Respected political commentator David Gergen says the result may be “a fractured Republican Party.”

I agree with Gergen that it is becoming increasingly difficult to see how a united GOP can come out of the increasingly divisive, cheap-shot, low-blow insults directed at the leading Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, by his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination.

Another unfortunate characteristic of the Republican primary contest is that the national news is dominated by the results of voting in a small handful of small states which, as I see it, are in no way typical of the more populous states where the presidential election will actually be decided next November.

As the cheap shots at Romney intensify, take a look at the records which some of his opponents hope voters have forgotten:

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is the only Speaker in history to be censored by a vote of the House for ethical violations and, in his personal life, his present third wife and he were engaged in an affair while he was still married to his second wife.  (I believe they used to call that adultery, forbidden in The 10 Commandments, which Gingrich must have heard of as he moved through membership in three religious denominations.)

Then there was the time that Gingrich, who had gone into the consultant business, enthusiastically praised the business founded by Romney—a business he now bitterly criticizes because it sometimes eliminated jobs (while in other cases adding a good many jobs).

As for Rick Santorum, he refers to himself as a former senator from Pennsylvania but steers carefully away from the fact that when he ran for a third term, he was defeated by the largest margin ever suffered by an incumbent Republican senator.

Santorum also continues to stress his opposition to contraception, and at one point suggested that contraception should perhaps be banned by law.  He also has a reputation for a quick temper, which he displayed with disastrous results in his unsuccessful bid for a third term.

Then there is Texas governor Rick Perry who said Romney practiced “vulture capitalism.”  Perry headed for South Carolina after getting one percent of the New Hampshire vote, taking with him a record of campaign blunders which suggest he is the most intellectually challenged of the candidates.

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Are We At Long Last Waking Up
To Essential Educational Role Of Parents?

It’s the parenting, Stupid, not just the school teachers.

That, to use somewhat colloquial language, is an appropriate reaction to a story which shouldn’t have surprised anyone.

Given major play on the front page of The World-Herald Midlands Section was a story which pointed out that the better classroom performances generally coincide with a higher than average percentage of parents coming to school on parent-teacher conference evenings.

The story began:  “Parents, it turns out, really do matter in a child’s academic success.”

“It turns out”?  It “turned out” that way a long time ago.  Parental involvement has been a major factor in determining academic success of their children for at least as far back as my childhood some 80 and more years ago, as I can personally testify.

Federal, State Criticism Outlooks A Basic Fact

It’s about time that a spotlight was thrown on that basic fact, which contrasts rather sharply with a state and federal officials’ criticism, which places the primary responsibility for improved student achievement on classroom teachers and school principals.

As I see it, strong parental support is at least as important as a teacher’s efforts in producing good educational results.  After all, you can’t teach a student who isn’t in the classroom, and absenteeism is traditionally higher among students whose parents are not actively involved in supporting teachers’ efforts.

As we talk about improving student achievement, keep in mind that in inner-city classrooms, something like 50% of the students come from the homes of unwed mothers, according to some studies, and something like 70% come from homes in which, even if the mother was once married, no father figure is still present.

A tip of my columnist’s cap to The World-Herald for giving front page attention to statistics which demonstrated, in words and graphically, that, as the story reported, “schools with the highest parent attendance (at parent-teacher conferences) generally scored best on state reading and math tests…low attendance schools scored the worst.”

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Give The Three Million Dollars Back, Ben;
Let Kerrey Raise His Own If He Runs

A fascinating question:  What will Ben Nelson do with the nearly $3 million he has collected for a political campaign which he isn’t going to conduct?

My suggestion:  Give every dollar back to the contributors.  Leave it up to the contributor to decide whether he wants to contribute the money to other candidates.  (Former governor and senator Bob Kerrey has been cited as a possible beneficiary if he decides to come back from New York to run for the seat Nelson is vacating.

It should not be Nelson’s prerogative—or that of any other candidate who has accumulated a war chest of campaign funds and then decides he isn’t going to seek re-election—to decide whether the money goes to another candidate, to state or national political parties or for charitable purposes.

Bob Kerrey hung on to some comparable contributions from the time he stopped political campaigning in 2000 until 2011.  He gave some of the money to charitable causes of his choice.

I don’t think either Kerrey or Nelson or any other politician should be allowed to establish his reputation for philanthropy with other people’s money.

My advice to Nelson or any other candidate under these circumstances:

Don’t be guilty of—legal though it might be—in effect obtaining money under what prove to be false pretenses and not giving it back.

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UNO Beats ‘Johnson & Wales’;
No, Not A Store, A College

Very friendly treatment by The World-Herald can’t change the reality that the University of Nebraska at Omaha basketball team is doing very poorly—predictably poorly—in its newly-assigned role of being a money-making arm of the controversially-reorganized UNO athletic program.

At the time UNO dropped football and scrapped a national championship wrestling program (replacing them with men’s soccer and—I’m not kidding now—men’s golf), there was brave talk about UNO basketball coming out of the Sapp Field House and becoming a substantial source of revenue for the new UNO athletic program.

The Maverick record improved to 7-11 for the season with a victory in Denver earlier this week over a team described simply as “Johnson & Wales.”

The World-Herald story informed us that Johnson & Wales (surely you’ve heard of the school) is located in Denver and is a member of a collegiate group described as the NAIA—whatever that stands for.  The box score indicated that attendance numbers were not available—probably a compassionate decision on the part of whoever was responsible for supplying or not supplying crowd numbers.

The story of the victory over Johnson & Wales was the fourth consecutive day of top-of-the-page play given to Maverick basketball inside The World-Herald’s sports section.

This week started with Lady Mavericks’ 88-33 victory over injury-plagued Dallas Christian, which brought only five players to the game, played before 135 fans in Sapp Field House.

Better Days Ahead?  How Far Ahead?

Various news stories have suggested there are better days ahead for the Mavericks, when they spend more time in the NCAA Division I Summit Conference.

One follower of UNO basketball—and I stress that I am sympathetic to the Maverick basketballers and their coach—has told me he wants to see how the basketball Mavericks draw in the 4,000 seat arena where they will play in Ralston starting in 2013.

But I would point out that a crowd of 4,000 is a pretty small draw and revenue producer for a team from which so much revenue is expected.

Still on the subject of basketball, an enthusiastic “Way to go, Jays” for the Creighton basketball team and “Way to go, Lady Huskers” for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln women’s basketball team.  Both teams are well started on what could turn out to be very impressive seasons.

And isn’t it about time, World-Herald Sports Department people, to give the Lady Huskers—who have drawn more than 5,000 fans to a home game—recognition that goes with full-fledged box scores, the kind you give even to the men’s UNO basketball team?

* * *

Country Going Broke While Candidates
Squabble Over Presidential Election Chances

It’s very unfortunate—hopefully not tragic—that the multi-ring political circus going on in this country today is diverting attention from the country’s basic problem, an issue that is not getting major attention from the leadership in either political party.

The problem was spotlighted on the front page of USA Today with this headline:  “U.S. debt is now equal to economy”

And this subhead:  “$15 trillion red ink projected to surge”  The story started:

“The soaring national debt has reached a symbolic tipping point; it’s now as big as the entire U.S. economy.

“The amount of money the federal government owes to its lenders, combined with IOUs to government retirement and other programs now tops $15.3 trillion.  That’s roughly equal to the value of all goods and services the U.S. economy produces in one year.”

It seems nearly insane for our country to be drenched in political campaign news—much of it relatively trivial—while we approach virtual national government bankruptcy.

While on the subject of both parties’ preoccupation with less important national issues, I certainly would not include in my “less important” category the ominous move towards one-man rule by the President of the United States.

I refer to President Obama’s clear violation of the historical pattern of not bypassing Congress in order to make significant and controversial appointments without the required Congressional approval.

The president is interpreting the law as he sees fit—bypassing the Constitutional requirement that presidential appointments which require Congressional approval cannot be made without such an approval if the Congress is in session.

But the president has taken the position that Congress is really in recess and therefore he can proceed with one-man rule in such matters as presidential appointments.  The law and a Supreme Court decision seem to be against  him, since the Republican House leadership has kept Congress technically and legally in session in order to prevent “I’m in charge here” appointments by Obama.

The Supreme Court may be asked to decide whether this is a nation of law and a constitutional separation of powers or a nation where an impatient president can simply proceed on his own when the law appears to stand in his way.

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Marian Impresses Friend With Variety Of Interests

As is so often the case, Marian supplies the material for one of my upbeat endings to these weekly offerings.

A good friend e-mailed me to thank me for a recent column expressing my praise of the tri-faith “campus”—Christian, Jewish and Muslim—being developed on the site of the former Ironwood Club in southwest Omaha.

My friend also said he spent a few minutes chatting with Marian at a recent dinner for patrons of the Omaha Opera.

Only with Marian, he said, can an “arts” discussion include references to Albert Pujols, the superstar who has abandoned the St. Louis Cardinals for bigger money playing for the Los Angeles Angels; the new Miami Marlins baseball field and the truffles candy which Marian enjoyed on a recent visit to New York City.

“She is one cool cat,” my friend said.

“A cool cat” with wide-ranging interests indeed.  One who is has lighted my life for more than 60 years.

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