THE TRIBUNE'S VIEW
Denying Abramoff
By HENRY J. WATERS III, Publisher, Columbia Daily Tribune 
Hardly more than a year ago, lobbyist Jack Abramoff was the darling of the Bush-Cheney re-election team, raising more than $100,000 for the campaign and earning himself the honorary title "pioneer."

JOHN DARKOW CARTOON

BEST OF DARKOW 2005

OPEN COLUMN
Coaches’ jobs should hinge on beating Kansas teams
Editor, the Tribune: I look for the University of Missouri to give the football coach an extension on his contract and a big raise. They should show mercy to him and allow him to return to Ohio.

OPEN COLUMN
There is an explanation for genealogy differences
Editor, the Tribune: Glen Salter, in his Dec. 16 diatribe against the God of the Bible, says that because there are differences in the genealogies of Jesus recorded in Matthew and Luke, Jesus was not the divinely conceived messiah.

OPEN COLUMN
Rubin does not deserve charges leveled in letter
Editor, the Tribune: On Dec. 18, the Tribune published an accusatory, divisive and hurtful letter to the editor spurred by the public policy debate surrounding stem cell research and cures in our state.

OPEN COLUMN
Waters’ impeachment piece is best of his career
Editor, the Tribune: In spite of many fierce disagreements with editor-publisher Hank Waters, I must raise my hat with respect and my voice in gratitude that he has written perhaps the finest editorial of his career. 

Nixon blowing hot air on energy bill
By CHARLES A. CAISLEY
When temperatures become extreme, consumers feel the financial pinch of heating and cooling their homes. While energy costs continue to rise around the country, Missouri consumers should take heart in knowing their rates are among the lowest in the nation. Missouri residential customers have the eighth-lowest electric rates in the nation, the Missouri Department of Economic Development reports, and Missouri’s natural gas companies are also projected to have winter rates on average as much as 20 percent below their peers in neighboring states.

Planners need help on details
By RUSS DUKER
We are at a crossroads as a community. Columbia has a new city manager taking the helm, and the city’s population is approaching the 100,000 mark, two significant milestones. All expectations are that Boone County and Columbia should prepare for an increase in the pace of development. We should set goals and plan for the impending change or suffer the consequences that haphazard development brings, such as traffic congestion, ill-planned neighborhoods, pollution and crime.

Clinton bill an assault on Constitution
By RICHARD COHEN
Last month, Justice Antonin Scalia was politely quizzed by Norman Pearlstine, the outgoing Time Inc. editor in chief. The event, held in Time Warner’s New York headquarters, was supposedly off the record, but so much of it has already been reported that it will not hurt to add Scalia’s views on flag burning. He explained why it was constitutionally protected speech.

Benefits of Iraq war don’t add up
BY CHARLEY REESE
Now that President George W. Bush has launched a new propaganda campaign to convince Americans we are winning the war in Iraq, it’s a good idea to go back to the basics and look at the pluses and minuses of this war.

Skiing isn’t for anybody who’s sane
By DAVE BARRY
Skiing is an exciting winter sport, but it is not for everybody. For example, it is not for sane people. Sane people look at skiing, and they say: "Wait a minute. I’m supposed to attach slippery objects to my feet and get on a frozen chair dangling from a scary-looking wire, then get dumped off on a snow-covered slope so steep that the mountain goats are wearing seat belts, and then, if by some miracle I am able to get back down without killing myself, I’m supposed to do this again?"

STAY IN TOUCH
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