(Syndicated to Kansas newspapers Jan. 11, 2016)
No! Look over there, in the bushes!
It happened again last Friday, the masterful misdirection of the Kansas news media just a couple days before the opening of the Kansas Legislature’s 2016 session, and that misdirection was by Gov. Sam Brownback, who is giving his sixth State of the State address this week.
Presumably there won’t be much good news in the gubernatorial address that kicks off the session. The budget has crashed and it’s going to take cuts and shuffles because the governor isn’t interested in increasing taxes again this session.
So, what’s over there in the bushes to distract us?
Well, the governor was quick to release the campaign finance report for how he and Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer did at raising money during 2015. Didn’t do too badly, really, raising more than $500,000 in contributions to a campaign that will never face the voters again due to the two-term limit on Kansas governors.
After legal expenses and other spending needed to keep the office’s political side running, Colyer was repaid his last $100,000 in loans to the 2014 campaign. And, Brownback and his wife Mary got $100,000 of the $200,000 they lent to the campaign returned. The troupe wound up with about $50,000 in the campaign fund, probably enough to be sociable at GOP events and figure how to convince voters to chip in a little more in the next two years so that Brownback and spouse can be repaid.
You’d hate to see a governor’s office with a tip jar on the desk, wouldn’t you?
And, then there was that other diversion from the business of running a nearly broke state government…
Yes, it was expanding that gubernatorial order that discourages refugees from Mideast wars from entering Kansas.
Remember awhile back, when Brownback issued an order prohibiting any state agency—with Kansas money or even federal grant money—from doing anything to bring Syrian refugees to Kansas? After the Paris attack, and the San Bernardino, Calif., attack, well, it seemed like a time to toughen things up for refugee immigrants coming to Kansas.
So, last Friday seemed like a strategically good time to talk protection of Kansans from…well, not only Syrians, but how about their friends, maybe Canadians coming into Kansas where they represent a potential danger to Kansans.
At this point in the terrorism frenzy, we’d figure that anything that sounds like it keeps terrorists, or their friends, out of the Sunflower State is a good idea, never mind that many of those Middle Eastern refugees are fleeing their home countries to save their lives and the lives of their families.
Kansas, Brownback reminds us, is a warm-hearted state, willing to assist those in need, but we want someone presumably in the federal government to guarantee us that any refugees coming into the state—even those under-populated Rural Opportunity Zones—are safe as actuaries. Nobody, of course, wants terrorists slipping through the system, moving in and killing Kansans.
Nobody knows how anyone in the federal government can assure Kansas—or at least Brownback or the Kansas Department for Children and Families—that those refugees have nothing dangerous in mind. That’s probably impossible, but the Immigration and Naturalization Service does extensive background checks on the folks seeking refuge in the U.S. It hasn’t worked all the time.
In terms of specifically protecting the safety of Kansans, well, there’s no vetting of folks who cross the border from Missouri, but the international flavor of the latest executive order tends to divert our attention from dangers from Americans.
While Kansans are watching the governor’s bank account and terrorist immigration dangers, well, we have this 2016 legislative session starting, and while there are tax, budget, school, social welfare and other issues blazing, the distraction is a pretty good one for the purposes of the governor.
We’ll see how this works out…