The Associated Press
IN BRIEF

PHOENIX – A state senator from South Tucson is said to be doing well while recovering from a heart procedure.

Democratic Sen. Victor Soltero was admitted to the Tucson Heart Institute on Sunday evening because of chest pains.

According to a spokeswoman for Senate Democrats, Soltero had a stent procedure to deal with a block artery and is now resting at home.

The 69-year-old lawmaker has served in the Legislature since 2001, first in the House and now in the Senate.

The Associated Press

Citizen Staff Writer

Jim Kolbe this week left the U.S. House of Representatives after 22 years. The Republican from southern Arizona decided more than a year ago not to seek a 12th term in the nation’s capital.

This week, on the day when he went from being a congressman to an ex-congressman, Kolbe sat down with members of the Tucson Citizen Editorial Board to look back – and ahead. Some highlights:

“I just don’t want to go back up to Capitol Hill and lobby my colleagues. I just don’t feel comfortable. Do I think lobbying is wrong? No, I have very close, good, wonderful relationships with some lobbyists. I just didn’t want to do it. Others do it and it’s fine and it’s great. I just didn’t want to do it.”

On immigration reform: “The president and the Democrats are more nearly on the same wavelength than certainly the House Republican leadership was.”

On advice for his successor, Gabrielle Giffords: “I don’t know that she needs a lot of advice. I think it’s pretty obvious what you have to do to be successful. I think in this district you have to be pretty centrist, you have to work hard, you have to maintain close contact with people. I think I’ve set a standard in that regard and people expect to see the congressperson home on a regular basis and they want to see him out and about.”

“This election was about the war in Iraq and it was about voters saying they want to send a message to Bush and the only message they could send was through congressional elections.”

“No. No. I do not intend to be a candidate for public office again. Would I serve in government again? Yes. But I do not intend to be a candidate for office again.”

The Associated Press

The Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Sen. John McCain said Thursday that America should deploy 15,000 to 30,000 more troops to Iraq to control its sectarian violence and give moderate Iraqi politicians the stability they need to take the country in the right direction.

McCain made the remarks to reporters in Baghdad, where he and five other members of Congress were meeting with U.S. and Iraqi officials.

“The American people are disappointed and frustrated with the Iraq war, but they want us to succeed if there’s any way to do that,” McCain, a possible 2008 presidential candidate, said at a news conference at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq’s heavily fortified Green Zone.

The Arizona Republican said five to 10 more brigades of U.S. combat soldiers must be sent to Iraq. Brigades vary in size but generally include about 3,000 troops, meaning he was recommending 15,000 to 30,000 additional forces.

Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman said the delegation had met with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, and urged him to break his ties with anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and disarm his Mahdi Army militia.

Al-Sadr controls 30 of the 275 parliament seats and is a key figure in al-Maliki’s coalition.

The U.S. military has about 140,000 troops in Iraq, and President Bush is considering a change of strategy in the country, including Baghdad, where stepped-up efforts to curtail sectarian violence failed this summer. The current U.S. force includes about 15 combat brigades made up of 50,000 to 60,000 soldiers, the U.S. military said Thursday.

McCain has joined other legislators and military analysts in saying that Bush sent far too few American troops to Iraq after the coalition toppled Saddam Hussein in March 2003, leading to widespread violence at the hands of Sunni Arab insurgent groups and Shiite militias.

But McCain said U.S. military commanders in Iraq had not asked the delegation for more U.S. troops, and one of the senators traveling with him didn’t seem to accept his argument.

“Iraq is in crisis. The rising sectarian violence threatens the very existence of Iraq as a nation,” said Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine. The current U.S. strategy in Iraq has failed, but “I’m not yet convinced that additional troops will pave the way to a peaceful Iraq in a lasting sense,” she said.

“My fear is that if we have more troops sent to Iraq that we will just see more injuries and deaths, that we might have a short-term impact, but without a long-term political settlement,” Collins said.

Gunmen in military uniforms kidnapped dozens of people Thursday from a commercial area in central Baghdad, police said, and a car bomb killed two policemen who were trying to defuse it in Baghdad’s Sadr City section, where officers were on high alert after receiving tips that militants were moving more bombs into the Shiite slum.

McCain said he realizes that only about 15 percent to 18 percent of Americans favor deploying more U.S. troops to Iraq, and that if such a move proved unsuccessful in the unpopular war, it could hurt his presidential ambitions.

But the Vietnam War veteran also said that Americans must realize that if U.S. troops leave Iraq in a state of chaos, insurgent groups such as al-Qaida in Iraq “will follow us home.”

The Associated Press

The Associated Press

Most of Arizona Sen. John McCain’s personal assets are simple – but his wife Cindy owns stock and property worth millions of dollars, according to new financial disclosure reports.

Compared to some of his wealthy peers, Arizona’s junior Sen. Jon Kyl’s assets are fairly modest, held primarily in investment accounts, the reports show.

The information about lawmakers’ assets, gifts received and privately funded travel in 2005 were filed in May and made public Wednesday.

It is difficult to assess either Republican senator’s net worth from the reports, which chart assets in broad ranges.

McCain, a Vietnam war veteran, earns a Navy pension in addition to his Senate salary. He donated to charity a speaking honorarium and proceeds from book deals. But millions of dollars in other family assets are held by his wife, Cindy, and their children. They include Sedona-area properties and stock in Cindy McCain’s family’s company, Hensley & Co., a Phoenix beer distribution company started by her father.

Kyl’s financial holdings total about $800,000 at most, excluding his two Arizona homes and a D.C.-area apartment, the reports show.

Personal wealth has become an issue in Kyl’s re-election bid. He faces a competitive race against wealthy real-estate developer Jim Pederson, a Democrat worth between $26 million and $119 million, according to a disclosure report he filed earlier this year. Pederson has already put $3.2 million of his own money into his campaign.

ARIZONA SENATORS

Sen. John S. McCain III

R-Ariz., chairman, Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

Earned income: $162,100.

Honoraria, all donated to charity: $16,500.

Major assets: Wachovia Bank account, $15,001-$50,000

Major sources of unearned income: None.

Major liabilities: None.

Gifts: A Gibson guitar plaque from Rock the Vote worth $1,898.

Narrative: McCain has several book agreements with Random House Publishing and a 2004 development agreement with A&E Television Networks to produce a movie based on his book, “Faith of My Fathers.” Payments for both are described as “customary in trade.”

A prisoner of war during Vietnam, McCain receives a Navy pension of $54,276. The Broadcast Group of Palm Springs, Calif., gave him an honorarium of $16,500 for weekly radio commentaries. The payment was donated to charity. McCain also donated to charity $255,000 earned on book royalties and book signings.

McCain accepted lodging and a plane ticket to London, England, for a speaking engagement from Nov. 28-Dec. 1, 2005, paid for by the Blackstone Group.

McCain’s wife, Cindy, and their children own most of the assets listed in the disclosure report. The assets include several Sedona properties, including a home valued at more than $1 million, and two tracts of land and a guest house each worth between $500,001 and $1 million.

Several assets held by Cindy McCain and the children are worth more than $1 million, including Anheuser-Busch common stock and stock in Hensley & Co.Cindy McCain’s liabilities include five credit-card debts. She owes $100,001-$250,000 to American Express and $15,001-$50,000 on two others.

Sen. Jon L. Kyl

R-Ariz.

Earned income: $162,100.

Honoraria, all donated to charity: None.

Major assets: Investment funds, including three retirement accounts each valued at about $160,500.

Major sources of unearned income: A working interest in two oil and gas wells. One generated $1,001-$2,500, and the other brought in $201-$1,000.

Major liabilities: None.

Gifts: None.

Narrative: Most of Kyl’s assets are in retirement and investment accounts. He also reported four checking and savings bank accounts, each worth $1,001-$15,000.

- The Associated Press

Citizen Staff Writer

By BLAKE MORLOCK

bmorlock@tucsoncitizen.com

Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl was recently named by Time among the 10 best senators in Washington. But another top 10 distinction has his opponents sensing opportunity.

The two-term Republican has raised $60,850 from the oil and gas lobby during the current election cycle, according to the money-in-politics Web site opensecrets.com. That ranks him No. 7 of 100 U.S. senators for industry contributions.

The Arizona Democratic Party has blasted Kyl for taking oil money while voting with the industry on issues such as drilling in Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, preventing oil sales from the national strategic reserves and coming out this week against taxpayer rebates to offset high gas prices.

Kyl faces a re-election battle this fall against Phoenix developer Jim Peterson, and gas prices figure to be a key issue.

“His voting record says that his chief concern is the welfare of oil and gas companies and consumers come in second,” said Kevin Griffis, spokesman for the Peterson campaign.

But Kyl pointed out Wednesday that he hasn’t been a big friend of big oil of late, voting against the industry-backed energy bill and introducing legislation to close a tax loophole oil companies now enjoy.

Also, the oil and gas companies that contributed to Kyl don’t rank among his top 20 contributors. The anti-Internet-gambling crusader is first among peers in money from the recreation and live entertainment industries.

Unlike five of the six senators ahead of him in oil contributions, Kyl doesn’t hail from an oil-producing state or sit on the committee that oversees energy production.

The senator said he isn’t surprised, though, that big business would back him.

“I’m free market guy,” he said. “Conservatives tend to favor me and liberals tend to oppose me.”

Senators don’t take positions to raise cash, Kyl said.

“People get into this business because they believe in something,” Kyl said. “I don’t think it’s fair to say politicians take a position because of money.”

The Associated Press

The Associated Press

Time magazine ranked Arizona’s two U.S. senators among the 10 best in the country, commending the Republicans for being able to use their power to get things done.

Sen. John McCain commands his independence and single-mindedness to put “unorthodox issues” at center stage – such as torture of prisoners of war and excessive government spending, the magazine wrote.

“McCain has that rare ability to put an issue on the U.S. agenda that wouldn’t naturally be there,” the magazine wrote.

The magazine said Sen. Jon Kyl works effectively behind the scenes to accomplish Republican policy objectives.

Time cited examples, including an amendment barring U.S. courts from hearing cases brought by prisoners in the war on terrorism, in which Kyl was behind the efforts but not commanding headlines for them.

“He has succeeded by mastering a tactic that is crucial in a body in which any one member can bring the place to a halt as a ploy or out of pique: subterfuge,” the magazine wrote.

“Jon Kyl has indeed been a very effective partisan, and that’s one of the cases we are going to make to the people of Arizona,” said Kevin Griffis, a spokesman for Jim Pederson, a Democrat who is running against Kyl.

McCain and Kyl were joined on the Top 10 list by Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., among others.

The current issue of Time magazine is one newsstands now.

The Associated Press

The Associated Press

Any compromise from Congress on overhauling the nation’s broken immigration system won’t fit the agendas of all politicians, nor will it confront all the personal circumstances of the estimated 11 million people who are in the country illegally, U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl said yesterday.

Kyl said the country’s immigration problems have mounted for years and that any changes from Congress will be painful.

“There’s no really good solution to getting out of it,” the Arizona Republican said. “It’s just a question of among all the relatively poor answers, what’s the one that is the best one of the group.”

Kyl said a bill he co-sponsored with Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas might serve as a middle ground for lawmakers divided between exclusively beefing up border security, and those wanting to create automatic citizenship for illegal immigrants.

His bill includes a provision that would let illegal immigrants work in the U.S. for five years and require them to return to their countries before applying to re-enter.

“There are times when you need more workers, there are times when you don’t,” Kyl said. “The program ought to reflect that.”

Kyl said he’s unsure whether his voluntary return idea will survive any compromise that may come when Congress takes up the issue again.

There’s a good possibility that immigrant rights marches across the country Monday might encourage Democratic leaders to clear the logjam, Kyl said.

The senator said a compromise should specify that guest workers can work here only on a temporary basis and not provide an automatic path to citizenship for those who sneaked into the country.

Congress and the Bush administration also would have to adequately fund enforcement efforts, such as more Border Patrol agents, border fencing and aid to states for jailing immigrants convicted of crimes while in the country, Kyl said.

Critics of the government’s border and interior enforcement efforts are right to question whether a new immigration overhaul is going to be “the usual every 10-year trick on the American people,” Kyl said.

“They have a good question: if it hasn’t been enforced in the past, why do we think it’s going to be enforced in the future?” he said.

Get experts’ views on border issues this month by tuning in “The Jim Kolbe Show: From the Desert to the Dome.”

The second part of a two-part series on immigration and border issues will air six more times this month on area cable television channels.

The longtime congressman brought in a panel of experts on all sides of the issues for discussions on border security and illegal immigration and possible solutions to the issues.

The show will air locally:

• Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. on Comcast Channel 72 and Cox Channel 98

• April 16 at 8:30 a.m. on Comcast 73 and Cox 98

• April 18 at 8 a.m. on Comcast 72 and Cox 97

• April 23 at 8:30 a.m. on Comcast 72 and Cox 97

• April 25 at 8 a.m. on Comcast 73 and Cox 98

• April 30 at 8:30 a.m. on Comcast 72 and Cox 97

• May 2 at 8 a.m. on Comcast 73 and Cox 98

- GARRY DUFFY,

gduffy@tucsoncitizen.com

Citizen Staff Report

U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard was misidentified in the caption of a photo of Harriet Miers on Page 1B yesterday. He is a Republican from Colorado.

U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe will address the 2005 Federal Issues Forum at a March 23 luncheon at the Doubletree Hotel at Reid Park, 445 S. Alvernon Way.

Kolbe, a Tucson Republican, will discuss legislation before Congress that could affect southern Arizona. The event, which begins at noon, will be hosted by the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by Cox Communications.

The cost is $40 per person or $350 for a table of 10. Reservations must be made by Wednesday. For reservations and information, contact Shirley Wilka at 792-2250, Ext. 132, or e-mail her at swilka@tucsonchamber.org.

REAL ESTATE

Office leased for medical practice

A 1,250-square-foot office at 7440 N. Oracle Road has been leased by Dr. Jonathan Gross for his ophthalmology practice. Gross, who will soon relocate his practice, is now at 6585 N. Oracle Road.

The landlord – San Juan Miguel No. 4, a Tucson limited liability corporation – was represented in the lease transaction by Bruce A. Suppes and David A. Volk of CB Richard Ellis.

ON THE MOVE

Aron Baquet. Mendota Insurance Co. has recognized Baquet, president of ABC-Baquet Insurance Group, for being in the top five agencies nationally in selling Mendota’s auto policies. Baquet’s firm has two Tucson locations and specializes in the Hispanic market and Internet sales.

Submissions for this section may be sent to David Pittman at dpittman@ tucsoncitizen.com or faxed to 573-4569.

By JON KYL

“Today, more than 45 million Americans receive Social Security benefits, and millions more are nearing retirement – and for them the system is sound and fiscally strong. I have a message for every American who is 55 or older: Do not let anyone mislead you; for you, the Social Security system will not change in any way.”

- President Bush

State of the Union Address

Feb. 2

It’s hard to think how the president could have made it any more crystal clear the crisis facing the Social Security system is not a threat to current and near retirees, but rather to their children and grandchildren.

Lamentably, however, some of his political opponents in Congress and special-interest groups continue to use the issue to frighten senior citizens into believing their retirement security is at risk.

Because such scare tactics have been effective in the past, it’s not surprising they would be resurrected. But they’re still wrong. Polls show most Americans seem wise to the tactic.

A recent Harris poll asked: What is the most important issue for government to address? Social Security was the top answer, ahead of the war in Iraq, health care and a host of other important issues.

More tellingly, a Gallup poll in the same time frame found nearly two-thirds of respondents believe President Bush’s proposal to allow individuals the option of investing part of their FICA taxes in regulated personal accounts is a “good idea,” even if it meant Social Security’s guaranteed benefits would be reduced.

As complex as the issue is, voters increasingly grasp that it boils down to some basic facts. When Social Security was founded in the 1930s, average life expectancy was 63.

Since benefits didn’t start until age 65, the system was obviously sound financially. Moreover, there were about 42 workers paying taxes into the system for every retiree drawing benefits.

With life expectancy increasing and fewer babies being born, that ratio has gradually dropped to about 3-to-1 today. Within a decade each retiree will be supported by only 2 workers, putting even more strain on the system.

In just 13 years, there will be less revenue coming into Social Security than payments going out to beneficiaries, and under current law, benefits must be reduced to match revenue in 2042.

As President Bush pointed out, “2018 and 2042 may seem a long way off. But those dates are not so distant, as any parent will tell you. If you have a 5-year-old, you’re already concerned about how you’ll pay for college tuition 13 years down the road. If you’ve got children in their 20s, as some of us do, the idea of Social Security collapsing before they retire does not seem like a small matter.”

To foster a bipartisan discussion, President Bush has made clear that all options are open and reformers will listen to “anyone who has a good idea.”

No lasting solution will be easy. But we must move ahead with an open and honest discussion, free of demagoguery and scare tactics, or we will fail to meet a most basic responsibility we have to future generations.

Sen. Jon Kyl. R-Ariz., serves on the Senate Finance and Judiciary committees and chairs the Senate Republican Policy Committee.

Guest Writer

A major threat to homeland security that has lurked in the back of America’s public consciousness burst into the news recently when the FBI warned Mexican media and border-area law enforcement to be on the lookout for a suspected al-Qaeda terror cell leader who might be trying to sneak into the United States along immigrant smuggling routes.

I’m sure many people had the same reaction I did to the news about “armed and dangerous” terrorism suspect Adnan G. El Shukrijumah – an aggravated lack of surprise.

After all, how could our notoriously porous border not be a conduit for terrorists? Why wouldn’t those seeking to attack America be tempted to join the hundreds of thousands already illegally entering from Mexico?

Money talks if you want to cross the border. And if there’s one thing we’ve learned about the 19 hijackers of 9/11, it’s that they are well financed.

Recent news reports focusing on border security concerns are a welcome development for those of us who have been pushing the issue for years. Watchdog groups have sneaked fake weapons of mass destruction over the border to illustrate America’s vulnerability. A Tucson TV station has filmed evidence collected by a rancher who lives near the border, including Muslim prayer blankets and diaries written in Arabic.

The Border Patrol has released data, excerpted here, on how many “Other Than Mexican” foreign nationals were apprehended in just a nine-month period on the southern border. It’s a genuinely frightening list, particularly when you remember that despite their best efforts, the agents catch fewer migrants than they miss.

Most of these people are typical illegal immigrants in search of freedom, economic opportunity and a better way of life. But they’re still breaking the law. And if even a tiny fraction are terrorists, we now know the potential for destruction can be enormous.

That’s why, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security, and a member of the Subcommittee on Immigration, I have worked hard to educate senators from states that don’t share our “front line” problems about this reality.

We have provided significant increases in personnel and resources, including raising the Border Patrol force from 4,000 in 1996 to around 11,000 today, adding Customs inspectors, and providing “force multipliers” like lighting projects, night-vision goggles and truck-sized X-ray machines. I also helped secure $2.3 million for the Nogales Cyberport project, a collaborative federal, state, and local effort to bring state-of-the-art infrastructure to the Mariposa port of entry in Nogales.

Much more needs to be done. In March 2003, I led a hearing on the need for infrastructure and technology improvements at the border. The next day, Sen. John McCain and I took Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security, on a tour of southern Arizona.

We visited the busy ports of entry at San Luis and Nogales, the vast lands of the Tohono O’odham Nation and National Park Service that are heavily traversed by illegal immigrants and drug smugglers, as well as the expansive property of a cattle rancher whose land has been virtually overrun.

As a result of the trip, Hutchinson has announced more resources and policy changes to address the problem.

Meanwhile, liberal groups have raised their usual objections of “fear-mongering” and, in the words of one member of Congress, “using terrorism … to divide the community.” One wonders what they will say if a future attack is traced back to someone who came over the border illegally.

U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl is an Arizona Republican.

Between Oct. 2, 2003, and June 30, 2004, these foreign nationals from countries with significant terrorist operations were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexican border:

Afghanistan 8

Indonesia 13

Iran 7

Iraq 5

Jordan 9

Pakistan 19

Philippines 37

Saudi Arabia 6

Syria 5

Source: U.S. Border Patrol