The End of Hillary's Political Career

I wrote recently concerning the President-elect's failure to 'change' anything with his cabinet selections.

As I write this, Fox News has been covering Hillary's likely assumption of the State position. They mused, and I had already discussed this with friends, that doing so will conveniently, for the Illinois rookie, take her out of politics for good.

First, giving up a totally safe Senate seat, which she bought, carpetbagger style, will leave her with no base. As Secretary of State, she'll be worse off than those perennially-defeated chairmen of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee. Instead of ever addressing any domestic issues, she will have a virtual gag order on any topic within the confines of the 50 states.

Next, she'll have to take orders from the Illinois rookie. Besides being tough, temperamentally, it will make it harder for her, psychologically, to challenge him. It's even debatable if she can make it through the entire single term of the Senate freshman.

Third, this is good for the New Messiah. With Hillary shorn of a power base and media-oriented perch, handling difficult-to-understand foreign affairs issues, it will be tough for Hillary to run for the Democratic party's Presidential nomination in 2012, as the new President founders.

If she resigned early in the term of the about-to-fail Obama administration, she'll be viewed as stabbing him in the back and bailing. Damaging party unity. If she doesn't, she's strapped in on a one-way ride to political Palookaville. Waiting another four years, or more, will likely do for Hillary what it did for John McCain, and that's not a good thing.

Either way, Hillary taking the job at State pretty much ends her political career.

Maybe it is a good thing, after all!

More Clintonistas & Old Democrats In The New Messiah's Cabinet

I wrote earlier this week of the Illinois rookie's staffing his putative administration with ex-Bubba Clinton people at very senior levels.

Now, more names are coming out into public view.

Chief co-Bubba, Hillary Clinton, is now reputed to have the Secretary of State position, if she wishes it. And her hapless, pump-headed husband can manage to behave sufficiently well to let her be confirmed by the Senate.

Eric Holder, the Clinton-era pardoner of fugitive Marc Rich and the Puerto Rican terrorists who killed New Yorkers with bombs, is being put forth for AG.

Tom Daschle, the mean, spiteful and vindictive former Senate Majority and Minority leader for the Democrats, is being touted for HHS. Apparently because he wrote some dopey book about healthcare. God save us from small minds.

As I noted in the prior post, so much for 'change you can believe in,' eh? Or any change at all, for that matter.

No, it'll be liberal business as usual in this new US government, come January 21, 2009.

More Stupidity From Barney Frank

Amidst today's House session in which the four pigs came to beg for Federal trough privileges, Barney Frank uttered one of his stupidest comments yet.

Of course, with Frank's annoying speech impediment, you never know precisely what he said. However, what it sounded like was this,

'It would seem that the basis for helping white collar workers is different than that for helping middle-class workers. I'm not saying anything against white collar workers. But we passed a bill spending $700 billion to help big banks and we saved the jobs of the white collar workers of AIG. Now that we are discussing helping middle class workers in the auto sector, the standards for that help seem to be higher.'

If Barney Frank really can't understand the difference between AIG and GM, he needs to remove himself from any House Committee involving finance or economics.

As the nearby, Yahoo-sourced price chart for AIG, GM and Ford, from 1985 until the present, demonstrates, AIG was never in the same shareholder-value destroying shape that the two auto makers (and, presumably, Chrysler, too) until the past two years.

GM barely cleared stasis for most of the 23-year period, and has ended it with a significant loss. Ford did somewhat better, nearly matching AIG for ten years. But both GM and Ford have been in decline, in terms of sharehold value, for nearly a decade.

Not so AIG. At its peak, it had created three times the value for its shareholders that Ford had for its owners. GM isn't even in the same ballpark.

The giant, complex insurer flattened for most of this decade, prior to plunging in value as the markets for exotic structured finance instruments began to unravel last year.

But it's clear from this simple display that the auto sector has been in trouble for far longer than AIG.

Barney Frank should be ashamed of his lack of knowledge and faulty comparisons. No wonder his viewpoints and actions in the House have had such catastrophic effects on the US economy. Beginning with his 'rolling the dice' on loading up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with too much subprime, low-income mortgages.

We can't afford much more of this idiot's 'work' on Capitol Hill.

Obama Steps Further Into Detroit Troubles

As I observed here, a week ago, the President-elect is already breaking promises on the economic front. I wrote,

"It's official. The Democratic Congress and its new partner, the inexperienced President-elect from Illinois, are going to ram a GM rescue bill through Congress ASAP.

This may be a record for the shortest time period in which a newly-elected President ran away from his most prominent campaign promises and morphed into someone else entirely."

Trouble is, current President, George W. Bush, and the Congressional GOP members, aren't playing ball.

Boo Hoo!

Looks like GM is going to actually have to try to run its business until January 21st, 2009, without Federal aid. How shocking!

Treasury Secretary Paulson has announced, long and loud, that the TARP will not be used to lend to GM for ordinary operations. President Bush isn't budging on the issue, either. No executive orders or special spending actions will be coming from him.

It seems, too, that most business press and a groundswell of ordinary American opinion is against selective aid to GM without a bankruptcy filing and, probably, the head of Rick Wagoner as the price for any Federal help.

Democratic Senator Carl Levin, no less, replied, in answer to a question yesterday, that he would have no problem with requiring Wagoner to resign as a condition of any Federal aid to GM.

But the important points which are now clearly shaping up are these. The current Republican administration is not going to take the fall for bailing out a GM which does not file Chapter 11. And many Americans are wondering just why a poorly run, for decades, auto maker deserves to be saved, rather than simply letting shareholders take the loss, sell off the good parts, and provide direct aid to the affected workers, as citizens, not UAW members.

This means that Frisco Nan has a problem- as does her colleague, the rookie Senator from Illinois. Both decry corporate welfare. But GM is largely a vehicle through which UAW members get their loot.

This means the Democrats are caught between a rock and a hard place. No Republicans in sight to take the fall. Nan will have to swallow, hold her nose and personally vote to ladle cash to GM in order to save union jobs. This won't be lost on anyone. Her partner in crime, Obama, will be signing the bill. Literally and figuratively.

Don't think independent voters will not wonder what in God's name is going on here.

Bubba Clinton's Third Term Starts In January '09

I heard Dick Morris refer to the President-elect's administration as basically another four years of Bubba Clinton's old White House and cabinet.

The vultures certainly are circling- Madeleine Not-So-Bright, Rahm Emanuel, and even Bubba's wife. Carol Browner is being mentioned, too.

Where's the break with the nation's partisan past? Where's the proto-post-partisan administration now? Post-election?

Instead, the Illinois rookie Senator is essentially drawing his poker hand from the Clintonista discard pile.

As Morris noted on the Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes program last night, these Clinton retreads are just older and more mercenary than they were last time they held the reins of power. Morris made a point of saying that these returning pols will be mostly out for themselves, owing no allegiance to the newly-elected President.

He singled out Hillary Clinton's prospective role as Secretary of State for special consideration. Noting Bubba's global shakedown enterprise for his library, charity, and various colleagues, irrespective of the ethics or morality of his marks, Dick Morris pointed out how dangerous it would be for conflicts of interest having Bubba's wife at State.

But, just taking a step back, you have to ask what is going on?

We have a newly-elected, young President relying on an old Democratic administration, known for corruption (think Ron Brown) and low morals (think....um.....Bubba himself with Monica!), for his key staff positions.

In fact, if Ron Brown hadn't died in that suspicious plane accident, while under investigation for taking bribes as Secretary of Agriculture, he'd be a natural for the new administration, wouldn't he?

Yet again, the Illinois freshman has begun to spend his honeymoon capital before the month of his election is even over.

For conservative observers, it's just getting better each day!