Month: April 2010

Blagojevich & Obama.

Oh, Rod Blagojevich: why could you not have used your powers for good?

(Via Instapundit) John Kass has a thoroughly entertaining article up on the way that former Governor Blagojevich is doing his level best to drag President Obama into the equally thoroughly entertaining drama that is former Governor Blagojevich’s corruption trial.  To summarize: the government is using Tony Rezko to go after Blagojevich; Blagojevich needs to taint Rezko’s testimony; so Blagojevich wants Obama to testify about Rezko.  Obama probably doesn’t want to testify about Rezko.  Particularly about things involving offers for Obama’s former Senate seat, which is why many details about the Obama subpoena were redacted… and promptly reconstructed (via Patterico).

Summing up, Kass cuts to the chase to write:

Though Thursday’s new information is quite fascinating, remember that it comes from the same defense team that has turned the case into a circus from day one.

And demanding the president take the stand in a corruption trial is all three rings, and the dozens of tiny little clowns pouring out of the diminutive car, and the bearded lady. Oh, and let’s not forget the dog-faced boy.

(murmuring) That was not a very nice thing to say about the Chief of Staff.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

So. SEIU’s Andy Stern leaving, or pushed out?

I mean, I’d push him out for this:

SEIU has seen its liabilities skyrocket during the past decade. The union’s liabilities totaled $7,625,832 in 2000. By 2009, they had increased almost by a factor of 16, to $120,893,259. Meanwhile, SEIU’s assets barely tripled, growing from $66,632,631 in 2000 to $187,664,763 in 2009. A significant portion of SEIU’s current assets are from IOUs from hard-up locals.

SEIU is $85 million in debt, down from its 2008 high of $102 million, and has been forced to lay off employees. Mr. Stern has led protests against Bank of America, calling for the firing of Chief Executive Ken Lewis. Yet the union owes $80 million to Bank of America and $5 million to Amalgamated Bank, which is owned by the rival union Unite-Here.

Stern’s also presided over the drastic underfunding of SEIU’s pensions, both at the national and local level.  He’s probably not being pushed out, though.  You see, what SEIU was doing during all that time was spend $86 million to support Democrats, particularly the current President (almost $61 million). And yes, it is interesting that if SEIU hadn’t spent that political money then they probably wouldn’t be in debt now. But – just like Patrick Gaspard, Craig Becker, and Anna Burger – that’s not Andy Stern’s problem anymore.  I wonder if he’ll get the same punishment for failure that they did?

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

The end of the ‘Taranto Principle?’

Short answer: No.

Jim Tarnato, that is: it’s defined as “the press’s failure to hold left-wingers accountable for bad behavior merely encourages the left’s bad behavior to the point that its candidates are repellent to ordinary Americans.”

True.

Anyway, Jim notes this passage as a possible rebuttal to said principle:

“Democrats got a heads-up,” said Neil Newhouse, a Republican pollster with dozens of clients in the midterm election. “They can raise more money, do opposition research against opponents, do focus-group testing on how to beat these guys. … In 1994, they had very little notice a wave was coming.”

…it’s very interesting: every story I read about the looming disaster for Congressional Democrats takes the time and wordcount to make sure that the reader knows that, by gum, the Democrats have a head’s-up about the possibility of another 1994! – And then they never actually do anything to stave off that possibility.  There are somewhere around forty-five competitive, Democratic-held House seats where the Cook PVI is R+3 or better; and those seats are competitive because the Democrats jammed through unpopular stimulus and health care bills, not in spite of.  And they will become even more competitive if the Democrats try to jam through cap-and-trade and immigration reform, too.  Which they probably will.  In short, it’s like the Democrats’ response to looking up and seeing a sixteen-ton cartoon weight descending on their heads is to cower under an umbrella.

And everybody reading this knows how that cartoon ends.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

An Obama/Roberts match is unlikely, alas.

I’ve been meaning to mention this for a week, and am now finally getting around to this particular absurdity regarding a hypothetical rhetorical match-up between President Obama vs. Chief Justice Roberts:

The debate between the men, by necessity, takes place in this way — indirectly, and soon through the confirmation hearing of a new nominee. Christopher Edley Jr., an Obama adviser and dean of the law school at the University of California at Berkeley, said it was a shame the two could not have at it one on one.

“Televise this chief justice and this president on stage at the Kennedy Center for three hours talking about the role of government and the future of our polity,” Mr. Edley said. “This historic clash of intellectual titans would be the most powerful civics lesson since the Federalist Papers, and we could sure use it.”

Why am I calling it an absurdity? Continue reading An Obama/Roberts match is unlikely, alas.

#rsrh Obamacare!

Obamacare. Obamacare Obamacare, Obamacare Obamacare Obamacare:

Obamacare “Obamacare” Obamacare Obamacare, Obamacare Obamacare Obamacare Obamacare Obamacare Obamacare?

(Obamacare) Obamacare – Obamacare Obamacare Obamacare* – Obamacare Obamacare. Obamacare Obamacare Obamacare Obamacare:

  1. Obamacare
  2. Obamacare Obamacare
  3. Obamacare
  4. Obamacare Obamacare Obamacare Obamacare

Obamacare?  Obamacare Obamacare Obamacare Obamacare Obamacare Obamacare; Obamacare Obamacare, Obamacare Obamacare Obamacare Obamacare-Obamacare Obamacare.

:Obamacare:

Obamacare.

Obamacare Obamacare

PS: Obamacare.

*Obamacare.

#rsrh Leaders of the PACs: Health Care Payola.

This was originally titled “Doing Well By Selling Out,” but by now, who really believed that they were sincere in the first place?

Vulnerable House Democrats who supported the healthcare bill last month reaped big financial rewards.

Federal Election Commission (FEC) reports show the crucial yes votes cashed in between March 21 and the end of the first quarter on March 31. They received big money from Democratic-leaning political action committees (PACs) and fellow Democratic members of Congress.

Several of these members were last-minute yes votes, which helped push the legislation to passage.

Continue reading #rsrh Leaders of the PACs: Health Care Payola.

#rsrh 22%? That high?

So says David Harsanyi, who admittedly is more interested in accentuating the positive:

Trust: placing confidence in, or depending on, someone or something.

According to a new Pew Research Center poll, 22 percent of Americans would use this word to express their view of federal government.

Then there are those 4 out of 5 Americans — free of any ailments that inhibit rational thinking — who trust government “some of the time or never.” This distrust is at a near a historic low — or historic high, depending on how a person views such things.

Historic high.  The real question is what the current ruling party does about it, particularly since the opposition has every intention of running as outsiders – which even incumbent Republicans can legitimately do at this point, thanks to the aforementioned current ruling party’s decision to shut us out of regular Congressional business*.  Well, it’s a serious problem that can be fixed by concentrating on the issues where most Americans feel that the government has been negligent – economy/job creation – so, based on their track record to date, the Democrats will spend the next three months obsessively focusing on what will turn out to be a deeply unpopular immigration reform policy that addresses neither**.

Moe Lane

*Um. Thanks?

**Um.  Thanks?