Sen. Judd Gregg is being tapped as Commerce Secretary. Mickey Kaus wonders what Judd Gregg could ”possibly do in a second-tier cabinet position–Commerce–to advance his conservative philosophy that would possibly make up for giving his ideological opponents a 60-seat majority in the Senate? Stop card check? Achieve a free trade agenda?” As Kaus observes, a moderate Republican place-filler can’t be counted on to hold the line as Gregg has on key filibuster votes.
But even aside from a potential shift in the alignment of the Senate (which is no small matter), there is something inherently troubling about taking money (lots of it) from Republican donors and the RNC only to leave 2/3 of the way through your term and join the other party’s administration. At the very least, shouldn’t Gregg give back 1/3 of the money? Even if control of the Senate doesn’t necessarily flip, it is at bottom a rather selfish act, no doubt meant to avoid the embarrassment of losing his seat in 2010 and to put a feather in his cap at the tail end of his political career.
Are we reduced to getting candidates to promise party allegiance in exchange for money? I can’t imagine the people who gave Gregg money, voted for him, or worked on his campaigns feel this is what they bargained for. And, yes, this is fundamentally different from moving “up” within in your own party (to a cabinet post or higher office) during your term – which at least has the benefit of keeping one consistent in regard to interests and agenda.
Well, if there is karma, Kaus suggests, “Gregg could go down as the biggest sucker since Arthur Goldberg, who let Lyndon Johnson con him into giving up a lifetime Supreme Court seat to become Ambassador to the U.N.” Gregg likely didn’t obtain any promises about his influence or longevity in the Obama administration. I suppose he’ll have to trust the people who hired him — and hope they have more loyalty than he showed the people and party that supported him as a U.S. Senator.
And yet, to my chagrin, The One’s approval ratings are SKY HIGH. How long before you see that the normal rules to not apply to The One. Yes, this and many other things should tank The One. Just like many things should have tanked him during the campaing. But they didn’t then, and they are not now. Please turn your firepower toward figuring out why this is so and how it can be stopped, instead of constatntly thinking that eventually the MSM and the public will catch on the huge trick being played on them.
Since I’ve been a broken record on this, I will tell you my theory: Only a new political leader, the likes of which we haven’t seen since . . . . The One . . . . will be able to defeat The One. No amount of evidence of The One’s mistakes or bad policies or hypocricy will do the trick–all the evidence is already there, and it has no effect at all. No. A major leader with the same qualities as The One must emerge. I don’t see one in the offing, which is why I’m very worried.
Did I show you the President’s latest awesome approval numbers? I did? Look it’s Rush Limbaugh!
Hey, L.A., we’re only 41 days in, and termite season’s just started.
I’m on record that I’d rather have no policy than Obama’s policies – anyway it’s a position that I believe can be rationally argued – but I’m not sure I’d want to live in a country where the masses turned on a president this quickly after celebrating his inauguration as a kind of quasi-religious ritual.
Also, his approval numbers aren’t so sky high. They’re in a normal range for a new Prez. Carter was at 71% at a similar point in his term, I believe. And the One may remain personally popular longer than most, regardless of whether he retains much credibility and effectiveness.
But this was, bizarrely, not done before Freeman was appointed, we are now told.
Wait…are we supposed to be surprised that someone up for a position in the President’s administration wasn’t adequately vetted?
Never vetted, no media attention, backpedaling when hard questions are asked. Yes, they are winging it. big time.
“No amount of evidence of The One’s mistakes or bad policies or hypocricy will do the trick–all the evidence is already there, and it has no effect at all. No. A major leader with the same qualities as The One must emerge. I don’t see one in the offing, which is why I’m very worried.”
I’m feeling you, L.A. but let me lay out a scenario for you: in 2010, Pakistan is taken over by the Taliban. An attack on two of our cities occurs and Iraq is looking tenuous but we still bring home most of our troops in Aug., 2010. In short, things start to unravel and it looks like Obama has no clue. Who ya gonna call? David Petreaus, who would do it for his country being the true patriot he is. That’s who could beat Obama.
P.S. As much as I believe deeply that Obama is dangerous (cult-like figures usually are), I don’t wish the things I mentioned happen.
Maybe the worst thing about this particular issue, quite aside from what it says about the administration’s internal problems and possibly about its ideological self-definition or lack thereof is what it says about Blair.
Seth – if this administration turns out as catastrophic as it’s beginning to look, the “strong man” option becomes more thinkable. It implies an awful lot of ugliness, however, both before and after. Petraeus may be tarnished by the very scenario you describe, however, and, whether or not he separates himself successfully from Obama, from what I’ve read about him he doesn’t seem to have shown a great deal of interest in public policy. He’s considered hugely ambitious, but seems to have been a military guy through and through, more a military technocrat than an ideologue – not a MacArthur type.
“Petraeus may be tarnished by the very scenario you describe”
He’s not tarnished by anything but success in Iraq –a HUGE achievement considering where we were before the surge. He’s not a politician, exactly what Obama is, on steroids. He’s quiet and boring and effective –plus, democrats are afraid of him.
He can beat Obama if Obama does what I think he; going to and embolden our enemies and also try and make us a social democracy.
Very few others could beat Obama — he’s too slippery and much slicker than Bill Clinton. Like Clinton prayed Colin Powell didn’t run in ’96, if Obamaism plays out like his trajectory suggests he will, I think Petraeus can beat him.
“however, and, whether or not he separates himself successfully from Obama, from what I’ve read about him he doesn’t seem to have shown a great deal of interest in public policy.”
It won’t be about “policy” at that point. It’ll be about truly saving the country. Petraeus has already saved the country from one major disaster: the loss of Iraq, which all democrats already said happened and many republicans weren’t sure.
“He’s considered hugely ambitious”
What’s wrong with that trait? Would an un-ambitious General lead us to victory in Iraq?
“but seems to have been a military guy through and through, more a military technocrat than an ideologue – not a MacArthur type.”
Maybe, an Eisenhower type though.
Apparently a much better general than Eisenhower – but Eisenhower had immense political skills as a general. He wasn’t the indispensable tactician or strategist: He was the indispensable coordinator and diplomat. His skills actually did transfer to politics rather well. Also, don’t get me wrong: I’m a great admirer of Petraeus. When I said he was hugely ambitious, I didn’t mean that as a negative. I might even wish he was more ambitious – that he had broader ambitions than he appears to. What he does have is name recognition and a deserved reputation for competence. I also don’t doubt that he’d ride to the rescue if called upon. In the absence of any evidence of his interest in policy, however, I’m left to speculate about just how dire our predicament would have to be for us to call upon his skill set.
Blair looks like being made a scapegoat here, assuming JRub’s depiction of events is accurate (which I’m guessing is the case).
No way would non-intelligence Admiral Dennis Blair, Navy black shoe line officer for over three decades, pick Freeman out of the blue to chair the NIC. Blair probably knows Freeman, from having been the Pacific Commander in his last tour. But the implication that Blair came up with Freeman on his own, without a guiding hand from the White House, is just stupid. There’s no other word for it. It doesn’t work that way, and Blair knows that.
We’ve had politically stupid flag officers before — quite recently, in fact, naming no particular resigned CENTCOM commanders — but this level of multilayered incompetence neither is characteristic of what I know about Blair, nor rings true even in a general sense. No one acquires four stars by being so stupid that he blunders around DC like a bottle rocket, appointing plum jobs off the top of his head, and without even a hint of pro forma obeisance to basic rules of prudence. Blair may be wrongheaded enough to think Freeman is right for the job, but I find it non-credible that he perpetrated an off-the-rez shocker on the Obama White House, with this appointment. Not happenin’.
Sheesh, JED – so why would Blair put up with being made a scapegoat if your analysis is accurate?
When do the betting pools start on the Obama Administration’s first big resignations? Judd Gregg doesn’t count.
Very honestly, I don’t think anyone in Washington’s mainstream thinks the Freeman appointment is all that big a political deal. This would include Blair. I don’t think the White House, or probably Blair himself, sees this as a show-stopping “ding” on him. In other words, it’s not a major crucifixion scapegoating, but sort of a “Hey, Den, sorry you have to take one for the team” — wink, wink — deal.
My point on Blair is that he’s too bureaucratically competent to have done what is now being said. The president’s staff ALWAYS has the final say on who will chair the NIC. It’s just really dumb to have this backpedaling tale being spun, as if a uniformed officer with years of Washington experience suddenly thought he’d make a wild-’n'-crazy political appointment, and somehow the Oval Office didn’t catch it until some riled-up Jews started carrying on about it. Seriously, if Obama’s people were paying THAT little attention — and picked THAT dementedly unpredictable a DNI — there are way bigger problems here than Chas Freeman.
Now if they only vetted where all of Obama’s campaign cash really came from…
Obama CHOSE Wright’s church.
He CHOSE to stay in it even after Wright’s rants were in public view.
He CHOSE to befriend William Ayres and Rashid Khaledi.
He CHOSE “Americans are cowards” Eric Holder.
He CHOSE Chas Freeman.
He CHOSE Wright, Ayres, Khaledi, Holder and Freeman because he agrees with them.
Fwiw, JED, as usual, is most likely right. Need one add, “alas”?
Petraeus “can beat Obama if Obama does what I think he; going to and embolden our enemies and also try and make us a social democracy.”
Let’s keep in mind that throughout 2007, the feeling among many GOP folks was that the issue was going to be defense and that gave the candidate an advantage, whether McCain or Romney or Giuliani. But even as 2008 began, before the economy became the real lead issue, defense left the front pages of the papers and Obama became viable.
Since those same front pages will still work for Obama in 2012, I can see a 2011 setup that makes Petraeus ‘the guy” then a spring 2012 shift on those same pages that makes him irrelevant to what will by then be the election issues.
Bottom line, be careful what you wish for and make sure your guy is relevant no matter what the issue is.
Petraeus “can beat Obama if Obama does what I think he; going to and embolden our enemies and also try and make us a social democracy.”
Let’s keep in mind that throughout 2007, the feeling among many GOP folks was that the issue was going to be defense and that gave the candidate an advantage, whether McCain or Romney or Giuliani. But even as 2008 began, before the economy became the real lead issue, defense left the front pages of the papers and Obama became viable.
Since those same front pages will still work for Obama in 2012, I can see a 2011 setup that makes Petraeus “the guy” then a spring 2012 shift on those same pages that makes him irrelevant to what will by then be the actual election issues. (I mean, if 2012 runs on health care or some such, what good is Petraeus?)
Bottom line, be careful what you wish for and make sure your guy is relevant no matter what the issue is.
Even if we get rid of this clown, ————– it won’t ameliorate the hard line against Israel that the Obama administration is beginning to lay down.
If not this guy, somebody else, but regardless of which person it is, —————— the line that the Obama administration is laying down is not one that the citizens of Israel are much going to like. And not just because of the Obama administration, ———— this was in the wind. The Democrats are leaning strongly away from Israel, and they’re beginning, slowly but surely, to embrace the Arab narrative.
We’re already seeing the Arab narrative taking hold across America’s colleges and universities.
And if it takes hold there, and it is, then there is almost no way that the Democrat party will be able to hold the line against it.
The growth of black islam is forcing the Democrat party to tack accordingly. Jews can’t deliver Electoral College votes.
If every single Jew were to start voting consistently Republican, ——————- which blue state would turn red, how many Electoral College votes would the Democrats lose thereby?
How many Jews voted for the guy who sat listening to Wright for twenty years, how many Jews voted for a guy who sat there absorbing Wright’s anti-semitism? How many Jews voted for a guy who only has radicals for friends?
How much money did American Jews contribute to Obama, and to Obama’s allies.
And what are they getting for the support and the money?
Collapsing markets.
Portfolios drying up.
Jobs lost.
Job prospects gone.
Diplomatic incoherence.
And of course Israel about to be thrown under the bus.
You know, JOE THE PLUMBER didn’t have a college education. No portfolio to mention. But nonetheless, JOE THE PLUMBER knew that if Obama became President, Israel was going to be thrown to the wolves.
Which begs a question. How was it that an ordinary blue collar guy without any higher education saw through Obama, when so many ostensibly educated and wealthy Jews could not.
So run Freeman down, harry him and torment him.
Do what you will.
But it isn’t going to have any impact at all on policy.
Seth at #16 sees the thing clear.
If you desire to understand Barrack Hussein, then you have to understand liberation theology, of which black liberation theology is a subset.
Black liberation theology takes as it’s point of departure the enduring PRIMACY of race. It’s the ultimate in racism, and it is not in any THEORETIC way different from Hitler’s views on race. From there it rapidly moves on to the historic and endemic wickedness of caucasians.
Black liberation theology is NOT socialistic. It’s Marxian. HARD CORE Marxian. The class struggle is but a reflection of the ongoing struggle that black people have known to escape the thralldom of a world system created and maintained by caucasians.
Why did that system come to be, and why did it target black people? Because caucasians are pervaded by evil, individually and socially.
This is the stuff that Obama drank deeply of. This is in his mind, this fills the corridors of his lost soul.
You have a man who doesn’t know where he fits because he’s as much black as white. You have a guy whose youth was filled with the severities of islam, but who in his later years supposedly made his way towards Christianity. Yet the guy who supposedly brought him into Christianity was Wright.
THAT’S HIS VERSION, not mine.
Wright not just was a “mentor,” Wright was, again, in his version, a “father figure.”
God help us, ’cause we’re so far up the creek that it ain’t funny.
The approval of Stalin was extremely high in Russua. When he died people were crying in the streets. Whatever was going wrong, like jailing and killing opponents and potential opponents, creating artificial hunger, etc. was blamed on other people, but not on the One, Stalin. People need religion. Now brain dead are praying to this teleprompter reader. If he does not change our Constitution and is gone in eight years, people will see all disasters he brought to the country ( if our country survives of course ) and then they start to blame Jews like Axelrod, Emmanuel, etc.
Anyone ask this question about Dennis Blair? How can the Director of National INTELLIGENCE not be aware of Freeman’s background, history, and ties? Is this what we should expect from America’s top intelligence official? This is particulary important since Blair and Freemn go back many years. We can draw either of two very unpleasant conclusions: Blair knew about Freeman’s views and selected him (Blair is biased and problematic himself if this is correct) or/and Blair did not know about Freeman (which means Blair is obtuse and problematic himself if this is correct).
So what has the Obama team been waiting for to throw Freeman under the bus. That should have been done by now. Do they really need the IG report to disclose financial ties? Freeman’s history is clear-that should be enought to disqualify him.
Time for a special prosecutor to investigate AIPAC and its minions, who have been violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act for years.
Wait…are we supposed to be surprised that someone up for a position in the President’s administration wasn’t adequately vetted?
Well, of course the fact is that he was vetted… at least so far as the vetting process goes anymore in the White House given the current occupants, who gave us the specticle of the guy appointed to run the IRS being a tax cheat, and so on.
I’m quite sure that’s how this one’s going to come out. How in the world are these folks going to run our economy if the appointment process apparently gives them so much problem? Of course there’s another angle; The process is giving them so much problem not because they’re trying to get good people into high level positions and failing, but rather because they’re trying to get their cronies in, many of which have questionable backgrounds and connections. Change we can believe in.
The voters set the precedent by not vetting Obama. Lies in the general media were no excuse. The facts were still readily available to any conscientious voter.
I’m as pessimistic as anyone about this country’s prospect going forward but it is utterly absurd to be intimidated by Barry’s polls at this time. Yes, they are high, but as CKMacLeod notes not by any means unprecedented and as pathetic as the faith in him is, one can allow that people want to belive in something/somone and give him a chance and for those not grounded in facts, logic and principal its way too early to dump him.
The economy will recover, however sluggishly, he will get credit from many but the slow growth will also bother many, Obama and the Dems will be held responsible and they will take losses, perhaps even large ones in the next political cycle.
This does not change the fact that they are doing and will continue to do great damage in the coming months. When I speak of losses, even large ones, I by no means predict that they will loose even one of the 3 elected centers of power much less all of them. I would be astonished to see Republican majorities and president strong enough to reverse the damage even if the latter forutious even happens. The country is seriously screwed. Still a 60% percent approval rating at this time is not, in and of itself, cause for panic.
J-Rub – can the phony indignation – if financial ties to unsavory players actually bothered you, the previous administration – and the McCain campaign would’ve sent you into a tailspin – but never a word on Bush/Saudi financial ties or McCain/Scheunemann Georgia ties (even as McCain called for war)- no, what puts a bug up your tuchas is the fact that Chaz Freeman won’t prostate himself to your Zionist masters… Your dual loyalty – to Israel and to Israel – America need not apply, is so blatently apparent and on display – I bet you have a nice Star of David tatted right on your inner thigh…and a 666 right under the hair line…
“P.S. As much as I believe deeply that Obama is dangerous (cult-like figures usually are), I don’t wish the things I mentioned happen…”
No – you pray for them – daily…
“He’s not tarnished by anything but success in Iraq –a HUGE achievement considering where we were before the surge. ”
Tee Hee – the success of the “surge”: “A car bomb exploded Thursday in a crowded cattle market south of Baghdad, killing at least 10 people and injuring 32 others, Iraqi police and medical officials said.”
Such a success, everyone is worried that if the imperial troops pull back, anarchy will reign…
“He CHOSE Wright, Ayres, Khaledi, Holder and Freeman because he agrees with them…”
So does America – because WE CHOSE OBAMA…
Now go kneel before your Zionist master… Open mouth to recieve communion…
Electromagnetic Pulse detonation over the continental US, Seth, is the far most likely scenario. The fingerprints all over the attack will be Vlad the Impaler Putin’s, but the trail will be expertly laid right back to Achmedinawad.
And, of course, the Marixist Muslim Kenyan Fraud is playing right into the hands of Vladimir Putin.
What totally amazes me is that Osama bin Urkel is so damned stupid that now we are going to start using Russia as a supply line into Afghanistan. Gee, and how in the Hades do you folks think the Afghans are going to perceive this? We have bent over backwards to prove this is not the 1980 Soviet invasion, but a true liberation, but Bonobo-Hammed and his America-hating babymama are dead-set on destroying every single alliance we have established, from their ignorant snubs of our British allies, to the insults they heap upon Hamed Karzai, to their sucking up to the Hamas terrorists through that hag, Hitlery Clintoon.
This despicable scumbag punk is ruining this nation in record time. When the attack on the continental US comes (and because he is so intentionally WEAK, he is BEGGING our enemies to attack us), the Democrats are going to be thoroughly and fatally discredited to the point that no one will be able to say they are a Democrat in public without getting attacked. However, I would forego the comeuppance that the anti-American Democrat Party justly deserves just to keep this nation and her allies safe, but with The Muslim Punk and James Brown in Drag destroying this nation from within, I think an attack on our nation is only months away.
We can only hope that Netanyahu is able to pull off an attack on Iran’s Bushehr reactor and “satellite” launch centers before Achmediniwad sets that nuclear weapon to detonate 100 miles above Omaha…
“but Bonobo-Hammed and his America-hating babymama…”
Why don’t you just call him the stupid ni$$er in the white house?
“Wardemocrap”:
What VP Cheney said to Patrick Leahy. DRY.
“Electromagnetic Pulse detonation over the continental US, Seth, is the far most likely scenario. The fingerprints all over the attack will be Vlad the Impaler Putin’s…”
Explain, Genius, why Russia would want to start the end-of-the-world war with America? Go hide under your white sheet and shove a burning cross up your tuchas – just the way you like it…
“What VP Cheney said to Patrick Leahy. DRY.”
And right back at you – what Cheney did to his hunting partner – but with good aim…
“WarDemocrap Review bleated:
“’but Bonobo-Hammed and his America-hating babymama…’
“Why don’t you just call him the stupid ni$$er in the white house?”
Because only SCUMBAG FILTH like yourself use that language, cretinous swine. You are nothing more than an emotionally retarded, marginal sub-human, just like most America-hating Socialist Democraps. Idiots like you make it easy to remember that the Nazis were LEFTISTS.
Frankly, I wish a terrorist would kick down your door and…well, I’ll stop there. Hopefully, karma will catch up with you.
Wait, how is Michelle Obama (I assume she’s “James Brown in Drag”) destroying America? Because she makes you feel worse about your pitifully small penis?
““’but Bonobo-Hammed and his America-hating babymama…’
“Why don’t you just call him the stupid ni$$er in the white house?”
Because only SCUMBAG FILTH like yourself use that language, cretinous swine.”
Right – and decent good people compare our first black president to an ape (not that racists have EVER compared black people to monkeys) – and use urban ghetto language to describe his wife.
I bet your family hates you…you kids probably do drugs to forget you… your wife is probably cheating with the garbage man…
I have another question, J Pousson! Why is it that all the German conservative parties voted for the pinko Nazis’ Enabling Act while the Social Democrats voted against it? Maybe…maybe every politician in pre-war Germany was a secret leftist!
I’m skeptical that the intelligence chief somehow made this appointment with no input from the White House. They’re trying to put up a firewall now between Chas Freeman and Obama, which is the first sign that they intend to dump him as soon as they find a good excuse.
I’m sure all those enterprising reporters out there are going to investigate whether the White House really gave no input on this appointment, because they really want to get to the truth about the Obama administration and its poor appointments. Oh, wait…nevermind.
when you can’t win, litigate and investigate. great going guys. how about taking it like a man for once?
I miss Nixon.
#47, “when you can’t win”
Speaking of that, lester: how much did you win
on your Friday Feb 21 prediction – repeated 3 or 4 times – of a
500-point Dow increase the next week?
You based it on Obama’s banking plan about to be disclosed.
Instead of plus 500 (which would bring it from 7365 to 7865),
the change was minus 300.
Today, the last I looked, Dow was at 6600… the apocalyptic
Number of the Beast multiplied by ten…
To tell you the truth, I did not suffer from your prediction
at all: on the contrary, it reminded me to play the bear
that week: I bought some Put options right away,
and have cleared some profit…
” how about taking it like a man for once”
I take it like a bear: bearish on Mr. Obama,
on his economic plans, on his appointments,
on his re-election chances, and on his place in history…
50- the banking plan stil has’t happened. my point wasn’t obama was a genius but that the market was going down because of the lack fo a banking plan,. not because obama is raising the top earners taxes 3.6 percent
Nice going there, Horsebolt McStabledoor.
“Since I’ve been a broken record on this, I will tell you my theory: Only a new political leader, the likes of which we haven’t seen since . . . . The One . . . . will be able to defeat The One.”
Always two there are. A master, and an apprentice.