The wrong remedy?

LOOKING WEST, the Wall Street Journal today encourages Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski to hold back on requiring prescriptions for several common cold medications that can be used to illegally produce methamphetamines. Even if the bill is signed, addicts will just look elsewhere for their meth highs, the editorial says. But the Journal doesn’t address the extreme danger in the actual production of meth in homes, including explosions that sometimes result from mixing hazardous chemicals.

Separately, the Journal defends John G. Roberts Jr. for the fifth time since his nomination to the Supreme Court. NARAL Pro-Choice America faces the Journal’s wrath for its upcoming ad campaign, which the paper’s editorial says distorts Roberts’ brief in a 1991 abortion case.

Speaking of repetition, USA Today issues a eulogy/editorial for the second consecutive day -- Tuesday for ABC News anchor Peter Jennings, today for African American publishing pioneer John H. Johnson.

The newspaper goes through the litany of Johnson’s firsts in African American marketing and publishing since he started Negro Digest magazine in 1941, blazing “a trail for generations of black entrepreneurs.”

Elsewhere, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorializes sarcastically that “America can rest easy tonight” because Congress is all over the Rafael Palmeiro steroids ruckus.

The Journal-Constitution wishes lawmakers “showed the same enthusiasm to tackle a more pressing domestic lineup,” including illegal immigration, alternative energy sources, the environment and the budget deficit.