OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2016
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
This is a pragmatic
minimum wage law
How did leaders draw lines
between county tiers?
olitics is renowned for being the art of the possible. That
is the most appropriate way of looking at the minimum
wage law that Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signed last Thursday.
The law — which sched- comes out of the University
ules pay increases within of Washington.”
The Center for Women’s
three tiers of counties across
the state — was designed to Welfare at UW says that,
6elf-6uf¿ciency
head off more extreme plans, “The
such as the $15 Now cam- 6tandard de¿nes how much
paign. The new law lowers families need to meet basic
the wage threshold for busi- needs without the help of
nesses in counties outside the public or private assistance.”
So the price of housing is
state’s hottest economies. It
also gives those businesses one of the major variants in
separating Oregon counties.
time to adjust.
Clatsop County, along with We still do not know pre-
Tillamook and Columbia, is cisely how legislators inside
in the middle tier of counties. the room decided where to
In July the minimum wage draw the line between the
across the state will move tiers. Legislative leaders
from $9.25 to $9.75. Then, should tell us about that.
For many Clatsop County
Clatsop County’s minimum
wage will climb in stair- small- and mid-sized busi-
steps, reaching $13.50 over ness, paying a rising mini-
mum wage will be a squeeze.
six years.
Negotiations over these It should be said, however,
tiers were done behind closed that the ¿nancial demand of
doors. There was no hear- the new law will be easier to
ing to explain them. Paris bear than what’s planned for
Achen of our statehouse the November ballot. If you
bureau reports that legislators are pragmatist and a realist,
looked “at how much was this was a decent outcome
needed in each county to be within Oregon’s political
self-suf¿cient. The research climate.
P
Supreme Court needs
real world experience
W
e learned last week
that President Obama
is vetting an Iowa federal
appellate judge for the
vacancy on the U.S. Supreme
Court. There is a political
angle in this, of course.
Judge Jane L. Kelly was
praised heavily by Iowa’s
Republican Sen. Charles
Grassley, during her prior
con¿rmation
hearing.
Grassley is chairman of the
Senate Judiciary Committee.
Kelly won eventual Senate
con¿rmation by a wide mar-
gin. Grassley and Kelly are
Iowans. Thus a Kelly nom-
ination to the Supreme
Court would be dif¿cult for
Grassley to ignore.
Beyond the political cal-
culus, there is an appeal-
ing aspect to the prospect of
Judge Kelly’s being nomi-
nated. She would bring real-
world perspective to the court.
She has worked as a crimi-
nal defense lawyer. The Des
Moines Register noted last
week that, “Former prosecu-
tors, government lawyers and
scholars make up most of the
bench today. Kelly stands out
as a federal public defender
who represented several of
the most recognizable names
to face criminal prosecution
in Iowa courtrooms.”
The malady that afÀicts
the Supreme Court is that
justices mainly come from a
narrow and rare¿ed slice of
academia, think tanks and
government law. They lack
¿rst-hand experience with
courtroom advocacy in crim-
inal trials or even with han-
dling non-criminal clients.
Judge Kelly has said that in
the course of her criminal
defense work she has spent
so much time inside prisons
that she’s probably served
the equivalent of a sentence
for a misdemeanor.
It is anybody’s guess how
this will turn out. President
Obama is smart to seek a
nominee such as Judge Kelly.
Editorials that appear on this page are written by
Publisher Steve Forrester and Matt Winters, editor of the
Chinook Observer and Coast River Business Journal, or staff
members from the EO Media *roup¶s sister newspapers
Brynn Anderson/AP Photo
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump waves to the crowd before he speaks during a campaign
rally Saturday, in Orlando, Fla.
Chickens, home to roost
By MAUREEN DOWD
New York Times News Service
ASHINGTON — Here’s
why the Trump campaign
is wicked fun:
W
I watched Donald Trump in New
York for decades, as a bachelor
swanning, a party ¿xture mingling, a
master of bling and bluster.
I went with
him on his art-
¿lled
plane
in 1999 as he
dipped his toe
in the presiden-
tial pool and
saw him shyly
approach his
¿rst political
rope line, even
Maureen
as he bragged
Dowd
that other can-
didates didn’t draw as many cameras
or have a supermodel by their side.
So I can assure you of two things.
No one is more shocked at how far,
how fast, Trump has come than Trump.
Watching him morph into a pol in
real time and wriggle away from the
junior-varsity GOP chuckleheads try-
ing to tackle him is hypnotic. He’s
like the blond alien in the 1995 movie
“Species,” who mutates from ova to
adult in months, regenerating and
recon¿guring at warp speed to escape
the establishment, kill everyone in
sight and eliminate the human race.
The other thing I know is that
Trump really wants to be president. It
isn’t a joke anymore. People who are
told that they should be president get
infected. The less quali¿ed and pre-
pared they are, like Dan Quayle and
W., the less they worry. And the more
quali¿ed and prepared they are, like
Colin Powell and Mario Cuomo, the
more they can tie themselves in Jesu-
itical knots.
The most enjoyable thing about
the Trump phenomenon has been
watching him make monkeys out of a
lot of people who had it coming.
Marco Rubio, a frothy focus-
grouped concoction whose main
quali¿cations to be president consist
of a nice smile and an easy wit, has
been mocking Trump as a con man.
Real estate developers are con
men by nature, trying to get what they
want at the lowest price and sell it at
the highest price, overpromising how
great it’s going to be.
As Maria Konnikova, the author
of The Con¿dence *ame, notes, con
men are created by the yearning of
their marks “to believe in something
that gives life meaning. … Their
genius lies in ¿guring out what, pre-
cisely, it is we want, and how they
can present themselves as the perfect
vehicle for delivering on that desire.”
It’s delicious watching the neo-
con men who tricked the country and
gulled the naive W. into the Iraq inva-
sion go ballistic trying to stop the
Gotham con man.
Bill Kristol of The Weekly Stan-
dard wrote an outraged column about
why there wasn’t more outrage at
Trump, who correctly pointed out that
Americans were deceived into a cata-
strophic war.
Kristol, the midwife to three deba-
cles — Dan Quayle, Iraq and Sarah
Palin — solicited suggestions for the
name of the new party that Repub-
licans will have to start if Trump
secures the nomination. How about
“Losers”?
Eliot Cohen, a former W. State
Department of¿cial who pushed to
“liberate” Iraq, said Trump would be
“an unmitigated disaster for American
foreign policy.” And Robert Kagan,
who backed the Iraq War, said “the
only choice will be to vote for Hillary
Clinton.” Max Boot concurred.
Gerald Herbert/AP Photo
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump makes a boxing ges-
ture while greeting the crowd after speaking at a campaign rally in
New Orleans, Friday.
It’s amazing, having been tainted roar, evoking memories of Molly
by the worst foreign policy disaster in Ivins’ observation about Buchanan’s
American history, that the Republican 1992 culture wars speech, that it was
national security intelligentsia would translated from the original German.
unite against a Trump presidency
Trump, who was slow to disavow
in an open letter, charging that he David Duke and the Klan, stokes the
would “make America less safe” and gladiatorial fever, leading to minori-
“diminish our standing in the world.” ties being roughed up and the press
Sort of like the Iraq invasion?
being bullied. His mocking of a
Even though he made some good Times reporter with a disability was
points, especially about
grotesque.
the Trump Steaks shame
He has a tenuous
spiral, it’s pretty rich
relationship with the
Trump
to have Mitt Romney,
truth and an inch-deep
really
the man who called on
understanding of pol-
11 million people to
icy. Although it is com-
wants
“self-deport,” talking
pelling when he says he
about Trump’s bigotry.
would surround himself
to be
Trump was right
with an A team in the
about Romney. When president. White House, his cam-
you lose a race that you
paign is not chock-a-
It isn’t
should have won by
block with A-team play-
being an inept phony,
ers. On Friday, his team
a joke
you can’t call this year’s
put out a press release
front-runner an inept
Trump would
anymore. saying
phony.
campaign this week-
It’s delightful to see
end in a town called
the encrusted political king-making “Witchita” in the state of “Kanasas.”
class utter a primal scream as Trump And he has not brought on heavy-
smashes their golden apple cart. He’s weights who could bring him up to
a real threat to the cozy, greedy, ole- speed on substance.
aginous cartel, their own Creature
He has a nasty gift for dragging
from the Black Lagoon.
everyone down to his own vulgar
For all the Republican estab- level. Presidential campaigns should
lishment’s self-righteous bleating, not be about belittling people’s
Trump is nothing more than an unvar- appearances or bragging about your
nished, cruder version. For years, it own appendages. Whatever his Àaws,
has fanned, stoked and exploited the Obama has reinforced our desire for
worst angels among the nativists, rac- class in presidents.
ists, Pharisees and angry white men,
After doubling down on his out-
concurring in anti-immigrant mea- rageous statements and saying he
sures, restricting minority voting, would force the military to follow
whipping up anti-Planned Parenthood his orders to break international laws
hysteria and enabling gun nuts.
involving torture and murdering ter-
How lame was it that after say- rorists’ families, Trump said on Fri-
ing he was a crazy choice, Rubio, Ted day that he would not do that. Good
Cruz, Paul Ryan and John McCain to know.
turned around and said they will sup-
In a rare show of regret, he said
port Trump if he’s the nominee?
he does “understand that the United
After watching Hillary Clin- States is bound by laws and treaties
ton, for whom campaigning is a nui- and I will not order our military or
sance, and Barack Obama, who dis- other of¿cials to violate those laws
dains politics, it’s fun to see someone and will seek their advice on such
having fun. Like Bill Clinton, Trump matters.”
talks and talks to crowds. They feed
Trump sees his egregious posi-
his narcissism, and in turn, he cre- tions on immigration, torture and ter-
ates an intimacy even in an arena rorism revenge as opening bids. After
that leaves both sides awash in plea- Super Tuesday, he told reporters that
sure. It’s easy to believe him when he while they might be surprised, he
says that, unlike President Obama, would be a “uni¿er, once we get all of
he would enjoy endlessly negotiating this ¿nished.”
with obstructionists and those on the
But he should take a lesson from
other side of the aisle.
Condi Rice. She went along with
That’s the wicked fun part. But the Iraq invasion, thinking she could
reposition W. on the side of diplo-
then there’s the simply wicked part.
Trump wants to be seen as Ron- macy afterward. But some posi-
ald Reagan but often he’s more like tions are so extreme, there’s no com-
Pat Buchanan, playing to the crowd’s ing back. Your deal with the devil is
prejudices just to hear the bloodthirsty sealed.