Mitch Daniels Can't Avoid Politics

When former Gov. Mitch Daniels became Purdue University's president, he said he was getting out of partisan politics. Recent events suggest that's an impossible promise for Daniels to keep. Earlier this month he came under fire after it was learned that he had spoken for a fee to a conservative think tank in Minnesota.

This week, he irritated some on his campus when he announced that Purdue, unlike IU, would not oppose the constitutional amendment opponents of same-sex marriage have vowed to push before the legislature next year. At first blush, that would appear to be consistent with his position since Daniels claims the university doesn't typically weigh in on social issues. The problem is that the proposed constitutional amendment puts at risk the domestic partner benefits the university has offered for several years and is inconsistent with the university's nondiscrimination policy. Thus, some critics argue that he put his own political views ahead of the university's stated policies.

Today, the Daily Caller reports on comments Daniels made about our national energy policy. Daniels is quoted while speaking to a group of reporters at an event sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor as saying that a country that can't build the Keystone Pipeline "is not serious about helping poor people." “National policy in a country that needs growth and has that going on should be 100 percent for it and we can’t even build the Keystone Pipeline," Daniels rhetorically asked. When asked about New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's bid for re-election, Daniels couldn't help but sing his praises. “His apparent success proves that people will reward decisive action and truth telling and that people are prepared to look beyond maybe their own party affiliations or even ideological predispositions where they see an instance of effective action in the public interest,” he said. “And I think plainly that’s what’s going on when a guy like Gov. Christie is so successful in a state like the one he lives in.”

Let's face it. Politics is in Daniels' blood. He's not going to change just because he's Purdue's president.