State of Change

Sanders: Capping Executive Pay Is Only a Start

By John Nichols

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has the whole executive accountability issue exactly right.

Sanders calls President Obama's proposed $500,000 cap on salaries for top executives of corporations that accept taxpayer-funded bailouts "a step in the right direction."

But, Sanders says, Congress should "go further" and write stricter limits into law.

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February 4, 2009

Would Dean Be Best at HHS?

By John Nichols

With the exit of the atrocious Tom Daschle as President Obama's nominee to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services, there is now much talk about nominating former Vermont Governor and Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean for the position.

Dean is appealing. He is a physician with record of working at the state level to expand access to healthcare for children and low-income families. His 2004 presidential candidacy rallied opposition to the Bush-Cheney administration at a critical point and laid the communications and grassroots-political groundwork for Barack Obama's successful 2008 drive -- as did Dean's leadership of the DNC. And Dean is an independent player, who has tangled with the likes of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in the past, and could be counted on to do so as a high-profile member of a "team of rivals" Cabinet.

But supporters of real health-care reform should remember that Dean long ago distanced himself from advocates for a single-payer system. Commentator John McClaughry -- a critical observer of his fellow Vermonter -- noted in a 2005 column for The Wall Street Journal that upon assuming the governorship in the early 1990s, "Gov. Dean quickly distanced himself from the single-payer idea he had supported, favoring instead something called 'regulated multipayer.' Translation: Hillarycare."

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February 3, 2009

McCain Wades Into Email Fight Over Stimulus

By Ari Melber

Sen. John McCain is now taking his opposition to the stimulus online.

The Arizona senator sent an email on Tuesday urging supporters to sign a petition opposing the Democrats' stimulus plan, a move that comes days after President Obama's new political organization, Organizing for America, launched an effort to build support for the stimulus with house parties around the country. OFA has already sent two emails recruiting supporters for the campaign, including one from President Obama himself, and it is hosting a private, national conference call on Tuesday evening for neighborhood leaders. Democratic activists are already debating whether the massive effort will undermine participatory politics, (as TechPresident's Nancy Scola reports).

McCain's push, on the other hand, is unlikely to have much impact. Politically, Republicans have already been uniting against the stimulus. Organizationally, McCain's campaign email list is very thin, since the majority of addresses were purchased, not organically recruited, according to a senior GOP source.

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February 3, 2009

Crummy Deal For Commerce

By Ari Berman

Since when did the Commerce Department--an obscure government agency whose functions few can name--become so controversial?

First Barack Obama offered the gig to Bill Richardson as a consolation prize and then Richardson promptly withdrew amidst a widening corruption investigation in New Mexico.

So the slot remained vacant for weeks.

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February 3, 2009

Rush Limbaugh's Party of Failure

By John Nichols

Rush Limbaugh says he wants Barack Obama to fail as president.

Fair enough.

Limbaugh says he is an entertainer, and entertainers have no responsibility to support what is best for their country. They swear no oath of loyalty to the Constitution and, it is fair to say, Limbaugh has displayed no such loyalty during a career defined by nothing so much as his situational ethics.

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February 2, 2009

Only One Super Bowl Ad Rolls Back the TARP

By Leslie Savan

Sure, a few Super Bowl ads gingerly touched on our recession, offering Cash4Gold here and a free Grand Slam breakfast at Denny's there. But only one spot, taking aim at the elephants in the boardroom, came anywhere close to explaining the matter.

These people may be buzzed, but didn't they just raise the possibility of cutting back on marketing and killing bonuses, and then, with Bank of America finesse, pointedly ignore the idea?

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February 2, 2009

Taking on Wartime Contracting

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

Three years ago I proposed that we needed an independent war profiteering commission--modeled on the Truman Commission--to expose and eliminate the staggering waste, mismanagement and corruption of Iraq Reconstruction under the Bush Administration. Monday, the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan held its first hearing in the same room where the Truman Commission did its historical work.

The first panel of witnesses included Senators Jim Webb and Claire McCaskill who introduced the legislation to create this bipartisan commission made up of non-elected officials. In his opening statement Senator Webb said:

Let's start with the premise that every interested American knows that there was rampant fraud, waste and abuse following the invasion of Iraq. They all know it. And they want us to demonstrate that we're willing to do something about it, not simply in terms of process, but in terms of accountability.

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February 2, 2009

Steele's a (Symbolic) Victory for Republicans

By Ari Berman

The race for RNC chair didn't garner nearly as much attention as the DNC's election of Howard Dean in 2005, nor did it tell us anything that profound about the GOP. All of the candidates praised Ronald Reagan and rhetorically distanced themselves from George W. Bush while pledging allegiance to the party's increasingly conservative base.

That said, the election of former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele was good news for Republicans--and not just because he's the first African-American leader of a party that badly needs a new public face.

If any rift emerged during the RNC race, it was geographic rather than ideological. Republicans who weren't from the South resented how their parts of the country increasingly didn't exist to the leadership of the party. "The fact is that Republicans are becoming dinosaurs in too many states, especially north of the Mason-Dixon line," wrote Republican strategist John Feehery, a top aide to former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. "We have become a regional party, and the bad news is that we are even losing ground in that one region."

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February 2, 2009

GE Uses Yip Harburg to Sell Wizard of Oz Mythology

By Laura Flanders

You've heard of preemptive strikes. Now welcome to the era of pre-emptive co-optation. That's the kindest word for what millions of viewers heard during the 2009 Superbowl when GE used the work of the Great Depression's most famous songwriter to sell its myths about prosperity.

In its first Superbowl ad since 1981, GE riffed on the classic, the Wizard of Oz, to make the case that if America updates its power-grid we will see brighter days ahead. With Yip Harburg's "If I Only Had a Brain," playing in the background, closes with the Scarecrow walking off into the sunset toward a radiant city on a yellow brick road

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February 2, 2009

Obama Releases Aid for Gaza

By John Nichols

Recognizing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, President Obama has released $21.3 million from the U.S. Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance (ERMA) Fund for use in the Palestinian region.

The money will go to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA),the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). According to the U.S. State Department, "These organizations are distributing emergency food assistance, providing medical assistance and temporary shelter, creating temporary employment, and restoring access to electricity and potable water to the people of Gaza."

Both the United Nations and the Red Cross have called for assistance in seeking to restore a measure of stability to Gaza, which suffered devastating blows to its civilian infrastructure during a sustained bombing campaign and invasion by Israeli Defense Forces.

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January 31, 2009