Get Off Your Duff & Buy Our Stuff!
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By Berlin Wally
Membership on the Appropriations Committee used to be a first-class ticket to Congressional success, guaranteeing lucky lawmakers the ability to campaign on the federal money they had lavished on the folks back home. But the era of the appropriator appears to be on the wane…
Indeed, the power of the purse has already weighed down some lawmakers. Of six Congressional incumbents defeated in preliminary contests so far this year, four were veteran members of the appropriations panel who found themselves on the defensive. Before losing a fight for his party’s nomination, Senator Robert F. Bennett, Republican of Utah, came under withering attacks from conservatives for having the temerity to steer money to the perceived benefit of his constituents.
via Spending Posts Now a Liability for Lawmakers – NYTimes.com.
Via The Terminator.
By Berlin Wally
At the Federal level the Obama administration is looking for the government to take over more and more services and thus more and more of the workforce. Bad idea for any number of reasons, but here’s a good one. Despite all the talk about new efficiencies in, say, health insurance, government is intrinsically more expensive.
As indicated, Federal employees make a lot more money on average than their private counterparts, or even the people working at the state level. This is a dilemma currently facing state governments, especially here in New Jersey, where years of Democrat government (or Republican government with no guts to take on the unions) have left us with a $45 billion pension obligation that we can’t pay. This was made worse by the fact that those same politicians would defer payments into the pension fund every time they ran out of other money.
Governor Christie has pledged to take on the problem, which will mean facing down the state employees union, the CWA. Since he doesn’t have an ex-girlfriend who was a CWA local president and since he has a spine and a pair of testicles, we can expect a different result then when former-Governor Corzine was handling the negotiations.
If NJ manages to dig its way out of the mess it is in, expect other governors to follow suit. The Federal government is another matter. The first step towards recovery begins this November, the next step in 2012.
By Berlin Wally
“For what purpose does the gentleman from New York seek recognition?” the speaker asked of Rep. Charlie Rangel, the fallen Ways and Means chairman, when he rose from his seat early Tuesday afternoon.
The gentleman from New York sought recognition to deliver, without warning, one of the most extraordinary pieces of political oratory in recent memory. Facing a trial before the House Ethics Committee, he gave a rambling, 30-minute speech attacking the committee, the Republicans, his fellow Democrats and even his own lawyers. It was less of a floor speech than a primal scream directed at those who say he should resign, or cut a deal with the committee, to spare his party a political debacle in November.
“Hey, if I was you, I may want me to go away too,” he told his colleagues, referring to his ethics problems as a “so-called” scandal. “I am not going away. I am here.”
via Dana Milbank – Rangel’s rambling floor speech has House Dems wishing they didn’t recognize him.
The feared Charlie Rangel pyrrhic firestorm has begun. Keep howling, Charlie, all the way to November.
By Berlin Wally
It’s a rare political strategy that takes on the party base in a midterm election year, but the White House apparently sees no problem in doing so.
In an interview lighting up the blogosphere Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs blows up at criticism directed at President Obama from what he calls “the professional left.”
“I hear these people saying he’s like George Bush. Those people ought to be drug tested,” Gibbs told The Hill’s Sam Youngman in an interview. “I mean, it’s crazy.”
via 44 – Gibbs condemns criticism from ‘professional left’.
True, but they are also the people who got Obama elected and they want their juice.
By Berlin Wally
Here’s an interesting graph, based, I should hasten to add, on statistics released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (as opposed to, say, pulled from Sean Hannity’s ass).
The Obama administration has been braying for a year now about how, yes, it bumped up the deficit into the stratosphere, but unemployment would have been much worse without the stimulus.
Hmn… it seems that the stimulus had absolutely no effect on reducing unemployment, and may have made it worse. BTW, according to Geithner’s own projections and following the curve, unemployment will now not return to an “acceptable” 6% until 2014.
But, repeat after me, it’s still all Bush’s fault!
By Berlin Wally
With the Obama administration pouring billions into its nationwide campaign to overhaul failing schools, dozens of companies with little or no experience are portraying themselves as school turnaround experts as they compete for the money.
A husband-and-wife team that has specialized in teaching communication skills but never led a single school overhaul is seeking contracts in Ohio and Virginia. A corporation that has run into trouble with parents or authorities in several states in its charter school management business has now opened a school turnaround subsidiary. Other companies seeking federal money include offshoots of textbook conglomerates and classroom technology vendors.
via Inexperienced Companies Chase School Reform Funds – NYTimes.com.
Is anyone surprised that a wholesale handing out of sugar attracts flies? Of course, since the President just called for higher graduation rates, we can guess what these venders will do: advocate special exceptions and exemptions for “minorities”.
By Berlin Wally
As they brace for difficult fall elections, dispirited Democrats hoping to get back some of that 2008 magic are turning to the president for inspiration.
President Bush, that is.
Grainy images of the former president flashed across the screen in a recent ad by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.). Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) is attacking his GOP rival in a Senate race for his “advancement of the Bush agenda.”
Even President Obama has begun taking direct shots at his predecessor, something he had been careful to avoid in recent months.
via In difficult midterm election, Democrats back to bashing George W. Bush.
It is a sign of just how desperate the Dems are that they think this will work. To the average voter two years is a lifetime. Bashing Bush is like invoking Nixon or Eisenhower.
By Berlin Wally
President Obama convened a forum this week to celebrate the 50th anniversaries of 17 African nations, but he did not invite a single African leader to help him do so. Was this, as the African news media and independent commentators see it, an expression of distaste for abusive rulers? Was it an extension of Mr. Obama’s own conviction — already enunciated — that bad government is at the heart of the continent’s woes and that “Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions”?
via Memo From Dakar – White House Party for Africa Leaves Out Leaders – NYTimes.com.
Or was it simply his general cluelessness?
By Berlin Wally
It was supposed to be the grandest New York political party of the year: a rousing birthday tribute to the powerful dean of the state’s Congressional delegation, Representative Charles B. Rangel, a Democrat from Harlem.
Organizers reserved the gilded main ballroom at the Plaza Hotel, booked Aretha Franklin to serenade Mr. Rangel and sent out an elaborate video invitation featuring a testimonial from Bill Clinton (who, as it happens, was also invited but said he had to be in Arkansas that day).
But far from being a moment of celebration, the gala, planned for next week, is becoming a painful and public embarrassment for the 80-year-old congressman, and a brutal test of friendships and loyalties that are decades old.
via Guest List for Rangel’s Birthday Bash Shrinks – NYTimes.com.
What if they gave a birthday party and no one showed up?
By Berlin Wally
President Obama’s relationship with members of the Congressional Black Caucus is being tested over a series of high-profile incidents, the latest of which is the ethics investigation into New York Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel.
via The Fix – Obama vs the Congressional Black Caucus?.
This is a CBC whose members think that, rather than castigate a member who has a long history of questionable ethics, they should observe a “code of silence”.
This is a specific reaction to the White House call for the retirement of Congressman Charlie Rangel, but it is also part and parcel of a greater complaint that Obama, having asked the CBC to join him on bills like healthcare reform, is now leaving all Democrat members of Congress to twist in the wind this November.
Nor are they above hints of political blackmail. Rep. Alcee Hastings has said that Obama’s level of support for Senate candidate Kendrick Meek “could affect how fired up the African American base in Florida will be for the president come 2012.” That sounds like a threat.
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