Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Thursday, February 16, 2017
OTHER VIEWS
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
How best to
spend $397,000
Last week, this newspaper
Virginia Beebe of the Hermiston
reported on a meeting of the
Senior Center — each abstained
Umatilla Special Transportation
from voting on grants to their
Advisory Committee.
organizations, the possibility of quid
It’s not often that the actions of
pro quo is clear.
such volunteer committees make
We don’t impugn the characters
the front page of the
of these two people,
East Oregonian, but
who are clearly
this one did. That’s
The county’s knowledgeable about
because the committee
transportation issues
plan was
had $397,000 in
for the disabled and
cigarette tax dollars
in the county,
described as elderly
and no guidelines for
and give of their
how to disperse it.
“throw a sack time to serve the
Hermiston assistant
But we
of money on committee.
city manager Mark
do think there should
Morgan described
be at least one step
the table.”
the county’s plan
between their asking
as “throw a sack of
and their receiving.
money on the table” and let the
This is, after all, is just an
committee do with it what they
advisory committee. Umatilla
want. So they did. But the committee County Commissioners have
did not weigh the merits of the
the final say on where the funds
numerous groups requesting funds,
go, and they have the ability to
tally what services they offer, nor
disband the committee or back its
hold them accountable for holding
recommendations.
up those services.
We do think the commissioners
should take a more active role in
They used a simple formula and
recommended each applicant receive the matter, because the budget is
so large and some county residents
the same percentage of their total
are very reliant on affordable and
ask.
reliable transportation services. The
There is the additional problem
commissioners should come up with
that two of the three committee
an equitable formula to try to use
members are affiliated with
the dollars as efficiently as possible,
organizations who received money
rewarding municipalities and
directly from the fund. While those
nonprofits who do the most and have
members — Darrin Umbarger
the greatest need.
of Clearview Meditation and
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
A nonpartisan secretary of state
The Bend Bulletin
D
ennis Richardson, Oregon’s
secretary of state, wants the
Legislature to make his office a
nonpartisan one. There are good reasons
for making the shift.
The Secretary of State’s Office is
part of the executive branch of Oregon
government. The state constitution
requires it to act as record keeper for
both the Legislature and executive
branch, to act as the state’s auditor of
public accounts and to keep the state
seal. In theory, at least, there’s no room
for politics in any of those jobs. The
secretary of state also plays a key role
in redistricting, redrawing the boundary
lines for political districts. That’s where
Oregonians definitely want a less
partisan person in charge.
Yet, as Phil Keisling, a former
Oregon secretary of state, and Sam
Reed, a former secretary of state
in Washington state, wrote for the
Governing website a couple of years
ago, the race for the job, if not the job
itself, has become increasingly political
in the last 40 years.
As that has happened, the cost
of running for the office has risen
dramatically, according to Keisling and
Reed. In Oregon in 2016, Democrat
Brad Avakian had $2.3 million at
his disposal for the campaign, while
Republican Richardson had $1.66
million. A nonpartisan office might be
less attractive for politicians whose real
goal is to run for governor.
Meanwhile, given the nature of the
secretary of state’s job, a partisan office
holder put in place after a partisan race
could be viewed as taking partisan
positions once he or she is elected.
Oregonians need to know that
elections, which are overseen by the
secretary of state’s office, are on the up
and up. If they believe the office holder
is acting unfairly where candidates of
the opposition party are concerned, they
cannot trust the outcome of elections.
Richardson hopes to persuade
lawmakers to approve the change. They
should do so.
What did Trump know
and when did he know it?
D
uring the Watergate scandal,
principle of a chain of command; I
until now the most outrageous
doubt he made these calls completely
political scandal in American
on his own.
history, the crucial question was
Daniel Benjamin, a former
drawled by Sen. Howard Baker of
counterterrorism coordinator at the
Tennessee: “What did the president
State Department who has known
know, and when did he know it?”
Flynn for years, says it would have
Today the question is the same.
been out of character for Flynn to do
This is not about Mike Flynn. It
Nicholas so. So who told Flynn to make these
is about the president who appointed
Kristof calls? Steve Bannon? Trump himself?
him, who earlier considered Flynn for
We’re back to our question: What
Comment
vice president. The latest revelation
did the president know, and when did
of frequent contacts between the
he know it?
Trump team and Russian intelligence should
The White House hasn’t responded to
be a wake-up call to Republicans as well as
my inquiries, and Trump lashes out wildly
Democrats.
at “the fake news media” without answering
When Vice President Mike Pence was
questions. He reminds me of Nixon, who
asked by Chris Wallace of Fox News on Jan.
in 1974 said Watergate “would have been a
15 if there had been any contacts between
blip” if it weren’t for journalists “who hate my
the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, he
guts.” Soon afterward, Nixon resigned.
answered: “Of course not. Why would there
Trump supporters say that the real scandal
be any contacts?”
here is leaks that make the administration look
Great question, Mr. Vice President.
bad.
Look, there’s a great deal we don’t know,
A bit hypocritical? It’s dizzying to see a
but Russian interference in our election is
president who celebrated the hacking of his
potentially a bigger scandal than Watergate
rival’s campaign emails suddenly evince alarm
ever was. Watergate didn’t change an
about leaks.
election’s result — President Richard Nixon
Sure, leaks are always a concern, but they
would have won anyway in 1972 — while the pale beside the larger issues of the integrity
2016 election was close enough that Russian
of our leaders and our elections. Published
interference might have tipped the balance.
reports have quoted people in the intelligence
We don’t know whether the Russians
community as fearing that information given
had domestic help in their effort to steal the
to the White House will end up in Russian
U.S. election, but here are a few dots that are
hands, even that the “Kremlin has ears” in the
begging to be connected:
White House Situation Room.
First, the American intelligence community
I referred to Trump last year as “the
agrees that the Kremlin interfered during
Russian poodle,” and we’ve known for years
the campaign in an attempt to help Donald
of Trump’s financial ties to Russia, with his
Trump. This isn’t a single agency’s conclusion son Donald Jr. saying in 2008, “We see a lot of
but reportedly a “strong consensus” among
money pouring in from Russia.”
the CIA, the FBI and the director of national
It’s all the more important now that
intelligence.
Trump release his tax returns so that we can
Second, the dossier prepared by a former
understand any financial leverage Russia has
MI6 Russia expert outlines collusion
over him. Yet the same Republicans who
between the Trump campaign and Russia.
oversaw eight investigations of Benghazi
CNN reports that American intelligence has
shrug at far greater concerns involving Trump
communications intercepts corroborating
and Russia.
elements of the dossier, and the latest
“I’m just appalled at how little people
revelation of repeated and constant contacts
seem to care about the fact that Russians
between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign interfered in our presidential election, clearly,
give additional weight to the dossier’s
unequivocally, on the part of one candidate,”
allegations — although it’s also important
Michael McFaul, a former ambassador to
to note that officials told The Times that they
Russia, told me. “What’s more important than
had seen no evidence of such cooperation in
that?” To which I add: Only one thing could
election manipulation.
be more important — if the Russians had help
Third, President Trump has been
from within the U.S.
mystifyingly friendly toward Russia and
As I said, there’s a great deal we don’t
President Vladimir Putin. As Jeffrey H.
know. But we urgently need a bipartisan
Smith, a former general counsel to the CIA,
investigation, ideally an independent panel
puts it: “The bigger issue here is why Trump
modeled on the 9/11 Commission. It must
and people around him take such a radically
address what is now the central question:
different view of Russia than has been the
“What did the president know, and when did
case for decades. We don’t know the answer
he know it?”
to that.”
■
Fourth, Flynn, before taking office,
Nicholas Kristof grew up on a sheep and
discussed Obama administration sanctions on
cherry farm in Yamhill. A columnist for The
Russia with the Russian ambassador. Flynn
New York Times since 2001, he won the
has now resigned, but he was steeped in the
Pulitzer Prize in 1990 and 2006.
YOUR VIEWS
Could electoral college
work in Oregon?
Our founders, in their infinite
wisdom, created the Electoral
College to ensure the states were
fairly represented. Why should one
or two densely populated areas
speak for the whole of the nation?
The following list of statistics
should finally put an end to the
argument as to why the Electoral
College makes sense.
1. Trump won 2,623 U.S.
counties. Clinton won 489.
2. There are 62 counties in New
York State. Trump won 46 of them.
3. Clinton won the popular vote
by almost 2 million votes.
Where? New York City consists
of Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan,
Richmond and Queens where
Clinton received well over 2 million
more votes than Trump.
Therefore NYC more than
accounted for Clinton winning the
popular vote of the entire country.
4. NYC and immediate area
comprise 319 square miles. The
United States is comprised of
3,797,000 square miles.
When you have a country that
encompasses almost 4 million
square miles of territory, it would be
ludicrous to even suggest that the
vote of those who inhabit a mere
319 square miles should dictate the
outcome of a national election.
Large, densely-populated
Democratic cities (NYC, Chicago,
LA, etc.) don’t and shouldn’t speak
for the rest of our country.
How could the electoral college
system work within a state to make
the vote fair? Urban areas have
the population but not the majority
of land. Oregon is not unique in
the U.S. In fact, most states face
the same issues, which are “rural”
verses “urban.”
One thought would be for
each Oregon state senator and
representative to have one electoral
vote. Since the majority of
legislators from both houses are
residents in urban areas, would
anything change?
If Oregon has the electoral
college system, would past votes
have come to a different result?
I challenge anyone with more
mathematical knowledge and the
time to take an issue or two using the
past vote and see if rural vote would
have made a difference.
Below are some basic facts:
The state is 98,381 square miles
of land. There are 36 counties with
a total population of 4,028,977
residents.
Recent elections show votes as:
• Rural, 28 counties: 87,094
square miles or 88.8 percent with
19.6 people per acre (1,705,160 or
42.3 percent of population.)
• Urban, 8 counties: 11,287
square miles or 11.4 percent with
205.9 people per acre (2,323,977
57.7 percent of population.)
Ken Parsons
La Grande
Trump the one
spreading falsehoods
In response to Ron Linn’s letter:
I have to wonder if he ever takes
the time to re-read what he put into
quotes in his calling for an end to the
democrats’ temper tantrum.
A falsehood gaining credence?
Who specializes in that better than
Trump? His repeated statements
about voter fraud without a shred
of evidence, his claim that he saw
thousands of Muslims celebrating
after 9/11, that Hillary Clinton would
allow six hundred million illegal
immigrants into the U.S.A. in her
first week in office, claiming he was
never in favor of going into Iraq,
saying he would repeal Obamacare
on his first day in office?
The lies and repeat of lies have
obviously gained credence with
you, Mr. Linn. As for the rest of
us temper tantrum throwers, we’re
amateurs compared to the eight-year
tantrum you Republicans threw
during the Obama presidency.
By the way, I’m proud of your
granddaughters, too.
David Gracia
Hermiston
Oregon headed down
the path of no return
We have been ruled by ambitious
hypocrites for the last 30 years.
That goes to all the way down
to many cities. Ego and political
ambition trumped national security
for too many elected officials. The
only morality that liberals know is
what will further their own cause.
President Donald Trump is not a
politician.
Oregon is going to tax us to death
and still go bankrupt. Oregon is
either corrupt, incompetent or both.
Every day I read the Oregon
State Library newspaper articles
from different cities and there is not
week that goes by that there isn’t
an article of some maleficence in
some department. Schools, highway,
children services, Oregon’s Health
Care — you name it and one can
find an article. Oregon has a unique
way of covering it up; the person
resigns because they need to spend
time with their family, or Oregon
creates a new job with more pay.
So here is my take: It is a poor
man that is content to be spoon-fed
knowledge that has been filtered
through the corn of political belief,
and it is a poor man who will permit
others to dictate what he may or may
not learn, i.e. colleges, most schools
(government money) and fake news,
which is not fake news, it is lies and
propaganda.
Which leads me to President
Trump. He does not fit the
politician’s mold, or the news media.
So for you whiners out to get a
participation award from the politico
you voted for and find a safe place to
cry, you should feel much better.
One-party rule in Oregon has sent
Oregon down the path of no return.
Roesch Kishpaugh
Pendleton
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