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THE WEIRS TIMES & THE COCHECO TIMES, Thursday, July 7, 2011


A NEW DAY IN POLITICS Most Ameri-


by John Stossel Syndicated Columnist


cans used to call themselves R e p u b l i c a n or Democrat. The s e da y s , more call them- selves indepen- dent. What does that mean for American poli- tics? A lot. “Indepen -


dents are everywhere, and they’re becoming the largest single vot-


MALKIN from 8


niously fired and smeared by Team Obama. The White House baselessly questioned the veteran watchdog’s mental health and ac- cused him of political interference. The first lady then installed her former chief of staff, Jackie Norris, in AmeriCorps’ top management to ensure -- in Mrs. Obama’s own words -- that they remained the program’s “No. 1 cheerleaders.” Even more troubling, Johnson


continues to reap government tax dollars for youth programs while he remains dogged by questions about his predatory behavior with teenage girls. A little-noticed section of the joint November 2009 report by GOP Sen. Charles Grassley and GOP Rep. Darrell Issa on Walpin’s firing revealed that the AmeriCorps inspector general’s investigator “became aware of allegations of inappropri- ate contact between Johnson and three female St. HOPE students.”


ing bloc in the country,” Reason magazine Editor Matt Welch says. “ (T)hey can determine ev- ery national election and every ... election for state office. So in- dependent voters -- people who refuse to say, ‘I’m a Republican or I’m a Democrat’ -- that’s where all the action is.” Welch and Reason.tv Editor


in Chief Nick Gillespie just pub- lished a book on what to expect from this change: “Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What’s Wrong


Their stories mirror a similar in- cident involving Johnson (then 29 and playing for the Phoenix Suns) and a 16-year-old girl dating back to 1995.


Johnson’s attorney, Kevin Hi-


estand, approached at least one of the St. HOPE students describing himself only as “’a friend of John- son’s,’” and “basically asked me to keep quiet,” according to the student. She had complained to St. HOPE officials that Johnson groped her sexually after instruct- ing her to grade papers with him in her apartment. The report also highlighted what clearly looks like a hush-money and witness-tam- pering attempt: “According to her interview with OIG investigators, about one week later, Kevin John- son offered her $1,000 a month until the end of the program, which she refused to accept.” Erik Jones, a teacher at St.


HOPE, reported to the police that one of his students told him John-


With America.” The big change they see stems


from independents’ refusal to be absorbed by any party. “Compare the tea party to the ... Howard Dean antiwar movement,” Welch said. “Howard Dean became the chairman (of the) Democratic National Committee. But the tea party has kept an arm’s length and said, ‘No, we’re not going to be Republicans. ... (W)e’re going to focus on ... government spend- ing, deficit, and debt, and that’s it.’ ... And by maintaining that


son “started massaging her shoul- ders and then reached over and touched her breasts.” Jones quit his job in protest over the seem- ing cover-up of Johnson’s harass- ment and wrote in his resignation letter that “St. HOPE sought to intimidate the student through an illegal interrogation and even had the audacity to ask me to change my story.” Another student recounted


for investigators how Johnson “kissed her cheek, brushed up against her” and touched her thigh on various occasions -- as well as flipping up her skirt on a St. HOPE-sponsored trip to Harlem. She didn’t report the in- cidents to AmeriCorps officials at the time because she “feared she would be terminated.” Another St. HOPE official, Jac-


queline Wong-Hernandez, also left Johnson’s nonprofit over the whitewash. Michelle Rhee, John- son’s fiancee and former D.C. schools chief, was a St. HOPE board member at the time. The Grassley-Issa report noted, “Ac- cording to Wong-Hernandez, Rhee learned of the allegations and played the role of a fixer, doing ‘damage control’” and vouching for Johnson’s character He’s a “good guy,” Rhee told


Walpin. Taxpayers -- and espe- cially parents of teenage girls and AmeriCorps workers in Sacra- mento schools -- should beg to differ.


Michelle Malkin is the author of


“Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks & Cronies” (Regnery 2010). Her e-mail address is malkinblog@ gmail.com.


independence they have retained power.” “Independence in politics means


that you can actually dictate some of the terms to our overlords,” Welch and Gillespie write, adding that we need independence not just in politics but from politics. Welch said, “When we look at the places where government either directly controls or heavily regu- lates things, like K-12 education, health care, retirement, things are going poorly.” It’s very different outside of government where -- from cul- ture to retail stores to the Inter- net -- there’s been an explosion of choice. “(Y)ou were lucky ... 20 years ago (if) you would see one eggplant in an exotic store,” Welch continued. “Now in the crappiest supermarket in America you’ll see four or five or six varieties of eggplant, plus all types of different things. ... (W) hen you get independent from politics, things are going great because people can experiment, they can innovate. ... We should squeeze down the (number of) places where we need a consen- sus to the smallest area possible, because all the interesting stuff happens outside of that.” Government is a zero-sum game: Someone wins, and some- one loses, unlike in the market, where it’s win-win, where mer- chant and customer thank each other. “Anytime that you have the government expressing any- thing,” Welch continued, “it’s a battle of values. If a government is supporting an art show, people who find that art offensive have a legitimate claim. If a government buys ... a new baseball stadium, well, my wife hates baseball, so how is that fair to her?” “Fifty-one percent of the people


get to tell the other 49 percent what to do, how much to pay, where you have to show up,” Gillespie added. In the private sector, everybody gets to pick what he or she wants. “There are troubles and tradeoffs,” Gillespie said. “But ... if somebody starts selling stuff you don’t like, you don’t hold a rally and you don’t try and get a bunch of people to vote to change it. You go to the next grocery store ... or you build your own


See STOSSEL on 30


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