McConnell trying to chill climate talks

A good editorial from the Herald-Leader:

As the eyes of the world turn hopefully to the climate talks in Paris, Kentuckians can only hang their heads.

Our senior senator, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is trying to obstruct an international agreement. He is doing this by undermining confidence that President Barack Obama can deliver on promises he makes to other nations during the two-week conference.

...It’s one thing to stand up for your state’s carbon-intensive industries and look out for its economic interests. It’s something else when myopic self-interest pushes you to the wrong side of history, where McConnell has firmly planted himself. We can only hope he doesn’t bring Kentucky down with him.

Easing rules on lobbyists a bad idea

A good editorial from the Herald-Leader:

(John Schickel) and two Libertarian hopefuls filed suit in federal court challenging the restrictions on lobbyists' giving and a $1,000 limit on campaign contributions by others.

...Money, gifts, favors, trips all create obligations that can lead to "moral predicaments" that in turn can mean legislation that favors a well-heeled few over the rest of us.

...It's remarkable that a legislator is willing to argue that paying his own way for private entertainment or striking a few people from his list of campaign contributors is too great a price to ensure at least the appearance of an untainted legislative process.

If you want to increase abortions, cut funds to Planned Parenthood

A great editorial from the Herald-Leader:

Republicans, including Sen. Rand Paul and other presidential hopefuls, are accusing Planned Parenthood of trafficking in fetal organs, an unsubstantiated claim aimed at churning up the anti-abortion base going into next year's primaries, after which the nominee will assure the general electorate that women's health is a high priority for Republicans.

(Mitch) McConnell last week teed up a pro-woman defense by insisting the Republicans want to protect "health services for women" while cutting funds to a "political group." McConnell calling Planned Parenthood "political" is a hoot. No one has done more to politicize women's health than Republicans in Congress, who have even tried to deny women access to contraceptives.

...Those who care about women's health should work to expand access not shut down two important gateways to care. One sure way to increase abortions is to eliminate the prevention and education Planned Parenthood has provided Kentuckians for more than 80 years.

Senator misguided on climate stance

A good editorial from the Herald-Leader:

(Mitch) McConnell has gotten a lot of attention by urging governors to refuse to submit state plans due to the Environmental Protection Agency in June for reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, which builds up in the atmosphere and traps heat.

...While McConnell is getting applause from the usual right-wing think tanks and front groups, he's at odds with most Americans.

Polls find that two-thirds to three-fourths of Americans think the government should be making a substantial effort to combat climate change, including imposing stricter limits on power plants. A New York Times poll in January found that 71 percent expect to be hurt personally by climate change.

Killing a good bill

An editorial from the Courier-Journal:

Sen. Chris McDaniel, a Northern Kentucky Republican running for lieutenant governor, has bought into unfounded insinuations that House Bill 419, to generate donations for rape crisis centers through a box Kentuckians can check on state tax returns, somehow is linked to abortion services.

The sponsor of HB 419, Rep. Chris Harris of Pikeville, who describes himself as a “pro-life Democrat,” insists his bill has nothing to do with abortion.

The state-funded rape crisis centers do not provide any abortion services under a mission narrowly defined by state law and regulations.

Yet HB 419 has been stalled in Mr. McDaniel’s Appropriations and Revenue Committee since March 2.

Senate saboteurs

A good editorial from the Courier-Journal:

Has Congress gone crazy?

That’s what many U.S. observers and much of the world must be wondering after a group of rogue Republican senators opted to communicate directly by letter with “the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” seeking to undercut President Barack Obama’s ongoing negotiations with Iran over nuclear enrichment.

...Among the 47 senators signing the letter: Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, the new Senate majority leader, and Rand Paul, a first-term senator with presidential aspirations.

Mr. McConnell, who took over the leadership post this year with a pledge to end dysfunction and return the Senate to a working body, appears off to a poor start. And if Mr. Paul’s signature represents his grasp of foreign policy, Republicans would be justifiably leery about him as a presidential nominee.

Shutdown averted

The Courier-Journal addresses the House Republicans who tried to use Homeland Security as a hostage against President Obama's executive orders:

The holdouts were House Republicans who persisted in voting against the Homeland Security measure, despite a growing backlash among their own people. That included a Wall Street Journal editorial this week that called them “cliff marchers,” determined to march over the cliff to failure.

Among the marchers was Kentucky’s U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, of Northern Kentucky, who gave a floor speech demanding his colleagues hold President Obama accountable for his “unconscionable and illegal acts.”

As a final act of defiance, he insisted on a full reading of the bill to fund Homeland Security but capitulated and withdrew his request after a clerk spent about 20 minutes reading the document to an increasingly restive audience, according to a report on National Public Radio.

Rand Paul is his own worst enemy

From today's Herald-Leader:

(Rand) Paul is in the exploratory stages of a presidential campaign; the country is in the midst of a measles outbreak brought on, at least in part, by parents afraid to have their children immunized because of debunked claims of a link between childhood vaccines and autism.

In that context, Paul deserves all the rebukes he's gotten, including from fellow Republicans, for saying: "I have heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines."

The fact that he's a physician compounds the offense.

Dr. Paul and vaccinations

An editorial in today's Courier-Journal:

(Sen. Rand Paul) dumped gasoline on the fire of incendiary speculation by seeming to endorse the persistent though wholly discredited belief among some parents that vaccines are linked to autism.

“I have heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines,” Mr. Paul opined.

A candidate hasn’t come out with comments that bizarre since GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann in 2011 suggested after a debate that the HPV (human papilloma virus) vaccine to prevent cervical cancer might be linked to mental retardation and “puts little children’s lives at risk.”

Heroin bill lacking

A good editorial from the Courier-Journal:

In an apparent bid to appear tough on crime, (Sen. Chris) McDaniel would undo reforms of just four years ago through House Bill 463 to steer low-level offenders and addicts out of prison and into drug treatment. A key provision of HB 463 established that those caught with small amounts of illegal drugs are treated less harshly than those with enough drugs to be considered "traffickers."

But SB 5 reverses that important change to make anyone with any amount of heroin subject to harsher penalties reserved for traffickers.

...if (McDaniel) succeeds in getting more low-level heroin offenders in prison for longer sentences, that could begin to wipe out savings created through the passage of HB 463 in 2011.