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- It isn't fair to use the tax-cut debacle as an example of how poor Barack Obama is at negotiation -- his position has been clear for some time -- but rather how lost congressional Democrats have been on the issue (at least until today). That being said, the tax-cut fight has prompted a lot of discussion over what Obama really believes; it's even been suggested that he's a "Rockefeller Republican." For now, I'm going to agree (again) with Kevin Drum that after the lame-duck session is over, the president needs to start picking fights with the GOP, or his supporters will simply lose interest in him.
- Yesterday I mentioned how conservative economists don't understand what motivates liberal economists, but this can be generalized further. Take Jonathan Zasloff's amusement at the conservatives who troll his blog. They cannot comprehend how anyone would choose to work in the public interest rather than cashing in in the private sector, which is how they believe that compensation rates must be higher in the public rather than the private sector. This is just an element of the Randian belief that anyone who takes any form of "handout" -- in this case, working for the government -- is a parasite leeching off society's real producers.
- I have no strong positive or negative feelings about retiring Sen. Chris Dodd, but in light of his farewell address/ode to the glory of the United States Senate, I have to say: good riddance. Reforming that institution requires a body of senators who have known nothing but its current dysfunctional incarnation. Dodd comes from another time, and his reverence for the institution and his belief that it was immaculately conceived to be the world's greatest deliberative body are anachronistic. People like Jeff Merkley are the future of a functioning upper house of Congress.
- Remainders: I guess in hindsight, believing Congress would do something about climate change was right up there with believing in fairies and leprechauns; you might even say that people who make the connection between the Muslim and liberal "agenda" are wallowing in ignorance about both; I'm shocked, shocked, The Weekly Standard would make shit up in the service of promoting war against Iran; and Tea Partiers love earmarks.
--Mori Dinauer
