While it yet remains to be seen if President Obama's monstrous stimulus loan/gift and unilaterally created seat on General Motors's board of directors will pump enough water over the bow of the rapidly sinking USS Economy to save it, it's safe to say now that the executive branch is doing its fair share of work on that Sisyphean task.
The judiciary is doing its part by not really doing its part in ignoring Phillip Morris's appeal of $79.5 million judgment for an Oregon smoker. The legislative branch was, until recently, doing its part by hurling large wads of cash in the general direction of anyone with a bank ID until they decided, just kidding, we are going to want that back, and we will feel free to retroactively tax it at 90 percent if we so choose. So it's easy to see why both Democrats and Republicans regularly campaign on a "change" platform and rapidly revert to status quo upon arrival in the Northeast District.
President Obama appeared on the Jay Leno Show recently, and likened his bowling skills to the "Special Olympics or something." After the past few weeks though, it's not the president's bowling skills that are like the Special Olympics, it's the members of the House of Representatives and their responses to the recession.
The House of Representatives is notable for the diversity it offers as well as its anonymity, and with that, many representatives figure, well, with 434 other idiots in this chamber, can I really do something so stupid as to get noticed? And the answer is obviously, yes. When the economy is experiencing positive growth, reps can do and say whatever they want, because no one cares. But unemployed people have TV and computers.
I watched with pride as my own congressman, Steven LaTourette, R-OH, made himself into a YouTube star as the Daily Show, Morning Joe and other talking head humor shows broadcast a clip of him making references to the "tightening of sphincters" on "both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue." One would think that an eight-term veteran of the House would know enough to find some better imagery on a floor speech, particularly in an era when students will just watch it on their iPhones.
Another Ohioan, House Minority Leader John Boehner, added another chapter to his playbook of ensuring a Democratic majority for years to come, releasing a "budget" when challenged by Democratic leadership. Of course, it turns out that his ersatz budget was really a 19-page Word document with three cover sheets and no actual numbers. When you consider it, this makes it an apt self-metaphor of Republican strategy right now: don't do anything, and when in doubt, vote no. Or propose a five-year spending freeze during the worst recession in living memory, when your own term is two years, like Paul Ryan, R-WI, did. Add to this the fact that it looks like the Republicans are going to lose a seat in upstate New York, in a district they gerrymandered to ensure their own dominance, and well, their political strategy is beginning to look like the president's bowling.
The Democrats, not to be outdone, have been handling their fortuitous (what else could you possibly call it?) political success like Tony Romo holding an extra point attempt. In late 2008, in the post-election Obamania/job shedding, House Democratic Leadership (read: Hopkins Commencement Speaker Nancy Pelosi) quietly removed auto industry advocate John Dingell, D-MI, from his chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and replaced him with Rep. Henry Waxman, D-CA, who recently introduced a climate bill that would never have been brought up on Dingell's committee. Cosponsored by Rep. Edward Markey, D-MA, the bill calls for insane carbon reductions, not only at time when even Japanese automakers are struggling, but during the worst recession in living memory. The bill could equally be considered a giant middle finger from the liberal coasts to red and blue coal-producing states. Instead of focusing on scrubbing demonstrably dangerous but manageable particulate matter from coal smoke, the bill claims carbon dioxide is causing global warming, at a time when it's not even clear that human-caused global warming actually exists. And of course, Massachusetts residents rejected offshore windmills and hate nuclear energy, so I am curious to know where they will be getting electricity from in 2020 when the penalties kick in.
You may have heard the touching story about the Special Olympians who, during a race, when one runner fell, all went back, helped her up, linked arms and crossed the finish line at the same time. House Leadership on both sides seem to be linking arms and insisting that no one come out ahead politically from the recession, by falling directly at the starting line and making no effort to actually move ahead at all.
