Andanh.com

I ticked off loyal Hillary Clinton supporters recently by daring to suggest that a true lady would know when to exit the presidential race gracefully. This is not an apology.

My most fervent detractors were other women -- women who described themselves as members of the generation older than I am. Judging by what they wrote, they seem to support Clinton not so much because of what she stands for but because she's the first woman in their lifetimes who has had a real shot at the White House.

What an irony. Thanks to women who broke down political gender barriers, I can take a pass at the Clinton candidacy. Other female candidates will follow in her footsteps. I have little doubt that I will see a woman in the White House. I simply do not want it to be Clinton.

For that I am an ungrateful little snot. Women my age -- 40-ish -- and younger have no idea what older women have endured. Or so my correspondents let me know.

Of course, my generation doesn't have much of an idea. Wasn't that the point of the hard work of women in previous generations, so that things would move forward for their daughters and granddaughters?

I would like to thank the students, parents, teachers and staff of USD 259 and the Wichita community for the support they have given to my family and me for the past 38 years.

I moved to Wichita in 1971 to become a Shocker, and I am proud to say that I received three degrees from Wichita State University. My wife, Ann, and I have successfully raised four wonderful children in this community. Our youngest graduated from Wichita Northwest High School this year. We have lived, played and worked in this community, and, most important, we have encountered some of the most incredible people on Earth whom we call our friends.

I would like to express my gratitude to the taxpayers of the Wichita school district for their support of me during my 22 years in the district, the past 10 as superintendent. I want to thank them for helping us increase student achievement, for passing the 2000 bond issue, for changing the perception of this large urban district, for their financial support of local option budgets, and for helping us make the Wichita school district one of the best urban districts in the United States.

I want to thank an incredible group of teachers, classified personnel, support staff, principals and administrative leaders for their dedication, passion and long-standing commitment to educate all the students of our district. The successes we have experienced with student achievement should be placed squarely on their shoulders.

The Wichita high school graduating classes of 2008 and I have something in common this spring -- that our eras in the district are coming to a close, and we will be heading off for a new adventure. It is exciting, yet very scary. However, I have learned this: The Wichita district has prepared me well for my new adventure as superintendent of the Albuquerque, N.M., school system, and I am confident that the Wichita district also has prepared the graduates well for their new adventures.

Imagine for a minute, just a minute, that someone running for president was able to actually tell the truth, the real truth, to the American people about what would be the best -- I mean really the best -- energy policy for the long-term economic health and security of our country. What would this mythical, totally imaginary, truth-telling candidate say?

For starters, he would explain that there is no short-term fix for gasoline prices. Prices are what they are as a result of rising global oil demand from India, China and a rapidly growing Middle East on top of our own increasing consumption, a shortage of "sweet" crude that is used for the diesel fuel that Europe is highly dependent upon, and our own neglect of effective energy policy for 30 years.

Cynical ideas like the McCain-Clinton summertime gas-tax holiday would only make the problem worse. And reckless initiatives, like the Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep offer to subsidize gasoline for three years for people who buy its gas-guzzlers, are the moral equivalent of tobacco companies offering discounted cigarettes to teenagers.

No, our mythical candidate would say the long-term answer is to go exactly the other way: Guarantee people a high price of gasoline.

This candidate would note that $4-a-gallon gasoline is really starting to impact driving and buying behavior. The first time we got such a strong price signal, after the 1973 oil shock, we responded as a country by demanding and producing more fuel-efficient cars. But as soon as oil prices started falling in the late 1980s and early 1990s, we let Detroit get us readdicted to gas-guzzlers.

This July 1, the government health insurance program for seniors and people with disabilities automatically will begin draconian payment cuts to physicians. Over a year and a half, the cuts translate to a loss of $110 million to Kansas physician practices caring for Medicare patients. But the real losers are Medicare patients, who will be left with reduced access to physician care.

Nearly 400,000 patients rely on Medicare in Kansas, and they will bear the brunt of the Medicare cuts to physicians -- as doctors are forced to make tough decisions because of cuts that push payments far below the increasing cost of providing care. This is not a hypothetical situation: 60 percent of physicians say this year's cut will force them to limit the number of new Medicare patients they can treat. Consider that the average senior sees at least seven physicians a year, and the prospect of not being able to find a new physician has wide-ranging consequences.

In three years, the first wave of baby boomers will reach Medicare age, and the Medicare rolls will keep expanding as one-fifth of the U.S. population will be older than 65 by 2030. Compound this with the fact that we're already beginning to feel the effects of a looming physician shortage, and the future of senior citizens' access to care may be dire.

Current Medicare payments to physicians are about what they were in 2001, while the costs of running a medical practice increase. It's no secret that costs everywhere are skyrocketing -- just try filling up a tank of gas or buying a week's worth of groceries. If the cuts go through as Medicare projects, physicians will be paid 15 percent less than they are paid now over a year and a half. If the cuts aren't stopped, the bottom line is that having a Medicare insurance card will not guarantee access to physician care.

Intervention by Congress is the only way to stop the cuts, as they occur automatically because of a flawed mathematical equation that ties payments to the ups and downs of the economy instead of the health care needs of seniors. This year's cut of 10.6 percent begins this summer -- and time is running short for action.

Fraud: "deceit, trickery... or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage."

The HBO movie "Recount" tells the story from the Democratic Party point of view that the 2000 presidential election was improperly won by George W. Bush because of the trickery of his fellow Republicans and the U.S. Supreme Court. That has been shown to be untrue by no less a source than the New York Times, but facts rarely influence propaganda.

Here's a better example of fraud straight from the donkey's mouth that you can bet will never be told on film. It comes courtesy of 12-term Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa. During a town meeting last August in his district, Kanjorski made a remarkable statement about the 2006 election in which Democrats recaptured the majority. Kanjorski acknowledged that he and his fellow Democrats "sort of stretched the facts" about their intention to end the war in Iraq and bring American troops home.

A video of his remarks, now on YouTube, shows Kanjorski explaining that Democrats pushed the rhetoric about the war "as far as we can to the end of the fleet -- didn't say it, but we implied it -- that if we won the congressional elections we could stop the war." Democrats also promised to bring down gas prices if they won a majority. That worked out well, didn't it?

"Now anybody who's a good student of government," continued Kanjorski in a condescending manner, "would know it wasn't true."

If there's one issue that epitomizes the culture wars that have so deeply divided American politics over the past eight years, it's abortion. That's why those who benefited most from those wars are desperate to revive abortion's single-issue virulence in this presidential cycle.

For the GOP's hard cultural right, abortion was the centerpiece of a grand strategy to link traditionally minded Roman Catholics and socially conservative evangelical Protestants in a great coalition of the religious right that would paint the electoral map ruby red, cementing the Rust Belt and the Sun Belt into a permanent Republican majority.

Now, because of Barack Obama's perceived problems with blue-collar Catholic voters in the late Democratic primaries, some on the right think they see an opportunity to hammer once more on the abortion wedge. Their most public target is Kansas' second-term governor, Kathleen Sebelius, who many believe is the front-runner for the vice presidential slot if Obama secures the nomination.

Recently, Sebelius has run afoul of Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kan. As the Catholic News Service reported earlier this month, the bishop has told the governor that she "should stop receiving Communion until she publicly repudiates her support of abortion and makes a 'worthy sacramental confession.' " The prelate said that in a private conversation he'd had with Sebelius, the governor said she was "obligated to uphold state and federal laws and court decisions related to abortion." Naumann said he demanded that she show "a similar sense of obligation to honor divine law and the laws, teaching and legitimate authority within the church."

Now there's about as nasty and as utterly avoidable a church-state confrontation as you're likely to see.

After a lengthy competition between Northrop Grumman Corp. and Boeing Co., the U.S. Air Force has selected Northrop Grumman to build 179 aerial refueling tankers. This program is long overdue, as the Air Force urgently needs to replace its fleet of Eisenhower-era tankers.

The Air Force described the selection process as one of the most rigorous and transparent in Defense Department history. But Boeing has protested the choice to the Government Accountability Office, which is expected to issue a decision in June on whether the Air Force followed applicable procurement laws and regulations.

Northrop Grumman believes that the GAO will affirm the awarding of the contract to our corporation.

Since the award announcement, much misinformation has been circulated in the halls of Congress and repeated in the media. Some have labeled the KC-45 project a "French" tanker because one of Northrop Grumman's partners on it is the North American subsidiary of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., parent of Airbus. Others have charged that awarding the contract to Northrop Grumman will hurt America's defense industrial base and send jobs overseas. A few legislators want the contract decision overturned or funding blocked.

Let me set the record straight.

An Associated Press story the other day began like so:

"Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, both seeking to use religion to their advantage in the presidential campaign, have learned painful lessons about the risks of getting too close to religious leaders."

Let's see: Which one of these is not like the other?

One candidate -- not an evangelical himself -- sought the endorsement of evangelical leaders because some little adviser whispered in his ear that he couldn't win without the blessing of the religious right.

The other candidate sat in his pastor's pews for two decades, had the guy perform his marriage ceremony and baptize his kids, and named his book after one of his pastor's sermons.

On Friday morning, Joe Biden gave us an example of a leading national politician exhibiting decency and class. Later in the day, Hillary Clinton gave us an example of something else.

Biden, a Delaware senator and the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. He spoke insightfully about the complexity of dealing with Iran, moving the discussion beyond the tedious and simplistic argument over whether to meet with certain foreign leaders.

He defended Barack Obama against the searing attacks by the Bush administration, John McCain and Joe Lieberman, and said:

"I refuse to sit back like we did in 2000 and 2004. This administration is the worst administration in American foreign policy in modern history -- maybe ever. The idea that they are competent to continue to conduct our foreign policy, to make us more secure and make Israel secure, is preposterous. Every single thing they've touched has been a near-disaster."

Biden was then asked about the dispute that Obama and McCain have been having over the proposal by Virginia Sen. Jim Webb to increase college tuition benefits for men and women who have served in the military since Sept. 11, 2001. Obama supports the bill. McCain does not and has introduced a less-generous measure.