Another two excerpts from this morning’s more-lengthy-than-usual Morning Jolt, but remember, if you don’t sign up, you don’t get the other bits on the rumors of the VAT, retired porn stars joining the GOP, and more quick bits and quips from around the blogosphere and righty media.
Though We’ve Got to Say Goodbye to the Summers
Remember when Larry Summers was running Harvard, and he made his casual remark about differences between men and women being a reason that there are fewer women in science fields, that the professional feminists treated as an outrage on par with the Rape of Nanking? He ended up getting run out of town on a gender-equitable biodegradable rail. I was a little disappointed that Summers didn’t recognize he was joining the ranks of politically incorrect white males under fire and make an Alamo-esque last stand, but hoped he had at least learned from the experience and concluded that trustworthy lefty academics are as rare as piranha that you can safely pet.
Anyway, among the menagerie of Twin Peaks characters that make up the Obama economic team – Geithner’s got that creepy Ray Wise grin, Orzsag’s the powerful guy with the secret woman on the side, and I’m pretty sure Christina Romer gets her economic projections from talking to a log – Summers came across as Sheriff Truman – the grownup, the straight man, the designated driver who’s been around a while, and while he may not have been the right’s first choice to be setting economic policy, he seemed to know enough about this stuff to derail the worst ideas.
Or so we thought; bad ideas haven’t exactly been dying on the vine in this administration. And now, apparently, Summers getting ready to head out. The Atlantic’s Josh Green reports, “the buzz that Summers is looking to leave — or is being pushed out – has picked up. Earlier today, my colleague Marc Ambinder wrote about this, defending Summers against his critics while leaving open the possibility that he may, indeed, leave. My own view is a bit less sanguine. I think Summers is going to leave sooner rather than later, possibly before the mid-term elections, and if not then, soon afterward.”
And the next-to-closing thought . . .
CQ: “House Democrats plan to revive the political ghost of former President George W. Bush in their bid to retain the majority this fall, according to Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), the head of the party’s re-election efforts. “This time we will make the case that supporting a Republican is simply turning back the clock to Bush economic policies, the same policies that got us into this mess to begin with,” he told reporters gathered at the downtown offices of Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank.”
Say, fellows . . . ask Creigh Deeds how well that line worked out in Virginia. Or what wonders that approach performed for Jon Corzine in New Jersey. One year after Bush left office, Martha Coakley was rolling out that cobweb-covered line against Scott Brown. (Traditionally, one trick ponies usually perform a trick you want to watch.) By the way, those awful Bush years you keep invoking had unemployment rates between four and six percent. Economically, we’ve got more fires burning around us than Johnny Cash and all the Democrats want to talk about is how bad the frying pan was.