeing the collapse
of the company’s stock price. She
left with a $21 million severance
package. She then lost a Senate
race in California by 1 million
votes. Now she’s running for pres-
ident. And why not? Rewarded for
failure in business, she’s trying it
in politics.
Until 2013, Dr. Ben Carson was
known mainly as a celebrated neu-
rosurgeon, much in demand on the
speaking circuit for his inspira-
tional talks. But then he compared
President Barack Obama to a psy-
chopath, said expanding health
care was the worst thing to hap-
pen to this country since slavery,
and claimed homosexuality was
a choice, because “people go into
prison straight — and when they
come out, they’re gay.” Of course,
he’s now running for the highest
office in the land.
As David Axelrod noted, poli-
tics ain’t brain surgery. It’s harder.
Last election cycle, the Re-
publican presidential field was a
clown car, holding the thrice-mar-
ried Newt Gingrich lecturing
about values, the pizza magnate
Herman Cain fending off sexual
harassment claims, and Michele
Bachmann confusing John Wayne
with a serial killer. That was just
the front seat. This time around
it’s a clown bus, with as many as
17 Republicans expected to com-
pete.
Most of them are unelectable,
to say the least. But can any of
them get out of the party’s win-
nowing period without saying
things they picked up in the far
right netherworld? Probably not.
As previous gaffe-a-matics have
AP photos
Carly Fiorina
Mike Huckabee
Sen.
Ted Cruz
shown, it pays to be crazy. And for eling by private jet and building
many Republicans, crazy is the a palace in Florida. He suggested
that military recruits should wait
new mainstream.
In Texas, the Republican gov- until Obama leaves office before
ernor, Greg Abbott, is not sure joining the service. Huckabee,
if simulated military maneuvers an ordained Baptist minister who
planned for his state are routine learned his shtick on the travel-
exercises by our men and women ing preacher circuit, has become
in uniform, or a plot to take ev- an outright theocrat, attacking the
eryone’s guns and enforce martial constitutional foundation against
law. He’s ordered the state guard state-sanctioned religion.
“You’ve got to understand, this
to monitor his government’s sol-
diers — just in case. Oh, and Wal- for me is not about the right side
Mart is involved. Something about or the wrong side of history,” he
tunnels beneath abandoned stores. said last year, regarding same-sex
There is no ceiling for crazy in marriage. “This is the right side of
Texas, nor political consequence. the Bible.”
Ben Carson, like Huckabee,
This year, the Lone Star State’s
most odious export is Sen. Ted sees the secular world through
Cruz, who also has some con- Scripture. He makes much of his
cern about the nefarious designs standing as a Seventh-day Adven-
of our military, and those Wal- tist, those nice people who show
Mart tunnels. He couldn’t just up at your door with pamphlets,
say, as the Pentagon did, that our prompting little kids to ask,
troops would soon be conducting “What’s a Seventh-day Dentist?”
But the Adventists, to their
a long-planned field operation,
called Jade Helm 15. He had to credit, are distancing themselves
dog-whistle to the mouth frothers. from Carson. After his presiden-
“I understand a lot of the con- tial announcement, the church
cerns raised by a lot of citizens released a statement that the pul-
pit should remain
about Jade Helm,”
neutral in politics,
said Cruz. “It’s a
based on “our his-
question I’m get-
For many
torical
position
ting a lot, and I
of separation of
think part of the Republicans,
church and state.”
reason is we have
crazy is
So in the past
seen, for six years,
week Republicans
a federal govern-
the new
have gained two
ment disrespecting
people whose po-
the liberty of citi- mainstream.
litical philosophy
zens.” Dwight Ei-
could find a home
senhower — look
him up, Texans — is rolling over among Iran’s governing ayatol-
lahs, and a failed chief executive
in his five-star grave.
If you don’t think the inability who thinks driving a great compa-
to distinguish a military exercise ny into the ground is a good busi-
from a totalitarian takeover dis- ness model. All are featured prom-
qualifies you from leading the free inently in conservative media.
This shows that if you’re on
world, Fox News has a hosting
chair for you. That’s where Mike TV long enough, you start to think
Huckabee promoted his brand of you’d make a good president. Or
Gomer Pyle politics over the last perhaps it’s that if you run for
few years, building a following president as a Republican, you
for quack health remedies and can ensure that you’ll be on TV.
One reinforces the other, and ul-
Christian victimhood.
Since moving out of the Fox timately influences the nominee.
nursing home, he’s gone ever And that’s when the rest of us start
deeper and darker, all while trav- paying attention.
The Wall Street vampires wait to strike again
seems to be yielding real
There’s a lot of evidence
results, in fact, more than
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many supporters expected.
nancial industries — like
As I’ve just suggested,
ours — hurt economic
too big to fail doesn’t quite
growth and stability. Even
get at the problem here.
the International Mone-
What was really lethal was
tary Fund agrees.
the interaction between
But what really makes
that, but I have my reasons, which size and complexity. Fi-
the word apt in this con-
nancial institutions had
text is that the enemies
I’ll explain in a bit.
become chimeras: part
of reform can’t withstand
Paul
For now, however, let’s just note bank, part hedge fund, part
sunlight.
Open defenses
Krugman
that these days Wall Street, which insurance company, and so
of Wall Street’s right to go
used to split its support between on. This complexity let them evade EDFNWRLWVROGZD\VDUHKDUGWR¿QG
the parties, overwhelmingly favors regulation, yet be rescued from the When right-wing think tanks do try
the GOP. And the Republicans who consequences when their bets went to claim that regulation is a bad thing
came to power this year are return- bad. And bankers’ ability to have it that will hurt the economy, their
ing the favor by trying to kill Dodd- both ways helped set America up for hearts don’t seem to be in it. For ex-
ample, the latest such “study”, from
)UDQN WKH ¿QDQFLDO UHIRUP HQDFWHG disaster.
in 2010.
Dodd-Frank addressed this prob- the American Action Forum, runs to
And why must Dodd-Frank die? lem by letting regulators subject all of four pages, and even its author,
Because
it’s working.
³V\VWHPLFDOO\ LPSRUWDQW´ ¿QDQFLDO the economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin,
owned by an absentee land-
This
statement
may
surprise
pro-
institutions to extra regulation, and sounds embarrassed about his work.
lord who fell into that category.
What you mostly get, instead,
gressives who believe that nothing seize control of such institutions at
Moviegoers routinely brought VLJQL¿FDQW KDV EHHQ GRQH WR UHLQ LQ times of crisis, as opposed to simply is slavery-is-freedom claims that
blankets, because the owner did runaway bankers. And it’s true both bailing them out. And it required that reform actually empowers the bad
that reform fell well short of what we ¿QDQFLDO LQVWLWXWLRQV LQ JHQHUDO SXW guys: for example, that regulating
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should have done and that it up more capital, reducing both their too-big-and-complex-to-fail insti-
Because the Liberty was on really
hasn’t yielded obvious, measurable incentive to take excessive risks tutions is somehow doing wheel-
the National Register of Historic triumphs like the gains
and the chance that er-dealers a favor, claims belied by
risk-taking would lead the desperate efforts of such insti-
Places, its owner got a tax break in insurance thanks to
The
tutions to avoid the “systemically
Obamacare.
to bankruptcy.
from the state of Oregon. The
But Wall Street
All of this seems to important” designation. The point is
enemies
State Historic Preservation hates reform for a rea-
be working: “Shadow that almost nobody wants to be seen
2I¿FH PDGH LW FOHDU WKDW KLV son, and a closer look of reform
banking,” which created as a bought and paid-for servant of
bank-type risks while WKH ¿QDQFLDO LQGXVWU\ OHDVW RI DOO
tax break was in jeopardy if he shows why.
For
one
thing,
the
evading bank-type regu- those who really are exactly that.
can’t
didn’t maintain the building.
And this in turn means that so far,
Consumer Financial
lation, is in retreat. You
Suddenly the theater’s own- Protection Bureau — withstand
can see this in cases like at least, the vampires are getting a
er responded to purchase offers the brainchild of Sen.
of General Elec- lot less than they expected for their
sunlight. that
tric, a manufacturing money. Republicans would love
from Robert Jacob. After Jacob Elizabeth Warren — is,
all accounts, having
¿UP WKDW WXUQHG LWVHOI to undo Dodd-Frank, but they are,
and his partner, Rosemarie by
a major chilling effect on abusive LQWRD¿QDQFLDOZKHHOHUGHDOHUEXWLV rightly, afraid of the glare of publici-
Paavola, purchased the theater, lending practices. And early indica- now trying to return to its roots. You ty that defenders of reform like War-
WKH\ VROG LW WR WKH QRQSUR¿W tions are that enhanced regulation can also see it in the overall numbers, ren — who inspires a remarkable
RI ¿QDQFLDO GHULYDWLYHV ² ZKLFK where conventional banking — which amount of fear in the unrighteous —
Liberty Restoration Inc.
played a major role in the 2008 crisis is to say, banking subject to relatively would shine on their efforts.
Putting buildings into the — is having similar effects, increas- strong regulation — has made a come-
Does this mean that all is well
hands of motivated, caring own- ing transparency and reducing the back. Evading the rules, it seems, isn’t RQ WKH ¿QDQFLDO IURQW" 2I FRXUVH
not. Dodd-Frank is much better than
as appealing as it used to be.
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nothing, but far from being all we
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Astoria continues to see the val-
cial industry structure, sometimes
OK, why do I call them that? need. And the vampires are still lurk-
ue of the City Council’s accom- RYHUVLPSOL¿HG ZLWK WKH SKUDVH ³WRR Not because they drain the economy LQJLQWKHLUFRI¿QVZDLWLQJWRVWULNH
plishment.
big to fail”? There, too, Dodd-Frank of its lifeblood, although they do: again. But things could be worse.
Astoria’s Derelict Building Ordinance
aids another property transfer
ith names and location
removed, here is a cur-
rent example of how Astoria’s
Derelict Buildings Ordinance is
having a positive effect on the
town’s housing stock.
A woman years ago spotted
a Victorian home she liked. The
house was vacant, but the owner
would not respond to the wom-
an’s offers to purchase.
But once the owner was con-
fronted by demands that were trig-
gered by the Derelict Buildings
Ordinance (DBO), he had an in-
centive to sell the home that had
been vacant and neglected for
years. The woman purchased the
home and is in the midst of giving
the Victorian a makeover.
This is only the most recent
of many examples of the DBOs
EHQH¿FLDOLQÀXHQFH
Incentives motivate neglect-
ful landlords. Some 15 years
ago the Liberty Theater was
I
they weren’t interested in acqui-
sition and merger — the default
outcome of most talks between
rural and large urban hospitals.
Aided by then-Mayor Willis
Van Dusen and other civic lead-
ers, ways have been found to
help OHSU and CMH achieve
their goals. Defying stereo-
types, this series of transac-
tions proves once and for all
that Clatsop County people
can “play well with others.”
Transforming our county into
a regional hub for health care,
CMH and Providence Seaside
in different ways both manage
to overcome geography and
institutional politics by cap-
italizing on Portland’s prox-
imity and expertise instead of
fighting it.
Even smaller institutions,
like Ocean Beach Hospital in
Ilwaco, can look at the CMH/
OHSU model for the best ways
to serve patients — building
collaborations that neither du-
plicate nearby services nor
needlessly step on toes.
There is still money to be
raised to bring the Knight Cancer
Collaborative to reality. As its
name implies, the generosity
of the Knight family facilitates
OHSU’s ability to think big. But
By PAUL KRUGMAN
it will be up to us to raise anoth-
New York Times News Service
er $1.7 million of the $3 million
ast year the vampires of
in required capital funds — not
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easy, but attainable. It is a small
price to pay to provide cancer a Congress.
I know it’s not nice to call them
care here at home.
Incentives work
on neglectful owners
W
By TIMOTHY EGAN
New York Times News Service
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