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The Week Ahead
It’s a short week without much on the political docket. The great month of May ends, and June, with its hot summer days, takes over. A terrific Utah Jazz season may come to an end. On Wednesday, Gov. Jon Huntsman will spend some time in Tooele County and Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Walesa will speak in Salt Lake City. For information about those and other events, see the UtahPolicy.com calendar. Meanwhile, candidates for chair of the Utah Republican Party are running hard in advance of the June 9 GOP state convention, and Salt Lake City mayoral candidates continue to fight for votes, mostly in small neighborhood meetings.
Today in Political History
May 29, 1790: Rhode Island ratifies the Constitution, becoming the 13th state of the Union. Rhode Island had held out for an amendment securing religious freedom. (Source: perspicuity)
May 29, 1917: John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, is born in Brookline, Mass. Inaugurated in 1961, he is killed by an assassin's bullet in Dallas, Texas, Nov. 22, 1963. (Source: NBC5 )
May 29, 1953 (non-politics): Mount Everest is conquered as Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and sherpa Tenzing Norgay of Nepal become the first climbers to reach the summit. (Source: New York Times)
Wise Words
“You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them.”
—Malcolm Forbes (Source: Patriot Post)
Communications Tip
People make judgments about you just by listening to your voice. It isn't only the words you use, but how you say them that can make a difference. When people see you face-to-face, the impact of your voice is approximately 38% of the overall impression you make. Over the phone, it jumps to 85%—since there are no visual cues. There are certain things you can do to make a better impression:
-- Use an appropriate tone. Sound enthusiastic, or, when appropriate, alter your tone to fit the conversation (sounding sympathetic when talking about sad news, etc.).
-- Speak slowly enough that people understand you easily, yet not so slowly that you are taking too long to complete a thought. This rate can vary in different parts of the country.
-- Pause at appropriate times. By pausing, you give people enough time to take in what you are saying. When you finish a thought, think of adding a period (.) by counting to three in your mind. If it would be a colon (:) , count to two, and if it is a comma (,) , count to one. In other words, don't run your words together. (Source: Princeton Review)
National Politics
Best Stories From . . .
-- Los Angeles Times: "In adopting poverty and low-wage work as his themes, [John] Edwards has struck a far more combative, populist tone than in his 2004 presidential campaign. And that has helped him elbow into the top tier of a field dominated by better-financed candidates Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) -- and has even boosted him to a lead in polls in the key early-voting state of Iowa."
-- Associated Press: "U.S. voters are torn between competing cravings as they prepare to choose a new president in 2008: Change or experience? They are demanding something new, but there is comfort in the tried and true. The American public's low opinion of Washington and growing concern about the direction of the country point to 2008 being a 'change' election, one like the campaigns of 1976 and 1992 -- when Washington outsiders Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were elected -- as people looked for a marked departure from the status quo."
-- The Politico: "[I]n private, [House] conservatives are getting sick of those they consider RINOs, Republicans in Name Only. ... [D]ebate is centering on whether the RINOs are simply doing what they need to do to avoid becoming an endangered species. Having lost several of their key members either at the polls last November or because of retirement, the moderates, who prefer their Tuesday Group moniker to the RINOs acronym, are searching for their role in the new Democratic-controlled House."
-- U.S. News & World Report: Columnist Michael Barone says advocates of the immigration reform proposal "must convince voters that their plan will work better. They have a decent case to make, such as their call for an identification card with biometric information. ... They must also show that border security will improve: that the 700-mile fence mandated by Congress last fall will actually be built; that unmanned aerial vehicles will reduce illegal crossings; that the larger Border Patrol will be effective; and that the apparatus of state will prove strong enough to prevail against market forces. Pollster Scott Rasmussen reports that voters aren't dead set against legalizing current illegals. But they must be convinced first that this time, border security is for real."
Blog Watch
-- Tim Beagley says: "Throughout history dynasties have frequently collapsed due to internal dysfunction rather than outside forces. ... It is starting to appear as though this is the stage we are in with the far right dynasty of Utah politics. For years the ultra conservatives have wielded absolute power in the legislature but that power has proven to be too much for the mere mortals channeling it. ... They have been completely corrupted by the power and now their corruption is on display for all to see. How else could anyone possibly explain the statements of legislators to the effect that even if Utah voters turn away private school vouchers in November they will implement them anyway? By damn, Utah voters will have vouchers whether they want them or not! Power corrupts" (for more on the voucher issue, see Steve Urquhart, Millard Fillmore's Bathtub, and Jeremy's Jeremiad).
-- Rep. Craig Frank says of this story by Bob Bernick and Lee Davidson on legislative conflict of interest: "It's true -- all part-time legislators have conflicts. And, it's true that some legislators declare their conflicts in more detail than others. If the constituents of a specific Legislative District have a concern with how their Representative or Senator is disclosing that information to the public, they can tell them next time at the Ballot Box! Oh, one more thing. Representative Republics have checks and balances built into the system. No legislator can pass a bill out of the House or the Senate without the assistance of the majority of both bodies -- 38 in the House and 15 in the Senate. Oh, and the Governor's signature, too. Don't think anyone makes an 'end-run' around their colleagues without being noticed."
Lighter Side
Freedom of the Press
“If by the liberty of the press were understood merely the liberty of discussing the propriety of public measures and political opinions, let us have as much of it as you please: But if it means the liberty of affronting, calumniating and defaming one another, I, for my part, own myself willing to part with my share of it, whenever our legislators shall please so to alter the law and shall chearfully consent to exchange my liberty of abusing others for the privilege of not being abused myself.”
-- Benjamin Franklin (Patriot Post) |
