Tennessee's Bob Corker Tells It Like It Is

Tennessee Republican Senator Bob Corker was all over the news yesterday for standing up to our "duplicitous" president.

In the recent closed-door session with Republican Senators, Wonderboy was bluntly asked by Corker how, to paraphrase the Senator,

'you could be so duplicitous as to sabotage my work on financial regulatory reform, then come here and claim to be open to our ideas.'

Yes, Corker used the word duplicitous.

News reports characterized Wonderboy's reaction as 'think-skinned.'

No kidding. For once not among a carefully chosen group of naive teen-aged college liberals, our First Rookie had to take fair and appropriate criticism from real adults.

I think it's indicative of how arrogant and self-centered Wonderboy is, that he believed that simply by showing up at a GOP Senate caucus and addressing them with his magical tones, they, too, would genuflect in worship to the country's first black president, just because he's black and was elected.

It's never been that way in the US, and there's no reason it should change now. Every president has been mercilessly lampooned and criticized, justly or not.

In Wonderboy's case, of course, it's more than justified. And Corker, more than anybody else of whom I can think, spoke truth to power, expressing the realities of our First Rookie's lies and dissembling in clear, unflinching language.

Carolyn Maloney- Democratic Congressional Idiot

Yesterday, I had the unfortunate opportunity to listen to the idiotic rantings of New York Democratic Representative Carolyn Maloney on CNBC.

While being interviewed with Senator Tom Corker of Tennessee, a torrent of stupidity poured forth from Maloney's mouth.

She, of course, castigated now-absent Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson for having attempted to adapt the original TARP to changing conditions, while lauding the still-missing plans of Paulson's replacement, Tim "Tax Cheat" Geithner.

Then Maloney went on to praise Wonderboy, in advance, for whatever bilge is going to flow from his mouth later tonight. Finally, the Representative made sure to utter the sacrosanct administration magic word "transparency," claiming it for all of the administration's dealings, despite the fact it had nothing to do with the abominable 'stimulus' bill recently written and passed by Maloney's House colleagues.

Being curious as to this guiding light's background, I found this bio page on the Democratic Representative from New York.

Here is the sum total of her experience before moving into 'public service,' if you will pardon the phrase,

"After graduating from Greensboro College, Maloney worked for several years as a teacher and an administrator for the New York City Board of Education. In 1977, she went to work for the New York State legislature and held senior staff positions in both the State Assembly and the State Senate. In 1982, Maloney ran for public office for the first time and defeated an incumbent to win a seat on the New York City Council."

Just about what I expected. A short-term school teacher- K-8, it would seem, maybe 9-12 - before launching into a thirty-two year career spending other people's money. Great.

No economics degree. Not medicine, physics, mathematics, or anything to suggest high intelligence. Instead, she's a graduate from an also-ran, religiously-affiliated southern college with no degree that her own website thought sufficiently impressive to mention.

Now, she's Vice-Chair of the Joint Economic Committee. God help us! This woman doesn't understand anything about economics.

In response to Corker's sensible comments about spending and borrowing far too much money, Maloney gushed about how we had to rush to print money and give it to recently-unemployed Americans. That, sure, we'd like to wait for private business to hire again, but, who has time for that? We have to save these people instantly. They can't do it for themselves!

So we'll just not bother with the real economics of market-driven pricing, supply and demand. No, we'll just have government print money to pay for whatever- like FDR did!

The sad thing is, I think Maloney actually believes this stuff. It's remarkable that Corker didn't vomit just from being in proximity to such raving idiocy.

She's so clueless as to not know the difference between Keynes and Hayek. But she knows who Frisco Nan is, and that doing her bidding will get this former teacher with no other significant accomplishments or knowledge more plum committee assignments in any Democratic-controlled House.

McConnell's Brilliant Maneuvering on the Senate Auto Maker Bailout Bill

A little over a week ago, I wrote this post regarding the politics of the then-evolving Congressional bailout of the US-owned auto industry.

In it, I predicted,

"Look for Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan to brace House Minority Leader John Boehner, forcing him to withhold support for any Democratic bailout of the Detroit auto makers which does not first require their filing Chapter 11. Look for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to do the same, while President Bush cites Republican Congressional preference for a bill that includes that requirement.

Bush, Boehner and McConnell, standing in front of the White House, will make an effective team as the President gives his full support to the Republican leaders' version of a bill to help auto workers, via a DIP loan to those auto makers which file for bankruptcy, while steadfastly refusing to engage in corporate welfare and government picking winners and losers in the free market."

I wasn't exactly on target. Bush, sadly, has begun to listen to the wrong people, fail to shame Wagoner for waiting too long to file for bankruptcy, and worry too much about his economic legacy.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, however, performed brilliantly. As this weekend's Wall Street Journal noted,

"In the Senate's Thursday night automobile showdown, the United Auto Workers said "No thanks" to a bailout with strings attached. Most Senate Republicans took them at their word and voted to block the bill. But within hours, President Bush blinked and Treasury is now scrambling to use money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Who'd have thought Mr. Bush would want to join the long line of Detroit executives in caving to the UAW?

Senate Republicans had more gumption. Led by Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, they asked the auto workers to show they were serious about making Detroit competitive again. In exchange for a lifeline from Washington, Mr. Corker wanted the union to set a "date certain" in 2009 for lowering the Detroit Three's hourly labor costs to the average of foreign-owned auto makers in the U.S. He also wanted creditors to bring down Detroit's total debt by two-thirds through an equity swap, making sure debtholders share the cost of restructuring.

The union's counteroffer was that it would bring down labor costs in 2011, when its current contracts run out. Maybe we missed something, but we thought GM and Chrysler were facing bankruptcy now, not in three years. As Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor, that sounds like "taxpayer money today for reforms that may or may not come tomorrow."

Thursday's showdown marked an important political moment for the Republican Party. By refusing to write a blank check to Detroit, Senate Republicans have started to reclaim some credibility on fiscal policy and the role of government in the economy. They did so standing up to a Republican President who doesn't want any more bad headlines, as well as to Democrats who will blame the GOP if the auto makers collapse."

By tapping Corker to lead a spirited, well-intentioned effort to save American taxpayers from a hopeless attempt to 'rescue' already-failed companies, McConnell has positioned his party in the Senate to reclaim the mantle of fiscal rectitude, and regain serious numbers of seats, come 2010.

Americans, by a wide margin, have been polling in opposition to this bailout, because they understand that they are being asked to pay for the excessive pension benefits of union retirees, as well as the excessive current wages of union employees of GM, Ford and Chrysler.