Broken Politics + Pseudo-nomics = Disaster

This was to be the week the new Congress began work on the crucial, urgent, Trillion Dollar Stimulus Plan, mislabeled down to $850 Billion, for advertising purposes.  It was to be completed in just over two weeks, in time for President Obama to sign it into law on Inauguration Day, January 20.

The two points all the Democrats, and their friends in the media continuously emphasized  are that the stimulus must be big and it must be passed immediately.  A Trillion Dollar spending plan was to be completed in  two weeks, by the Congress that, last year, could not pass agency budgets less than half that size, in twelve months.

In his campaign speeches Barack Obama promised a thousand times to fix the “broken politics in Washington.”

I believed that Democrats and Republicans and Americans of every political stripe were hungry for new ideas, new leadership, and a new kind of politics – one that favors common sense over ideology…this country can’t take four more years of the same old politics and the same failed policies. It’s time for something new.

But Obama’s party, Obama’s home state, and Obama’s  political friends and associates  brought a heavy dose of the same old broken, and petty politics to Washington this week, and thus derailed their own most urgent, Trillion Dollar Stimulus Plan.

The Senate Appointment

Rod Blagojevich, the Democrat Governor of Democrat-dominated Illinois kicked off this latest round of “broken politics.”  He faces multiple felony charges arising from attempts to sell his power to appoint a replacement to the US Senate to serve out the remaining two years of Obama’s term.  Obama, Senate Majority Leader Reid, and several high-visibility Democrats had announced  that anyone appointed by “Blago” would be “tainted” and “unacceptable.” Reid even claimed, wrongly, that the Senate had the Constitutional power to refuse to seat a Senator just because he or she was appointed by Blago.

At first, Obama and the Democrat leaders  called for Illinois to conduct a special election instead of allowing Blago to appoint someone.  But then, a few days later, they realized that a special election held because of the Democrat Governor’s corruption, could result in a Republican victory.  So they junked that idea.

Last week the defiant Blago appointed former Attorney General Roland Burris, an African American.  Harry Reid reacted  immediately, with the promise that he would prevent Burris from being seated.

The implied accusations of racism from some of Obama’s Illinois asociates began at the news conference where Blago announced his selection.  Bobby Rush, an Illinois Representative in Congress stepped in front of the cameras to openly inject racial politics.  The six minute video is below, here is an excerpt:

Let me just remind you that there presently is no African American in the US Senate…And that makes a difference.  This is just not a state of Illinois matter, but indeed by this decision it has tremendous national importance, national importance…I ask you not to hang or lynch the appointee…separate the appointee from the appointor.

This is a matter of national importance -  there are no African Americans in the US Senate, and I don’t think that anyone – any US Senator who is sitting in the Senate right now – wanna go on record to deny one African American from being seated in the US Senate.

Yesterday was the swearing-in ceremony for new Senators.  Senate leaders refused to permit Burris to attend or be sworn.  Their lame justification was that the Illinois Secretary of State has refused to “certify” Burris, implying that the Secretary of State has the power to veto a Governor’s appointment, which he clearly does not.  This excuse will evaporate in the Illinois court in a few days.

Today, Burris met behind closed doors with Reid and the Democrat leaders, but nothing was resolved and his appointment still hangs in limbo.

The Offended Senator

Monday, President-elect Obama announced his choice for head of the CIA: Leon Panetta, a perennial Washington fixture.   Immediately, Democrat Senator Feinstein, Chair of the relevant Senate committee, rushed to the cameras to announce her disapproval.  Washington insiders all agree her reaction was due primarily to Obama’s failure to give her a “courtesy heads-up” in advance of his announcement.

Incalculable Risk

This burst of “broken politics as usual” gushing from the new President’s own party, own state, and personal associates certainly casts doubt over the efficacy of much hyped Trillion Dollar Stimulus Plan.

The national media is trying furiously to sell us the notion that this gang of petty buffoons can assemble the largest spending bill in American history in just two weeks!  Nobody in the political media establishment even cares that much of the proposed spending will be Unconstitutional.  In truth, Obama and the Congress are careening into uncharted territory, attempting something that has never been done before, by dysfunctional politicians, based on faith in discredited economic theories.
.