A Presidential Wake Up Call (Newsweek editorial hits the Pres)

Newsweek ^ | March 20 2009 | Eleanor Clift

[lt.america]

Who would have thought 55 days into this administration we would be asking the question, what did he know and when did he know it? Word that a provision in the stimulus bill gave the green light for AIG to hand out bonuses using taxpayer money sent the media bloodhounds hot on the trail of whoever is the culprit. For a time, it looked like Senate Banking chairman Chris Dodd would take the fall, but after 24 hours of twisting in the wind, Dodd said the change that exempted past agreements to pay bonuses was made at the request of the administration.

President Obama likes to remind voters that he inherited a mess, and that's true, but this one is of his own making. And until he comes up with a satisfactory explanation of who did what when, and why, his credibility will suffer. Forty-eight hours ago, I didn't think Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was in trouble, but if the transaction with Dodd turns out to have Geithner's fingerprints on it, his job could be in jeopardy. The deadly chain of events may have started innocently enough, with Treasury Department lawyers raising questions about the government retroactively curtailing private-sector contracts, but did Dodd, who authored the restrictive language, capitulate to some Treasury flunky, or did someone more senior lean on him?

[lt.america]

I think you are right. If they had someone worth a da** who had paid their taxes waiting in the bullpen I think Geithner may have already gotten his pink slip.

[freekitty]

What did they expect? They elected this empty suit.

[mainepatsfan]

Even if they did I don’t think Obama’s ego would permit him from making a switch.

[freekitty]

True.

[Stentor]

My left flank is crumbling, my right is gone and I am buckling in the middle. What should I do

He'll call in the artillery on his own position as soon as he is safely in the rear.

[Allegra]

Wow. Eleanor Clift wrote this?

Am I logged on?

[GreyMountainReagan]

“weekly owing to my support of our local Public Radio (classical music) station”

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

You got to be kidding me. Every heard of downloading music, XM, Sirius? Supporting public radio is supporting liberal fascists.

It really is.

Make a clean break.

[lt.america]

My thoughts as well. Maybe the press has a conscious after all. I guess we will take this one as a brief glimmer of hope that there still may be some journalistic integrity left out there, or maybe this is a Lewinsky type scandal in the making and can't be overlooked.

[mainepatsfan]

He'll call in the artillery on his own position as soon as he is safely in the rear

He's already done that...just ask Chris Dodd and the AIG execs.

[skeeter]

BO’s a lame duck two months into his first term.

[cricket]

Not only Eleanor. . .did you hear 'Maxine Waters'. Albeit 'something' else in play here; she nonetheles, challenged Obama to the truth of the matter. She had to have taken in more than an earful, from Rahm.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Forty-eight hours ago, I didn't think Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was in trouble, but if the transaction with Dodd turns out to have Geithner's fingerprints on it, his job could be in jeopardy.

Great, so while the massive credit crisis and toxic debt portfolios go unaddressed, the man Obama appointed to resolve it is bogged down in some silly crisis over executive bonuses created by Obama's own juvenile populist attacks on big business.

Meanwhile, Obama does nothing to reassure the markets, continues to blather about massive increases in social spending that he expects the Chinese to fund, and fills out NCAA tournament brackets.

An image of Nero fiddling while Rome burned comes to mind. The Obama administration is a train-wreck happening before our eyes.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

He’ll probably survive. Look how popular Clinton was, despite the early debacle of Waco.
Clinton torched American citizens...including children. Then there was Elian. Then Monica.
Clinton floated like a hospital turd through it all.
0bama will too.

[what's up]

SO comical that the stimulus is already coming back to bite them in the butt with even Eleanor Clift now piling on.

And there's still about $760 B or so worth of money to blame the Dems for when it goes down a sinkhole aside from the $170 B or so allotted for AIG bonuses.

God bless the House Repubs for standing strong against the stimulus and THANK God the Dems are already getting caught in their own net SO QUICKLY!!

[utahagen]

You can say that again! I never thought I'd say this, but hat's off to Eleanor Clift!

[alrea]

Left eating it’s own

No way. Attorneys, journalists and communuity organizers are probably already getting the faxes about getting back on the message of change and hope.

[org.whodat]

You cannot get the republicans from firing into the wagon train circle long enough to get them to point out, Paulson, pelosi, dodd and Geithner, wrote tarp, and the bogus bonus BS.

[mainepatsfan]

BO’s a lame duck two months into his first term.

He's off to a worse start at his new job than the Broncos' new head coach.

[cricket]

The country should wake up and arrive at the conviction that we are not going to let the Left take over.

Time to disenfranchise ACORN for starters. . .and yes, maybe there are enough Dems who do not like 'sharp left turns'and an America no longer 'secured'.

[abb]

Glad you weren’t advising General Washington during the winter of 1777-78 at Valley Forge.