December 14, 2004

The Pudding George Made
<>The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating. It took almost four years to cook, but its about to be put on the table, so belly up.
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<>First the recipe for:
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George’s Deficit Pudding

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Go to the pantry and get the very large sack of flour left by the last occupant. It contains $5.6 trillion in surplus flour.

Send $2 trillion of it to your country club for their annual bash. (Put a nice note in the package assuring them you intend to make this a permanent donation.)

Send the rest of the flour to private companies contracted to supply our troops.

Go to the store and buy more flour. Since your larder is now empty, use your credit card.

Purchase pots, pans and serving plates. Charge them too.

On the way home return to the grocery store and charge another $2 billion of flour and give it to the old folks' home.

Put your pudding in the oven and bake slowly (preferably in a dark room) for about 48 months.

Serve cold.

And now the results of the first proof tasting are in:
<>- Interest rates -- rising
<>- Producer Price Index – rising
<>- Consumer Price Index – rising
<>- Job creation – weak
<>- Retail sales – weak
<>- New car sales – falling
<>- Home sales – falling
<>- Trade deficit – rising
<>- Value of the dollar – falling
<>- National Debt - exploding
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<>Yum, yum. What’s not to like? Bet you just can’t wait for the next batch of G.D. Pudding!
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<> Is it “Oversight” or “Over Sight?
<>The most important political story of the day, maybe the year, was buried on page 10 of today’s Washington Post:
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Democrats Planning Watchdog Role

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Senators' Hearings Will Scrutinize Administration Policies

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Senate Democrats announced plans yesterday for wide-ranging hearings to examine Bush administration policies and conduct, saying the Republicans who control both houses of Congress have abdicated responsibility for oversight of the GOP administration.

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<>Well, it took a thorough trashing at the polls to convince congressional Democrats it might just be a good idea to represent the half of us out here who think Bush gang is ruining the economy, the country, the environment and annoying the crap out of the rest of the world.
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<>Of course Senate Republicans believe that their oversight responsibilities are to exercise over sight. They have no interest in holding hearing that could confirm the obvious flaws in this administration’s policies, foreign and domestic. Nor do they have much interest in hearing that could reveal the full scope of the fleecing of the US Treasury by their GOP corporate posse.
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<>The plan announced yesterday described by Democratic Senator Byron L. Dorgan (N.D.), could, for the first time, put this administration’s feet to the fires of public accountability. With Republicans pretty much in charge congressional oversight committees we have seen few if any really probing hearings on this administration’s (failing) programs and policies.
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<>But yesterday Sen. Dorgan warned that that beginning with the next congress that will change. If Republicans refuse to hold hearings on festering sores, like Halliburton’s Iraq contracts, or the administrations phony baloney, “Clear Skies” initiative, or the possible negative impacts of rampant federal borrowing, then Senate Democrats will call and hold their own hearings and, if Republicans refuse to show, tough. (The question is, will the press show?)
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<>Of course, if Republicans boycott those hearings they will lack teeth. As the minority party Democrats will not have subpoena power or be able to compel witnesses to testify. But Dorgan thinks they won’t need no stinkin’ subpoenas. He said he believes that four years of arrogance and ignorance from the Bushites has pissed off scores of hard-working career agency employees who are just itching to spill their guts during C-Span televised hearings. I believe he may just be right about that.
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<>If Senate Democrats follow through with this threat and hold well prepared, hard-hitting oversight hearings, it could provide the spark needed to focus and revitalize the long dormant dems. For too long the party has bought into the phony notion that voters don’t like controversy and division, that Democratic voters really want the minority party to be helpful, not obstructionist. Wrong. But that’s exactly what Karl Rove wants. Because when the opposition party is compliant it becomes irrelevant. And an irrelevant minority party is a minority party -- forever.
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<>When the Republicans were in the minority they were anything but compliant. They fought, fought like French resistance fighters behind Nazi lines. They were political terrorists, conspiratorial, subversive, cruel pranksters and sneaks. They awoke seven days a week with only one mission -- to spend that day making Democrats miserable. They were bastards in their single-minded determination never to be seen as irrelevant. And they won.
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<>Now we can only watch to see if “Dorgans’ Raiders” remember how to fight and, if they do, if they are still a match for these thugs.
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<>Rewarding Failure
<>Today at the White House George W. presented the highest civilian honor, The Medal of Freedom, on two failures – former CIA chief, George “Slam Dunk” Tenet, and former Iraq coalition head, Paul “Green Zone Jerry” Bremmer. Former General Tommy Franks also got a metal but he deserved his. He got the job done in Iraq, saw that it was going to be a mess forever and day, and retired. So, he gets an I.Q. Metal too.
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<> No Confidence Vote
<>If Sen. John McCain can’t be President his next wish is to be Defense Secretary. So, after three years of being a burr under Bush’s saddle, McCain became a male version of Laura Bush during the campaign in the hopes that in a second term Bush would dump Rummy and appoint him to the job. Then Bush double-crossed him announcing that Rummy would stay. So, the burr is back. Yesterday McCain told any reporter with a mic, camera or notebook that he no longer had any confidence in Rumsfeld.
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Asked about his confidence in the secretary's leadership, McCain said

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"No. My answer is no. No confidence."

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Rummy helped McCain out last week when he flubbed that question from the troops in Kuwait about them lacking armor. It was a rare moment where Rummy glib tongue cramped in mid-answer and he was suddenly revealed to be something considerably less than the military genius he clearly believes he is.
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<>So. is Rummy on the way out and McCain on the way in? Maybe. If so we could see the oddest of odd couples take center stage next year. Are you ready for this dance team:
<>McCain as Secretary of Defense and Joe Lieberman as head of Homeland Security.
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<>Yes, it’s true. One of the men on Bush’s shortlist to replace Bernard “Jersey Boy” Kerik is none other than Republicrat Joe Lieberman, a man who when he ran for President, could not seem able to remember if he was running for Commander in Chief or national Rabbi.

Life in Bushworld… it just gets stranger and stranger.

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