WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- News notes, political rumors, and important events that shape politics and public policy in Washington and the world from United Press International.
Short list -- Even before Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore made his announcement that he would be stepping down as RNC chairman, the rumor mill was buzzing over his possible successor. Names being tossed about include former Montana Gov. Marc Racicot, senior presidential adviser Karl Rove, Ohio GOP chairman Bob Bennett and Oklahoma Republican Rep. J.C. Watts, whose congressional district is widely expected to be a casualty of the redistricting process.
Another 'Stan in the spotlight -- The United States Helsinki Commission, a non-governmental organization credited with creating political space for dissidents inside the former Soviet Union, is holding a hearing on the state of democracy, human rights, and security concerns in Kyrgyzstan. Once considered the most democratic of the central Asian nations birthed in the collapse of the Soviet Union, the commission says it has descended into dictatorship, with rigged elections, intensified pressure on opposition newspapers and the arrest of political rivals of President Askar Akaev's becoming more and more commonplace. The hearing will be held in the Cannon House Office Building on Thursday.
From the heart -- Vermont schoolchildren are collecting warm winter clothing to be sent to the counterparts in Afghanistan. Organized by the Vermont Boy and Girl Scouts, the program, called Kids to Kids, started on Nov. 26 and also involves the Islamic Society of Vermont, the National Guard and the state's business community.
Opportunity knocking -- The Nation's Joel Rogers and Katrina vanden Heuvel, writing in the Los Angeles Times, tell their left-wing allies that the war on terrorism presents progressives with the "opportunity of a lifetime" to remake their movement. In their analysis, they hit on two themes.
"The first is that progressives, since Vietnam, have stood solidly in opposition to the use of U.S. military force," they write. "This stance could be honorably maintained then and during a host of sordid U.S. military ventures since, but leaves them unbalanced or marginal in today's case, where force seems justified."
"The second is that this war is about securing the 'open society' that terrorism threatens -- a society in which individual and corporate freedoms, resting on secure property rights, can be exercised worldwide without restraint. But the left -- in its World Trade Organization protests in Seattle and Genoa, in its opposition to fast track -- has been most visible for opposing the corporate domination that naturally follows from such rules. And so, the pundits reason, any left support now for the war against terrorism is at odds with its recent actions. But this reasoning strikes us as wrong. Only the pacifist left has ever opposed all use of U.S. military force; other progressives simply have strong views on when it is appropriate and believe that blank, ubiquitous endorsement of military action does not serve the country. And there is no reason to equate opposition to terrorism, a crime against humanity, with support for a particular program on how humanity should be organized, a matter that remains a subject of legitimate debate."
Did the sheriff shoot the sheriff? -- One of the milestones of 2000 was the election of Derwin Brown as sheriff of DeKalb County, Ga., on an anti-corruption platform. Just days before his swearing in, Brown was assassinated in a hail of bullets outside his home. On Friday, Sidney Dorsey, the incumbent sheriff whom Brown beat in the election, was one of three men charged in the murder. Such murders are uncommon in American politics but not unheard of. In 1998, Byron "Low Tax" Looper, a Republican candidate for a seat in the Tennessee state senate, shot and killed his opponent, Democrat State Sen. Tommy Burks. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Sex and sensibility -- Advocates for Youth, a non-profit organization focusing on adolescent sexual and reproductive health, is staring a campaign to promote a new paradigm for healthy adolescent sexuality. The group's program, "Rights. Respect. Responsibility," is, according to Advocates for Youth President James Waggoner, "a call to get real about teens and sex so that we can more effectively prevent teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease."
Payback -- It is no secret on Capitol Hill that Senate Democrats are keen to derail as many Bush appointees as they can, especially those who played a role in Bush's victory in the Florida recount. But, as it turns out, conservatives haven't forgiven either. A group of Republican activists with strong K Street connections are trying to get Capitol Hill GOPers to send a strong message to SBC Communications -- one of the new phone companies created out of the amalgamations and mergers among the original Baby Bells -- that the selection of former Commerce Secretary and Al Gore campaign chief William Daley as the man to run their government affairs might not be the best choice. An anonymous white paper being distributed among members and in meetings around the city poses the question: "Just why was Daley hired to run a major American telecom company? Does he have experience in telecom? Or, is he really being hired as a means of influencing hold-over Clinton administration regulators, who he says are 'an important part of our life?'" Watch this space.
Personnel note -- Naomi Churchill Earp, the executive diversity advisor at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, has been nominated by the president to be a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission... New Hampshire attorney Francis Cramer has been tapped to be a judge of the United States Tax Court for a 15-year term... Cena Swisher and Steve Ellis have both been promoted to the position of senior director at Taxpayers for Common Sense, a green-leaning citizen lobbying working on tax and spending issues...
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