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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 26, 2017)
OPINION 6A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JULY 26, 2017 Founded in 1873 DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor JEREMY FELDMAN, Circulation Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager Water under the bridge Compiled by Bob Duke From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers 10 years ago this week — 2007 Paul Mitchell - The School in downtown Astoria might close for good — leaving a dozen students with limited options for completing enough hours to earn their cosmetology licenses. About a dozen students drafted a list of ongoing problems and staged a walkout July 17. Some planned to return to classes July 24, but the school never reopened. Now, the beauty school — identified as “at risk” by the state within its first year open — may start anew at a site in downtown Portland. Managers have had an eye on a bigger, city-based program for at least one year, but the Oregon Department of Education director in charge of the school’s license said he put the “kibosh” on that idea. “It’s going to be like looking at the side of an elephant from the Maritime Museum. I’m very sad.” That’s how Arline LaMear, a member of the Astoria Planning Commission, described the Englund’s proposed condominium development before casting her “no” vote Tuesday night. The commission denied Englund’s request for a variance that would allow him and his partners to construct two condo build- ings at the foot of 15th Street where his Englund Marine Supply business used to be located. He needs the variance because the area is not a residential zone. Englund’s project adds fuel to a simmering controversy over what kind and how much riverfront development is appropriate and desirable as Astoria’s working waterfront fades into history. 50 years ago — 1967 The Daily Astorian/File A busload of dancers from Jeanne Maddox studio performed during an all-afternoon program Wednesday for Astoria Day at Lloyd Center, celebrating its seventh anniversary. It may have been a first-time experience, but Astoria City Councilman Sven Lund says it will be a while before he will sail a Viking dragon ship model up the Columbia to Portland again. “It was a good trip … we did pretty well, other than a couple of wind prob- lems,” Lund said after returning to Astoria from the three-day trip upriver. Lund and Astoria boat builder Ron Larson were home about 56 hours after setting sail in the 18-foot Viking ship replica last Friday. They admit- ted their speedy return trip was aided by their wives, who drove to Portland to meet them. A lack of wind near Mayger forced the pair to take to the oars. Later a power boat from Kelso aided by towing the 18-foot dragon ship to the bridge at Longview. The wind picked up later near Kalama, Lund said. The wind became very strong and “things got so rough all we could do was keep going,” the coun- cilman explained. Asked if he would like to make the trip again, Lund replied, “No. Not right away. Astoria appeared Wednesday night and Thursday morning to be taking lead position at the 42nd annual meeting of the North- west Rivers and Harbors congress at Gearhart with its resolution seeking a 50-foot channel from the mouth of the Columbia River to Tongue Point. Comments from port officials of several Oregon and Washing- ton cities indicated prime interest during the two-day conference would not center around the theme of pollution and beautifica- tion but around the C.E. Hodges–drafted deep Astoria shipping channel. Hodges, Port of Astoria manager, drafted the resolution sev- eral weeks ago and it was unanimously adopted by Astoria Port commissioners. Two of the five-member Port body felt Astoria should seek a 65 to 70-foot channel but conceded the point to what they termed the immediate best interests of the entire Columbia River system and its ports. 75 years ago — 1942 SALEM — Sen. Rufus C. Holman, Republican, Oregon, contends that “criminally obsolete, woefully inadequate and poorly distributed” defense installations guard the West Coast of the United States and Alaska. Visiting his home state as a member of a Senate military affairs spe- cial subcommittee, Holman told newspapermen that “grossly inadequate” fighter plane forces were stationed in Washington and Oregon. He directed his criticism principally at the alleged failure of American forces to answer the attack of an axis submarine which shelled the Oregon Coast near the Fort Stevens military reservation at the mouth of the Colum- bia river June 21. “Obviously fully informed of the limitations of the guns at the forts, which are of an obsolete vintage of 1898, the Japs cruised leisurely along the coast just out of range,” he said. He said the defenders had computed the range and determined that the submarine was 360 feet in length but had been unable to reply to the attack. “The patrol planes from Tongue Point did not rise to the attack because they weren’t there,” Holman said. “They were all away on an undisclosed mission. The land bombers stationed at Portland were not advised of the attack until several hours after it was over.” GOP support for Trump starts to crack By DAVID LEONHARDT New York Times News Service A gain and again over the past year, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan have had to decide what kind of behav- ior they are willing to tolerate from Donald Trump. Again and again, McConnell and Ryan have bowed down to Trump. They have mumbled occasional words of protest, sometimes even harsh ones, like Ryan’s use of “rac- ist” last year. Then they have gone back to supporting Trump. The capitulation of McConnell and Ryan has created an impression — especially among many liberals — that congressional Republicans stand behind the president. McConnell and Ryan, after all, are the leaders of Congress, and they continue to push for the legislation Trump wants and to permit his klep- tocratic governing. But don’t be fooled: Republican support for the president has started to crack. Below the leadership level, Republicans are defying Trump more often, and McConnell and Ryan aren’t always standing in their way. You can see this defiance in the bipartisan Senate investigation of the Russia scandal. You can see it in the deal on Russian sanctions. And you can see it in the Senate’s failure, so far at least, to pass a health care bill. It’s true that we still don’t know how these stories will end. If the Senate passes a damaging health care bill or lets Trump halt the Russia investigation, I will revisit my assessment. For now, though, I think many political observers are missing the ways that parts of Trump’s own party have subtly begun to revolt. Just listen to Trump himself. “It’s very sad that Republicans,” he wrote in a weekend Twitter rant, “do very little to protect their President.” In a historical sense, he is right. Members of Congress usually support a new president of their own party much more strongly than Republicans are now. They typically understand that a young presidency offers the rare opportunity for sweeping legisla- tion — like the Reagan tax cut, the George W. Bush tax cut, the Clinton deficit plan and the Obama stimulus, health bill and financial regulation. Some intraparty tensions are unavoidable, and defectors kill some legislation — as happened with the Clinton health plan and the Obama climate plan. But partisan loyalty is the norm. AP Photo/Alex Brandon President Donald Trump walks from the Oval Office to the South Lawn of the White House on Monday. Congress members tend to echo White House talking points fulsomely. They find the votes to pass bills. They defend the president against scandal. And the loyalty doesn’t stop in the first year. During Watergate, as the political scientist Jonathan Bernstein has noted, most Republicans stood by Richard Nixon until almost the bitter end. ‘It’s very sad that Republicans do very little to protect their President’ President Donald Trump posted on Twitter over the weekend Matt Glassman, another polit- ical scientist, is one of the sharper observers of the White House- Congress relationship, and I asked him to put the current situation in context. Glassman said that many progressives have made the mis- take of comparing how they want Congress to treat Trump with what it is doing. The more relevant yard- stick is how Congress’s treatment compares historically. “The current congressional GOP seems less supportive and more con- straining of the Potus than basically any in history,” Glassman wrote to me, “save the unique circumstances of Andrew Johnson (who wasn’t really a Republican) and John Tyler (who bucked his party aggressively), neither of whom were elected.” Many of today’s Republicans avoid going on television as Trump surrogates. They mock him off the record, and increasingly on the record, too. In recent weeks, eight senators have publicly stood in the way of a health care bill. Republican senators are also helping to conduct an investigation of Trump’s cam- paign and have backed the appoint- ment of Robert Mueller as special counsel. One reason is that they don’t fear Trump. About 90 percent of Republican House members won a larger vote share in their district last year than Trump did, according to Sarah Binder of George Washington University. Since he took office, Trump’s nationwide net approval rating has fallen to minus 16 (with only 39 percent approving) from plus 4. So it’s not just Republican poli- ticians who are inching away from Trump. Republican voters are, too. None of this is meant to suggest that congressional Republicans have been profiles in courage. They hav- en’t been. They have mostly stood by as Trump has lied compulsively, denigrated the rule of law and tried to shred the modern safety net. But they have put up just enough resistance to keep him from doing far more damage than he otherwise would have. In the months ahead, unfortu- nately, that level of resistance is unlikely to be sufficient. Trump has made clear that he isn’t finished trying to take health insurance away from millions of people or trying to hide the truth about his Russia ties. “The constitutional crisis won’t be if Trump fires Mueller,” as the ACLU’s Kate Oh put it. “The constitutional crisis is if Congress takes no real action in response.” For now, anxious optimism — or maybe optimistic anxiety — seems the appropriate attitude. 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.
