OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 2017
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
JEREMY FELDMAN, Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
McConnell’s health care misery
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Developer Harry Henke is behind the development of the 87-lot sub-
division known as Reed Ranch off U.S. Highway 101 near Seaside.
Projects could take
a large bite out of
housing crunch
T
he welcome news of planned developments in Warrenton
and Astoria have the potential of taking a large bite out of
the region’s housing crunch.
In Warrenton, as we reported last week, developers have
plans in the pipeline for more than 500 housing units in vari-
ous locations, while in Astoria a 32-unit apartment complex is
being proposed for property near the Old Youngs Bay Bridge.
Additionally, there are 170 lots in development in the county out-
side city limits.
Developers of the projects in cities and the county will still
need various approvals to go forward once their plans are fully
considered, and whether it takes a large bite out of the housing
crunch will also depend on pricing once the homes and apart-
ments are built and whatever NIMBY opposition those plans
may face from other residents beforehand.
According to Warrenton’s planning director, Skip Urling, the
projects there range from Fort Pointe, a large development that
could add up to 150 homes and a matching number of apart-
ments along Ridge Road south of the KOA campground, to other
smaller subdivisions and apartment complexes. Fort Pointe’s
Texas-based development group was originally given tentative
approval for the project a decade ago, but because of the sour
economy it was shelved. The group has renewed its interest,
Urling said.
Elsewhere in Warrenton, developer Harry Henke plans to
build an 87-unit subdivision between Sunset Lake and U.S.
Highway 101. Warrenton Fiber and North River Homes are
jointly planning a 74-unit development south of the Clatsop
County Sheriff’s Office and the Nygaard family’s earlier devel-
opment, Forrest Rim, which has
been mostly built out. An addi-
tional 35-unit subdivision being
planned by developer Dick
Krueger is scheduled to break
ground at a Lewis and Clark site
next month.
In Astoria, the owner of the
No doubt
Fisher Building, developer Joe
Barnes, is planning the 32-unit
that some of
apartment complex that would
the projects
consist of three separate three-
will draw
story buildings. The complex
would be built on property near
opposition,
the old Yacht Club offices, the
and city
location of the city’s Parks and
Recreation Department, accord-
councilors
ing to city staff.
in those
Astoria Community
Development Director Kevin
areas need to
Cronin calls housing the “mon-
take that in
ster” problem in the city right
consideration
now, and each of the cities on
the North Coast are experienc-
when the
ing housing shortages in varying
degrees. Economists and business full plans are
leaders have pointed to a lack of
submitted.
rental housing, in particular, as a
barrier to economic growth.
No doubt that some of the proj-
ects will draw opposition, and city councilors in those areas need
to take that in consideration when the full plans are submitted.
If they are to truly tackle the housing issue, though, they must
also have the political will to stand in the way of the “Not In My
Back Yard” type of opposition to developments that may oth-
erwise be up to spec. Councilors in Seaside recently did so in
approving a housing development there, and it bears watching
because these projects will test the mettle of other leaders in the
two cities and the county.
By FRANK BRUNI
New York Times News Service
F
or a good laugh, or rather
cry, zip backward to the
beginning of 2014, when
Democrats still
had control of the
U.S. Senate, and
listen to Mitch
McConnell’s
lamentations about
the way they were
doing business.
“Major legislation is now rou-
tinely drafted not in committee
but in the majority leader’s con-
ference room,” he declaimed on
the Senate floor. “Bills should go
through committee.” He pledged
that if Republicans were “fortunate
enough to gain the majority next
year, they would.”
In a speech a few months later
at the American Enterprise Insti-
tute, he said, “The greatest way to
ensure stability in our laws is to
ensure that everyone has an oppor-
tunity to participate in some way in
the passage.” He railed about the
lack of transparency from Demo-
crats and the damage they’d done
“to the spirit of comity and respect
that the public has every right to
expect from their leaders.”
“If Republicans were fortu-
nate enough to reclaim the major-
ity in November, I assure you, my
friends, all of this would change,”
he vowed anew.
Republicans were fortunate
enough. McConnell became the
majority leader. And if you can find
committee hearings, transparency,
full participation, comity, respect or
anything akin to good faith in the
way he just tried to ram his health
care bill through the chamber, then
I want you on the hunt for the yeti
and, pretty please, the Fountain of
Youth.
His approach may prove fatal:
On Tuesday, he had to postpone
any vote on the legislation until
after July 4.
Then again, perhaps he isn’t
really chasing success. One intrigu-
ing theory is that he has no yen for
stripping insurance from tens of
millions of Americans and having it
come back to bite Republicans. But
he must go convincingly through
the motions, lest President Don-
ald Trump mewl and right-wing
donors carp that he isn’t seizing his
best chance to drive a stake through
Obamacare’s heart.
Whatever the case, it’s a sorry
turn for a man who paid such lip
service to the courtesy and collabo-
ration that supposedly distinguished
the Senate, which he did, in his
way, seem to revere.
Unlike more telegenic col-
leagues, he never yearned to be
president. He aspired to recognition
as a master of the world’s “greatest
deliberative body,” as the Senate is
often described.
AP Photo/Susan Walsh
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, center,
flanked by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., left, and Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan.,
right, wait for President Donald Trump to join a meeting of Republican
senators on health care in the East Room of the White House Tuesday.
But since Trump’s inauguration,
that body has been a sort of couch
potato, slow to rouse to its right-
ful labors. Committees aren’t busily
marking up bills.
And what McConnell has dis-
played isn’t mastery so much as
bullying. Bye-bye to the 60 votes
needed to proceed to confirmation
of a Supreme Court nominee. He
did away with that to smooth Neil
Gorsuch’s passage.
I asked
two former
senators, a
Republican and
a Democrat,
what they
made of all this.
Both mourned
a long, steady
erosion of
bipartisanship
that McConnell
hardly owns.
Farewell to deliberation. McCo-
nnell did away with that, too.
Back when the Senate considered
Obamacare, there were scores of
hearings and exhaustive analyses
of the evolving legislation’s text.
McConnell held no hearings for his
bill. He spurned feedback from out-
side groups. An uncomely cabal of
13 men patched it together in the
equivalent of a subterranean bun-
ker, with the initial hope of a vote
just a week after they emerged from
hiding and brought it into the light.
I asked two former senators, a
Republican and a Democrat, what
they made of all this. Both mourned
a long, steady erosion of bipartisan-
ship that McConnell hardly owns.
“I actually think he’s done as
well as he could with the cards he’s
been dealt,” the Republican, Judd
Gregg, told me, saying that McCo-
nnell is no doubt correct in his
assumption that Democrats aren’t
eager to work with him. They’re
too consumed by contempt for
Trump.
The Democrat, Bob Ker-
rey, characterized McConnell as
a “creature of these very partisan
times” who in some ways merely
reflects them. But Kerrey said that
when McConnell blocked any vote
on President Barack Obama’s nom-
ination of Merrick Garland to the
Supreme Court for the better part of
a year, “he went way too far.”
Until now, McConnell has
evaded the degree of demoniza-
tion that you might expect. He’s
too pale a blur to arouse passion,
and as an object of fascination, he
can hold neither bow nor arrow to
the dimpled deer hunter who reigns
over the other side of the Capitol.
The tote board of House Speaker
Paul Ryan’s hypocrisies is more
painstakingly maintained, and
during the 2016 campaign, every
step of his tango with Trump was
scrutinized to smithereens. McCon-
nell receded. He was the Jan Brady
to Ryan’s Marcia.
But he has always been the ruth-
less one. In 2010, when he was the
minority leader, he stated unabash-
edly that Republicans’ pre-eminent
goal was to send Obama packing
after one term.
Harry Reid, a Democrat, was
then the majority leader, and after
he eliminated the filibuster for all
executive branch nominations apart
from those for the Supreme Court,
McConnell said, “I think it’s a time
to be sad about what’s been done to
the United States Senate.”
It was. But because of McCo-
nnell, it’s a time now to be sadder
still.
WHERE TO WRITE
• U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici
(D): 2338 Rayburn HOB, Washing-
ton, D.C., 20515. Phone: 202- 225-
0855. Fax 202-225-9497. District
office: 12725 SW Millikan Way,
Suite 220, Beaverton, OR 97005.
Phone: 503-469-6010. Fax 503-326-
5066. Web: bonamici.house. gov/
• U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D): 313
Hart Senate Office Building, Wash-
ington, D.C. 20510. Phone: 202-224-
3753. Web: www.merkley.senate.gov
• U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D):
221 Dirksen Senate Office Building,
Washington, D.C., 20510. Phone:
202-224-5244. Web: www.wyden.
senate.gov
• State Rep. Brad Witt (D):
State Capitol, 900 Court Street N.E.,
H-373, Salem, OR 97301. Phone:
503-986-1431. Web: www.leg.state.
or.us/witt/ Email: rep.bradwitt@
state.or.us
• State Rep. Deborah Boone (D):
900 Court St. N.E., H-481, Salem,
OR 97301. Phone: 503-986-1432.
Email: rep.deborah boone@state.
or.us District office: P.O. Box 928,
Cannon Beach, OR 97110. Phone:
503-986-1432. Web: www.leg.state.
or.us/ boone/
• State Sen. Betsy Johnson (D):
State Capitol, 900 Court St. N.E.,
S-314, Salem, OR 97301. Telephone:
503-986-1716. Email: sen.betsy john-
son@state.or.us Web: www.betsy-
johnson.com District Office: P.O.
Box R, Scappoose, OR 97056. Phone:
503-543-4046. Fax: 503-543-5296.
Astoria office phone: 503-338-1280.
• Port of Astoria: Executive
Director, 10 Pier 1 Suite 308, Asto-
ria, OR 97103. Phone: 503-741-3300.
Email: admin@portofastoria.com
• Clatsop County Board of Com-
missioners: c/o County Manager, 800
Exchange St., Suite 410, Astoria, OR
97103. Phone: 503-325-1000.