Here are today’s headlines from the Kansas congressional delegation:Sen. Sam Brownback (R) !(WorldNetDaily commentary) Does Gates pick mean accepting a nuclear Iran? Despite President Bush signing the Iran Freedom Support Act in September 2006, the State Department still has refused to make regime change the official U.S. policy toward Iran. The State Department also continues to sit upon the millions of dollars Sens. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and Sam Brownback, R-Kan., have inserted into legislation for the State Department to disburse to non-governmental organizations dedicated to supporting democracy movements within Iran. Today, the White House disclosed that consideration of the Gates nomination was seriously considered last weekend, giving context to reports coming out of Iran that talks with the U.S. would be considered. Sen. Pat Roberts (R)!(San Francisco Chronicle) Nominee is ‘old school,’ ‘pragmatist’: Robert Gates, President Bush’s nominee to be secretary of defense, is widely respected as an independent thinker, a brilliant analyst and a cautious bureaucratic operator after a career spent in the intelligence community, but many who have worked closely with him said the most useful quality he would bring to the job is that he is the un-Rumsfeld. … n an interview with the Council on Foreign Relations in 2004, Gates criticized the CIA for what he described as its “sloppy” analysis suggesting that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the war. He added in the interview that he had favored a policy of containment against Saddam Hussein, not war, and he called a proposal by Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., to break up the CIA as “the nuttiest” idea to come out of the studies of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Rep.-elect Nancy Boyda!(AP)Nancy Boyda to Make her First Appearance as Congresswoman-elect: Democrat Nancy Boyda is scheduled to be in Parsons today for her first official appearance as a congresswoman-elect. The question sure to be on everyone’s mind, how did she unseat Republican incumbent Jim Ryun, who trounced her in 2004, in the state’s second Congressional district? The 51-year-old former pharmaceutical executive believes it’s because she threw out a conventional campaign in favor of a grassroots effort.(LJW) Kansans say departure clears way for bipartisanship: News of Donald Rumsfeld’s departure from the Pentagon was no surprise Wednesday to Kansas politicians and observers. Congresswoman-elect Nancy Boyda capitalized on voter unease with Iraq in her campaign to defeat Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Ryun, a stalwart supporter of the war effort spearheaded by the secretary of defense. “We needed to have a change to show this administration is ready to start working together,” Boyda said Wednesday. “A real obstacle to that would have been keeping Don Rumsfeld.”Rep. Jerry Moran (R)!(Emporia Gazette commentary) Sixteen chances: IN AUGUST, the Kansas State Department of Education released a preliminary list of “failing schools or districts.” The list was reported widely by the media, without much explanation of what is truly meant by No Child Left Behind. … Many statisticians argue that 100 percent proficiency is not statistically possible. As scores approach 100 percent, it is more and more difficult to actually achieve the perfect score. There also are philosophical problems with NCLB such as its emphasis on testing and an emphasis on reading and math at the expense of the arts and sciences. These are all discussions that our federal leaders need to hear. In the meantime, Congressman Jerry Moran is making an effort to help local districts deal with technical aspects of the law that need to be fixed. He and Dennis Moore have proposed changes in the law that can be seen at http://www.jerrymoran.house.gov/ under Legislation Introduced. These changes are welcome and will bring some sanity to the day to day implementation of NCLB.