Bangor Daily News, Oct. 9
The advisory council working on the merger of the Departments of Human Services and Behavioral and Developmental Services is nearing the end of its work. Accounting consultants are going over the departments’ books now, looking for further signs of trouble. The court has given Maine – meaning DHS-BDS – six months to comply with a consent decree for community-based mental health. The governor’s office has handed more of DHS’ Medicaid responsibilities to its health-care expert. The legislative chairmen of the Health and Human Services Committee are demanding more oversight of the agencies, and Speaker of the House Pat Colwell says he is already hearing about tough turf fights brought on by the merger.

If ever a large, complex and crucial process needed a single person to oversee the many difficulties certain to arise in the next couple of months, it is this merger. The governor should take the advice of lawmakers, including the speaker, who would like him to nominate a provisional commissioner for what will be the merged agency. That person would have leverage because he or she would have the authority to make decisions and would be able to … steer the new agency rather than let it form based on the good but uncoordinated work of several groups. …

The governor’s advisory council, headed by former Labor Commissioner Valerie Landry, is examining a half dozen issues as it completes its report.

Among its concerns are how to bring together currently disparate services in finance and administration and licensing and regulation, its acknowledgement that both internal and external communication at the agencies are a mess and the need for strategic planning based on clear data and the advice of those most affected by the system. One crucial way to address these concerns, according to the council, is to find leadership to put strong measures of accountability into effect.

This is more easily described than carried out, but the council is correct, and the sooner that sort of leadership is found the better. …

The governor is said to be fairly well along with his interviews of prospective candidates for a new commissioner, but he should make nominating one soon a priority.
Quick resolution needed
The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La., Oct. 13
We believe the president, if he really wants to, can find out whether someone in the White House, the same building where the president lives and works, “outed” an undercover CIA officer.

We also believe Bush will be much better off if he gets this controversy behind him as quickly as possible. …

Attempting to cover up something is a bad idea that can come back to haunt. It’s usually better to admit making a dumb mistake than to make even more of them and seem dishonest, rather than merely dense.

The Bush administration ought to get to the bottom of this incident as quickly as possible and cut its losses by laying out everything it knows just as fast.
Will Rush change?
Texarkana (Texas) Gazette, Oct. 14
Now that talk-show host Rush Limbaugh has publicly admitted his addiction to prescription painkillers, it is time to extend a hand of compassion toward him, not vitriolic comments because of seemingly insincere remarks he’s made about drug addicts and the treatment they deserve.

What Limbaugh needs is professional help for his addiction and that’s exactly what he said he intended to do …

Maybe getting help will serve two purposes for Limbaugh: free his body from drug addiction and free his mind from the erroneous contention that drug addicts need jail, not help. …

Now the shoe is on the other foot and many will be waiting to hear what Limbaugh has to say when he returns to the air and to see if his own brush with drug addiction changes his perspective. …

Limbaugh will paint himself a hypocrite of gigantic proportions if he insists on decreeing others as less worthy of the drug treatment he admits he needs to survive.
Peace pipe dream
The Egyptian Gazette, Cairo, Oct. 14
Nothing can be more perfect for Israel to sinisterly wreck peace bids and foil its regional agenda than the current messy world circumstances. Last week’s Israeli attack on Syria marked a new phase in the region’s long-running feud. That the outrageous strike was the deepest into Syrian territory in 30 years is not the only reason. Its aftermath is what counts the most.

Hours after the raid, U.S. President George W. Bush, whose country’s credibility rates have hit rock-bottom in the Arab region, came out to state that he sees nothing wrong with the Israeli act. …

Israel seems to have succeeded in misleading the world, especially the United States, into believing that its illegal practices are pursued to fight purported regional terrorism and in self-defense. Nothing could be farther from the truth. But as things stand, Israel will perpetrate more atrocities and get away with it in this muddled time of world history. Peace? A pipe dream.