There ARE other Democrats Willing to Call BS When They See It
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 12/24/09 @ 2:12 pm - Filed Under National Politics
Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake is taking a ton of flak for co-signing a letter with uber-right winger Grover Norquist in demanding an investigation into Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanual’s involvement in the Fannie/Freddie bailouts. Personally I think Hamsher should’ve avoided any appearance of teaming with Norquist as it just hurt her credibility with the left and only served to move the debate away from one of substance into one of emotion.
But her criticism and call for investigation is valid. Why Democrats continue to defend proven failures like Rahm Emanuel I have no idea. This is the same dipshit that ramrodded NAFTA through the House while claiming how many millions of jobs he was going to create - how’d that work out?
Here’s Hamsher’s latest post and I personally couldn’t agree more:
So, it’s not an issue of “personalities.” It never should be. It’s about principles. And principles aren’t pliant — you either have them or you don’t. You can’t just use them as a yardstick to measure the inadequacy of people you don’t like, and then throw them away when it comes to your “friends.”
Rahm Emanuel is destroying not only the Democratic majority but the Democratic Party. There isn’t enough pork in the world to hold his “Blue Dogs” in office with the legacy of bailouts that he has engineered, and that’s why his “big tent” is now collapsing in his wake. Parker Griffin, and now (possibly) Chris Carney, may blame Nancy Pelosi for their defections to the GOP, but that’s pure demagogurery. The mess they are fleeing — the corrupt back-room deals, the endless bailouts — belong to Rahm.
The ground is shifting. You can feel it. And the Rahm dead-enders have become no different than the Bush dead-enders, completely unaware that the President whose malfeasance they are defending on the basis that one must not “consort with Republicans” is the one who ran on — consorting with Republicans. It is knee-jerk authoritarianism in the extreme. Rick Warren is okay because Obama says so. Principles? Who needs them.
If Obama/Rahm want to triangulate against progressives (and they do), they’re not the only ones who can make cause with people on the other side of the aisle. If that’s what it takes to shake up the corporate domination of our political system, we’ve done it before and we can do it again. Because working within the traditional political order to support “progressives” whose conviction lasts only as long as it doesn’t matter just doesn’t seem to be working.
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Fannie and Freddie are places that politicians of both parties put their friends and gave them a lot of money when they aren’t in office, just like Rahm Emanuel did from 2000-2001.The White House knows it can’t get approval for more TARP money through Congress, so the administration is going to double the commitment to Fannie and Freddie from $400 billion to $800 billion, and then they can use the money to buy up more toxic assets from the banks. With no Inspector General. No independent oversight. But they have to do it by December 31, because after that it requires congressional approval, which will never happen. So, if you’re going to stop it, you have to do it in the next six days. Not a lot of time, especially given the media black hole between Christmas and New Years.
Of course, if it’s just corrupt when Republicans do it, but fine if it’s your BFF, no worries
You know it’s nice to see somebody with a little clout on the left saying the same shit I’ve been saying for the better part of a year now. It was getting lonely out here - maybe there is some hope left for the Democratic Party. But a party run by Clinton retreads and proven failures is not one I’m willing to support. And it damn sure isn’t “Change” no matter how many times you try to convince yourself otherwise…
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So Obama’s “hammer” Rahm, is turning out to be as corrupt as Dubya’s “hammer” Tom Delay (my former congressman). But anyone who made good in the Chicago machine has got to be worse than a guy from Texas who made good killing cockroaches.
But I would appreciate it if you would keep Fannie and Freddie off the radar as long as Ben Bernanke keeps printing money to buy back the Freddie and Fannie CMO bonds I own. After all they had the implied backing of Barney Frank and were assumed AAA rated when I invested in them.
Take a page from FWCS and just emphasize the “good things” going on with the bailout. Like driving down mortgage rates so we can get the real estate bubble reinflated.
Or switch to bashing Sallie Mae, who’s going now to stick us with millions of bad students loans. They’re now a private entity also backed by the government, leaving the taxpayers responsible for the tab from all the recent grads who can’t get jobs.