OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 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
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
• Charlene Larsen and Dulcye Taylor, who were each hon-
ored with Lady Liberty Awards Thursday at a luncheon at the
Liberty Theater in Astoria. The awards recognize exemplary vol-
unteerism, professional excellence and contributions to the com-
munity as a whole. Both Larsen and Taylor have been deeply
involved in a number of North Coast organizations and projects
through the years, and both are continuing to actively serve on
boards in voluntary leadership roles.
• U.S. Rep. Suzanne
Bonamici, an Oregon
Democrat whose dis-
trict includes Clatsop
County, who helped
steer a bipartisan bill
through Congress that
will boost research
to improve forecasts
and storm warnings
that can ultimately
save lives. The bill
now awaits President
Donald Trump’s sig-
nature and includes a
tsunami warning pro-
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
vision that has been
U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici speaks at
on the congresswom-
the Astoria Senior Center last year.
an’s radar since initially
winning office, The bill requires the National Weather Service
and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to
advance research on high-tech forecasts and computer mod-
els, with an emphasis on accuracy and longer warning times for
major weather events, which will certainly help all residents of
coastal areas.
• Astoria High School alumnus James West, who was
recently presented with the Bonneville Power Administration’s
Administrator’s Award for Special Services. West is a 2001 grad-
uate from Astoria who studied electrical engineering at Oregon
State University and is an operational analyst with Bonneville’s
workplace service team. The award cited West for “contributing
to BPA operational excellence,” and the agency said he is highly
regarded for consistently challenging the status quo and striving
to improve BPA programs and processes.
CALLOUTS
• An Oregon School Activities Association committee,
which is considering reducing the number of classifications
in high school sports from six to five. The move, if approved,
would occur beginning in the 2018-19 school year and the
committee will be meeting five more times before making its
final recommendation to OSAA’s executive board for a vote
in September. Smaller, rural school districts favor the cur-
rent six classification system and say that reducing it to five
would increase the disparity of school size and make it more
difficult for some schools to compete on an even level with
larger schools in their districts. Warrenton, for instance, would
be moved to a 3A classification with schools that have much
larger enrollments. As Craig Rothenberger, athletic director at
Class 4A Junction City, said, “A lot of people think that if it
isn’t broke, don’t fix it,” and that “there’s a lot of support for
six classifications.” He’s right, and we hope the proposal gets
scraped.
• The IRS, which says it once again will being using private
debt collectors to go after tax delinquents. The resumption of the
program comes amid a wave of telephone and internet scams
in which fake IRS agents try to con innocent taxpayers out of
their money. The IRS stopped using private debt collectors in
2009 after the agency determined that IRS employees could do
the work better. But Congress passed a law in 2015 requiring
the IRS to restart the program. To start, the IRS will turn over
the accounts of 100 taxpayers a week to four private debt col-
lectors. The program will grow to 1,000 accounts a week by
the end of summer. The IRS says it is notifying taxpayers that
their accounts are being turned over to private debt collectors.
Scammers no doubt will take note, and with Tax Day upon us on
Tuesday residents should visit the IRS website at www.IRS.gov
for information and tips on how to avoid falling victim to such
scams.
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.
No ordinary time in politics
Wyden, Merkley
and Walden walk
different paths
By STEVE FORRESTER
The Daily Astorian
N
o ordinary time, 2017.
National politicians face
dismal choices. These
first months of the Donald Trump
administration and
the Republican
hegemony are a
lens to view three
of Oregon’s federal
lawmakers — U.S.
Sens. Ron Wyden
and Jeff Merkley and U.S. Rep.
Greg Walden.
If a politician serves long
enough, history will knock on his
door. How a lawmaker answers that
call marks them forever. This is one
of those moments of no escape.
With his party in power, Walden
has vaulted into the national spot-
light — as a party leader and com-
mittee chair. Also this year, Senate
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer
designated Merkley as his chief
deputy whip. And Wyden, using
his position on the Senate Intelli-
gence Committee, has doggedly
pursued Russian intrusion into our
2016 presidential election and links
between President Trump, his lieu-
tenants and Russia.
AP Photo/Steve Dykes
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden addresses the crowd of supporters at the Ore-
gon Convention Center after winning re-election in November.
Best position?
Walden should be in the best
position to prosper. But politics is
a collaborative art, and Walden is
hampered by a president who is a
novice at congressional politics and
the art of political accommodation.
When President Trump took a run at
repealing and replacing the Afford-
able Care Act, it seemed like this
would be Walden’s biggest moment.
Chairman Walden’s Energy and
Commerce Committee set a record
by doing a 27-hour markup of leg-
islation that would have repealed
and replaced the health care law. A
beaming Walden was pictured sit-
ting next to President Trump in the
run-up to D-day on the House floor.
But that vote never came. When
House Speaker Paul Ryan told
Trump he didn’t have the votes to
move the bill, it was abandoned.
Weeks prior to that fateful
moment, Wyden had predicted it.
“I said that pursuing a partisan rec-
onciliation-only strategy was a pre-
scription for trouble,” the senator
said. “And they produced a bigger
debacle than I expected.”
Criticizing the House bill, Wyden
adds that it “made a shambles out
of rural health care.” Of all Ore-
gon’s House members, Walden has
the most rural hospitals. Following
Walden around his immense cen-
tral and eastern Oregon district, The
New York Times described the con-
tradiction between the House bill
Walden was peddling and the needs
of hospitals in his district.
One could say that Oregon has
bets on three distinct outcomes of
the Trump presidency. Walden is the
insider. Wyden is the consummate
deal-maker and collaborator. Merk-
ley is on the left flank — an outspo-
ken critic who imitated the late Ore-
gon U.S. Sen. Wayne Morse in his
overnight 15-hour filibuster.
Merkley says the filibuster has
generated feedback from peo-
ple “in the REI store, in the cof-
fee shop. People saying ‘Thank
goodness someone is fighting the
court-packing.’”
Of the prospect of another
attempt to repeal and replace the
ACA, Merkley says: “My belief is
they’re going to have a hard time if
Rocky Wilson/EO Media Group
Steve Tool/EO Media Group
U.S. Rep. Greg Walden stresses
a point while speaking about
federal issues during a town hall
meeting in Enterprise in 2014.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley listens to a
question from an audience mem-
ber during a town hall meeting at
Joseph Charter School in 2015.
that strategy is to remove health care
for millions.”
Says Wyden: “I’ve heard they
are reaching out to the far right. That
will take them to an even worse
bill.”
says that if you are doing big issues,
you are at your peril if you don’t get
both sides invested at the start.”
In other words, the poisonous
partisan politics of religious warfare
and total victory that Newt Gingrich
inspired has reached its limit.
During my 10 years as a Cap-
itol Hill correspondent, I watched
Wyden’s first terms in the House
and I knew Walden, who was then
an aide to Congressman Bob Smith.
While Wyden and Merkley are
easy to characterize, I have found
Walden to be opaque. In some ways,
Walden is an extension of the House
staffer I knew. He has mastered
the politician’s art of saying noth-
ing in a convincing manner. And
in the post-Gingrich House he has
risen to party prominence by being
a dependable party man, even at the
risk of ignoring the needs of his dis-
trict — such as farmers who desper-
ately seek immigration law reform.
Waiting for a payoff
When asked if there a differ-
ence between Trump’s politics and
Walden’s, the congressman’s press
aide, Andrew Malcolm, said: “He
thinks he can deliver more for the
state inside the room than outside
it.” And Malcolm notes that Walden
has met with the president and vice
president several times — some-
thing that seldom happened when
Barack Obama was president.
But many of Walden’s constitu-
ents are waiting for a payoff. Farm-
ers in Walden’s agriculture-rich dis-
trict have long sought immigration
reform, because they depend on
migrant labor. Hood River orchard-
ist Mike Omeg has described to
our sister newspaper the Capital
Press the cumbersome process he
and other fruit growers must endure
to bring in more immigrant labor
during harvest season. Omeg says
Walden listens politely to Oregon
growers, but does nothing beyond
that.
Malcolm says Walden believes
that, “If anyone can get (immigra-
tion reform) done, it’s Trump. He
(Walden) is optimistic.”
A model waiting
Says Merkley: “I think it is a
possibility. The Senate laid out the
vision for immigration reform in
the 2013 bill. It had the support
of Republicans and Democrats.
It ended the shadow economy. It
opened a path to citizenship. It hits
the fundamental points. That’s a
model waiting for president Trump.”
As the senior member of this
Oregon triumvirate, Wyden has the
longest perspective. Of Trump he
admonishes, “I think that history
Running room
The irony in this perception of
Oregon’s three leading D.C. law-
makers is that the Democrats
have more running room than the
Republican.
Here is how Merkley sees the
challenge and opportunity that
Trump presents:
“Last week (Trump) sounded
like me on infrastructure. We need
to turn to less expensive strategies
like borrowing. Suddenly I thought
we could work out a workable deal.”
Concludes Merkley: “When
there are opportunities, I’m there.
But when he’s aiming at destroy-
ing consumer protections and pack-
ing the court and setting Wall Street
loose, I’m going to fight like crazy.”
It will be clear how senators
Wyden and Merkley answer histo-
ry’s knock on their door. I’m not so
sure about Congressman Walden.
Steve Forrester is the former
editor and publisher of The Daily
Astorian.