This is becoming ridiculous:

Democratic sources say that H. Rodgin Cohen, a partner in the New York law firm Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, and the leading candidate for Deputy Treasury Secretary, has withdrawn from consideration.

It's the third withdrawal of a top Treasury Department staff pick in less than a week.

Seems that Mr. Cohen may have had a tax problem. So here we are, with the financial industry in a funk and the economy in the dumpster—and The Greatest President Who Absolutely Ever Was can't even manage to find qualified candidates to run the Treasury Department! The incompetence is stunning. It's simply stunning. Imagine what Democrats would be saying in response to such a bumbling, stumbling, absolutely embarrasing performance by a Republican administration. But when the Messiah messes up, all they can do is clear their throats and shuffle their feet…

Posted by tmg110 at 7:44 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove comments on the vapidity of the Obama Administration's recent assault on Rush Limbaugh:

Was it smart politics and good policy? No. For one thing, it gave the lie to Barack Obama's talk about ending "the political strategy that's been all about division" and "the score-keeping and the name-calling." The West Wing looked populated by petulant teenagers intent on taking down a popular rival. Such talk also shortens the president's honeymoon by making him look like a street-fighting Chicago pol instead of an inspirational, unifying figure. The upward spike in ratings for Rush and other conservative radio commentators shows how the White House's attempt at a smackdown instead energized the opposition.

Well, yes, but I would add that Operation Hush Rush was yet another example of outright lying by Team Obama. After all, the claim that Limbaugh is "the leader of the Republican Party" was presented as a statement of fact. But all my attempts to verify this statement have come to naught. Despite making the most diligent inquiries, I've found no evidence that Limbaugh was elected party leader by the Republican National Committee, or that he was recognized as such by the GOP congressional caucus, or that polls of Republicans have shown him to be the party's acknowledged leader. On the other hand, I've uncovered a great deal of evidence to the effect that Limbaugh has over the years been a severe critic of the GOP—when he thought that the GOP was doing wrong.

It's no surprise to me that Obama and the people around him are such blatant and shameless liars. During the 2008 campaign they were conditioned by a fawning media to believe that they could always get away with it. But now, little by little, people are beginning to notice that the Messiah's halo has a distinct tendency to flicker.

Posted by tmg110 at 8:58 AM EDT

Updated: Thursday, 12 March 2009 7:44 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

A serving soldier of my acquaintance comments on President Obama's promise to close Gitmo even though he has no idea what to do with the 250-odd Islamofascist mass murderers who currently reside there: "Retarded."

Perhaps I could have said it better, but I don't really think so.

Posted by tmg110 at 7:55 PM EDT

Updated: Wednesday, 11 March 2009 8:03 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

One of the chief distinguishing characteristics of contemporary progressivism is its inability to connect the dots. The instant some pet project lands on the progressive agenda, reason and logic go out the window.

A prime example of this reluctance to face reality is progressivism's attitude toward wind and solar power. Having convinced themselves that such power sources are both clean and free, progressives simply ignore all the obvious environmental and economic objections to wind and solar, e.g that they require enormous stretches of land, and that the power they generate is many times more expensive than power from coal, oil or nuclear sources.

The Austin (Texas) City Council just approved a $250 million solar power project requiring 300 acres of land for 177,000 solar panels that are expected to generate about 30 megawatts of power—on days when the sun is shining brightly, anyhow. Estimated cost of this power: 16.5¢ per kilowatt hour, versus 9.5¢ per kilowatt hour for power from conventional generating plants. Obviously, the Austin City Council is not controlled by conservative Republicans.

Posted by tmg110 at 8:48 AM EDT

Updated: Tuesday, 10 March 2009 6:42 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Well, well, will you look at that. It's David Frum, so-called conservative, schmoozing with none other than Chris Matthews on Hardball. Their subject: the notorious right-wing racist, Rush Limbaugh.

Frum had already made it very clear that he detests Rush Limbaugh—not just ideologically, but personally. The unpleasant personal tone of his comments about Limbaugh betray motives that have little to do with future of conservatism. Indeed, I would venture to suggest that anyone who goes after Limbaugh in this manner cannot possibly care much about the future of conservatism. For to attack Limbaugh is to risk alienating millions of people without whose support neither the conservative movement nor the Republican Party have much hope of revival.

Please note, by the way, that I said "attack," not "criticize." No one—neither Rush Limbaugh nor Sarah Palin nor even Frum himself—is or ought to be immune from criticism. But tossing out charges of racism, as Frum did against Limbaugh during his appearance on Hardball, isn't criticism. It's a false and lying attack, as any fair-minded person who has listened to more than five minutes of Limbaugh's show would conclude. 

By venting his detestation of Rush Limbaugh in a liberal media forum, Frum has attracted accolades from such friends of conservatism as Chris "Leg Tingle" Matthews. How that's supposed to help him in his quest for a "new conservative majority" is, frankly, beyond me. 

Posted by tmg110 at 8:15 AM EDT

Updated: Tuesday, 10 March 2009 6:44 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

President Obama is speaking no more than the truth when he describes his proposed cap-and-trade carbon emissions scheme as a tax on polluters. For as the Wall Street Journal explains, this tax would fall ultimately on each one of us—and do we not, with every breath, expel carbon dioxide into the environment?

Posted by tmg110 at 6:46 AM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Do you ever recall the denizens of the lefty blogosphere saying anything nice about George W. Bush? Nothing is impossible, I suppose, and it may have happened—but all I ever found on my occasional visits to the virtual fever swamps of progressivism was the most viciously expressed hatred. Supposedly respectable commentators even wrote articles explaining why it was OK to hate the wicked Bush.

And conservatives are just as bad—aren't they? Well, no. One of the first things that caught my eye on NRO today was this post by Peter Wehner. It's worth reproducing in full:

In a New York Times interview, President Obama mildly rebukes Attorney General Eric Holder for his comments that on race we are “a nation of cowards.” When asked about Holder’s remarks, Obama said, “I think it’s fair to say that if I had been advising my Attorney General, we would have used different language.”

Good for the president for saying what he did. Now Obama could have rebuked Holder sooner and more forcefully than he did — but later is better than never, and a mild rebuke is better than none at all. President Obama added, “I’m not somebody who believes that constantly talking about race somehow solves racial tensions.”

Those words are Barack Obama at his best. For the most part, he has been responsible and fair-minded when talking about one of the most divisive and volatile issues in American public life. He can — by his words, tone, and leadership — do great good or great harm on this issue. Unlike his attorney general, Obama so far has been a constructive and unifying force. That’s something for which to be grateful.

Now, can you imagine anyone on the Left saying anything similarly fair-minded and gracious about Bush? Can you?

Posted by tmg110 at 9:41 AM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

As mentioned once or twice in past posts, I have a visceral dislike of professional sports. This, as I well know, places me in the ranks of a despised minority. And as I've discovered over the years, it's practically impossible to explain my reasons for disliking professional sports without causing great offense to those who do like them. What a pleasure it was, therefore, to reacquaint myself with this essay by George Orwell. "The Sporting Spirit" was written in 1945, shortly after a crack Soviet football team, the Dynamos, completed a tour of Britain. An excerpt:

Nearly all the sports practised nowadays are competitive. You play to win, and the game has little meaning unless you do your utmost to win.… [A]s soon as the question of prestige arises, as soon as you feel that you and some larger unit will be disgraced if you lose, the most savage combative instincts are aroused. Anyone who has played even in a school football match knows this. At the international level sport is frankly mimic warfare. But the significant thing is not the behaviour of the players but the attitude of the spectators….

Now, I am quite willing to stipulate that neither I nor Orwell is being quite fair in our attitude toward sports. Probably there are discreditable psychological reasons why we both found it impossible to enter into the spirit of the thing. Still, I recommend that you read this essay—and recall it the next time you see fans rioting on the field at the end of a baseball game.

Posted by tmg110 at 8:24 AM EST

Updated: Monday, 9 March 2009 9:34 AM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Say, have you heard the one about the Obama nominee who withdrew her nomination even though she'd payed her taxes? No? Then meet Annette Nazareth.

Unlike the typical Obama nominee, Ms. Nazareth didn't have tax problems. What she did have, apparently, was a lack of confidence in her prospective boss (who does have tax problems), Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Treasury Department sources are telling reporters that Nazareth bailed on her Treasury appointment after concluding that the hapless Geithner just doesn't pack the gear.

Oh, and another Treasury nominee, Caroline Atkinson, has backed out due to…tax problems. Is this a real-world Administration, or is it an Onion parody?

Posted by tmg110 at 6:49 AM EST

Updated: Monday, 9 March 2009 9:35 AM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Commenting today on the Rush Limbaugh brouhaha, National Review's Rich Lowry made an excellent point. Of all the pre-election assessments of Barack Obama, Limbaugh's has turned out to be among the most prescient. At a time when many conservatives were entertaining the possibility that Obama would prove to be a pragmatic centrist, Limbaugh was calling him a radical leftie. And as events since Inauguration Day have shown, Rush was right. 

Posted by tmg110 at 6:58 PM EST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink