Clowns. Seriously.

Horsey, Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Judd Gregg Withdraws

Judd Gregg: Erratic, Yet Also Oh-So-Predictable

Dana Houle aka DHinMI:

Judd Gregg last week:

"I have recused myself from voting during the pendency of my nomination," Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican, told CNBC.

Earlier in the program he said he was "not really engaged in the stimulus bill," but that he did believe "we need one."

"We need a robust one," he added. "I think the one that's pending is in the range we need. I do believe it's a good idea to do it at two levels, which this bill basically does, which is immediate stimulus and long-term initiatives which actually improve our competitiveness and our productivity."

Got that? Judd Gregg publicly supporting the administration, the need for the stimulus bill, and that stimulus bill as the right solution for the economic problems facing the country. [...]

Judd Gregg today:

... it has become apparent during this process that this will not work for me as I have found that on issues such as the stimulus package and the Census there are irresolvable conflicts for me.

Gregg sought out the position. He knew the policies. He said he could accept and support them. He publicly supported the stimulus package. And now he's saying it had become apparent to him he couldn't do something that he had already agreed to do and in fact had done publicly. [...]

He's always been a rightwing Republican, and like those Republicans aligned with the right wing of their party, their allegiance to the right wing of their party is more powerful than their commit to look out for the good of all the country.

Gregg's statement


Judd Gregg withdraws as nominee for Commerce Secretary, says he won't run in 2010

New Hampshire Union Leader:

U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg abruptly pulled out as Commerce Secretary nominee Thursday and further surprised everyone by announcing he will not run for re-election in 2010.

Wage Cuts: Not Economically Smart

Gene Sperling: Why Make Autoworkers Concede To ‘Brutal Wage Cuts’ During A Recession?

Think Progress:

The main justification espoused by conservatives for blocking a proposed $14 billion bridge loan to General Motors and Chrysler last week was that the United Automobile Workers (UAW) would not agree to “steep cuts in pay and benefits,” to be implemented in 2009.

During an appearance on CNN’s Late Edition yesterday, Center for American Progress Action Fund Senior Fellow Gene Sperling questioned the rationale behind the conservative demands, asking, “Why, in the middle of a recession, would you want to demand, in 2009, these type of brutal wage cuts? It’s not fair. It’s not economically smart.” [...]

Sperling is correct, though, to note that “it’s not economically smart” to cut wages during a downturn. Keeping people working — and spending — is a key component of reversing the downward trail of America’s ailing economy.

But preventing the loan entirely because there was no immediate UAW wage cut could have even more drastic consequences, if any of Detroit’s Big Three should fail. The New York Times reported today that, “With unemployment claims reaching their highest levels in decades, states are running out of money to pay benefits.” The fund in Michigan — the epicenter of America’s auto industry — has already run out.

The Times produced the following chart, showing that the states in danger of exhausting their unemployment funds are overwhelmingly in the auto-producing belt of the midwest:

I have a message for the GOP Senators and their supporters...

You have alienated the millions of Americans who built your homes, your cars, protected your precious homes from fire and your families from crime. [...]

And by the way don't call me again to ask for my vote, my money, my time to promote your corporatist / christianist / fascist agenda. Ever.

In fact, don't call me for anything ever again.

Don't call us when your home catches fire.

Don't call us when your home is burglarized.

Don't call us when your child is struggling in school.

Don't call us when you need your new luxury home built in that private gated community you so cherish.

Don't call us when your Lexus breaks down (yes Lexuses do break down) in some God-forsaken ghetto that you helped create by busting someone's union and driving their wages down.

Don't call us when said Lexus needs extensive and expensive repairs.

Don't call us when you and your famly want to fly to Bali for the weekend when most of your constituents can't afford to fill up their cars.

Don't call us when the first draft of your new anti-union legislation needs to be rushed by UPS to your lobbyist for approval before you send it to committee.

Don't call us when you need a new casino in Vegas to piss away your lobbyist's loot.

Don't call us when your new shoes need to be shipped from Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Columbia, or whatever hellhole third world country that pays the lowest wages that week.

Don't call us when your smelly trash needs to be picked up.

Don't call us when the voluminous amounts of waste you produce has clogged your plumbing and you need someone to rod out the fetid mass that is stuck in your drainpipe.

Finally, don't call us for any other dirty job that is beneath your dignity or beyond your skill level.

After all, we union members are just lazy, unproductive, overpaid, complacent leaches on the body of the American economy.

How dare we have the gall to ask for a decent wage, a safe jobsite, and affordable health care for our children.

Senate GOP Class Warriors Head For Hooverville

Countdown Friday:

GOP VS. GM

Epic Bail: Our fifth story tonight, the end of an era, as we learn that Senate Republicans are now willing to kill GM, regardless of whether it's good for our country, in order to kill the union of GM's workers.

GOP: 'Action Alert - Auto Bailout'

Countdown has obtained a memo entitled "Action Alert - Auto Bailout," and sent Wednesday at 9:12am, to Senate Republicans. The names of the sender(s) and recipient(s) have been redacted in the copy Countdown obtained. The Los Angeles Times reported that it was circulated among Senate Republicans. The brief memo outlines internal political strategy on the bailout, including the view that defeating the bailout represents a "first shot against organized labor." Senate Republicans blocked passage of the bailout late Thursday night, over its insistence on an immediate union pay cut.

From:

Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 9:12 AM

To:

Subject: Action Alert -- Auto Bailout

Today at noon, Senators Ensign, Shelby, Coburn and DeMint will hold a press conference in the Senate Radio/TV Gallery. They would appreciate our support through messaging and attending the press conference, if possible. The message they want us to deliver is:

1. This is the democrats first opportunity to payoff organized labor after the election. This is a precursor to card check and other items. Republicans should stand firm and take their first shot against organized labor, instead of taking their first blow from it.

2. This rush to judgment is the same thing that happened with the TARP. Members did not have an opportunity to read or digest the legislation and therefore could not understand the consequences of it. We should not rush to pass this because Detroit says the sky is falling.

The sooner you can have press releases and documents like this in the hands of members and the press, the better. Please contact me if you need additional information. Again, the hardest thing for the democrats to do is get 60 votes. If we can hold the Republicans, we can beat this.

What’s good for the GOP is not good for GM

Dec. 12: Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter talks with MSNBC’s David Shuster about the effort by some Republican Senators to turn the issue of the auto bailout into a debate over organized labor:

7:36

"Herbert Hoover Time"

Robert L. Borosage, HuffPo:

In their last obstruction, "Dr. No" Mitch McConnell's Senate Republicans blocked a bridge loan for the auto companies, unwilling even to sustain them long enough for a new administration to sculpt a responsible response to their crisis.

What was the sticking point? It wasn't getting rid of the CEOs that drove the companies into the ditch. It wasn't forcing the creditors to cut their loans in exchange for stock, giving them a stake in the future. It wasn't accepting an auto czar to enforce the agreement and drive a transition to fuel efficient cars. That was agreed to. No, led by benighted Tennessee Senator Bob Corker -- known previously solely for his "call me" race bait campaign ad that helped him win election -- Republicans wanted to break the union, and punish the workers. [...]

For Republicans, the problem wasn't the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. It wasn't wrong-headed management that was skewered when soaring gas prices wiped out their SUV cash cows. It wasn't the Wall Street dominated trade policies that sacrificed US manufacturing behind a high dollar that made it profitable to move plants and production abroad and aided foreign competitors. It wasn't the burdens of health care costs that make US manufacturers less competitive.

No, for the Republican Senators, the bailout was a chance for a little class warfare. Why should an autoworker make $50-60,000 a year, plus health care? The workers should accept half that and be happy. Autoworkers have agreed to wage givebacks and benefit cuts over the last years. They pledged even deeper cuts in relation to the agreement. But their sacrifices weren't great enough nor the cuts fast enough for Corker and the Republicans. [...]

Forget about the deepening recession. The Senate Republican position was essentially that the price of bailing out GM and Chrysler was to insure that the union was broken and the workers went bankrupt. [...]

There are defining moments in politics. Here Republicans defined themselves. They are not free market conservatives, for they were willing to do the bailout. They don't object to nationalizing the banks or micromanaging the auto industry on the fly. They are class warriors, willing to risk a worse global economic calamity in order to break a union, to force workers into bankruptcy. Herbert Hoover time. Let's not forget this last ignoble obstruction, committed just as the Senators went home for the holidays.

It's not my party (you would cry too if it happened to you)

Republican elected officials dressed to attend a GOP event without being recognized


Boy, it is sure tough to be a Republican Senator these days. They are even ditching their own party's convention so as not to be seen at a Republican event.

The good news for the GOP is that the growing list of Republican Senators who plan to miss their party's convention in Saint Paul did not go up by one today. The bad news for them is that Senator Norm Coleman admitted the obvious in explaining why he would be there and in so doing blew everyone else's cover.

Aside from two retiring Senators-- Chuck Hagel, who refused to endorse John McCain (in fact Hagel announced last week that he won't make any endorsement this year) and Larry Craig (who is not going as a service to his party) many Republicans up for re-election are not going this year. Of course they are claiming it is so they can campaign. Of course. In fact it is to campaign-- and to be NOT seen on television at a Republican event. That is how far the GOP brand has sunk by now. The Republicans who have announced they won't be there include Susan Collins of Maine, Gordon Smith of Oregon, Ted Stevens of Alaska and Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina-- all in tough re-election campains this year-- and Kansas Senator Pat Roberts (who according to the last poll was up by about twenty over Congressman Jim Slattery). I guess it's such a bad year for Republicans that even a twenty point lead in Kansas isn't enough to be seen at a Republican convention. A few weeks ago Smith even ran a misleading ad in Oregon in which he falsely left viewers with the impression that he had the support of Barack Obama. About the only thing Smith hasn't called himself is 'a Republican.' Which he is, of course.

Two other Republican Senators facing tough election fights, John Sununu of New Hampshire and Roger Wicker of Mississippi, still are mulling over whether they want to go.

And what was the 'good news' today? Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman finally said he will be there. But only because he can't very well escape.

Coleman told Minnesota Public Radio that he's going, but

"If the convention wasn't in St. Paul, I wouldn't be at the convention"

McCain has made a big deal about the fact that Joe Lieberman (I-CT) will be there. Well, Lieberman might as well show up. Because it looks like there will be a lot of room to stretch out in the VIP section.