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OPINION
East Oregonian
Friday, December 16, 2016
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
MARISSA WILLIAMS
Regional Advertising Director
MARCY ROSENBERG
Circulation Manager
JANNA HEIMGARTNER
Business Office Manager
MIKE JENSEN
Production Manager
OUR VIEW
Tip of the hat,
kick in the pants
A tip of the hat to the stranger, that anonymous helper who shows up
just in the nick of time to help with a perilous predicament then vanishes as
mysteriously as they appeared.
We’ve heard stories of these good Samaritans
for the past week, but specifically overnight
Wednesday as the snow storm stranded
motorists. Whether it’s a single person showing
up to help dig a car out of a drift or a group
helping push or shovel or otherwise free a
vehicle and get the driver back on the road, they
seem to be everywhere.
Many times, names are not exchanged. The
helper merely goes along with their day (or
night) without expectation of anything more than a thank you.
We’re happy to oblige, and look for the chance to pay it forward.
A kick in the pants to Pendleton’s refusal to invest in snow plowing
services.
First, to clear the air — the city did not sell its snow plow to buy a statue.
Rumors like that swirl along with the falling
snow each winter.
In reality, the city has a plow it uses in
only select circumstances. Like when it
needs to clear snow to access utilities.
Sure, it was a once-in-a-decade overnight
snowfall Wednesday. But every winter there
is at least a day or two that we could use a
plow to make getting around town safer and
easier.
We’ve been told people didn’t like their
roads cleared when the city used to provide
the service in the 1990s. Nobody likes a pile of snow in their driveway.
But if those are the only two options — leaving snow stacked on the
city’s streets or piling it up on private property — the city isn’t trying hard
enough to solve the problem.
A tip of the hat to the Oregon Emergency Board, made up of 20
lawmakers, for denying $3.8 million to the Department of Corrections for
the construction of a second women’s prison in Oregon.
There are many things this state needs, and
another prison isn’t one of them. Dedicating
more money, and emergency dollars at that, to
a prison project is not a good use of our state
funds.
Instead of approving the expenditure,
the emergency board told the corrections
department to work with counties to whittle
their female inmate population enough to relieve
the need for a second facility. The second prison
was planned to open in Salem in June to house
as few as 20 inmates to start.
Of course, that’s just a start. Surely there would be need, at our current
pace, to fill that prison in a few years and start planning the next.
We’d rather see the state put its corrections dollars to use on improving
diversion and rehabilitation programs that don’t require big slabs of brick
and mortar.
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
Time to invest in voter
fraud investigation
The (Bend) Bulletin, Dec. 9
I
f there’s one thing certain about voter
fraud, it’s this: There’s not much
research into how much fraud there
actually is.
It’s time that changed.
Oregon would be a good place
to begin. According to an article in
The Bulletin by reporter Taylor W.
Anderson, state Rep. Mike Nearman,
R-Independence, and James Buchal,
a lawyer and Republican from the
Portland area, have filed a potential
ballot measure with the Secretary
of State’s Office that would amend
the constitution to require proof of
citizenship to register to vote. The
measure also would allow all current
registrations to expire in two years so
that all who hope to vote in Oregon
would have to re-register, with proper
identification. In some cases the state
would be required to issue copies of
Oregon birth certificates for free.
That’s a lot of work for county
clerks and the Secretary of State’s
Office, and it would be a hassle for the
more than 2.5 million voters currently
registered in the state. It may or may
not be necessary.
A 2012 Pew Center on the States
study of voter registration found
problems, though they stem from
things other than fraud. Research
into voter registration fraud generally
comes from studies of particular
elections after the fact.
It may well be that the number
of cases of fraud reported are a tiny
fraction of voter frauds committed. Or
not. But without studies, no one knows
for sure.
The first step in fixing a problem
should be to find out if Oregon has
one. Would the proposed change
in voter registration accomplish
anything?
Oregon lawmakers should ask if
it is possible to do a more extensive
study of fraud in Oregon. Even if it is
not possible, it may expose weaknesses
in the current system that should be
addressed. As the Pew study noted,
most states lack the modern data
matching techniques used by business.
Can Oregon do more? Lawmakers
should ask.
OTHER VIEWS
Dinner and a kiss-off for Mitt
F
much.”
arewell, Mitt Romney, farewell.
The man he’d denounced so
Romney, who once spent
vigorously during the campaign, he
nearly a decade being rejected
added, had “a message of inclusion
by the American electorate, got the
and bringing people together, and his
heave-ho from Donald Trump this
vision is something which obviously
week — passed over for the secretary
connected with the American people
of state nomination in favor of an
in a very powerful way.” If you had
oil executive who is great pals with
asked Romney at that moment what
Vladimir Putin.
Gail
It is, of course, extremely
Collins he thought about Trump University,
he’d probably have announced plans
fashionable in Trump’s Washington to
Comment
to enroll.
be great pals with Vladimir Putin. Also
But then, whammo. He was
to be a general or a climate change
passed over for Rex Tillerson, the CEO of
denier. Romney was always suspicious
Exxon Mobil, who seemed to pop up out of
of Russia, never served in the military,
nowhere. Trump was reportedly moved by
and although he came up with multiple
positions on the environment over the years,
recommendations from Republican luminaries
he would still have been one of the only
like former Defense Secretary Robert Gates
Trump nominees to have
and former Secretary of State
sporadically held an opinion
Condoleezza Rice. Rice
that the globe was warming.
and Gates have a consulting
It’s not like the list of
firm that counts Tillerson’s
appointees doesn’t have
company as a client, but that
variety. Rick Perry once
had nothing whatsoever to do
competed in “Dancing With
with their miraculous, totally
the Stars.” Linda McMahon,
coincidental and spontaneous
the new head of the Small
decisions to drop his name.
Business Administration, is
Roger Stone, a political
probably the only one who’s
consultant who frequently
performed in a professional
presents himself as a Friend
wrestling competition.
of Trump, told a radio talk
McMahon is among the
show host that the whole
highest-ranking female
wooing of Mitt was just an
nominees.
effort to “torture” the former
At the very tiptop, so far,
presidential candidate.
is Elaine Chao, Trump’s
Another theory is that
pick for secretary of
Romney’s problem was
transportation. We failed to elect a woman
a failure to apologize for those campaign
president, but if Chao is confirmed, there
insults.
will at least be a woman 13th in the line of
It’s possible. Romney did once write a
succession.
book called “No Apology.” However, given
On Wednesday, Trump named Romney’s
his track record, a better title might have been
niece as head of the Republican National
“No Apology Normally, Unless Something
Committee. Do you think that was an attempt
Else Happens.”
to make Mitt feel better — or worse? He had
Should we feel sorry for him? He’d have
reasons to think he’d get more than a job for
been a more qualified pick than Tillerson. But
his brother’s daughter.
really, Romney has been such a jerk during
It’s true that during the campaign he had
this election that it’s hard not to giggle.
called Trump “a phony, a fraud,” and said
He made a huge, dramatic profile in
some rather unflattering things about Trump
courage out of his refusal to support Trump,
University, Trump Magazine, Trump Vodka
but he didn’t have the spine to say that he’d be
and Trump Steaks. But after the election,
voting for Hillary Clinton. Instead, Romney
everything seemed fine and dandy. He was
straddled that swamp masquerading as moral
getting meetings with the president-elect,
high ground where he rejected everybody,
being dined (not wined; they’re both
took no responsibility for anybody, and
teetotalers) at a fancy Manhattan restaurant in therefore was no help at all.
front of half the national media.
Then, when the man he denounced as a
Hard not to feel optimistic when the other
fraud got elected, Mitt was instantly in the
apparent top finalists for state were David
employment line, grinning and blowing
Petraeus, a man currently on probation for
kisses. Suddenly we were reminded of all
sharing military secrets with his mistress, and
the years of political shape-shifting, when
Rudy Giuliani, who had so come to resemble
Romney’s opinions on everything from gun
a bad-tempered Rottweiler that he did
control to health care changed with every
everything but howl at the moon.
twitch of the polls.
After his big public dinner date with
■
Trump, Romney burbled to reporters that they
Gail Collins joined The New York Times
had a “discussion about affairs throughout the in 1995 as a member of the editorial board
world, and these discussions I’ve had with
and later as an Op-Ed columnist. In 2001 she
him have been enlightening and interesting
became the first woman ever appointed editor
and engaging. I’ve enjoyed them very, very
of the Times’s editorial page.
When the man
he denounced
as a fraud got
elected, Mitt was
instantly in the
employment line,
grinning and
blowing kisses.
YOUR VIEWS
The decay of democracy
We’ve reached a very serious state
of affairs in this country (perhaps
the actual turning point towards the
demise of our country) when, as
NPR’s reporting Thursday exemplifies,
it’s become necessary to actually
“report” (or provide a tutorial over
the nation’s airwaves) on one of the
very basics of our democracy — that
is, the “why” behind the importance
of presidential news conferences.
Incredible.
Les Ruark
Arlington
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
products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Submitted letters must
be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number.
The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send
letters to managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801
or email editor@eastoregonian.com.