Some Thoughts On The Growing Discontent.....

Congressmen of all stripes, but most especially the Democrats and supporters of Zero's policies, are taking it on the chin right now during the August recess.

Health care is the topic today, but the general tone is all about the deficit, the Stimulus (sic) program that isn't working, the missing jobs, the stupid Cash-for-Clunkers program, etc. Instapundit, and Ace, and the guys at HotAir are just the start of the places where you can see videos of the flack that these Congresscritters are taking. I'm sure none of them thought they'd ever see the day when meeting their constituents became such a difficult chore. It's not going to get any easier. America is angry.

So, here's what I think must be happening behind the scenes.

Zero and the D leadership have to be desperately searching for a way to get out in front of this thing. Right now, I think that they believe their only hope for success for any Health Care proposal will be to water it down far past anything resembling anything they've talked about thus far. But that will only work until their liberal wing begins to rebel (they are already rumbling). He'll need to walk an awfully thin tightrope to make it work.

If I were an insider, here's what I'd be watching: When the second- and third-tier staffers begin to quit, we'll know that they sense that their ship is beginning to sink. The first-tier staff will have had enough invested with their guy and/or the party that they'll stick through till the end, but the lower staff will have more mobility, and may take advantage while they can.

Zero has bitten off way more than he can chew. He allowed SanFranNan and Dingy Harry to stuff every liberal pipedream into that Stimulus Package, and he, as the inexperienced executive that he is, is now stuck with it. His Cap-and-Tax is in trouble in the Senate, his Cash-for-Clunkers is becoming a self-made Katrina, and he's losing on the central plank of his domestic campaign agenda--health care reform. Chinese students openly laugh at his Treasury Secretary.

[None of this should be taken to mean that I think all would be peachy if we had a President McCain. It wouldn't. Our economic troubles were building for many years, and are systemic. No president could solve them. Zero has made things far worse than they need to be, but McCain wouldn't have been a walk in the park.]

Ok....here's the thing.......

Like everybody else in the world, I've got a couple of gay acquaintances, and even a distant relative who is a lesbian.

That said, I'm as straight as the day is long. Not a gay bone in my body. [Awright, awright... I'll dispense with the double entrendes.]

But if ever I was to have a man-crush, it would have to be with this guy.



And yeah, it turns out to be a pitch for somebody, and I'm real close to becoming a gold bug myself, but the rant is beautiful, man. Beautiful.

h/t Gerard.

I'm beginning to get a suspicious feeling.....

And not just the same "I-Hate-Obama-and-Everything-He's-Doing" feeling. If I'm counting things right, he still has 18 vacancies to fill at Treasury. Geithner is a one-man act, and it isn't going well: They're developing a plan on when to plan to tell us about their plan for the economy. I'm betting that half of these vacancies are due to some of the problems (primarily past taxes) that brought the Zero administration so much attention earlier, but there may be some vacancies due to either Zero being unable to find capable person for the jobs or a willing approach to leave the jobs open. There are calls for Geithner's head, of course, but paradoxically, the vacancies at Treasury almost ensure that no matter how badly Geithner may be handling things, his job is safe.

Whatever the case, Geithner (and by extension, Zero) are handling things badly. The economy is in bad enough shape that this cannot be a one-man job for very long. Geithner will have a heart attack before we get things fixed....there is simply too much to do. Zero had better start something else before Geithner strokes out or something.

I dunno....

...Maybe its just me, but the first thing I noticed is that their lips are moving.

“...The stabilization of the global economy and financial markets remains our highest priority....”

Also,

"...The authorities are still at a loss on the best course of action 18 months after the credit crisis broke out...."

Noooo. Ya' think?

Personally, I'm of half a mind that they really do know what they're doing--crashing the dollar to bring about the greatest concentration of economic power ever considered.

Zero....

As will surprise no one who has read this blog for any time, I am less-than-impressed with Barack Obama. He is a leftist with ties to Marxists (Alinsky, Ayers), racists (Wright), and idiots (Biden).

But with his first two weeks, Obama has demonstrated one of the traits not commented on widely in recent days: Inexperience with leadership.

Obama has little experience at running anything larger than his former Senate office. His Harvard Law Review days show little evidence of leadership. He is our Community-Organizer-in-Chief, now cast into a leadership role, and he is floundering.

His Cabinet choices are appalling. Clinton is damaged goods (her husband's speaking fees from foreign sources), Holder is a politically-tied Attorney General, Geithner is a tax cheat. Richardson, Daschle and Killefer had to withdraw. His Labor Department nominee is in trouble. These are mistakes that those who have not lead make.

He is being treated rudely by the families of those killed in the GWOT. A leader would know how to assuage these people.

Iran and North Korea taunt him. Is Pakistan deliberately trying to embarass him?

His stimulus plan, while it may pass, has damaged him.

On That-Forum-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named, I have been challenged for addressing Obama as "Zero". However, for a man of no accomplishment, who screws up half his cabinet appointments, who offers no solutions to our problems, who offends the families of our heros, who tin-horn dictators around the world openly mock, the term "Zero" seems to be apt.

His weakness is everywhere.

Told you so.

OK. Lemme get this right....

...All the opposition the Democrats showed to the Bush policies for the last 8 years were principled objections, speaking Truth to Power, or something....

...And it is today that we find that "Partisanship is officially back"?

Geithner's Excuses.....

"A common mistake. I didn't know."

"Turbotax made me do it."

[Turbotax: "Oh no we didn't."]

Up next: The dog ate my homework. Really.

If McCain had won, this would not stand....

Look, folks. I am a conservative libertarian. I don't apologize for that. There is far too much about Bush's Compassionate Conservatism that I did not like. But as a wartime President, I think--and disagree with many other conservative libertarians on this point--that Bush's foreign policy has been nearly perfect. Churchillian.

Of course, there is almost no topic for me to agree with Obama.

That said, I do not wish him to fail. While I may disagree with his every decision, for the sake of the country, I don't want him to stumble.

But had a Republican tried this stunt, it would never stand.

Obama has already lost Richardson (rightly). On her merits, Clinton should have probably gone too, but because of her name, she will be confirmed. I'd like to see Holder go too.

Some may say that Geithner's tax problem is no big deal, and that in the interest of allowing Obama to get on with his administration, and especially for a SecTreas in the middle of a horrible economy in recession, after the Senate touches him up a bit, they should confirm him.

I disagree.

We're talking about a tax problem from the Secretary of the Treasury, for chrissakes. And not just a SecTreas-nominee. A former Governor of the Federal Reserve. Of New York--center of the financial world. Imagine a nominee for head of the EPA having a "forgotten" arrest for polluting or a draft dodger named to be Secretary of Defense.

Outside the serious misgivings I've had about Obama--Ayers, Rezco, Wright, Marxism, the Chicago Way, etc.--Geithner's tax problem should be enough to cause serious questions about his fitness for the office.

Update: John, over at Powerline, in an addition to a post begun by Paul, which makes this exact point.

"[I]f Geithner were a Republican with the same tax-scofflaw record, there is not the chance of a snowball in Hell that he would be confirmed."