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Ramblings From the Ragged Crumbling Edge Of The Reality-Based Community

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Where Our Hero Is Gobsmacked At A Seniority Fight Amongst Old Farts 

...I will confess that I really don't feel any particular emotions at the defeat of John Dingell by Henry Waxman for the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. To be quite honest, it's hard to get stirred up about a fight over the chair of a Congressional committed between a guy who was first elected to Congress in the midst of my potty training and another guy who first came to Washington just weeks after I first passed that man/child threshold where I could legally walk into some small-town Idaho cowboy/logger bar and ask for a Hamm's on tap (hey, it was Idaho, OK? Back off!)...

This debate suggests a rather disturbing understanding of what seniority means in the US Congress. Yes, John Dingell has probably served well past any sense of a time where his views could be considered to be in the mainstream of the Democratic party. Any member of The Congress Of The United States should be expected to be sufficiently in possession of his or her mental faculties to understand that the debacle of gasoline price increases over the last year should suggest that a history of staunch opposition to increased Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards is simply a loser's game. And, yes, a clear comprehension of the reason that The Big Three Boys have been sitting under the bright lights in hearing rooms sweating out their desperate pleas for a bit of financial help while The Honorable Him's and Her's made cheap jokes about their lavish jets idling on the tarmac near the general aviation terminals at Ronald Reagan or Dulles would suggest that there needs to be some sensible sort of New Way...

History tells a simple tale: John Dingell has been a less than stalwart supporter of the idea of encouraging The Big Three to produce vehicles that acknowledge the looming specter of the end of Big Oil. The numbers out there that represent his defense of the Detroit auto industry don't pick sides in what is generally a political battle, they just tell you what is: General Motors has just a couple of vehicles all across their product line that have EPA highway ratings over 30 mpg; Ford has one that isn't a hybrid. Toyota, all by itself, has four gas-only models that can do that...

Raw seniority may not be the best model to decide who gets to sit in the middle seat in front of the cameras in a Congressional hearing room. It is, after all, remarkably silly to have debates about the value of the 'seniority system' when the "young upstart" challenging the underlying premise of the seniority system has been a member of the House Of Representatives for as long as half of the voters in the country have been alive. Maybe the maintenance of social hierarchy as practiced by Rocky Mountain elk should be the model the majority should adopt. On the other hand, it could be that this fight over the Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee does in fact represent that model, with Waxman being the younger, more powerful bull elk. How the rest of the members of the committee feel about being reduced to the status of being part of the 'Harem' will be left for them to work through, I suppose...
Posted by: Jack K. / 7:39 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Brother, Can You Spare An Embraer...And A Dime 

...there are probably a host of perfectly good reasons for the federal government to lend a helping hand to Detriot's Big Three automakers, but those reasons are hopelessly ensnared in an ugly fetid web tangle of raw politics, bone-headed insensitivity by the CEO's, and the residue of the somewhat testy relationship that Americans have had over the last several decades with The Big Three. As a result, any random "Pick Six" lotto ticket is looking better right now than the odds of any sort of bailout for The Big Three before Valentines Day...

First things first, of course. As Dana Milbank's WaPo piece (dated tomorrow, by the way, as I write this) demonstrates in rather devastating detail, The Big Three CEO's demonstrated at the very least their lack of strategic sense in the political realm as they raced each other to DC in their own individual personal business jets. The reception, as could be expected, was brutal. And, to be honest, why not. This wasn't just a matter of appearances - although a reasonable person could reasonably be expected to think that somewhere in the vast lavish empires of their individual empires there was at least one minion each who was in a position to say "Sir? The jet? Bad idea"; it was more offensive as a complete failure to understand the impact of what they were asking for in a world where people who have never even laid eyes on a corporate jet are losing their homes and jobs and futures even though they, unlike these CEO's, haven't had the sort of control over the larger sphere of their circumstances that the Big Three Boys have had...

The political fight itself somewhat fascinating. There is an obvious sense of competition coming from Senators from states with foreign auto manufacturing plants who flat-out object to a bailout; this bit of regionalism is intriguingly linked with that good old-fashioned Republican desire to bust unions by herding the American car manufacturers into Chapter 11 bankruptcy so they can chop up existing labor contracts. Couple all of this with a desperate Republican desire to score any sort of political points whatsoever and the growing tendency of the Washington Bureau of the Associated Press to inject intentional bits of political commentary and apparently intentional bits of underreporting or misreporting (do AP reporters understand - or even recognize - the word "filibuster" as it applies to the so-called "Democratic Congress" mentioned in the article?), and you have the recipe for the sort of beat-down that would suggest that The Big Three boys should be locked out of the cockpits of their corporate jets as they fly back to the Motor City empty-handed, if only to keep them from committing some rash act...

Loco weed madness is starting to gain a powerful grip on the national discourse about the looming economic collapse, and demagoguery is threatening to build up so much mass that it will eventually break away from earth orbit and spiral out into space to become a new separate moon. And yet...

And, yet, how stupid do you have to be to think that nobody is going to question why a Big Wig with his own on-call personal executive jet really needs an economic rescue package...
Posted by: Jack K. / 7:59 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Random Thoughts: Teh Awesome Power Of Rachel Maddow 

...I'm struggling with a vicious cold the last couple of days, so the delirium has been a problem, but I could swear that Rachel's guest host last night was Arianna Huffington and tonight my bleary eyes are seeing Alison Stewart. Neither of them, as far as I know, are NBC or MSNBC employees, although Stewart once was (and I must confess I miss her)...

When Keith Olbermann is off, there is usually some other MSNBC talking head (most recently, the rehabilitated David Shuster) filling in behind the big desk. All Hail Teh Awesome Power of Rachel, though, because her guest hosts aren't even on the regular payroll...
Posted by: Jack K. / 8:37 PM 0 comments

Rule 1: Don't Poke The Bear With A Stick If You're In The Cage 

...Saxby Chambliss isn't a United States Senator because he was obviously in possession of a brilliant political mind that just cried out to be sent to Washington, DC, to fix what ailed us. He's a U. S. Senator because he lied to the citizens of Georgia about the patriotism of a brave, honorable American who's wheelchair tires Chambliss isn't worthy of cleaning with his own tongue. The American of 2002, when Chambliss beat Max Cleland, was a place that still ran ankle-deep in a throat-clenching fear that evil keffiyeh-wearing brown-skinned men wrapped in low-thread-count bedsheets would come crawling through our bedroom windows in the night stillness to kill us in our beds; Chambliss took advantage of that thrill to run a campaign featuring ads that have already shown that they will stand the test of time as iconic testament to the practice of gutter politics...

Chambliss finds himself in a special runoff election against Democrat Jim Martin in his quest to hold onto his seat. In his ongoing effort to seek reelection, Chambliss has hit on a new strategy: tie Martin to Barack Obama.

No. Really. That's his plan.

Clearly, it's a genius move. Not only is Chambliss drawing on that deeply-held reserve of public concern for the already-failed Presidency of Barack Obama, but he is also firing up that by-now-world-famous "ground game" that served John McCain so well all across this great land of ours in the recently concluded national election. After all, it worked so well on Nov. 4, when the ready-made McCain majority that would have guaranteed a Chambliss victory decided to vote for...well, someone else...

Chambliss may well win the runoff - smart traditional political money probably wouldn't bet against him, it being Georgia and all - but it will be an interesting race. While the vaunted Republican 'ground game' turned out to be more a rumor and memory than a tangible fact, the team that Democrats put on the national playing field proved to be a formidable force. They are refreshed, exhilarated at their most recent success, and still have that rich, coppery taste of fresh political blood in their mouths that they have discovered that they really like. There is a strong sense of empowerment all across that board, and the very idea that Saxby Chambliss - perhaps the multiple-draft-deferred Republican Senator most richly deserving of electoral defeat - would decide to link his opponent to the President-elect in a negative sense will no doubt serve as a powerful incentive...

More to the point, in a special election where the 'ground game' matters most of all, motivating both the Democratic base and a well-trained band of 'get-out-the-vote' specialists willing to come to a state where McCain performed 5.7 percent poorer than G. W. Bush (and where Chambliss couldn't even do that well) just doesn't seem like all that good an idea. Wildlife experts experienced in nuisance animal animal management will always tell you that it's a bad idea to poke sticks at a bear through the bars of the trap cage; it's an even worse idea if you are on the inside of the trap cage, and that's where Saxby Chambliss is living right now...
Posted by: Jack K. / 7:05 PM 0 comments

Monday, November 17, 2008

Just Shoot Me Now, Please 

...maybe it's because I'm in the grip of a terrible, vicious rhinovirus and did something which I have done only a mere handful of times over the last thiry-plus years, but I'm just not in the mood for this sort of nonsense tonight...

I am a Christian; not a fundamentalist-inclined born-again Evangelical but the most progressive life-long Missouri Synod Lutheran you are ever likely to meet. Because of that liberal streak in me - with respect to the 'Christian' thing - I have some strongly held feelings about the divide between my faith and the sort of secular society that the founding fathers described in their construction of the Constitution of the United States. As a result of this supposedly odd, disturbing quirk in my own personal constitution, I find myself not caring the simplest whit which church Barack Obama and his family might choose to attend after 1/20/09 (especially since he probably isn't going to start attending a Missouri Synod Lutheran church in any case, which wouldn't come as any particular surprise to me)...

Apparently, though, this issue matters to the Ron Fournier-led Associated Press Washington bureau, given the headline at the AP's own website: Obama's church choice likely to be scrutinized. This is a simple yet telling absurdity, given the last eight years of the G. W. Bush administration and roughly a decade and a half of Republican rule in Congress. It's the manifestation of a right-wing fascination that offers little in the way of actual information but suggests an absolute treasure trove of down-the-road political attacks. If this is the sort of depths that the AP needs to sink to in order to create the possibility of conflict (which, as we all know, is the bread and butter of the AP Washington Bureau), then you can just shoot me now, because I don't want to have to deal with whatever tests are lurking down the road for the President-elect if this one is so important to the Main Stream Media....
Posted by: Jack K. / 8:36 PM 0 comments

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Between An Icy Rock And A Cold Hard Place 

...life sucks when you don't have any options. Life really sucks when you have more enemies than friends when your options dwindle down to that ugly place place between few and none. That's why life really, truly sucks for Senator Ted Stevens right now...

Despite brave talk from a few of his more faithful supporters like Lisa Murkowski (who has ethical problems of her own), Orrin Hatch, and Larry Craig (and how bad is it going for you when Larry Craig is sitting in the court room behind your chair at the defense counsel's table as a show of support), the Republican Senate caucus seems intent on going all Jason McCord on his butt, stripping off all his insignias of rank and hurling his broken sword out the gates of their beleaguered fort. This rather brutal outcome is, of course, vitally necessary in order for the Republican caucus to demonstrate that the party is one that honors The Rule Of Law. As the continued status as a Member in Good Standing in the Republican Senate Caucus of LA Senator David Vitter demonstrates, that rule of law tends to focus primarily on the relative merit of sex scandals vs. money scandals...

While it would certainly be a better for both Democrats and Republicans - for obviously different reasons - if the laborious vote counting in the Alaska US Senate campaign were to result in a victory by Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, the unfortunate possibility of a Stevens victory creates the opportunity for interesting speculation. While Republicans are understandably frantic to herd Stevens out the nearest door as soon as possible (since he is the newest face of Republican corruption and the poster child for Republican double-speak when it comes to that difficult fiscal responsibility/earmarks crossroads), there simply isn't any reason for a more robust Democratic majority, come January 6, to divert much attention from the pressing array of desperate issues facing the country in order to address some convicted member of the minority party. There wouldn't be any political advantage to be gained by spending time kicking Stevens out of the Senate and affording Governor Sarah Palin the opportunity to make an interim appointment and setting up a special election where a much more acceptable Republican candidate could take a shot at the slot...

After all, the last time a Democrat won a Senate seat in Alaska was when a dinosaur ate the Republican candidate (if I understand my fundamentalist creationist theory correctly), so there's no reason for the Democratic majority to be in a hurry to rush to justice. The political calculus seems simple: either Begich wins and removes all of the variables from the equation, or Stevens wins and Republicans are faced with the task of figuring out how to convince him to resign. It's supremely ironic that, if Ted Stevens actually pulls off a reelection victory, the only colleagues who aren't going to immediately be clamoring for him to be dragged out of the Senate chamber in shame are the people who wanted for so long to see him out of office...
Posted by: Jack K. / 6:36 PM 0 comments

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