Capital briefs

* WILL OWEN BE BORKED? Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen is finally scheduled to get a Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, July 23-well over a year after President Bush nominated her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. This is the same court to which Bush nominated Judge Charles Pickering, whose nomination failed in committee after his record and character were maligned by Democrats and left-wing activist groups. Like Pickering, Owen is also under attack from liberals, but this time it's because of her willingness to uphold Texas' parental notification law for minors seeking abortions. They have already tried to smear her because of campaign contributions she collected while running for her seat on the court (see HUMAN EVENTS, April 8), but this charge hasn't done much damage, especially since she is the only sitting Texas Supreme Court justice to return unused campaign contributions after being elected to the bench.

* NEO-NAZI CRITICS: Those who have criticized the State Department for its lax handling of foreigners' visa applications are very bad people indeed, according to internal State e-mails obtained by the Washington Times. Chuck Keil, consul general in Rome, wrote to officials including Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage complaining that congressional critics have been saying terrorists "were able to enter the United States die to lack of vigilance or downright negligence." "All of this smacks of the days of Sen. Joe McCarthy," Keil wrote, "when a witch hunt conducted in the name of protecting Americans from the Communist menace ruined the careers of Foreign Service Officers who had allegedly lost China to the Reds, or else helped Communist and Communist sympathizers obtain visas to enter the United States."

Consular official Colombia Barrosse wrote regarding the recent ouster of Consular Affairs head Mary Ryan,"We assume Mary's replacement will not be a career officer with a balanced approach but a neo-Nazi who views us as incompetent or criminal." These statements come on the heels of an apology the previous week from Secretary of State Colin Powell for internal State e-mails that said Rep. Benjamin Gilman (R.-N.Y.), former chairman of the House International Relations Committee, "had no brain, like the Scarecrow."

* NEW ASSAULT ON ENERGY. The Senate has refused so far this year to allow oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Now the House has decided to make the terrorist oil-producing nations smile a little more. On July 17, the House voted overwhelmingly (377 to 46) to ban any new drilling off the California coast. Combined with the refusal to open ANWR and earlier congressional bans on drilling off the entire East Coast, off the coast of Florida and in the Great Lakes, the latest move just about shuts the door on the nation's best hopes for new sources of increased domestic oil production.

BOOSTING NEA: Unfazed by the budget crunch they face, a majority of House members last week saw fit to increase funding for the scandal-ridden National Endowment for the Arts by $10 million to $126 million for 2003. The 234-to-193 vote also gave the National Endowment for the Humanities a $5-million hike to $131 million. The House rejected, 123-to-300, an attempt by Rep. TomTancredo (R.-Colo.) to reduce NEAs budget by $50 million.

* IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID: "You most likely heard Alan Greenspan chastise fraudulent accountants and corrupt corporate leaders during hearings this week on Capitol Hill," wrote financial columnist Lawrence Kudlow on July 18. "But in addition to his `infectious greed' tongue-lashing, our Fed chanan gave a fairly upbeat assessment of the economy, with the central bank actually raising its economic growth targets for this year and next. This is an important stance by the central bank, as our stock market is now well undervalued relative to the rising economy and improving profit picture." If Washington would like to help the economy, Kudlow said, regulatory relief to compensate for increased accounting regulation coming down the pike would help.

So would "ending the limited tax deduction on executive compensation," which encourages "stock-option grants that create harmful short-run stock-price boosting. Taxdeferred stock grants, held for the duration of employment, are a better idea. Dividend payouts, meanwhile, could be made all or partly tax deductible, putting them on the same tax footing"as interest payments." And, of course, cutting corporate taxes would help. "We should also consider a turnover approach to capital-gains taxation: If a stock sale is soon reinvested, it shouldn't be treated as a taxable event. This would keep the money in the market," said Kudlow.

* IRAQ WATCH: Those interested in whether the United States will take on Iraqi dictator Saddam Husseinagain should keep their eyes-on San Diego's Camp Pendleton, home to the U.S. Marine Corps' 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. The 1st MEF is assigned to conflicts in the Persian Gulf area and would most likely be the first major military force into the region should the United States decide to take action there. On July 5, the New York Times reported, "Thousands of Marines from the Ist Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton. . . have stepped up their mock assault drills, a Pentagon adviser said." The next day, the San Diego Union-Tribune quoted military wives in the area as saying that a mobilization is expected.