KINDER'S COMMENTARY: GOVERNOR PRAISES A MAN OF GOD WHILE FAVORING INFANTICIDE

Early Thursday morning found this writer at Mel Carnahan's prayer breakfast. That would be the annual Governor's Prayer Breakfast, held each year the first week of the legislative session in Jefferson City. Believe me, in your state Capitol, we can all use the prayers. Hundreds of us -- maybe more than a thousand? -- packed into a ballroom at the Capitol Plaza Hotel to hear the inspirational messages and music from the chorale at Jefferson City High. (It would appear to this observer that they have a superb musical program to complement their world-class football program.)

Thursday morning's speaker was nationally renowned Anthony Campolo. Tony Campolo is a professor at a Pennsylvania college and an evangelical leader who has done as much as any man alive to live out the message of the 25th chapter of Matthew: "Whatsoever ye have done unto the least of these, ye have done it unto me." Although I had neither met or heard him speak before, a dear friend of mine in St. Louis is a friend and disciple of Campolo's who has worked with him. Together with Campolo, this friend goes into inner cities across America, trying to save young ghetto kids who would otherwise have next to no chance in life.

Governor Carnahan introduced Campolo. "We are delighted to have Tony Campolo to speak to us today," said the governor. "Tony Campolo is known across the country for being a compelling speaker, one who is willing to address many of the tough issues that most others don't want to talk about."

Hmmm. "Tough issues" that others prefer to avoid. Like partial-birth abortion, I wondered?

Here was the governor whose determined action singlehandedly blocked legislation to outlaw this form of infanticide, praising a man of God for being willing to talk about the "tough issues" most others avoid. Passing strange.

As our session unfolds in Jefferson City, we shall see whether this governor will put his party through the wrenching ordeal he insisted on subjecting them to last year.

Be assured of one thing: The effort to protect innocent human life will be pressed once again this year, notwithstanding the opposition of the most ruthlessly pro-abortion governor our state has ever seen.

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A riveting event of 1997 from Washington, D.C., was those few days of Senate hearings into the operations of the Internal Revenue Service. It is time for a new round of congressional hearings. The suggestion is prompted by news this week that the Treasury Department is investigating Paula Jones' claim that she is the subject of an IRS audit because of her sexual harassment lawsuit against President Clinton. All the principals involved should be subpoenaed for congressional hearings and put under oath.

The list of Clinton/IRS audit targets includes conservative organizations or publications such as the Western Journalism Center, the National Center for Public Policy, the Heritage Foundation, the National Rifle Association, Citizens Against Government Waste, Fortress America, Freedom Alliance, Bill Buckley's National Review magazine and The American Spectator magazine.

Nor is this all. The list of Clinton/IRS audit targets further includes Kent Masterson Brown, the lawyer who sued Hillary Clinton's secret health care task force, forcing it to reveal names; Billy Dale, former director of the White House Travel Office and target of Hillary; Patricia Medoza, who yelled "you suck" at Clinton during a rally.

Among the Nixon articles of impeachment in 1974 was the misuse of the IRS for political ends.

~Peter Kinder is assistant to the president of Rust Communications and a state senator from Cape Girardeau.