Progressive Update--09/18/2007

New Attorney General—I’m no legal scholar. My day job is as a financial advisor. I smiled when I read a description of how the White House selected the current Treasury Secretary—‘scraping the top of the barrel’. The prior Treasury Secretary was a disaster, despite being a loyal Bushie. The current one actually has some credentials!

It appears that Michael Mukasey, Bush’s nominee for Attorney General, while not found at the top of the barrel, was certainly not found at the bottom of the barrel with the loyal Bushies.

Mukasey is not someone that a Democrat and/or Progressive would have selected. He has some troublesome positions on civil liberties. However on the issue of law versus politics, he appears to place the law on top. This is an extremely refreshing approach after the Gonzalez years.

Senator Leahy is suggesting that the confirmation will require not only information on Mukasey, but also material requested in the past year regarding the US Attorney firings and domestic wiretapping, material that the White House has refused to release, stonewalling the Senate. That certainly sounds reasonable to me.

You MUST Read This—I’m kidding. When you read that headline, aren’t you tempted to skip it? I am. As a culture, we detest being force-fed anything. Why don’t politicians get this?

Delaware is WAY behind in recycling. One reason is that our legislators don’t get it. Their solution is ‘mandatory recycling’. Sure sounds like something I’d oppose. To state the obvious, ‘mandatory recycling’ is a phrase invented by opponents to recycling. Let’s stop being foolish! How about ‘universal recycling’? Words matter!

I heard some headlines about Hillary Clinton’s Health Care Plan this morning. One of the things I heard about her plan, is that all Americans would be required to obtain health insurance. HELLO. Hillary, find your chief health-care strategist and require them to resign.

I haven’t closely examined the specific health plans of the presidential candidates, other than to observe that Democratic candidates have plans, and Republican candidates have none. Before we hammer on one Democratic candidate’s plan let’s at least be thankful that the Democratic Party gets it—it’s Iraq and healthcare, stupid!

The Delegator in Chief—I like the irony of the self-described Decider relinquishing the responsibility of setting the strategy and goals for 160,000 US soldiers occupying a foreign nation. It’s absolutely amazing.

The bipartisan Iraq Study Group identified recommendations, including political, diplomatic, and military steps and goals. How is a general going to ‘bring success’ to this mess? A lame-duck president who isn’t answerable to the country is delegating to a general who isn’t answerable to the country to set policy and strategy for 160,000 troops? It’s madness!

The stated goal was to bring democracy to the Middle East. Well, a majority of Iraqis want us out of Iraq. At this time, we are clearly invaders and occupiers. A majority of Americans wants us out of Iraq. Can’t Bush’s masterful spinmasters turn an end of the occupation into Mission Accomplished—the Sequel?

Paul S Baumbach