State of Change

Gregg's Gone... And Rightly So

By John Nichols

New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg, a right-wing Republican who campaigned against Barack Obama's presidential run and condemned the new president's economic policies, has decided not to join the Obama administration as Secretary of Commerce.

Gregg withdrew his nomination Thursday, saying he had "irresolvable differences" with the president who appointed him.

No kidding.

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February 12, 2009

Solis Nomination Endorsed by Key Committee

By John Nichols

A determined campaign by labor unions, women's rights groups, Latinos and progressives -- and a timely intervention by Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy -- has renewed the confirmation prospects of President Obama's choice to serve as Secretary of Labor, California Congresswoman Hilda Solis.

Just days ago, there was speculation that Republican objections might derail the Solis nomination. Emboldened by their success in forcing the withdrawal of Senate majority leader Tom Daschle as the administration's nominee to serve as Health and Human Services Secretary, GOP senators had gone after the president's most progressive Cabinet pick with the goal of further embarrassing the Obama administration.

But progressives rallied to support Solis. And their campaigning appears to have saved the Solis nomination.

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February 11, 2009

A Better Deal, But Not a New 'New Deal'

By John Nichols

Prodded by President Obama, leaders of the House and Senate agreed Wednesday afternoon to a new version of the stimulus package that is supposed to jumpstart a sputtering economy.

The agreement restored some of the cuts to school construction and state aids that were made when Senate Democrats capitulated to Republican demands for sharp cuts in actual stimulus spending. It also eliminates some of the tax giveaways inserted by GOP senators, which ran the cost of the Senate bill up to $838 billion.

Still, the new $789 billion measure is a disappointing proposal compared with the with the $819 billion House plan.

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February 11, 2009

Reconstruction Now

By Laura Flanders

President Barack Obama ended his first prime time press conference on the "I" word.

"When I hear people just saying we don't need to do anything...then what I get a sense of is that there is some ideological blockage there that needs to be cleared up."

The ideological blockage the President's talking about is about as big as it gets.

Whose nation is this, what's its treasure to be used for and who gets to decide? Essentially, that's the "blockage" we're talking about and it's the baggage our nation's been carrying around since its start.

When an earlier senator from Illinois gave what came to be known as the Gettysburg Address conservatives hated it.

As Willmoore Kendall, a leading conservative from the mid 1900s, wrote of Abraham Lincoln: "he attempted a new act of founding, involving a startling new interpretation of that principle of the founders which declared that all men are created equal."

"We should not allow him...to 'steal' the game," Kendall  wrote.  Kendall's quoted in Mike Lux's new book, The Progressive Revolution, just out.

As Lux points out, what conservatives hated about Gettysburg was the proposition that equality was a central principle of US government. They didn't like the idea of a government by a single people, rather than a collection of elites. They certainly rejected the notion that US government should be a government of the people, by the people for the people. They didn't like that.

Into the 21st Century, we're hardly beyond rule by elites. You only have to witness the victory of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, friend of elite bankers, over Congressional leaders and administration officials in designing the bank bailout to know that. (The second gush of bailout money up to elites will be as generous and un-onerous as the first -- at least on banks.)

Nor are we yet one nation -- at least when it comes to paying taxes. Not if the evasive habits of cabinet nominees are anything to go by.

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February 11, 2009

Stop a 'Witch Hunt in the Senate' -- Confirm Solis

By John Nichols

La Opinion, the Los Angeles newspaper that is one of the largest-circulation Spanish language publications in the United States, describes Republican moves to delay confirmation of Labor Secretary-nominee Hilda Solis as nothing less than "a witch hunt in the Senate."

La Opinion argues that:

The profile of this Los Angeles Democrat is ideal to fulfill the position for which the federal agency was mandated. There is no doubt that the department changed its focus in the last eight years to reflect the Bush Administration's perspective on labor relations, tipping the scales toward the employers.

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February 11, 2009

Senate OKs Weak Stimulus; Now for the Hard Part

By John Nichols

Skeptical citizens might inquire: How does a Senate stimulus bill that was trimmed to eliminate "waste" (like school construction money that would create jobs in communities across the country) and "pork" (like funding to prepare for a pandemic that would bring a sputtering economy to a complete halt) end up costing almost $20 billion more than a supposedly spendthrift House plan?

The answer, of course, is that the tepid stimulus plan passed Tuesday by the Senate with a "bipartisan" 61-37 majority was not trimmed down to hold the line on spending. It was restructured to cut stimulus allocations by $108 million while dramatically increasing tax cuts--at the behest of Republican Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and the Democrats with whom these alleged moderates cut a deal to pass the stalled bill.

That fact is what will make the next few days exceptionally difficult for members of Congress who are serious about renewing the economy--as opposed to playing politics.

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February 10, 2009

Obama: 'Send Me A Bill That Creates or Saves 4 Million Jobs'

By John Nichols

"This is not your ordinary run-of-the-mill recession. We are going through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression," President Obama declared at his first prime-time press conference Monday night.

Recounting job-loss figures--which Obama repeatedly described as his top concern--he warned, "the problems are accelerating, not getting better."

If that did not communicate the sense of urgency that the new president sought to foster with regard to a stimulus plan he says must create or save 4 million jobs, the president added a sobering coda: "If you delay acting on an economy of this severity, then you potentially create a negative spiral that becomes much more difficult to get out of."

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February 9, 2009

Top Pols Endorse Dean for HHS

By Ari Berman

He's certainly a longshot--if he's being considered for the position at all--but top Democrats are nevertheless endorsing Howard Dean to be the next Secretary of Health and Human Services in the wake of Tom Daschle's resignation.

After all, Dean provided universal healthcare coverage to children and pregnant women as governor of Vermont, was a doctor for twenty-five years, his wife Judy still practices in Burlington and he grasps the complexities of healthcare reform as well as anyone.

"Governor Dean understands, as you do, that all Americans are entitled to health care as a right of citizenship, and that we must pay far more attention to the needs of our children if we are to have a healthy and prosperous society," Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who clashed with Dean in the past, wrote in a letter to President Obama on Sunday. "As you well know, reforming our health care system will not be easy. It will take somebody with determination and focus to lead that effort. I think that Howard Dean is that person."

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February 9, 2009

Donald Trump and the Socialists Versus the CEOs

By John Nichols

There has been a good deal of grumbling from Wall Street about President Obama's proposal to cap CEO pay at companies that accept federal bailout money.

The line of complaint generally comes around to the question: "How can you get good help for $500,000?

Donald Trump--who knows a thing or two about attracting executive talent, or at least plays someone who does on TV -- thinks that's silly.

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February 6, 2009

Blue-Dog Leaders Revolt Against Bold Stimulus

By John Nichols

Barack Obama got a Blue Dog problem.

And it could pose a serious threat to his ability to enact a stimulus plan that is bold enough to respond to the economic meltdown.

Key leaders of the "Blue Dog Coalition" that represents the conservative wing of the House Democratic Caucus are now openly revolting against the stimulus package's spending proposals -- a stance that dramatically strengthens the hand of Republicans who, for obvious partisan reasons, hope to undermine Obama's popular appeal and ability to move on critical economic issues.

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February 5, 2009