PENINSULA DAILY NEWS for Tuesday, July 23, 2013 PAGE
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What’s new at the San Diego zoo POLITICAL SEX SCANDALS are much more enjoyable when you weren’t rooting for the politician. This brings us to San Diego. I know you were dying to Gail be brought to San Diego, peo- Collins ple. How could you not? It has such wonderful weather. Also, terrible government. The public pension system is billions of dollars in the hole. Fire services are underfunded, and Southern California is not a place where you want to scrimp on fire services. Last November, for the first time in forever, San Diego voters elected a liberal Democrat as mayor. Bob Filner, a longtime congressman, ran as a champion of city neighborhoods, which always got short shrift from a government fixated on downtown business interests. “This is a town where the hoteliers have treated City Hall as their personal ATM machine,” said Steve Erie, a professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego. Filner, 70, was just beginning what was supposed to be a war to shift resources from the big guys to the little people. Then, last week, some of his prominent supporters called for his resignation, claiming he had sexually harassed staff members and campaign volunteers. The complainants, who reportedly include a 72-year-old constit-
uent, have not yet come forward in public. Filner says he’s not going anywhere. But when the politician’s first defense is “I’m a hugger,” it does not necessarily bode well. Things couldn’t get much worse. San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the nation. Reforming it while fighting charges that you regularly grabbed women by the buttocks or put them into a “Filner headlock” seems close to impossible. The nation is always going to have political sex crises, but, in a perfect world, we would confine them to Congress. The only thing you really need members of Congress to do is vote the way you want them to. They can be a day away from indictment or as crazy as a loon and it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference. For instance, you may be totally unaware that last week we got a new chapter in the story of the private life of Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee. His saga went like this: Congressman gets caught sending a lovey-dovey text to an aspiring swimsuit model. In defense, congressman announces that the woman in question is actually his recently uncovered love child. Congressman and surprise daughter take DNA tests for CNN. There’s no relationship. Asked for further comment,
lawyer, represents some of Filner’s accusers, said she had viewed the mayor as a guy from another generation who needed some coaching in how to deal with the opposite sex — until she talked to victims. Then she decided that, even if she helped create a terrible mess, she wanted to speak up. “We have a moral responsibility when we find things out to call for what’s right,” she said. Ever since the Clinton impeachment crisis, we’ve been discovering how much personal misbehavior we’re prepared to ignore in elected officials. Hypocrisy, for sure. STEVE BREEN/SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE VIA CREATORS SYNDICATE Adultery, definitely. Chronic lying, maybe. swing to self-defense. (“I believe a congressman tells a female Financial skulduggery, possifull presentation of the facts will reporter: “You’re very attractive, bly. vindicate me.”) but I’m not talking about it.” But there are a few qualities You could certainly argue that Now, Rep. Cohen’s constituents that define us as a nation. in Memphis no doubt had a lot to the voters who elected Filner We couldn’t tolerate an official were already aware that he was discuss over the dinner table. Otherwise, their lives went on no prize on the personal front. who dragged his underlings into During the campaign, one of exactly the same as they did the office and subjected them to a the opposition’s ads featured the before. barrage of racial epithets. story of a United Airlines cusBut, if you are in San Diego, The same goes for a sexual tomer service representative who predator who made female workyou do not want the chief execuhad filed assault-and-battery tive’s energies directed toward ers feel demeaned, uncomfortable charges against him. defending his sexual behavior. and frightened. (The then-congressman went New Yorkers who lived We’ll see how it goes. ballistic when his luggage was through the Rudy Giuliani mariAt least San Diego has the tal meltdown could tell you about slow to arrive on the carousel. He beaches. eventually pleaded no contest to a that. ________ lesser charge and paid a fine.) Yet Filner has decided he can Gail Collins is a columnist “Everybody knew he had a handle things. for The New York Times whose kind of East Coast demeanor,” a There was that initial vow for former supporter, state Assembly- work often appears on PDN Comself-improvement. (“If my behavmentary pages. woman Lorena Gonzalez, said in ior doesn’t change, I cannot suca phone interview. ceed in leading our city.”) Email her via the website Gonzalez, whose brother, a Then came the inevitable http://tinyurl.com/nytcollins.opfdq.
Peninsula Voices take up the transient fad of Cutting down the majes- disk golf. Maybe the best idea tic stand of trees in Lincoln would be to shelve the whole Park makes sense only to those who would profit from sordid scenario until a less self-interested group of peoit. ple can take another look at As to the runway issue the airport runway situation. at William R. Fairchild Surely the port has more International Airport: Well, regard for this community it’s not LAX, is it? than to offer no more than It looks as though the a one-sided sales pitch as Port of Port Angeles came the reason such a costly up with a backup plan to assist those who would like and irreversible solution is warranted. Cutting them to see a chain-link fence around a distinctly unnatu- down for disk golf is simply ral setting on the off chance ridiculous. In all probability, those a limited number of people
Lincoln Park trees
trees now provide a substantial windbreak. Those trees provide a buffer zone, while all disk golf will get you is a bunch of dented cars and more chain-link fence. Cut them down and there may be a set of different problems for planes approaching the airport’s runway. The fate of those trees has been placed in the careless hands of those who look upon nature with an adding machine and a never-ending supply of excuses for its ruination.
OUR READERS’
LETTERS, FAXES AND EMAIL
Soon they will find themselves with not much left to exploit. Marybeth Hamblen, Port Angeles
each is advocating in our name and harder for them to confuse us. A three-member commission, with each commissioner serving a three-year term, would mean that For McAleer A recent letter advocated every year the commission’s actions would be subject to for five Clallam County review of the voters by havcommissioners instead of ing one of them stand for three, and five Port of Port re-election. Angeles commissioners A charter change may instead of three [“5 instead of 3,” Peninsula Voices, July have to occur to accomplish this. 12]. One case in point is the I disagree. With a fewer current fiasco at the Port of number of commissioners, Port Angeles regarding pos[it is] easier to see what
sible special treatment for its former executive director by creating a previously nonexistent position for him. Fortunately, one of the two commissioners responsible for this action is standing for re-election: Paul McHugh. We can remedy this situation by voting for Colleen McAleer for port commissioner because she is a courageous whistle-blower who helped bring this matter to the attention of the citizenry. Bob McGonigel, Sequim
Taxpayers fund posh homes for top military brass MARINE GEN. JOHN F. Kelly works in a fortress-like headquarters near the Miami airport. Starting this fall, he will live in Casa Sur, an elegant home with a pool and gardens on one of the Miami area’s swankiest streets. The five-bedroom residence, across the street from the famed Biltmore Golf Course, is provided rent-free to Kelly as head of U.S. Southern Command, which oversees military operations in the Caribbean Latin America. The cost to taxpayers? $160,000 a year, plus $402,000 for renovations and security improvements now under way. Casa Sur is one of hundreds of highend homes, villas and mansions where senior generals and admirals are billeted, according to a Pentagon report prepared for Congress last month but not publicly released. Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, the Air Force four-star who commands NATO, gets a 15,000-square-foot, 19th century chateau in Belgium. Lt. Gen. Steven A. Hummer, head of Marine Forces Reserve, enjoys a 19th
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Casa Sur in Coral Gables, Fla., the new home of the four-star general overseeing the U.S. military in part of Latin America. century plantation house in New Orleans listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Joint Chiefs of Staff and their deputies inhabit historic quarters in and around Washington — all staffed with chefs, drivers, gardeners and security teams. The perks for top military brass, a Pentagon tradition, are under increasing scrutiny in Congress at a time when budget reductions and the mandatory
PENINSULA DAILY NEWS JOHN C. BREWER PUBLISHER AND EDITOR 360-417-3500
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spending cuts known as the sequester have forced the Pentagon to cut services, close facilities, cancel training and missions, and furlough 680,000 civilian workers. “There is no good news,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told hundreds of defense workers at Joint Base Charleston in South Carolina last Wednesday after one woman, who was forced to take 11 days without pay, said she had to take a second job to support her children. “It breaks my heart.” In the annual appropriations bill for military construction approved by a House committee last month, lawmakers criticized the Pentagon for the “excessive cost” of maintaining “large and aging” homes and for the “apparent unwillingness on the part of the [military] services to seek less expensive alternatives.” All active-duty military personnel and their families receive free housing on bases or allowances to defray the cost of renting or buying in nearby communities. It costs the Pentagon $1.5 billion a year. Generals and admirals say they need
NEWS DEPARTMENT Main office: 305 W. First St., P.O. Box 1330, Port Angeles, WA 98362 ■ LEAH LEACH, managing editor/news, 360-417-3531 lleach@peninsuladailynews.com ■ MARGARET MCKENZIE, news editor; 360-452-2345, ext. 5064 mmckenzie@peninsuladailynews.com ■ BRAD LABRIE, sports editor; 360-417-3525; blabrie@peninsuladailynews.com ■ DIANE URBANI DE LA PAZ, features editor; 360-452-2345, ext. 5062 durbanidelapaz@peninsuladailynews.com ■ General news information: 360-417-3527 From Jefferson County and West End, 800-826-7714, ext. 5250 Email: news@peninsuladailynews.com News fax: 360-417-3521 ■ Sequim office: 147-B W. Washington St., 360-681-2390 JOE SMILLIE, 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, jsmillie@peninsuladailynews.com ■ Port Townsend office: 1939 E. Sims Way., 360-385-2335 CHARLIE BERMANT, 360-385-2335, ext. 5550, cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com
large houses with high security — as well as cooks and gardeners — because they often host visiting dignitaries or preside at ceremonial events. Keeping pricey properties makes fiscal sense, they argue, because the Pentagon either already owns them or would waste money finding a suitable rental every time a senior officer is moved to a new command. Yet changes are under way. Some senior officers have quarters so expensive they violate the military’s generous rules, according to the 57-page Pentagon report. Three officers assigned to the NATO naval base in Naples, Italy, for example, have homes that exceed allowable expenses for their jobs, the report says. One of them, the commander of Submarine Group 8, occupies Villa de Lorio, a 6,600-square-foot villa in Naples leased for $172,000 a year. But a Navy policy adopted last year says only officers in “high-risk billets” can have high-cost leases. Peninsula Daily News news services
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