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OPINION
East Oregonian
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
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
OTHER VIEWS
Kitzhaber cleared
of criminal action,
not vindicated
The Oregonian/OregonLive
N
o matter how he would like
to twist the narrative, the rise
and fall of John Kitzhaber lies
squarely on his shoulders.
News came this month that the U.S.
Department of Justice had decided
against filing criminal charges against
the former governor or his fiancee,
Cylvia Hayes. The decision brought a
merciful end to a 28-month investigation
by four federal agencies into whether
the couple used their high-profile public
positions for personal benefit.
The ordeal cast a shadow over the
state as well as many of the public
servants who had worked loyally for
the governor for years. Lawmakers
have worked with varying success over
the past two years to draft ethics and
public records laws to address problems
highlighted in the downfall of the man
once considered one of Oregon’s most
durable politicians.
Kitzhaber claims he’s been vindicated.
He hasn’t.
The federal prosecutor didn’t set
out to decide whether the actions of the
former governor and first lady passed
the smell test. The prosecutor focused
only on whether their actions violated
the law. The decision simply tells us
that their conduct, while dishonest and
self-serving, fell short of being criminal.
Criminality was a high bar to
begin with, but it was made even
higher just one year into the Kitzhaber
investigation, when the U.S. Supreme
Court overturned the public corruption
convictions of former Virginia Gov. Bob
McDonnell and his wife for insufficient
evidence that the money and gifts they
accepted led to “official action.”
The fact remains that Kitzhaber failed
to address the conflicts of interest created
when Hayes’ consulting contracts, which
totaled about $200,000, began overlap-
ping her policy work in his office.
Taxpayers would be well served
if findings from the investigation are
provided to the Oregon Government
Ethics Commission, which announced
this week it will resume its long-delayed
review into ethics complaints filed by
Republicans. Hopefully that review can
provide more answers that can shape the
ethics reforms still needed in Oregon.
For now, unfortunately, Kitzhaber
is choosing his own translation of the
federal prosecutor’s brief statement. He’s
a victim of the media. A guinea pig for
fake news. It all sounds rather Trumpian.
And like the drumbeat of strained
logic we see inside the Beltway these
days, Kitzhaber is spinning an overly
simplistic and revisionist storyline by
attempting to categorize this as a war
between him and the media.
It’s a disingenuous strategy that takes
away from his correct decision in 2015
to resign. The Oregonian/OregonLive
Editorial Board had called for that move
not because of any criminality, but
because at that moment in time he had
become a source of unending distraction
and could no longer lead the state
effectively.
Kitzhaber did not resign because he
lost control of a “media frenzy.”
No, in the years leading up to the
scandal he had lost control of his own
office and failed to put clear boundaries
on his fiancee’s fast expanding role
within it. He had lost sight of his duty to
provide answers Oregonians deserved
when his office failed to provide
public records before he was elected
to his historic — and historically short
— fourth term.
Most damaging, Kitzhaber had
lost the trust and support of longtime
colleagues and political leaders who
were encouraging him to go.
Some Oregonians may agree with
Kitzhaber’s misguided analysis. Others
still feel burned. But by blaming anyone
else for what played out in 2015,
Kitzhaber only undermines the potential
for him to earn back that trust.
Columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not nec-
essarily that of the East Oregonian.
OTHER VIEWS
Want to clean up Hanford?
Finish Yucca Mountain
N
uclear energy has played an
Mountain, these materials would be
integral role in generating
safely isolated 1,000 feet underground.
electricity in the United States
In fact, the Nuclear Regulatory
for decades. This reliable energy
Commission determined that the site
source is responsible for generating
could safely store this nuclear material
20 percent of electricity across the
for one million years.
Oregon ratepayers, through a fee
country, providing low-cost power
tied to the electricity generated from
for consumers throughout the United
nuclear energy, have already paid
States. In 2016, 30 states operated
Greg
nuclear reactors for electricity and six
Walden the Department of Energy over $160
million to finance the costs associated
of those states relied on nuclear power
Comment
with the development of a permanent
for the majority of their electricity
repository to dispose of spent nuclear
generation.
fuel. Washingtonians have paid an additional
Importantly, nuclear energy produces
$872 million in this effort. All told, taxpayers
zero greenhouse gas emissions. According
around the country have paid more than $40
to the Nuclear Energy Institute, 553 million
metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions were
billion to permanently dispose of spent nuclear
avoided by the nuclear industry throughout the fuel and the high-level nuclear waste like that
United States – making it one of the cleanest
found at Hanford.
forms of energy in the country.
Despite the safety and environmental
Nuclear energy is a clean and efficient part of benefits and billions of dollars taxpayers and
our nation’s overall energy mix and it supports
ratepayers across the country have already
our national defense priorities. However,
invested, the Obama administration halted
the federal government has dropped the ball
Yucca Mountain from moving forward and
when it comes to disposing of the necessary
tried to permanently prevent the project from
byproduct of nuclear activities — spent nuclear
being completed.
fuel from commercially generated nuclear
As chairman of the Energy and Commerce
power and high-level waste from our nation’s
Committee, I’ve directed our team to address
defense activities. As a result, spent nuclear fuel these problems. We’ve done our homework
currently sits idle in 121 communities and 39
too. Dating back to 2011, the committee has
states across the country, creating significant
conducted rigorous oversight, held several
potential environmental concerns.
hearings examining all aspects of nuclear
The Hanford Site, located about 40 miles
waste policy, and some of our members even
north of my district on the Columbia River
traveled to Yucca Mountain for a first-hand
in Washington State, produced plutonium
look at the geologic repository. Now it’s time
for nuclear weapons for over 40 years for
to act.
America’s defense program. Since the
Our resulting legislation, the Nuclear Waste
creation of the Manhattan Project, the federal
Policy Amendments Act of 2017, recognizes
government has been responsible for cleaning that Yucca Mountain is the most expeditious
up high-level radioactive waste from sites
pathway for communities around the country
across the country like Hanford that are
that store defense high-level waste — like the
storing the waste from our nation’s nuclear
Hanford Site — to dispose of that waste. The
weapons development and the spent fuel
bill reinstates Yucca Mountain as the corner-
generated from our navy’s nuclear submarine
stone of our nuclear waste disposal while also
and aircraft carrier propulsion systems.
allowing private interim storage projects to
The Hanford site was deactivated in 1987
move forward for the first time — a concept
and in 1989 the Department of Energy’s
that would temporarily hold commercial
mission to clean up the waste began. Twen-
nuclear waste until Yucca Mountain is ready
ty-eight years later, 2,300 tons of spent nuclear to receive shipments.
fuel remains at the site in dry storage and
The recent incident at Hanford could have
millions of gallons of high-level waste awaits
been a lot worse. It’s time for the Department
disposal. The recent cave-in at Hanford is just
of Energy to fulfill their legal obligation to
the latest cause for concern. While nobody
dispose of this waste to assure nothing worse
was injured and there has been no evidence of happens. Thankfully, we’re working towards a
contamination, it doesn’t take away the fact
durable solution at the Energy and Commerce
that this material clearly needs to be moved to Committee and rest assured, we will get this
a permanent disposal facility.
waste consolidated and safely stored in its
The waste currently sitting at the Hanford
permanent home in Yucca Mountain.
site is engineered by design to be sent to
■
the Yucca Mountain permanent geological
Rep. Greg Walden (R-Hood River),
repository facility in the Nevada desert. Yucca chairman of the House Energy and Commerce
Mountain was chosen by Congress in 1987 to
Committee, represents Oregon’s second
house both spent nuclear fuel and the kind of
congressional district, which includes 20 coun-
high-level waste found at Hanford. At Yucca
ties in central, southern and eastern Oregon.
YOUR VIEWS
Investigation must be honest
In response to growing political pressure,
it’s difficult to know just how former
FBI Director Robert Mueller, the special
prosecutor, will determine in investigating
into whether or not Russia interfered in the
Trump election campaign.
FBI Director James Comey says Trump
privately asked him to shut down the federal
investigation into Michael Flynn, Trump’s
former national security adviser. We have no
reason to believe Mr. Comey would lie.
Mr. Flynn did admit he failed to disclose
payments from Russia and Turkey when
he reapplied for a security clearance last
year. Heads of the Oversight Committee
say Flynn, a retired lieutenant general, did
not get permission from the Pentagon, nor
from the State Department before accepting
$45,000 in speaking fees from the Krem-
lin-funded news network RT, and more than
$500,000 for lobbying work that may have
benefited Turkey.
Flynn has offered to testify before the
House and Senate intelligence committees,
but only in exchange for immunity. To seek
immunity in this regard does raise questions
of vulnerability. Mr. Mueller can look into
Mr. Flynn’s business arrangements with
Russia, Turkey, and other places. We find
that government investigations tend to
expand, rather than contract.
The firing of Mr. Comey has ignited
more questions where earlier congressional
investigations might have devoted their
attention to the Russian interference which is
the most serious issue of the whole business.
The most “We the people” can do is hope
for the honesty of our politicians.
Dr. Dorys C. Grover
Pendleton
Political witch hunts must end
My grandmother used to caution “you
reap what you sow.”
A segment of our people has become
lawless and out-of-control in their opposition
to the current elected administration. They
are, in part, being pawns to the overall game
plan of the Democratic Party to obstruct and
unseat the Trump administration.
“PHD think tank” people are crafting
this anti-Trump game plan and it is spiraling
out of control — not to their disliking. The
constant barrage of negativity has sown itself
into a portion of our people who act out in
extreme.
We must heal this wounding as the
consequence is becoming unbearable. It
will only be stopped when the DNC stops
the attacks and works to find common
ground to move the nation forward. Let’s
put our energies into the good things that are
happening and stop giving oxygen to these
witch hunts. This is getting dangerously
out of control like we have “lost our moral
compass!”
Ron Linn
Stanfield
Rivoli a long work in progress,
will be good for Pendleton
I read Mr. Rohde’s diatribe on how the
city fooled their money away when they
approved a grant to the Rivoli Theater
project and just steamed. I proposed
revitalization of the Rivoli Theater 18 years
ago because I had seen what happened to
Astoria when they revitalized the Liberty
Theater, I saw what happened when the
Elgin Opera House is running and I saw
the need for a small venue for things like a
rock and roll concert or a Bach concert or
someone like R. Carlos Nakai to come and
play his Native American flute.
I also saw the need to preserve the old
Peterson/Matlock Theater because at one
time that theater’s stage had some of the
most well-known vaudeville stars in the
business on it. It went from showing silent
films with an orchestra to showing things as
James Bond and “South Pacific.”
Anyone who knows about sales and
marketing knows that if there is an event
at the Rivoli that every restaurant on Main
street will benefit. We also know that those
events also draw people from out of town
who stay in our motels, buy our gas and
perhaps buy clothes from the local clothing
stores.
All you, Mr. Rohde, think of is the now
cost, not the later benefits. If you hate
Pendleton so much I suggest that you think
about moving because it is short-sighted
attitudes like yours that has led to little or
no land being available for new industry to
come to Pendleton. That same attitude has
led to the lack of land to build new housing
on that is within the city limits and it is
short-sighted attitudes like yours that have
caused Pendleton to stagnate while the rest
of Oregon grows.
I want to see the Rivoli come back to life
and be the cornerstone of a lively arts and
music scene in Pendleton, but with people
like you complaining every time a nickel is
spent on something that isn’t your idea that
it will take forever to happen.
Barbara Wright
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 newspa-
per reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual ser-
vices 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.