For Bush, there are more than 'a few good men'

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 30, 2001

President Bush likes to praise good men.

Perhaps it's a throwback to his Yale days, or maybe it's just Texas folksiness. But the president has referred to someone as "a good man" at least eight times this month.

At a rally Thursday in Chicago, Bush said House Speaker Dennis Hastert was "a good man and a good Speaker."

On Sept. 10, he said Rod Paige was "a good man to be the secretary of education."

Four days earlier, he praised Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez and said, "today this good man is in the Cabinet." He also welcomed "a good man back into government" -- former Sen. John Danforth.

Sept. 3 was a good day for good men.

He praised three good men from Wisconsin -- Gov. Scott McCallum, Housing and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson and Green Bay Packers coach Mike Sherman, as well as "a good man running the Teamsters . . . Jimmy Hoffa."

Worries over airspace rule, mosquitoes

In the rush to crack down on terrorists, Florida might be blindsided by a less deadly, but equally pesky enemy: mosquitoes.

That's the argument being made by Reps. Jim Davis, D-Tampa, and Dan Miller, R-Bradenton, in a letter to Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta.

The Federal Aviation Administration recently announced a 30-mile expansion of the airspace around airports that is open only to commercial jetliners. While the two applaud the general idea, they worry that the "unintended consequence" will be an out-of-control mosquito population.

Helicopters, which spray chemicals regularly to kill the pests, will be unable to reach a number of areas because of the new rule. Tropical Storm Gabrielle, which ravaged Florida this month, has left pools of standing water for mosquitoes -- some of which may be carrying the West Nile virus -- to breed in.

"With forecasters predicting another 3 to 6 inches of rainfall within the next two days, this public health threat is of immediate concern to our constituents," said Miller and Davis in a letter.

McCollum work is basis for Ashcroft proposal

In his push for more legal authority to fight terrorism, Attorney General John Ashcroft whipped up a package of anti-money laundering proposals to send to Congress last week.

It didn't take long because former GOP Rep. Bill McCollum had already done most of his work.

McCollum, who represented the Orlando area for 20 years before he ran unsuccessfully for Senate last year, frequently warned of the connection between organized crime, drug trafficking and terrorism from his perches on the House Intelligence, Banking and Judiciary committees.

"Historically, Americans have viewed these serious problems individually as separate problems," McCollum said in a congressional hearing last December. "Unfortunately, that's simply not the reality."

McCollum was the author of legislation to make it harder for terrorists and others to funnel money from criminal enterprises into the U.S. banking system, where it would become "laundered," or legitimized.

The legislation did not become law, and it is now the basis of Ashcroft's proposal.

McCollum, now a member of a Washington law firm, could not be reached for comment Friday. But last year he singled out the ruling Taliban of Afghanistan as a potential target of his bill. Afghanistan is a major producer of poppies, the raw material for heroin.

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