PAGE 6A
THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2012
ELECTION
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Gingrich focuses support on Romney
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Newt Gingrich began taking steps Wednesday to shut down his debladen White House bid, setting the stage to endorse one-time rival Mitt Romney next week and rally Republicans behind their apparent nominee.
contests in five states.
Gingrich had a friendly telephone conversation Wednesday with Romney and had started planning an event where he would throw his support behind the likely nominee, Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond said. The pair agreed to work together to unite conservatives against President Barack Obama.
"It's clear Romney is the nominee and the focus should be on defeating Obama. We should not focus on defeating ourselves." Gingrich told disappointed supporters in Kings Mountain, N.C., the morning after Romney tightened his grip on the nomination by sweeping primary
AP PHOTO
Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks in Cramerton, N.C., Wednesday, April 25.
Gingrich also telephoned Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and supporters, such as Texas Gov. Rick Perry, in states with upcoming primaries to inform them of the decision he had been hinting at for days.
Gingrich had been under pressure for some time to leave the race and clear a path for Romney.
Gingrich declined to comment when asked about his plans multiple times during the Kings Mountain stop.
"You have to at some point be honest about what's happening in the real world as opposed to what you would like to have happened," he told supporters at a suburban Charlotte, N.C., restaurant.
"There seems to be a general acknowledgment that the process has moved to that stage," press secretary Jay Carney told reporters traveling with the president.
Gingrich's campaign tested conventional wisdom from the beginning. Could the 68-year-old grandfather — a politically divisive figure shamed by an ethics probe and subsequent reprimand, pushed out of congressional leadership and saddled with marital scandal — find acceptance among cultural conservatives?
As the White House ratchets up its focus on Romney, Gingrich will shift to helping Republican candidates across the country, paying off more than $4.3 million in campaign debt and rebuilding his reputation among conservatives.
His campaign was full of contradictions. He pointed to his 20 years as a congressman from Georgia, including four as House speaker, and claimed a political kinship with President Ronald Reagan. Yet he also contended to be an outsider and anti-establishment candidate.
While arguing for a less-intrusive federal government and dramatically
lower spending and taxes, he promoted programs and initiatives with murky price tags, including establishing a colony on the moon
and allowing younger workers to have private retirement accounts backed by the government.
STATE
Thousands protest changes to Medicaid program
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOPEKA — A Republican leader and frequent ally Gov. Sam Brownback said Wednesday that he'll try to delay part of the GOP governor's plan to overhaul the state's Medicaid program, and several hundred people rallied at the Statehouse to protest changes for the developmentally disabled.
Developmentally disabled Kansas residents and advocates leave personal items on the south stops of the Statehouse to protest part of Gov. Sam Brownback's plan to overhaul the state's Medicaid program in Topeka on Wednesday.
House Majority Leader Arlen Siegfreid confirmed he is drafting a proposal to exclude long-term services for the developmentally disabled for a year from Medicaid contracts Brownback's administration plans to issue this summer. The contracts will turn the $2.9 billion-a-year program over to three private, managed-care companies, starting Jan. 1, 2013.
AP PHOTO
Siegfreid, an Olathe Republican,
said he'll offer his proposal this
week as an amendment to the state budget. It will allow pilot projects to test whether a managed-care program can deliver long-term services to the developmentally disabled. Advocates for the disabled have been the most vocal critics of Brownback's efforts to overhaul Medicaid, which covers medical services to the poor, needy and disabled.
Brownback's office did not immediately respond to Siegfreid's proposal, but it has said the overhauled Medicaid program — to be called KanCare — will better coordinate care for participants, improving their long-term health. The administration also has said the overhaul will reduce the state's costs and savings are crucial because the federal government, facing its own budget problems, is likely to cut its Medicaid fundine.
Most of the 387,000 Kansans receiving state medical assistance are covered by managed care though private contractors, but the Medicaid overhaul is the first time the state has tried to include relatively expensive, long-term care for the disabled and the elderly, including those in nursing homes. Under Siegfried's plan, the state would "carve out" long-term services for the developmentally disabled until 2014.
Some members of the Republican-controlled Legislature agree, particularly Brownback's fellow GOP conservatives, and they've blocked efforts to tinker with the overhaul.
Participants in Wednesday's rally left personal items on the Statehouse's south steps in a temporary display to urge Brownback to change his plans and persuade
legislators to intervene.
The administration has said repeatedly that the Medicaid contracts will require the companies to
work through providers of services for the developmentally disabled and won't allow the contractors to cut payments to providers.
NATIONAL
Sergeant blasts Obama on Facebook
SAN DIEGO — The Marine Corps said Wednesday it has decided to discharge a sergeant for criticizing President Barack Obama on Facebook.
The San Diego-area Marine has
The Corps said Sgt. Gary Stein will be given an other-than-honorable discharge for violating Pentagon policy limiting speech of service members.
served nearly 10 years in the Marine Corps. He has said he was exercising his free-speech rights.
Stein
The discharge will mear
charge will mean he loses all benefits.
A federal judge previously denied a request to block military discharge proceedings against Stein, who called Obama an enemy on Facebook.
U. S. District Judge Marilyn Huff ruled then that the military has the right to respond to Stein's online comments in a case that has called into question the Pentagon's policies regarding social media and the limits regarding the speech of active duty military personnel.
Attorney J. Mark Brewer told Huff the entire process violates the First Amendment, which federal courts have the right to uphold.
Huff disagreed, calling Stein's postings "truly troubling." Service members have had their speech limited since the Civil War, especially if their comments are believed to disrupt good order and discipline.
The judge pointed out Stein's March 1 comments on a Facebook page used by Marine Corps meteorologists in which the sergeant stated, "Screw Obama and I will not follow all orders from him."
Associated Press
Celebrating 100 Years at KU Alpha Delta Pi
...to those wearers of the Diamond who have inspired us to always reach for the Stars.
...to those whose firm handclasp of Friendship has meant sisterhood through the years.
...to those whose spirit has given us the will to achieve and to serve others.
Alpha Delta Pi·1600 Oxford Rc., Lawrence, KS