The Republican nominee who essentially withdrew from the U.S. House race Saturday to succeed Republican John McHugh, the new Secretary of the Army newly decided on Sunday to endorse Democrat Bill Owens. This is fundamentally unacceptable; I do understand Dede's frustration with the fact that Hoffman's candidacy, supported by a number of high-profile Republicans, caught fire at the expense of her candidacy.
I do not think Scozzafava's endorsement of Owens will affect the election; the latest Public Policy Polling results show Hoffman at 51% and Owens at about 34%; almost all of the shift has come from Scozzafava's support, and I suspect that much of the residual support will go to Hoffman (because some Republicans were continuing to support her out of party loyalty).
But Scozzafava has crossed the line. Even though I had already decided in Friday's post to support Hoffman, I had gone out of my way to advocate a "big tent" vision of the Republican Party. Former Speaker Gingrich had endorsed her, and the national party had been behind her candidacy until she withdrew Saturday. Her decision had been interpreted by me and others as putting the party above her personal political ambition, enabling Hoffman to keep the seat, which has been held continuously by the GOP for over 100 years. Whether Dede was motivated by revenge against the insurgent candidacy of Hoffman or a determination to put progressive policy above party identification, it's fundamentally a breach of sportsmanship and integrity.
Big Business and Conservatives: They Don't Aways Mix
It's been bubbling under the surface for some time. Whereas for decades the Democrats have loved to portray Republicans as the party of "special interests" and Big Business, it's never been quite that simple. It is clear why Big Business, all things being equal, would prefer the GOP: Republicans tend to resist government empire-building, tax-and-spend and intervention in the private economy (regulations, reporting requirements, etc.) Generally speaking, Democratic initiatives raise the cost of doing business and limit businesses' flexibility in competing in the global economy.
But, and this is a more subtle point, government actions create winners and losers in the economic marketplace. We can see this in a number of ways: for example, small businesses and communities resist WalMart's expansion in their area, and more prudent insurance competitors were furious at the government's bailout of AIG. Any principled conservative could easily and consistently champion the interests of a fair competitive environment for small business. In addition, fiscal conservatives, such as myself, oppose government cost creep; a number of Congressional conservatives during Bush's first term, worried about insufficiently funded expansion in entitlement spending, opposed the Medicare drug prescription benefit, strongly supported by Big Pharma.
Libertarian contributor Peter Suderman, in a Newsweek.com post entitled "The Anti-Corporate GOP?", points out a growing rift between Republican conservatives and normally pro-GOP interests. The fact is, you have to follow the money (or what party controls the federal government), and there's no doubt that some companies or parties will negotiate from their parochial interests, not from a principle of economic liberty. One example, as Suderman points out, is WalMart's recent conversion to the principle of employer health insurance mandates. It is widely believed that insurance mandates would have a more disparate impact on the costs of a key rival, Target. Conservative politicians are also unhappy with Big Pharma's deal-cutting with the Democrats and even the US Chamber of Commerce's support for the unconscionable so-called stimulus bill.
Suderman points out the risk of populism in the conservative base; there is an anger, particularly since last fall, over taxpayer bailouts of banks. (There has been a historic distrust of bankers cozying up with the federal government since the Washington Administration.) Personally, I've made it clear in my posts to date that I have no use for the Politics of Envy. It is incredible to me that any reasonable person would support the Obama Administration's attempts to clamp down on the management compensation of TARP-related companies; since when is it a viable proposition to take the most messed-up, worst-managed companies needing government assistance and tell current and future executives that not only do they have to inherit some of the most trying challenges in their career but they get the incentives of below-market compensation and an obtrusive Obama Administration, which apparently didn't get the memo during business school regarding the problems of micromanagement.
Does that mean I'm happy over huge executive pay packages while nearly 17% of Americans are unemployed or underemployed? No. Sometimes I think I'm in the twilight zone when I hear the federal government paying billions to Goldman Sachs to make good on AIG's credit default swaps and its bonus pool on track to reach $21B this year. Why is pay czar Ken Feinberg acting like Scrooge on hiring the best management talent to take the helm of these institutions? The sooner these banks are weaned from their government teat, the better. Incompetent managers may cost a company millions or billions (maybe Ken Feinberg didn't read a newspaper during the economic tsunami...) I don't think that penny-wise, pound-foolish with management talent or government bureaucrats distracting management from their primary responsibility of getting the financial institution up and running, clear of the federal government are wise or useful tactics.
Obama: STILL Bush-Bashing After All These Months...
(This heading is a play on words, for the astute pop music fan from the 1970's, i.e., Paul Simon's remarkable album "Still Crazy After All These Years".) I found myself screaming at the television screen this weekend, as Fox News played a clip of Obama at the incumbent NJ Governor Corzine reelection rally, reminding those people that he wasn't responsible for the mess he inherited.
I'm getting tired of the Bush bashing--how prescient were the Democrats, including Obama himself, in terms of predicting the financial consequences of a housing bubble, arguing for the streamlining of uncoordinated regulations at both the federal and state level, and demanding a more transparent risk assessment of financial products, like derivatives and swaps? After all, hadn't we seen asset bubbles and financial failures (e.g., a prominent hedge fund) during the Clinton Administration? Where were the Democrats then? They certainly didn't anticipate the Enron, Tyco, and other corporate scandals which really had their genesis under a manic stock market. I'm not arguing Bush is without blame, but there is plenty of blame to go around, including irresponsible mortgage applicants, lenders, regulators, the Federal Reserve, credit bureaus, accountants, etc.
What disturbs me more is the fact that even novice job seekers (everyone else but Barack Obama) seem to know you don't get ahead on the job by constantly complaining and blaming other people. Let me just one example from my own experience. A software vendor no longer supported an older version of its enterprise application software; I had been pushing the accountants to use the newer, supported interface but ran into typical resistance to change. The accounting manager had been scapegoating vendor-required software patching and upgrades--and finally presented what she considered compelling vindication of her doubts--fixed asset queries did not work under the newer interface. What I finally discovered was that the newer interface assumed that asset category names were in upper-case: this would have been the case if the user had created the asset categories under supported functionality (which converted category names to canonical upper-case).
A few years before when the company licensed and installed the fixed asset product, they had hired some contractors whom, instead of following standard procedures, took a shortcut and loaded category names, in mixed case, directly to asset tables. (The fact that the category names were invalid was not detected under the old interface.) The supported solution for this problem was very expensive and required the production database to be down for 2 weeks. The trivial time savings the developers had achieved by directly loading 17 asset categories instead of following procedures (which could probably have been done in less than an hour) were penny-wise, pound-foolish.
I was not happy, because the new interface had been available on our system for years, and the vendor had announced the old interface was no longer supported 6 months before I ever took the job. The contractors were long gone (in fact, the company had moved its headquarters in the interim). Moreover, the accounting manager had unwittingly tipped off vendor technical support that we had violated the support agreement, putting our production environment at risk. This problem should have been detected and fixed months or years earlier, given ample vendor notice. But what happened in the past was not particularly useful: I had to own the situation and fix the problem.
It is time for Obama to let go and stop griping about the hand he was dealt. All the blame game demonstrates is his inexperience, lack of confidence and defensiveness in knowing he's not up to the task of being President. What exactly did he think was going to happen when the economic tsunami hit right in the middle of the general election campaign? Did he expect in two and a half months a robust global economy, full employment and the US Treasury overflowing with tax revenues, ripe for enacting pent-up Democratic spending initiatives? That being President was all about making grand entrances with the band playing "Hail to the Chief" and giving ethereal speeches before adoring crowds? That the global ambitions of ruthless dictators would melt away before the force of his personal charm?
Obama, you ran for the Presidency for two years. It's a tough job, and if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Stop complaining and quit exaggerating your "accomplishments" in office (Come on! Spending nearly a trillion dollars on the backs of our grandchildren but a mere fraction of which was disbursed within the first 6 months after hurried, partisan passage stopped a second Great Depression?) A legitimate leader doesn't need to constantly whine about his job and hype his results; they speak for themselves.
Political Cartoon
The following Glenn Foden cartoon amuses me because of the innovative twist on the concept of a voodoo doll, showing the hidden effects of a progressive activist agenda on the economy. There are at least a couple of associated ideas that would make for good cartoons. For instance, we could show Nancy Pelosi insisting that she's actually performing health-yielding acupuncture on the taxpayer voodoo doll (while the taxpayer lies sick and achy in bed). Or we see when someone pins his "cash for clunkers" check to his bank account doll, his grandchild's piggy bank cries "Ouch!" Or perhaps when Pelosi tries to stick it to a big business doll, all the company workers cry out in pain.
Musical Interlude: My Favorite BJ Thomas Tune From the Mid-80's
It's probably not surprising that a social conservative like myself identifies with this song. One of the tragedies of modern American life is the high rate of divorce. I have been blessed to have friends and relatives whom have celebrated silver and even golden anniversaries, despite in some cases serious illnesses, tight budgets, etc. Whereas I have not been married, I'm the oldest in a large family, and I'm proud to say that my siblings' relationships are following the example of my own parents' strong marriage.
Whatever Happened To Old Fashioned Love?
BJ Thomas
Written by L. Anderson, all rights reserved
We live in the modern age
Where love is fast like a turning page
In a magazine, we've hardly seen
The friends we used to know
They disappear, they come and go
Like the times we've had
It's kind of sad
Whatever happened to old fashioned love
The kind that would see you through
The kind of love my Momma and Daddy knew
Yeah, whatever happened to old fashioned love
The kind that would last through the years
Through the trials
Through the smiles
Through the tears
Today is all we've planned
We say tomorrow we'll understand
If it all should end
We'd be alone again
Ohh, whatever happened to old fashioned love
The kind that would see you through
The kind of love my Momma and Daddy knew
Yeah, whatever happened to old fashioned love
The kind that would last through the years
Through the trials
Through the smiles
Through the tears
For now the tenderness
Has been replaced
With something less
And it's hard to find
What we left behind
Ohh, whatever happened to old fashioned love
The kind that would see you through
The kind of love my Momma and Daddy knew
Yeah, whatever happened to old fashioned love
The kind that would last through the years
Through the trials
Through the smiles
Through the tears.
From: "Tomaselli"
