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- Here we are, Day Two of the Obama administration's death spiral, and we have more polls showing that he might as well just resign now and get it over with. Or, if you prefer, you can ignore the worthless analysis and attention-grabbing headlines that typify most Beltway journalism and try to put poll numbers like this in the context of past presidencies. You might be shocked to discover that people have, you know, actually researched this stuff and determined that Obama's approval rating is following a well-established precedent.
- The Senate's 58-40 vote to strip funding for the F-22 is undoubtedly a good thing unto itself. But the significant victory here is the slow creep of the idea that defense spending costs real money. Lots of real money. Money that is spent to prepare to fight competitors who don't exist. To preserve air superiority that hasn't been challenged in decades. To futilely attempt to preside over a world in which only 37 countries, according to one estimate, escape failing- or failed-state status.
- It isn't particularly surprising to learn the sordid details of the largess the health care industry has showered on Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus, and even though there's little question that these donations affect Baucus' stance on health care reform, there's still the question of why he accepts such massive donations to fend off non-challengers in Montana.
- I get that Eric Cantor's call for a "Judeo-Christian foreign policy" is little more than primitive tribalism. But outside of the Middle East, where "shared culture" is pertinent, what exactly would this foreign policy look like? Promoting the work of U.S.-based missionaries?
- Paul Krugman ponders the bizarre opposition to speculation in cap-and-trade legislation and concludes that it's effective regulation that matters, not that a market exists. Broadly speaking, I've never understood why markets illicit such strong emotional responses. On the one hand you have people who call markets "the most heartening intellectual development of our time" and on the other you have people who oppose them at any cost, even if it means the planet's peril.
- Remainders: Robert Byrd returns to the Senate; Roll Call buys out Congressional Quarterly; Michael "I don't do policy" Steele attempts policy with predictable results; Politico could really use a fact-checker; Bobby Jindal is without shame; and Dick Cheney asks for -- and receives -- an extension on Secret Service protection.
--Mori Dinauer
