OPINION

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Kelly joined at Biden’s hip in upcoming race

BY J.D. HAYWORTH Glendale Star Columnist

There’s no mistaking Mark Kelly for the late comedian Don Knotts — especially since our junior senator bears an uncanny resemblance to Uncle Fester of “The Addams Family” — but similar themes have emerged in the body of work from both the contemporary legislator and the comedian of a bygone era.

Knotts, who won multiple Emmy Awards for his portrayal of bumbling Deputy Barney Fife on “The Andy Griffi th Show,” parlayed that success on the small screen into a fi ve-picture deal with Universal Studios in the mid1960s.

Sen. Kelly parlayed his fame from piloting the space shuttle into winning a seat in the Senate. Certainly Kelly’s fundraising abilities have proven astronomical; his campaign pulled in $9 million in the fi nal three months of last year, giving him an estimated war chest of $22 million as he attempts to win a full six-year term this November. Of course, $22 million — or more — won’t buy what it used to… not even as recently as the campaign year of 2020. That’s because of Jan. 20, 2021… the day Joe Biden took up residency at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Immediately afterward, the politico-economic condition now known as “Bidenfl ation” took hold.

Ol’ Joe began by revoking authorization for the Keystone XL pipeline in an executive order. In so doing, he killed 10,000 jobs and took $2.2 billion in payroll out of workers’ pockets.

One of the newly unemployed, Neal Crabtree of Fouke, Arkansas, told the “Boston Herald” his concerns extended beyond his family to friends, neighbors and his fellow countrymen.

“Now we’re seeing rising energy prices,” said Crabtree, a common-sense kind of guy, who was working as a welding foreman before Joe Biden got a new job… and took away his.

Sadly, common sense is in short supply at the White House and within the Senate Democratic Caucus.

Then again, lots of things are in short supply these days.

A crippled supply line and a predictable decline in domestic energy production prompted a spike in prices.

The result?

The worst infl ation rate our nation has seen in 40 years.

As costs increased across the board for food, shelter, clothing and transportation, prices at the pump were especially troubling: a hike of almost 50% by December.

Adding even more fuel to the infl ationary fi res was the spending spree of the Biden Bunch. Unilaterally enacted by the Democrats, a $1.9 trillion cash infusion actually paid bonuses to some lucky workers to stay off the job, kept the Bureau of Printing and Engraving churning out greenbacks, and further bloated our money supply.

Whether due to economic illiteracy or delusion — perhaps both — Joe Biden then claimed that his horribly misnamed “Build Back Better” initiative would somehow reduce infl ation. Left unexplained is the dubious rationale behind the misguided notion that an exponentially more obscene orgy of spending — $5.5 trillion dollars’ worth — will do anything other than launch infl ation to even “greater” heights and plunge our standard of living to even lower depths.

Thankfully, the “Build Back Bummer” has been scrubbed for now… no thanks to Mark Kelly.

Instead, Kelly has been a dependable vote for Bidenomics and Bidenfl ation, but Republicans aren’t exactly biding their time in the effort to scrub Mark Kelly’s political mission. This summer’s primary for the Arizona GOP Senate nomination will be crowded and spirited.

The eventual winner will face a cash-infused but performance-imperiled incumbent, joined at the hip to Joe Biden. Mark Kelly’s handlers are doing what they can right now to start a midcourse correction, recently making their man available for an interview

SEE HAYWORTH PAGE 10

Color alone not the only criterion for Supreme Court

BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ Glendale Star Columnist

United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer announced his upcoming retirement on a Wednesday morning. Within the hour, reporters, pundits and politicos had settled on a must for the 83-year-old’s successor: The next justice, the 116th in the history of our nation, must be a Black woman.

This certainty dates back to a promise President Biden made during the 2020 primaries. Struggling to get traction, especially with Black voters, Biden went to South Carolina needing a jump-start to his campaign. His promise at a February 2020 debate: “I’m looking forward to making sure there’s a Black woman on the Supreme Court to make sure we in fact get everyone represented.” The applause was loud. Biden won a seven-way primary with 49% of the vote.

I understand we live in a nation where 108 out of 115 members of the highest court in the land have been white men. I understand and see value in diversity, of justices who bring different perspectives and cultures to the court — even if they tend to vote in lockstep with either one of America’s two dominant, disastrous political parties.

But for days I’ve been scouring the news waiting for someone to say what to me seemed abundantly obvious: Shouldn’t the president, a Democrat, nominate the most qualifi ed liberal justice to the court, as opposed to fi ltering out candidates based on race and gender?

I mean this as no slight to the jurists on the short list: Ketanji Brown Jackson, who currently sits on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, considered the second most important court in the country.

Harvard educated, a former editor of the Harvard Law Review, Brown Jackson clerked for Breyer early in her career. Also getting serious consideration is Leondra Kruger, who currently sits on the California Supreme Court. Kruger previously clerked for Justice John Paul Stevens and, as an assistant U.S. solicitor general, she argued a dozen cases before SCOTUS.

If either of these two amazing Black women is the most qualifi ed choice for the court, then I celebrate the appointment.

Ironically, next year the court is scheduled to hear a case on affi rma-

AROUND THE BLUHMIN’ TOWN Sometimes you find yourself lost in life

BY JUDY BLUHM Glendale Star Columnist

Have you ever been lost? Yes, I guess at some time or another most of us have taken a wrong turn, had trouble following directions, or just gotten mixed up about where we are headed. Being a Realtor and often in rural areas, sometimes I find that street signs do not exist, easements are not always marked, landmarks change (the big saguaro where you are supposed to make your left turn looks the same as every other one) and GPS works best in cities that are neatly platted out. Imagine my surprise while driving on a dirt road in New River (lost) and finding an old, black horse standing in the middle of the two-lane goat path. He looked as bewildered to see me as I was to see him. Evidently, he did not think I belonged there, because he made no effort to move. A roadblock of the strangest kind!

Pulling over to the side, I stopped and got out. The horse stood his ground, just sizing me up as I carefully approached him. He was pretty thin, well-mannered and seemingly curious, if not happy to see me. Looking around, I pondered where the big fella came from. Not normal for a horse to be standing in the middle of a road with no one else around! About 300 feet to the north, I noticed a driveway and walked, gently resting my hand on the horse’s backside, as together we headed up a long, narrow dirt drive leading to an old ranch house.

The black horse and I got up the driveway and we both stood still for a moment, while an elderly man ran out from the garage with arms open like he might hug me. Well, he did embrace his horse and for a few minutes seemed confused, then asked what I was doing here with Rocky. When I said that I found Rocky standing in the middle of the road, the man looked shocked. He said, “Rocky is 34 years old and has arthritis, doesn’t eat much and barely walks any more. He usually just stands by my back porch or in his mare motel. He hasn’t walked this far in two years!” Clearly the man was flabbergasted, and then chuckled, saying that he better be sure to close his gates.

There might be another type of “lost.” A lady emailed me to say that she was married for 45 years and every day “knew what to do.” When her husband died, she said she “drifted” for one year, with no particular purpose or goal to do anything, except the basic chores of daily living. It can happen to us at any age. A loved one is snatched away too soon and we become bereft, struggling to find that new “normal” when all we really want is to go back to that place in time where we were before. This begs the question, can we be in the most familiar of places yet be completely lost?

Life is one heck of a journey. Sometimes roads don’t take you where you expected. Lost? It happens. Grab a compass, dear readers, because there might be times when we need a little help finding our way.

Judy Bluhm is a writer and a local Realtor. Have a comment or a story? Email her at judy@judybluhm.com.

READER’S VIEWPOINT

LETTER TO THE EDITOR Chamber CEO says vote ‘no’ on bill

Editor:

As businesses continue to recover from the interruptions caused by the pandemic, the last thing hardworking Arizona companies and employees need is higher health care costs.

That is why, on behalf of the Glendale Chamber of Commerce, we are opposed to Arizona Senate Bill 1161 (SB 1161) and respectfully ask West Valley residents to urge your representatives and senators to vote no on SB 1161.

If signed into law, SB 1161 would impose heavy-handed government interference in how our businesses build health coverage plans, ultimately raising both the cost of providing health care benefits for employers and increasing employees’ out-of-pocket costs.

This bill would even prohibit employers from communicating openly with employees about options for filling their prescriptions at a lower cost.

In addition, our chamber opposes unnecessary state regulation, cost-shifting, coverage requirements and government mandates while encouraging a fair, competitive, free-market environment. This bill is a mandate that will affect large and small employers throughout Arizona, our employees, and millions of hardworking Arizona families.

While our chamber works to support businesses through the challenges of the pandemic, we respectfully ask that you protect us and them from prescription drug cost increases and harmful regulations by voting no on SB 1161.

Robert W. Heidt Jr. President and Chief Executive Officer Glendale Chamber of Commerce

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LEIBOWITZ FROM PAGE 8 tive action in education. The original lawsuits contend that Harvard and the University of North Carolina discriminate against Asian students, who scored higher than other racial cohorts on admission criteria like grades, tests scores and extracurriculars but were scored down on qualities like courage, kindness, personality and likability.

The end result? A racial quota system that kept the number Asian students artificially low in favor of admitting a more diverse student body.

The concept that every facet of life requires equal representation by skin color is a shaky proposition, easy to turn on its head.

For example, the National Basketball Association in 2020 was about 74% African American, 17% white, not quite 3% Latino and Asian, and 6% players of other races. Today, non-Latino whites comprise 58% of the U.S. population. Latinos make up 19%, Blacks 12%.

Imagine the insanity that would ensue if the NBA mandated that each 15man roster needed to proportionally express the racial composition of the U.S.? Who among the Phoenix Suns’ 14 African American players would the team cut in favor of white ballers of presumably lesser talent?

Would the new, perfectly representative squad still sell tickets or perform to NBA Finals levels? Doubtful and doubtful.

It’s long past time for a Black woman to sit as a Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. But speaking about some of our nation’s best and brightest primarily through the prism of skin color and gender — with their hard work, qualifications and successes tossed in as a footnote — demeans the process and the judges in it.

David Leibowitz has called the Valley home since 1995. Contact david@leibowitzsolo.com.

HAYWORTH FROM PAGE 8 with “Yahoo!,” which, like most Big Tech media organs, would be more accurately named “Hooray!” when covering Democrat politicians.

Despite the kid-glove “Yahoo!” coverage, Kelly cannot shake his Biden connection. He even mimicked Ol’ Joe’s attempted blame shifting to big corporations — the same folks financing the freshman senator’s campaign.

If Kelly remains reluctant to politically separate from Joe Biden, the ex-astronaut will have a lot of time on

JUDGE’S OPINION – King Features

his hands a year from now to watch reruns of “The Andy Griffith Show.” Or “The Addams Family.”

J.D. Hayworth worked as a sportscaster at Channel 10, Phoenix, from 1987 until 1994 and represented Arizona in Congress from 1995-2007.