Card check is becoming a prominent issue in the Virginia gubernatorial race. “While card check may not be a question for governors directly to resolve, a state politician’s approach to it still says important things about philosophy, temperament, and, perhaps, character.” So far the Republican candidate opposes it and the three Democratic contenders “thus far are performing a high-wire act worthy of the Wallendas.”
Big Labor continues to fight against itself. Must have picked up the GOP playbook by mistake.
The New York Post doesn’t think Chas Freeman’s departure should end the matter: “It’s hard to imagine anyone less appropriate to head the NIC, which produces influential intelligence reports. If key Obama underlings like Blair can’t see that, then there’s cause for real concern.”
Wes Pruden’s got it: “What really bugs Mr. Freeman and his friends is that he was recognized for who he is.”
I saw the headline “Geithner needs to lure hungry investors” and my first thought was, “Resign?”
The Fox Rountable on Geithner: “The markets have been trained to look to the treasury secretary for confidence. And we’ve seen — frankly, we have seen Secretary Geithner shrink in stature, as witnessed by the ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit last Saturday where he was portrayed to offering $400 billion for anyone who can come up with a solution to this crisis.” Read the whole thing. And then try to come up with a reason why Geithner shouldn’t be replaced.
Robert Reich is brutal: “You may not want to hear this, but your Treasury Secretary is making things worse. His dithering on what to do about Wall Street, and his incapacity to speak clearly to the Street and to the public about what needs to be done, is spooking everyone. Why doesn’t he just put the irrevocably insolvent banks into receivership under the FDIC, sell off their assets, protect depositors, and reimburse taxpayers with whatever remains? Let the rest of the banks fend for themselves — working out their bad loans with their creditors. As to AIG, well, that’s a complete basketcase. Put it out of its suffering. Take it over, sell its assets, protect policy holders (you’ll need to create a big co-insurance plan with every other major insurer in the world), then get out.” (h/t Jake Tapper) And he sounds awfully conservative.
Who says Sen. Mitch McConnell doesn’t have a wicked sense of humor: “‘I want to compliment the president on how he has handled both Iraq and Afghanistan,’ Sen. McConnell told reporters on Friday.’We had a briefing the day before his Iraq announcement and I felt I was still sitting around with the previous administration,’ McConnell said, describing a briefing President Obama and his national security team gave Congressional leaders two weeks ago. ‘The president was basically, from my point of view, it struck me, announcing a continuation of the policy in Iraq and Afghanistan.'” The report does not say whether the Senator strolled back to his office, shared a good laugh with staff, and expressed his delight in causing the netroots another bout of heartburn.
Michael Barone lets the cat out of the bag: “We did not have a housing bubble collapse because we don’t have a national health insurance program. We don’t have toxic waste clogging the balance sheets of the banks and other financial institutions because of carbon emissions. The Bush tax cuts were not a proximate cause of the giant public debt being run up under the Toxic Assets Relief Program or the 2009 stimulus package.”
China is “worried” about the value of all that Treasury paper they are holding. I would be too. You simply can’t print more and more bonds without either inflating our currency to pay it off or raising interest rates to entice buyers to keep buying.
Governor David Paterson’s poll numbers are simply horrible.
Fred Barnes says Obama is right to rush since he doesn’t have a mandate for the liberal wish list: “So Obama needs to push his agenda through Congress before the public discovers what he’s up to. Time is not on his side. Moderate Democrats aren’t a tough breed, but they’ve begun to question many of Obama’s policies. They don’t strike fear in Pelosi’s heart. But if their ranks swell, they could cause trouble for her, Reid, and especially Obama.”
