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OPINION
East Oregonian
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
Passenger rail
should come irst
Passengers and freight have
ive different ways. But at the end
always competed for precedence on of the day, its decision will be about
rail lines. For 40 years, passenger
America’s future. And one way of
trains have come
describing that is
irst. Now that is
we must nurture
We must nurture that
being challenged.
and generate new
The U.S. Surface
and generate new mass transportation
Transportation Board
That
mass transportation solutions.
will be deciding
imperative is driven
whether to accept the
by growing trafic
solutions. That
argument of freight
and the
imperative is driven congestion
railroads, which
need for energy
by growing trafic conservation as it
argue that Amtrak’s
tacit priority on
to climate
congestion and the relates
rail lines should be
change.
need for energy
changed.
Put simply, rail
The Wall Street
passengers
replace
conservation.
Journal’s story last
drivers and vehicles
week on this case
on the highway.
describes the conlicting worlds.
Freight trains travel more slowly
Amtrak ridership is up markedly.
than passenger trains. On-time
With fossil fuels in decline, freight
performance is everything for the
lines are struggling and need an
Amtrak rail passenger network.
advantage.
Giving freight trains precedence
The Surface Transportation
would be a giant step in the wrong
Board will likely parse this dispute
direction.
Culture corner
Raymond Carver is certainly
among the giants of Oregon literature.
Though he grew up in Yakima and
spent much of his life in the state to
our north, he was born in the Oregon
mill town of Clatskanie and we claim
him as one of our own. Many of his
stories and
poems are
quintessential
Cascadia.
Last week
Carver would
have turned
78 — had he
not died of
lung cancer at
the height of
his powers at
age 50, after
a lifetime of heavy smoking, hard
living and bad luck.
Biographies of Carver, who
reinvented the short story genre for a
modern audience, have always leaned
heavily on his dirt-poor childhood,
his alcoholic and out-of-work father
and his exasperated and possibly
unhinged mother. It helped explain
who Carver came to be — kind
but dificult, genius but dangerous,
prone to alcoholism, depression and
bankruptcy.
But last week, on the occasion
of Raymond’s birthday, his brother
James Carver wrote a piece for
website Electric Literature that
didn’t quite lip the narrative,
but further
informed it.
Certainly
family
members can
be unreliable
storytellers
when it comes
to their own
family legacy,
and the piece
should be read
critically.
But James Carver’s memories
of the Carver clan are insightful
and enlightening. It adds another
dimension to a man who, James
correctly notes, has had his life
“sliced, diced, analyzed and
dissected” over the past decades.
The piece also includes never-
before-seen family photos that will
intrigue any Carver fan. You can
read it here: http://bit.ly/1VihR32.
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher
Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor.
Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
OTHER VIEWS
The ghosts of
old sex scandals
W
e are now being forced to
Indeed, as The Times reported in April,
relive the decades-old sex
federal prosecutors asserted that Hastert
scandals of Bill Clinton, as
“molested at least four boys, as young
Donald Trump tries desperately to shield
as 14, when he worked as a high school
and inoculate himself from well-earned
wrestling coach decades ago,” before
charges of misogyny.
the Clinton impeachment hearings.
I say, if we must go there, let’s go all
Henry Hyde, chairman of the House
the way. Let’s do this dirty laundry, as
Judiciary Committee, who The Times
Kelly Rowland, former Destiny’s Child
Charles reported had raised “the specter of the
member, once crooned.
Watergate era” when discussing Clinton,
Blow
First, multiple women have accused
admitted to a journalist during the
Comment
Clinton of things ranging from sexual
proceedings that he’d had a ive-year
misconduct to rape. Paula Jones
affair with a married woman decades
famously brought a sexual harassment case
earlier.
against Clinton. The case was dismissed, but
Dan Burton, House Government Reform
on appeal, faced with the prospect of having to
and Oversight Committee chairman, who The
testify under oath, Clinton settled the case out
Washington Post described as “one of President
of court.
Clinton’s most persistent and combative critics,”
Clinton has maintained that he had
was forced to admit that he had a secret love
inappropriate sexual relationships with only two child.
women: Gennifer Flowers, a model and actress,
And, just last week, The Times reported:
and Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern.
“Kenneth W. Starr, the former independent
Clinton was impeached on charges of perjury counsel who delivered a report that served as the
and obstruction of justice in connection with his basis for President Bill Clinton’s impeachment
affair with Lewinsky.
in 1998, was removed as president of Baylor
Let’s just say this: Clinton was as wrong as
University on Thursday after an investigation
the day is long for his affairs. There is no way
found the university mishandled accusations of
around that.
sexual assault against football players.”
But the problem was that many of the men
The sweep of karma and the level of
condemning the beam in Clinton’s eye were
hypocrisy is just staggering.
then shown to have one in their own.
No wonder nearly two-thirds of Americans
Newt Gingrich, who was so incredibly
opposed Clinton’s impeachment, and he
disliked that he stepped down not only from his emerged from the impeachment with record-
speakership in the House of Representatives,
high approval ratings.
but also from Congress altogether, later
Now, Trump wants to dip into this muck
admitted cheating on his irst wife (with whom
again, even though he has had his own
he discussed divorce terms while she was
extramarital affair.
in the hospital for cancer) and on his second
Indeed, nine days after Clinton admitted his
(that cheating occurred while Gingrich led the
affair with Lewinsky, Trump seemed to support
Clinton impeachment proceedings).
him and ind kinship, saying, “Paula Jones is a
Into the void created by Gingrich’s departure loser, but the fact is that she may be responsible
stepped speaker-to-be Robert L. Livingston of
for bringing down a president indirectly.”
Louisiana.
Trump also mused on the prospect of his own
But, as The Chicago Tribune reported at the
run for public ofice, saying, “Can you imagine
time:
how controversial that’d be? You think about
“On the eve of the House debate to impeach
him with the women. How about me with the
President Clinton for lying about sex with
women? Can you imagine …”
Monica Lewinsky, House Speaker-elect Bob
I can, actually.
Livingston told his Republican colleagues
Last week, when Trump lawyer Michael
Thursday night that he had strayed from his
Cohen was confronted on CNN with Trump’s
marriage and had adulterous affairs. Only a few defenses of Clinton during the sex scandals,
hours after Livingston decided to proceed with
Cohen responded that at the time Trump was
the impeachment debate despite U.S. forces
simply trying to “protect a friend.” And yet, this
being engaged in hostilities in Iraq, he admitted
is the same camp lambasting Hillary Clinton as
in a GOP caucus that he had ‘on occasion’
an “enabler” for trying to protect a husband?
committed inidelity and in ‘doing so nearly
It’s all incredibly distasteful, yes, but it also
cost me my marriage and family.’”
doesn’t jibe. And, aside from the unshakable
And Livingston wasn’t the only Republican
feeling that there is something tragically off
moving to impeach Clinton for lying about a
about using a husband’s philandering as a
sexual affair who would be forced out of the
weapon against a betrayed wife, I also doubt the
shadows for his own sexual scandals.
public will have much stomach for these stories,
Dennis Hastert, who became speaker in
just as it didn’t in the 1990s.
1999, pleaded guilty last year to illegally
Dirty laundry, done.
structuring bank withdrawals in order to pay
■
what prosecutors contend was hush money to
Charles M. Blow is The New York Times’s
a man Hastert had sexually abused as a child.
visual Op-Ed columist.
YOUR VIEWS
Questions on
Pendleton’s budget
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
U.S. Senators
U.S. Representative
Ron Wyden
Greg Walden
Washington ofice:
221 Dirksen Senate Ofice Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
La Grande ofice:
541-962-7691
Washington ofice:
185 Rayburn House Ofice Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6730
La Grande ofice:
541-624-2400
Jeff Merkley
Washington ofice:
313 Hart Senate Ofice Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753
Pendleton ofice:
541-278-1129
Senator
Bill Hansell, District 29
900 Court St. NE, S-423
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1729
Sen.BillHansell@state.or.us
I realize after attending the current budget
meetings for upcoming iscal year that a lot
of work goes into the process. There were
however, a couple of concerns.
The Umatilla County Sheriff’s Ofice, for
example, has been requesting additional patrol
oficers, more boots on the ground, plus new
vehicles, and is inally making that happen.
The Pendleton Police Department, after
inally getting its patrol oficer numbers up
to acceptable levels, is now reversing course
and again, after last year’s decrease, is again
requesting another decrease in patrol oficers
and an increase in administrative personnel,
another lieutenant. With the looming disaster
in unfunded PERS liabilities impacting our
budget, the timing for an increase in personnel
spending seems counterproductive.
Then there is the city transportation
program. With Kayak, CAPECO, Clearview
and the taxi company all providing service, I
think it’s time to eliminate direct services by
the city and let the professionals handle the job,
as the consultants pointed to the ineficiency
and high cost of the city operation.
Central Services Charge, signiicant
in every department, exceeds our street
maintenance. Exactly what is this? I hope these
are addressed before the budget is approved.
Rick Rohde
Pendleton
LETTERS POLICY
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues
and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper
reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and
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to Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email
editor@eastoregonian.com.