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♦ TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2006 4A HMuustmi I9ai% .IJouraal OPINION Daniel F. Evans President Editor and Publisher Julie B. Evans Vice President Group Marketing Don Moncrief Managing Editor Reliability of polls suspect We’ve learned a long time ago not to put too much faith in political polls. They can mean anything the poll sters want them to, depending on questions asked, how the questions are asked and who is asked. We have just been provided new polls from which we learn that shop pers say they will spend less this year than last during the Christmas shopping sea son. Do you believe these polls? We consider them suspect. Perhaps respondents to the polls really do intend to spend less this year than last, but we have our money on them opening their pocketbooks (or using their credit cards) and spending more. They got off to a good start last weekend. Sales were 6 percent ahead of last year on what is referred to as “black Friday’' and this should be a good harbinger of what is to come. Shoplifters are expensive Shoplifters are a scourge on holiday shopping (all year long, too) and cost businesses millions of dollars, result ing in things we purchase costing us more than they would otherwise. The losses incurred by businesses must be passed on to shoppers. Some businesses ignore shoplifters at this time of year because of the inconvenience and loss of time it takes to prosecute them. Other businesses prosecute every shop lifter, as a matter of principle. And some businesses, we hear, ignore shoplifters when the value of stolen goods is less than $25 and prosecute when the value of stolen goods is above $25. Shoplifters are equal opportunity crimi nals. They have been known to enter small stores with one or two employees, with one shoplifter getting the attention of clerks while another takes what he or she can get. Larger stores have security cameras that can catch these criminals in the act, but they are gone long before anyone views the film. These stores also hire extra security personnel to protect their merchandise as much as possible. There are two kinds of shoplifters. There are amateurs who believe that they can take what they want and get away with it. And there are professionals who ply their trade efficiently and at great cost to the merchants. Both kinds are a plague on the economy. They also come out of the woodwork dur ing times when stores are crowded with shoppers and their activities are less likely to be detected. HOW TO SUBMIT LETTERS We encourage readers to submit letters to the editor. Letters should not exceed 350 words and must include the writer's name, address and telephone number. All letters printed in The Daily Journal will appear with the writer’s name and hometown - we do not publish anony mous letters. The newspaper reserves the right to edit or reject letters for reasons of grammar, punctuation, taste and brevity. Letter writers are asked to submit no more than one letter per person per week. We cannot guaran tee that a letter will be printed on a specific date. The Daily Journal prefers that letters be typed. Letters to the editor are published in the order they are received as space permits. There are three ways to submit a letter to the editor: E-mail it to hhj@evansnewspapers.com, mail it to The Houston Daily Journal at P.O. Box 1910, Perry, GA 31069, or drop it off at 1210 Washington St. in Perry - between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Audrey Evans Vice President Marketing!Advertising Foy S. Evans Editor Emeritus We consider them suspect. Perhaps respondents to the polls really do Intend to spend less this year than last, but we have our money on them opening their pocketbooks (or using their credit cards) and spending more. Numbers reveal an ugly picture Whenever I write or talk about out-of-wedlock childbear ing I get in some trouble. Invariably, I hear from understandably frustrated single mothers who feel that I’m condemning them and their chil dren to lives of suffering and failure. So let me be clear up front: Single parenthood does not sentence anyone to a failed life. Many single parents are success ful in raising their children and are deserving of high praise for their dili gence and hard work in transforming a difficult situation into one that is hopeful and positive. My wife and I have seen this first hand in our own home a few years ago when we took in an amazing single mom and her son. This mom was and is a hard worker who has organized her life around providing her son with what he needs to live a successful, healthy and productive life. She’s suc ceeding in her quest and is a real hero in my eyes. But this single mom would admit in a heartbeat that she and her son are in a less-than-ideal situation. She knows - as does every single mom I’ve ever talked to about the matter - that kb 3 i,, ip i. With friends like Rangel, Pelosi needs no enemies Democrat powerhouse Rep. Charles Rangel, D-NY, has already handed the GOP the first of what could be a cornucopia of ill conceived proposals from Democrats. Rangel likes the sound of his own voice. The soon-to-be chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee sounded off recently about his planned legislation to resurrect the military draft. You don’t have to be a pollster to know how monumentally unpopular this would be. Such a bill would never even receive a committee vote, much less reach the floor of the House for a vote. Why? Because new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi won’t allow such a politically destructive concept to take wings. Yes, that Pelosi. Liberal - San Francisco liberal - Pelosi. In 1998, as a close associate of then- Speaker Newt Gingrich, I had vir tually unlimited access to all mem bers of Congress. In researching my book of that year, “Powerchicks: How Women Will Dominate America,” I had observed Pelosi closely. While I disagreed with much of her politics, I nevertheless believed that she and she alone seemed likely to lead the Democrats if they ever took major ity control again. So I wrote as much, following a very personable interview with her. I recently went back and dusted off the book. I’d written, “The concept of 'Madame Speaker’ or 'the distinguished lady from California, the minority lead er,’ is no longer far-fetched.” I cite this passage not to nominate myself as a psychic seer, but to caution conservatives not to interpret Pelosi’s ascension as only blind luck falling her way. They perhaps should look else where for easy targets to attack. The growing belief that Pelosi will be the poster-woman for Democratic failure may be wrong. In my conversations with her nearly a decade ago, I learned that she is a political pragmatist, even as she is acutely aware that she represents a decidedly liberal congressional district. OPINION her son would have started life off in a better situation had she been mar ried when he was born. (It’s worth pointing out that she’s not willing to enter into any relationship in order to provide her son with just any father. She’s smarter and wiser than that and knows that could just make matters worse, not better. Even marrying the biological father of her son would have been unwise.) Pardon me if it seems that I am going to great lengths to qualify what I’m about to say but I think it’s very important that single parents - and everyone else reading this - under stand that there is always hope. To single parents reading this: It may be harder, but you and your child(ren) can succeed. Okay, here comes the harder-to-hear "... One ... more... time!" She will search for common ground - with public opinion, if not with the GOP And she’s tough. Her fund-raising prowess is legendary. She’s willing to take risks. She’s also willing to stand up to “the boys,” and she takes pride in that indepen dent streak. She’s also a nice person. Interestingly, she made no secret that she aspired to her party’s top post in Congress. Already Speaker-designate Pelosi has been questioned for backing a man for majority leader who was subsequently voted down by the Democrats. But she was smart to snip in the bud any notions by some liberal members of her caucus to immediately plan investigations of President Bush with the end goal of impeaching him. So don’t be surprised if it isn’t Pelosi among the Democrats who makes the strategically idiotic statement or pushes the politically suicidal proposal that will put the electoral chances of Democrats in significant danger by 2008. That dubious honor instead will like ly fall to a ragtag collection of liberal, loudmouthed chairpersons in line to take power. They’ll probably become the bane of Speaker Pelosi’s existence. The chairs of committees have, ex officio, greater opportunities on which to stick their feet into their mouths. When those members of Congress are with the minority party, their popping off can be dismissed with a shrug. But once they assume the mantle of power, the words of these same people become instant, loud news. Exhibit A: Charles Rangel’s take on Randy Hicks Columnist Georgia Family Council *! * * Matt Towery Columnist Morris News Service HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL stuff. Government health officials issued a report Thanksgiving week revealing that more children are being born out of wedlock than at any other time in American history. Nearly four out of 10 babies born in the United States last year were born to an unmarried mother. The hint of good news in the report is that the birth rate among girls ages 10 to 17 dropped last year to the lowest level on record. That’s some news that should encourage us and a trend that we all should hope will be maintained. So where does the increase in out of-wedlock births come from? Well, the largest increase came from women in their 20s. According to an Associated Press story on the report, experts suggested that this trend is probably being driven by a number of factors, including the tendency to put off marriage until later, increasing cohabitation rates and the broader acceptance of out-of-wed lock childbearing. I’ve previously addressed the hazards of cohabitation but what especially concerns me in this story is that See HICKS, page f/l federal appropriations for the state of Mississippi. He couldn’t resist express ing his New York elitist disdain for the people of that southern state by rhetorically asking who in their right mind would want to live there. For Pelosi, those gratuitous remarks were probably just an hors d’oeuvre before the entrees of misstatements to come. If Rangel were a lone loose cannon, Pelosi could monitor him and sleep well at night. But Rangel is not unique. Over the next year, there will be plenty of others among the old-guard Democrats who will have voters scratching their heads. That will force newly elected Democrats in more conservative dis tricts to distance themselves from their “senior colleagues.” Truthfully, I didn’t like Nancy Pelosi’s politics when I interviewed her and don’t particularly like them now. Even so, I enjoyed getting to know her. Having witnessed one speak er, Gingrich, take the reins of power from the opposing party, I know that Pelosi is going to be a busy woman. Unfortunately for her, much of her valuable time will be wasted in hav ing to ride herd over her crazy crew of leaders as they set about unintention ally but effectively moving to throw away the legislative might they have just gained after so much time in the political dungeon. Just think: If Charlie Rangel has his way, your child’s draft number might be coming up some time in the near future. That idea alone could be manna from heaven for the belea guered Republican Party. Matt Towery served as the chairman of former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s political organization from 1992 until Gingrich left Congress. He is a former Georgia state representative, the author of several books and currently heads the polling and political information firm Insider Advantage. To find out more about Matthew Towery and read fea tures by other Creators Syndicate writ ers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com