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So what? Here’s what: The Washington Post just rated them the most likely Democratic and Republican vice presidential running mates.
Numero unos.
So there they were at a Doubletree Hotel news conference Tuesday. A potentially historic moment, right?
Before reporters could turn to national politics, Pawlenty bowed out, saying he was struggling to talk because he had taken a hockey stick to the esophagus in a recent game.
If Pawlenty is still playing a silly game like hockey at 47, that should disqualify him right there.
That left Sebelius, who took a few questions on energy policy, then skated out. Well, some moments are more historic than others.
The Post’s rating of the Kansas governor, though flattering, seems a tad inflated: The two-term governor would “further bolster (Barack) Obama’s strengths” and “affirm Obama’s core message of change” while giving Obama’s run “even more historic weight.”
OK, but the downside is equally dramatic, which is the governor’s lack of foreign policy experience (a weakness of Obama’s, too), as well as her inability to deliver her state to the Democrats. Folks, the odds of Kansas going Democratic in November are about the same as gasoline hitting $1.50 a gallon next week.
The talk is exciting. But Sebelius isn’t number one. Not with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson still around.
• • •
You’ve probably never heard of Melvin Neufeld, but there’s one thing you might want to know about the Kansas House speaker: He goes well with jam.
Yep, he’s toast. Or, at a minimum, he’s so charred around the edges that hardly anybody will go near him.
Neufeld, a Republican from western Kansas, was at the helm during one of the most desultory sessions in recent state history. He’s responsible for placing passage of the twin 700-megawatt coal-fired power plants near Holcomb ahead of everything else.
Never mind if you care about immigration or health-care reform or an improved social safety net.
It was coal, coal, coal, or it was the shaft.
“There was an attitude of ultimatum,” Sebelius said.
And, of course, if all you care about was coal, you also got nothing. Neufeld never got his coal plant.
Get this: A Republican speaker in a chamber dominated by Republicans couldn’t cough up the single vote he lacked at one point on a test vote to see whether the House could override a Sebelius veto of the plants.
Talk about a canary in the mine. Good speakers keep five votes in their hip pockets just for sport.
Now things are caving in. In a highly unusual move, some already are openly campaigning against Neufeld.
Tradition dictates that speakers serve two terms of two years each. Neufeld has just completed his first and surely will seek re-election.
But Rep. Mike O’Neal of Hutchinson is telling colleagues he wants the job. Others may mount challenges, too.
Disappointment typically soars at the end of any session. Lawmakers almost never get everything they want. But I was over there last week and I’m here to tell you: This session set a record for utter exasperation.
“Veterans are saying this is the worst legislative year they’ve ever seen,” said Rep. Pat Colloton, a Leawood Republican.
Lawmakers complain about Neufeld’s closed-door style, his lack of people skills, his unwillingness to accept ideas contrary to his own. His relations with Sebelius are described as uneven. He’s feuding with his second-in-command, House Majority Leader Ray Merrick of Stilwell, who agrees the speaker is in deep doo-doo.
For his part, Neufeld doesn’t seem to get it.
“We have done what we can to help the people of Kansas,” he said in a session-ending news conference.
That’s not quite right. The session, Mr. Speaker, was the pits, and that describes your chances of returning next year.
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