The Larry Kane Report

Republican powers in suburban Philadelphia are worried sick about the November mid term elections. Sources in the Chester and Delaware County organizations tell me they fear losing the seat that they thought was invincible, that of veteran 7th district Congressman Curt Weldon.

Weldon, a hometown Republican favorite for decades, will be boosted in the final weeks by a TV and radio campaign unprecedented in recent times. And the Democratic supporters of party candidate Joe Sestack claim they will match it dollar-for-dollar.

The latest Keystone Poll from respected pollster Terry Maddona at Franklin and Marshall College has made a hotter race even more sizzling. The poll shows Sestak leading Weldon 44 to 43 percent. A more significant number: 49 percent think it is time for a change in the seat. Ironically, Weldon’s approval rating is 41 percent compared to newcomer Sestak at 29 percent.
But here’s where the poll gets interesting. Sestak is drawing almost 25 percent of Republican voters.

This race is hardly over. The margin of error in this poll is 4.7 percent, up or down.

The big news: Delaware County, which covers much of the district, is Republican Country, once considered one of the most Republican counties in the nation. A few communities in Chester and Montgomery Counties are involved, but Delaware County is the meat of it.

From the beginning, this reporter always saw close races in the 6th and 7th districts, but I never thought Weldon’s race could be that close.

A Democratic anti-incumbent tide is sweeping the suburbs, so much so that Republicans in Montgomery County are worried about losing the courthouse in next year’s municipal elections.

Fasten your seat belts. The final weeks of Campaign 2006 will be quite a ride.

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As you may know by now, the Dallas Police Department has confirmed that the Terrell Owens incident was not a suicide attempt as originally reported. T.O. practiced and may even play on Sunday. This is all good news for Terrell Owens, but in between the first day and second day of this saga, Philly fans showed what they are all about. (See story below.)
I was really impressed by the sensitivity shown by fans on tv, the radio and in the streets. The man has been both praised and reviled in Philadelphia because of his antics in the 2005 season. But, in light of this scrape with danger, there was a high level of caring and understanding for what turned out to be a big mistake, or at least it still appears so.

Even the people who suggested that T.O. had “staged” the event were quick to point out that they sympathized with the situation, and hoped he would be okay.

Ironically, the man who showed the least sensitivity was the ego driven coach of the Cowboys, Bill Parcells, who showed no sympathy at all for the mishap. Parcells has been known to be self indulged, but for a coach of a pro football team team hw showed little leadership.. Leadership is all about embracing your team, even in times of trouble. He didn’t even want to be bothered with questions. Can you imagine Andy Reid not expressing concern about one of his players?

Of course, who knows where life will take T.O. next. He likes to catch passes and headlines.

In the meantime, the Cowboys-Eagles showdown is 9 days away.

Maybe we’ll be lucky enough to have a baseball playoff game the same afternoon.

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Terrell Owens is back in the news and like everything that has ever surrounded him there is the usual suspicion, especially by Philadelphia fans who still have a bad taste lingering from the 2005 debacle.

This time his story may, I say may, represent something else that we might all pay attention to.

No one will ever know the truth about what happened to him at his Dallas condo, but the episode offers two separate visions of American life today.

The first is the rush to judgment by police departments whenever it involves a celebrity. Dallas police reported that he took 35 painkillers. Doctors say that would have killed him. Police departments need to be careful in the way they release information, especially since no crime was involved, and the government now guarantees privacy on personal medical records.

The second area involves the high level of mistrust by the public when it comes to the so-called “high and mighty”, the actors and sports stars and TV people who are idolized by millions. In reality, they are just people who screw up like the rest of us. But we hold them to a different standard. Therefore, many citizens of this community assumed the worst without ever giving him the benefit of the doubt.

The most widespread assumptions: that he did try to kill himself, or that he set this all up to get attention.

This reporter doesn’t see it that way. If he did try to harm himself, he would have still been in the hospital and not out on a practice field. If he was seeking attention then he certainly picked the most dangerous way to do it.

No question that T.O. has learned all the ways to get our attention. He does it well.

But the real T.O. problem is not his. It is ours. The man who caused havoc for the Eagles is now with another team, far away from Philadelphia.

But is he?

The fact is that Eagles fans and everybody else around here wants to know as much about T.O. as they can get. Never a day passes without some mention of him. His bout in Dallas was a big local and national story with stations breaking into soap operas to tell it.

T.O. is an adventure. Maybe we see some of our own erratic behavior in him. Perhaps we savor the drama he brings.

They say he’s long gone from Philadelphia. I say that it will be some time until the people of this community tire of their obsession with this extraordinary, flawed and talented troublemaker.

T.O. is a Cowboy. And he is still taking us for a ride.

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Welcome to the weird world of political spinning. The Clintons are back and so is the nasty debate over who did what and when prior to 9-11.

President Clinton must have really hated that “smirk” he described when he took off on Chris Wallace, the conservative son of Mike Wallace. But Clinton is no debutante when it comes to political war. He used the interview to let the people know that he does not approve of the way President Bush handled the run up to 9/11. It was classic Clinton all the way, looking victimized, but also enjoying “roughing it up” with the media. For those with short memories, President Clinton has little use for media folks, but he certainly knows how to do television doesn’t he?

Along comes Secretary of State Rice. Condi, as the President calls her, did a good job of burying all those headlines of the National Intelligence Estimate which says, despite White House views to the contrary, that Iraq has made the terror war worse. The Secretary offered her retort to President Clinton, charging that the Bush folks did more in eight months to fight terrorism than the Clintons did in many years.

Not to be outdone, Senator Hillary Clinton, no slouch when it comes to political combat, offered her sizzling assesment, blasting Condi and defending Bill. She reminded the Secretary that the White House may have ignored warnings in the summer of 2001 that Al Qaeda was ready to strike.

So what is this all about?

Election day is less than six weeks away. The Republicans are on the defensive. The Democrats, as a party, have done a lousy job convincing Americans that they are tough on terrorists. Bill Clinton  did more in one interview to dispel that myth than Howard Dean has done in two years.

The Secretary, a very smart politician, used her high office and imagery as a person of charisma, to blast back at Mr. Charisma himself.

The Senator looks to another election, New Hampshire 2008.

The President can avoid the debate with his loyal Secretary as the front person.

The problem with all of this is the obsession with the PAST. All of this energy and all of these brickbats are wasted. Smart people should be looking AHEAD and debating ways to make us safer.

It is time for our egotistical politicians to “let it go already.”

The Bill, Hillary and Condi show is embarrassing.

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The wave of death and near-death violence that has plagued Philadelphia will be a prime topic at the special session of the Pennsylvania House dealing with crime across the state. My perspective on the tragedy of the Philadelphia crime wave is very clear in the story below. The story of the murder of a five year old is not new to this community, nor is the outright fear that so many of our fellow citizens are forced to live with.

There are various levels of responsibility in tackling crime’s ferocious comeback in the city. The Mayor and the Council certainly have a major role to play. Community groups, especially the Town Watch sector, are critical.

And now, in a time of crisis, it is time for the Mayoral candidates to step up to the plate.

For decades, crime fighting has not received the priority attention it should have been receiving. The police department has been diminished in manpower and funding. Equipment has been shoddy and problematic. Clear evidence is in the recent breakdown of the police radio system.

What plans do the mayoral candidates have to ensure a safer city? For Michael Nutter, and possible candidates Chaka Fattah, John Dougherty, Dwight Evans , Tom Knox and the ever-present Bob Brady, the time is right to speak up and speak out.

It is this reporter’s opinion that crime will be the major issue in the 2007 Mayoral election in Philadelphia.

There is also another problem in this community. Suburbanites and their leaders have little interest about the real problems of Philadelphia. That should change. The health of the region is impacted by crime in Philadelphia. People in the five county Philadelphia region should insist that their legislators give Philadelphia Police the main weapon they need to combat crime - tougher gun laws for the city.

It has always been interesting to me that there appears to be two separate societies around here - the city and the seventy percent of the people of this region who live outside the city. The fact remains that the fate of both of these communities are intertwined.

City crime spreads easily to suburban areas. Indifference on the part of suburban leaders to the needs of Philadelphia is dangerous in the long term.

In the meantime we need to make sure that the men who want to be Mayor start to speak up on specific strategies on crime fighting. It is time for them to take a break from their fund raising to address the most important issue facing this community.

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