Just rewards
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- Arkansas football coach Bobby Petrino at an April 3 news conference (AP Photo)
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- Jessica Dorrell (AP Photo/University of Arkansas)
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- Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long at an April 10 news conference (AP Photo)
A couple of easy lessons flow from the firing this week of Arkansas football coach Bobby Petrino. One is that hubris can be costly. Petrino clearly felt that his exalted position as head of the state’s beloved football program made him untouchable. That sort of arrogance is too often the norm, not the exception, with bigtime college football (and basketball) coaches. Another is that the cover-up is always worse than the crime. Petrino’s downfall started with a motorcycle crash on April 1. On board at the time was a 25-year-old woman with whom Petrino had been having an affair. He had only a few days earlier hired her onto his support staff. From the start, and despite numerous chances to come clean, Petrino lied to his boss and others about the details of the crash and the improper relationship. Despite all of this, the decision to show Petrino the door had to be difficult for Athletic Director Jeff Long, a former associate AD at the University of Oklahoma. Kudos to him for doing the right thing.
Bill worth supporting
A prison reform bill headed to the Oklahoma Senate isn’t quite what House Speaker Kris Steele envisioned, but passage would represent progress nonetheless. A Senate committee this week approved Steele’s House Bill 3052 after removing a section that would have let inmates who must serve 85 percent of their sentence begin earning good-time credits when they arrive in prison. Presently, those credits can’t be earned until the inmate has served 85 percent of the sentence. The provision would have saved money and freed up prison beds, and its removal was unfortunate. However the rest of the bill is intact, and if approved it will result in an improved public safety network for Oklahoma. The full Senate shouldn’t delay in giving its OK.
Left: A guard tower at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Okla. Photo by Nate Billings, The Oklahoman
Off to Illinois
Jim Scroggins’ departure as executive director of the Oklahoma Lottery is likely to be well received by legislative leaders. Scroggins had pushed for a change in state law that requires 35 percent of lottery earnings to go to education. His argument was that if that percentage were lowered, more money would be available for prizes, and that higher prizes would in turn draw more players. He was consistently rebuffed by Republicans who control the Legislature and who, on the whole, strongly oppose the lottery. Even so Scroggins, who left recently to take a position with the Illinois Lottery, is due a salute for his seven years of service, including getting our lottery up and running after voters approved the idea in November 2004.
Photo by Paul Hellstern, The Oklahoman Archives
Sounds familiar
Gov. Bob McDonnell (AP File Photo)
Gov. Mary Fallin can probably empathize to some degree with her colleague from Virginia, Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell. McDonnell, whose party controlled both houses of the legislature for the first time in 12 years, began the legislative session by urging lawmakers to focus on issues such as job creation and state finances, and not get sidetracked by partisan fights. Fallin and GOP leaders pushed a similar agenda last year. In Virginia, members didn’t listen very well. Republicans passed a number of prickly social bills favored by social conservatives, and McDonnell signed them all. Minority Democrats got a measure of payback by gumming up the budgeting process — a special session was needed to complete their work. Social conservatives caused their share of headaches in Oklahoma a year ago but Fallin met several goals, including reform to the state pension system, changes to the workers’ comp and civil justice systems, and government consolidation.
Baseball’s blundering
Is anyone in charge at Major League Baseball? Someone figured it would be a great idea to begin the regular season by having the Seattle Mariners and Oakland A’s play two games this week in Japan — and then have them return to the states for a few preseason games before getting the real schedule under way again. No doubt MLB made a few bucks by taking the game, and Japanese hero Ichiro Suzuki of the Mariners, to baseball-crazy Japan. But otherwise the stunt was a flop. Playing games at the crack of dawn here? Please. The real Opening Day is Wednesday but even that has been butchered — one game is on the schedule, the St. Louis Cardinals visiting the Miami Marlins. The teams play not a series but just one game, then both go on the road. Ridiculous.
Right: Seattle Mariners’ Ichiro Suzuki prepares for a batting practice during the team’s training for the season-opening game against Oakland Athletics, at Tokyo Dome ball stadium in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)
Order overdone
President Barack Obama speaks about energy at the TransCanada Pipe Yard near Cushing, Okla., Thursday, March 22, 2012. Photo by Nate Billings, The Oklahoman
President Obama used his recent trip to the Cushing area to tout an executive order fast-tracking the southern leg of the Keystone pipeline. He should have saved taxpayers the money. Critics pointed out that federal help wasn’t needed to move the project forward. National Journal’s energy and environmental experts agree. In a survey, 71 percent said this week that the executive order was unnecessary, and most concurred that the pipeline from Cushing to the Gulf Coast needs only local approval. The president’s involvement is “not even remotely necessary,” one insider said. Another said it “looks like federal government interfering in the traditionally local decision of land-use planning, and it likely won’t actually change the permitting process, which is already under way. Not great optics — and I say this as a fan of the president.”
Goon tactics
Wisconsin unions rally at the State Capitol in Madison to mark the one-year anniversary of the collective bargaining reform law. (AP Photo)
Wisconsin freshman state Sen. Pam Galloway cited family concerns as the reason for giving up her seat. Republicans in Wisconsin feel the nastiness regularly directed Galloway’s way by a local union boss played a big part. After GOP-backed collective bargaining reform became law in 2011, Galloway was targeted by an agitator named John Spiegelhoff, who peppered the senator with emails blasting her position on various issues. He said he would help bring an end to her “reign of terror” and called her work “immoral.” Some subject lines in the emails included “we are coming for you” and “here we come.” Galloway said in one interview that Spiegelhoff’s tactics, while part of the nasty tenor so prevalent in politics today, were “anything beyond (what) I had seen.” Then again, this clown last year sued an 86-year-old volunteer crossing guard for taking a job Spiegelhoff thought should have been a union gig.
Far too little, too late
It’s not a stretch to say the prosecution of the late Ted Stevens cost him his U.S. Senate seat. Stevens, R-Alaska, lost in 2008 to an opponent who naturally made the criminal case a campaign issue. A few days before the election, a federal jury found Stevens guilty of lying on Senate financial disclosure documents to conceal expensive home renovations and gifts from friends. But the conviction was a fraud. This week, a special counsel who investigated the case said prosecutors never did a comprehensive review of material that was favorable to Stevens and that two prosecutors intentionally withheld key information. The report also said notes taken by prosecutors and two FBI agents during interviews with two important witnesses contained information that wasn’t given to Stevens’ attorneys. “While the department meets its … obligations in nearly all cases,” the Justice Department said, “even one failure is one too many.” That apology is much too little, too late.
Former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska (AP Photo)
So much for openness
A bill that would have made legislators subject to state open record and open meetings laws bit the dust this week. House Bill 1085 by Rep. Jason Murphey was to be considered by the House on Thursday, the last day for the House to act on bills that originated there. But the bill got saddled with nearly two dozen amendments, and many members let it be known that they were uncomfortable with the idea. The bill’s language could be attached to another bill this session, but that’s a long shot. “There are a large number of members who are not prepared for transparency,” said Murphey, R-Guthrie. Instead they prefer the way business gets done now — which is too often in the shadows. We say again of lawmakers: Requiring nearly every other public official to abide by openness laws while not subjecting themselves to the same is the height of hypocrisy.
The Oklahoman Archives
OKLAHOMA PRESS ASSOCIATION PUBLISHES THE OPEN MEETING / OPEN RECORDS BOOK
Worth a look
Philip K. Howard is taking his call for smarter, more responsible government to The Atlantic magazine. On the magazine’s website, theatlantic.com, can be found “America the Fixable,” a link that features essays by Howard — author of “The Death of Common Sense” — and others that reveal just how nonsensical our government can be. U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, R-Tenn., wrote about the government’s mohair subsidy, which began shortly after World War II over concerns about the future availability of wool for military uniforms. “Today, more than half a century later — when military uniforms are largely composed of synthetic material — the program still benefits goat herders in Texas, now under the friendly jurisdiction of the Agriculture Committee,” Cooper said. It helps explain, he says, why “there are dozens, sometimes hundreds of overlapping and duplicative programs for favored constituencies, as opposed to one or two programs that really deliver.” This essay and others on the site are well worth the time.
1996 Mohair Producers of Oklahoma angora goat show (The Oklahoman Archives)
