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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 16, 2016)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2016 Founded in 1873 DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager OUR VIEW E ach week we recognize those people and organizations in the community deserving of public praise for the good things they do to make the North Coast a better place to live, and also those who should be called out for their actions. SHOUTOUTS This week’s Shoutouts go to: • The Oregon Community Foundation, which recently approved $162,600 in grants to North Coast nonprofits. The grants awarded include $25,000 to the Columbia Memorial Hospital Foundation toward the construction of the CMH/OHSU Cancer Center to expand local access to advanced cancer treat- ment, and a $25,000 grant to the Lower Columbia Hispanic Council in Astoria to support and expand adult and youth edu- cation programs through increased staff capacity. Additionally, the foundation, with the Oregon Cultural Trust, also awarded $11,240 in Clatsop County Cultural Coalition grants to 10 other local organizations. In total, the North Coast grants contributed to more than $8.5 million awarded by the OCF statewide. • The Seaside-based North Coast Land Conservancy and the private investment equity firm Onion Peak Holdings, which took the first steps toward the acquisition of 3,300 acres of tim- berland from Stimson Lumber Co., in what could be the largest private land-preser- vation deal in western Oregon. The deal, signed in November, gives the land con- servancy five years to raise money to com- plete the transaction. Conservancy Executive Director Katie Voelke called it a “monumen- tal act of preservation.” The land is located Katie between Tillamook Head and Nehalem Bay, Voelke and together with Oswald West State Park and Cape Falcon Marine Reserve, the acquisi- tion would create a conservation corridor of more than 29 square miles linking land and sea. • Senior Library Assistant Patty Skinner, who is retir- ing after 17 years at the Astoria Library. As the senior library assistant, Skinner led the library’s Preschool Story Time sessions, developed children’s reading programs and served as a resource for helping parents with building their children’s reading abilities and habits. Library Director Jimmy Pearson called Skinner “awesome,” and said the library is “definitely going to feel her loss.” Pearson Patty said he is seeking a part-time successor who Skinner will focus solely on children’s activities. • The Warrenton Business Association, which recently con- ducted a ”First Responder Appreciation Event” at Camp Rilea that raised $5,600. The proceeds from the dinner event and silent auction were evenly divided between the city’s police and fire departments. • Supporters of Clatsop Animal Assistance, which conducted a fundraiser last weekend at Fort George Lovell Showroom. The event, which raised more than $40,000, featured raffles, a silent auction, a bake sale and pet pictures with Santa to benefit the Clatsop County Animal Shelter. The proceeds will be used for veterinary care and adoption programs for dogs and cats at the shelter. CALLOUTS This week’s Callouts go to: • The U.S. Postal Service, which hasn’t been able to install a new a cluster mailbox near Irving Avenue and 22nd Street in Astoria after the one there was vandalized and severely dam- aged in September. The vandal- ism has forced 12 postal customers to travel to the Astoria Post Office to pick up their daily mail. Sarah Green, the post office supervisor, said a new replacement collections box has arrived at the post office, but the post office is still waiting to receive the hardware to assemble the box so it can be installed. The Daily Astorian/File Photo Damaged cluster mailbox near Irving and 22nd Street. Suggestions? Do you have a Shoutout or Callout you think we should know about? Let us know at news@dailyastorian.com and we’ll make sure to take a look. For Mitt Romney, dinner and a kiss-off By GAIL COLLINS New York Times News Service F arewell, Mitt Romney, farewell. Romney, who once spent nearly a decade being rejected by the American elec- torate, got the heave-ho from Donald Trump this week — passed over for the secre- tary of state nom- ination in favor of an oil execu- tive who is great pals with Vladimir Putin. It is, of course, extremely fash- ionable in Trump’s Washington to be great pals with Vladimir Putin. Also to be a general or a climate change denier. Romney was always suspi- cious of Russia, never served in the military, and although he came up with multiple positions on the envi- ronment over the years, he would still have been one of the only Trump nominees to have sporadically held an opinion that the globe was warming. It’s not like the list of appoin- tees doesn’t have variety. Rick Perry once competed in “Dancing With the Stars.” Linda McMahon, the new head of the Small Business Admin- istration, is probably the only one who’s performed in a professional wrestling competition. McMahon is among the highest-ranking female nominees. At the very tiptop, so far, is Elaine Chao, Trump’s pick for sec- retary of transportation. We failed to elect a woman president, but if Chao is confirmed, there will at least be a woman 13th in the line of succession. On Wednesday, Trump named Romney’s niece as head of the Republican National Committee. Do you think that was an attempt to make Mitt feel better — or worse? He had reasons to think he’d get more than a job for his brother’s daughter. AP Photo/Evan Vucci President-elect Donald Trump, center, eats dinner with Mitt Rom- ney, right, and Trump Chief of Staff Reince Priebus at Jean-Georges restaurant Nov. 29 in New York. Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo Russian President Vladimir Putin presents ExxonMobil CEO Rex Til- lerson with a Russian medal at an award ceremony of heads and em- ployees of energy companies at the St. Petersburg economic forum in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2012. ‘Torture’ Fine and dandy It’s true that during the campaign he had called Trump “a phony, a fraud,” and said some rather unflat- tering things about Trump Univer- sity, Trump Magazine, Trump Vodka and Trump Steaks. But after the elec- tion, everything seemed fine and dandy. He was getting meetings with the president-elect, being dined (not wined; they’re both teetotalers) at a fancy Manhattan restaurant in front of half the national media. Hard not to feel optimistic when the other apparent top finalists for state were David Petraeus, a man currently on probation for sharing military secrets with his mistress, and Rudy Giuliani, who had so come to resemble a bad-tempered Rottwei- ler that he did everything but howl at the moon. After his big public dinner date with Trump, Romney burbled to reporters that they had a “discus- sion about affairs throughout the world, and these discussions I’ve had with him have been enlightening and interesting and engaging. I’ve enjoyed them very, very much.” The man he’d denounced so vig- orously during the campaign, he added, had “a message of inclusion and bringing people together, and his vision is something which obviously connected with the American people in a very powerful way.” If you had asked Romney at that moment what AP Photo/Carlos Osorio Ronna Romney McDaniel, the Michigan Republican Party chair, speaks before a Republican pres- idential primary debate in Detroit in March. President-elect Donald Trump wants Ronna Romney Mc- Daniel to be national party chair- woman, in part as a reward for the party carrying Michigan for the first time in 28 years. he thought about Trump University, he’d probably have announced plans to enroll. But then, whammo. He was passed over for Rex Tillerson, the CEO of Exxon Mobil, who seemed to pop up out of nowhere. Trump was reportedly moved by recom- mendations from Republican lumi- naries like former Defense Secretary Robert Gates and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Rice and Gates have a consulting firm that counts Tillerson’s company as a cli- ent, but that had nothing whatsoever to do with their miraculous, totally coincidental and spontaneous deci- sions to drop his name. Roger Stone, a political consul- tant who frequently presents him- self as a Friend of Trump, told a radio talk show host that the whole woo- ing of Mitt was just an effort to “tor- ture” the former presidential candi- date. Another theory is that Romney’s problem was a failure to apologize for those campaign insults. It’s possible. Romney did once write a book called “No Apology.” However, given his track record, a better title might have been “No Apol- ogy Normally, Unless Something Else Happens.” Should we feel sorry for him? He’d have been a more qualified pick than Tillerson. But really, Romney has been such a jerk during this election that it’s hard not to giggle. He made a huge, dramatic profile in courage out of his refusal to support Trump, but he didn’t have the spine to say that he’d be voting for Hillary Clinton. Instead, Romney straddled that swamp masquerading as moral high ground where he rejected every- body, took no responsibility for any- body, and therefore was no help at all. Then, when the man he denounced as a fraud got elected, Mitt was instantly in the employment line, grin- ning and blowing kisses. Suddenly we were reminded of all the years of political shape-shifting, when Rom- ney’s opinions on everything from gun control to health care changed with every twitch of the polls. And, of course, he’s the guy who once drove to Canada with the fam- ily Irish setter strapped to the roof of the car. The worst part was his excuse — not “too many kids in the back seat” but “my dog loves fresh air.” Somewhere, the spirit of Seamus is laughing.
