OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2017
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
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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
Thank God for Harry Reid
This week’s Shoutouts go to:
By CHARLES
KRAUTHAMMER
Washington Post Writers Group
W
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Afternoon light hits the Flavel mansion located at 15th Street and
Franklin Avenue in Astoria. Greg Newenhof of City Lumber has
been recognized for his restoration effort.
• Flavel mansion restorer Greg Newenhof, Christmas Food
Basket coordinator Myrle Bruner, downtown Astoria advo-
cate Sara Meyer and Warrenton businesswoman and volun-
teer Darlene Warren, who each received citizen of the year
awards from the Astoria-Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce
last Saturday evening at the Astoria Golf and Country Club.
Newenhof, Bruner and Meyer joined more than 130 past recipients
of Astoria’s George Awards since 1960, while Warren became the
20th individual to receive Warrenton’s Richard Ford Award since
2000. The chamber’s President’s Award went to the Fred Meyer
store in Warrenton, while the Fort George Brewery and Public
House was named Chamber Member of the Year.
• Seaside Chamber of Commerce members who received
awards at the organization’s annual meeting last week. During the
meeting, Executive Director Brian Owen sent a shoutout to the
Seaside High School Seagulls for the lift the undefeated No. 1
boys basketball and the high ranking girls teams are giving to the
city. The chamber presented its vaunted Byron Award — named
after longtime volunteer Byron Meek — to Ed Rippet, an orga-
nizer of the student athletic program Seaside Kids. Fred Loser,
recipient of the 2015 award, presented the honor. The cham-
ber also honored Seaside’s Bank of the Pacific as Business of
the Year and Sadie Mercer of Maggie’s on the Prom as Board
Member of the Year. Chuck Miner received the chamber’s
Ambassador of the Year honors and Terry Lowenberg of Beach
Development received the Building Block Award for providing
construction jobs and opportunities. Cheryle Barker received a
Life Member Award and Reita Fackerell was named Volunteer of
the Year.
• The Sunset Empire Transportation District, which dedi-
cated and renamed its annual Ridership Appreciation Day for Rae
Goforth, who served on the district’s board of commissioners for
13 years and strongly supported public transportation prior to her
death last year. The appreciation day was earlier this week with
free bus service on all regular routes throughout Clatsop County.
• The Cannon Beach Chamber of Commerce, Martin
Hospitality and other businesses that contributed to the city
recently earning a trio of national honors. National Geographic
named Cannon Beach one of its Top 21 Beaches In The World,
particularly in the dog-friendly category, while TravelerToday.
com listed Cannon Beach as one of the Top 5 Coastal Towns in
America. TripAdvisor.com also recently named the Stephanie Inn
in its 2017 Traveler’s Choice Awards as the No. 4 Best Hotel in
America.
• Realtors and staff at Windermere Stellar, who raised money
and supported 41 charitable organizations throughout Oregon and
southwest Washington state in 2016. Through the Windermere
Foundation, more than $360,000 was given to charities supporting
low-income children and families, with a portion of that benefit-
ing nonprofit organizations based in our North Coast communities,
such as St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry in Seaside and the Autism
Society of Oregon in Astoria.
CALLOUTS
Callouts
This week’s Callouts go to:
• Drivers who don’t turn on their headlights during dark after-
noons, especially on rainy days. Oregon law requires headlights to
be used anytime visibility is less than 1,000 feet, and both the state
Department of Transportation and AAA recommend headlights
should always be turned on for safety purposes while driving in the
rain, fog or low-light situations. The law also prohibits motorists
using their fog lights during conditions that don’t warrant their use.
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.
ASHINGTON — There
are many people to thank
for the coming accession
of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme
Court. Donald
Trump for winning
the election.
Hillary Clinton for
losing it. Mitch
McConnell for
holding open
the high court seat through 2016,
resolute and immovable against
furious (and hypocritical) opposition
from Democrats and media. And, of
course, Harry Reid.
God bless Harry Reid. It’s
because of him that Gorsuch is
guaranteed elevation to the court.
In 2013, as then-Senate majority
leader, Reid blew up the joint. He
abolished the filibuster for federal
appointments both executive (such
as Cabinet) and judicial, for all
district and circuit court judgeships
(excluding only the Supreme
Court). Thus unencumbered, the
Democratic-controlled Senate
packed the lower courts with
Obama nominees.
Reid was warned that the day
would come when Republicans
would be in the majority and would
exploit the new rules to equal and
opposite effect. That day is here.
The result is striking. Trump’s
Cabinet appointments are essentially
unstoppable because Republicans
need only 51 votes and they have
52. They have no need to reach 60,
the number required to overcome a
filibuster. Democrats are powerless
to stop anyone on their own.
And equally powerless to stop
Gorsuch. But isn’t the filibuster for
Supreme Court nominees still stand-
ing? Yes, but if the Democrats dare
try it, everyone knows that Majority
Leader McConnell will do exactly
what Reid did and invoke the
nuclear option — filibuster abolition
— for the Supreme Court, too.
Reid never fully appreciated
the magnitude of his crime against
the Senate. As I wrote at the time,
the offense was not abolishing the
filibuster — you can argue that issue
either way — but that he did it by
simple majority. In a serious body,
a serious rule change requires a
serious supermajority. (Amending
the U.S. Constitution, for example,
requires two-thirds of both houses
plus three-quarters of all the states.)
Otherwise you have rendered the
place lawless. If in any given session
you can summon up the day’s
AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
President Donald Trump speaks in the East Room of the White House
on Tuesday to announce Judge Neil Gorsuch as his nominee for the
Supreme Court. Gorsuch kisses his wife, Louise.
majority to change the institution’s
fundamental rules, there are no rules.
McConnell can at any moment
finish Reid’s work by extending
filibuster abolition to the Supreme
Court. But he hasn’t. He has
neither invoked the nuclear option
nor even threatened to. And he’s
been asked often enough. His
simple and unwavering response
is that Gorsuch will be confirmed.
Translation: If necessary, he will
drop the big one.
Reid
never fully
appreciated
the magnitude
of his crime
against the
Senate
It’s obvious that he prefers not
to. No one wants to again devalue
and destabilize the Senate by
changing a major norm by simple
majority vote. But Reid set the
precedent.
Note that the issue is not the fili-
buster itself. There’s nothing sacred
about it. Its routine use is a modern
development — with effects both
contradictory and unpredictable.
The need for 60 votes can contrib-
ute to moderation and compromise
because to achieve a supermajority
you need to get a buy-in from at
least some of the opposition. On
the other hand, in a hyper-partisan
atmosphere (like today’s), a 60-vote
threshold can ensure that everything
gets stopped and nothing gets done.
Filibuster abolition is good for
conservatives today. It will be good
for liberals tomorrow when they
have regained power. There’s no
great principle at stake, though as
a practical matter, in this era of
widespread frustration with con-
gressional gridlock, the new norm
may be salutary.
What is not salutary is the Reid
precedent of changing the old norm
using something so transient and
capricious as the majority of the
day. As I argued in 2015, eventually
the two parties will need to work
out a permanent arrangement under
which major rule changes will
require a supermajority (say, of
two-thirds) to ensure substantial
bipartisan support.
There are conflicting schools of
thought as to whether even such
a grand bargain could not itself
be overturned by some future
Congress — by simple majority
led by the next Harry Reid.
Nonetheless, even a problematic
entente is better than the free-for-all
that governs today.
The operative word, however,
is “eventually.” Such an agreement
is for the future. Not yet, not today.
Republicans are no fools. They are
not about to forfeit the advantage
bequeathed to them by Harry Reid’s
shortsighted willfulness. They
will zealously retain the nuclear
option for Supreme Court nominees
through the current Republican ten-
ure of Congress and the presidency.
After which, they should be
ready to parlay and press the reset
button. But only then. As the young
Augustine famously beseeched the
Lord, “Give me chastity and conti-
nency, only not yet.”
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Flummoxed by facts
ven a cursory examination
reveals that the Trump inau-
guration was a sparsely-attended
get-together. Yet Trump’s sycophan-
tic spinmeisters, Kellyanne Con-
way and Sean Spicer, insisted there
were “alternative facts” that proved
that Trump’s audience was the larg-
est ever to witness an inauguration.
Aerial photographs and public trans-
portation statistics proved otherwise.
Yes, Kellyanne, there are many
ways to “really quantify crowds.”
And no, Kellyanne, the Germans
did not bomb Pearl Harbor. Cling-
ing to whatever they passionately
believe or imagine, fact-free Ameri-
cans make their “truths” a matter of
personal opinion, oozing confidence
in the existence of things that can’t
be proven to exist.
While they may acknowledge
that there are 100 U.S. senators
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and 45 U.S. presidents, and agree
that the sun doesn’t revolve around
the earth, those same flummoxed-
by-facts folks balk about whether
ex-President Obama was born in
America, or whether global warm-
ing is real.
Remember that Prevarica-
tor-in-Chief Donald Trump insists
that 3 millin to 5 million illegals
voted last November, a corrosive
lie. Yet, with a wink and a nod,
Trump fans continue to cheer the
Donald, who once admitted that he
enjoyed being compared to P. T.
Barnum.
Some imaginative fact foes
would probably relish a visit to the
Creation Museum in Petersburg,
Kentucky, marveling at the fiber-
glass dinosaurs with saddles, avail-
able for children or child-like adults.
Others might enthusiastically agree
that the creation occurred on Oct.
23, at 9 a.m. in 4004 B.C. Isn’t
that what scholarly Bishop Usher
alleged in the play, “Inherit the
Wind?” So it must be true, though
I’m not sure if it was Pacific Stan-
dard or Daylight Savings Time.
Alas, I wonder how other-
wise-intelligent people end up the
willing slaves of claptrap? How do
they manage to convince themselves
and others that they are the rational,
reasonable ones, and everyone else
is deluded? I’m gobsmacked.
Fact-free Americans continue
to deny sometimes-incontrovert-
ible proofs, relishing their willful
stupidity and their freedom to be
led astray. How sad. But at least it
boosts employment, especially for
all those fact-checkers dispensing
Pinocchio awards and struggling to
keep up with a tsunami of tall tales.
DR. ROBERT BRAKE
Ocean Park, Washington