6/16/00 6:50 p.m.
Sundquist's Folly
The third time is not a charm.

By NR's Ramesh Ponnuru & John J. Miller, NR editors

on Sundquist, the Republican governor of Tennessee, is at it again — still trying to establish a state income tax after winning two campaigns running against the idea. As is true of most states, Tennessee is seeing strong revenue growth. Its budget problem is largely the result of Tenncare, the health-care program instituted by Sundquist's Democratic predecessor. But Sundquist is dead-set on an income tax-so dead-set that he vows to veto a mere increase in the sales tax as insufficient.

Conservatives thought they had prevailed against an income tax last November. But last Friday, Phil Valentine, who hosts a conservative radio show on WLAC, got the word that there would be an attempt to pass a tax the next day, when he would be off the air. Valentine quickly arranged a special edition of his show on Saturday, and — repeating a tactic from last year, though with less time to prepare — invited listeners to honk in protest around the legislature. After several hours of honking, the legislators decided to delay. There have been more delays over the last week.

Republicans are variously perplexed, concerned, and apoplectic about the governor's pig-headedness. "You ever seen the Madness of King George?" asks one. "This is worse."

The Keating Doctrine
With all the attention over the last few weeks to a) the death penalty, b) Catholic voters, and c) the veepstakes, it's surprising that there has been almost no national press on a dispute over the death penalty between a Catholic archbishop and Oklahoma governor Frank Keating, who's often mentioned as a possible running mate for Bush. (An exception is Human Events, which ran Keating's defense of capital punishment as a cover story.)

Archbishop Eusebius J. Beltran had criticized Keating for supporting capital punishment. In February, Keating, a Catholic, responded to the criticism by, among other things, offering an interpretation of Catholic doctrine and suggesting that some church leaders had misunderstood the doctrine. Beltran then wrote to priests in the Oklahoma City archdiocese observing (correctly, as far as we can tell) that it was Keating who had misstated the church's position. Many priests read his letter at Mass. Keating skipped Mass that Sunday.

The flap hasn't gotten anything like the attention that Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge's troubles with clerics have. (Ridge is not allowed to speak at Catholic functions in his diocese because he supports keeping abortion legal.) There are good reasons for this: Ridge has been the subject of more veep speculation, and the Catholic church treats abortion as a wrong much more grave than capital punishment. The Keating episode probably wouldn't reduce the governor's ability to appeal to Catholic voters — as long, that is, as he doesn't keep trying to correct the church hierarchy on matters of doctrine.

The Veep Choice
Ronald Brownstein in today's Los Angeles Times: "George W. Bush has solidified his lead in the presidential race but could face turbulence in his political base if he selects a vice presidential nominee who supports abortion rights, a Times Poll has found. . . . [T]he poll found that a significant number of religious conservatives say they would be less likely to vote for the Texas governor if he made such a choice, while relatively few moderates say they would be more likely to support him." Republicans, Democrats, independents, men, women, even self-identified liberals: All were slightly less likely to support Bush.