Posted inPolitics: National

The dog ate his tax returns?

I can't help but point out with satisfaction that the pilot who perfectly glided the stricken US Airways plane into the Hudson, saving all aboard, is one of those experienced Baby Boomers who has spent a lifetime perfecting his skills, doing something real and productive, rather than pushing financial swindles. He's also a union member. These are the people our economy can't dump fast enough. And we wonder why America is in trouble.

Then there's Timothy F. Geithner, President-elect Obama's choice to be the next Treasury secretary. I've been uncomfortable with Geithner since his selection, chiefly because he has been president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, the mother ship of the Fed, since 2003. This means he was in a position of significant influence as the financial portion of the Great Disruption was emerging. He apparently raised no alarms or did anything to stop the outright fraud running like a river of manure on Wall Street. He has been, as the New York Times put it, "a central player" in the $750 billion financial bailout. So he was a co-pilot who ditched the financial system, but unfortunately it keeps taking on water and the casualty toll is mounting.

Then there's the wee little problem with his taxes.

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Posted inPolitics: National

The only way out for Democrats is 1960 redux

Smoke-filled rooms have a bad reputation. Yes, they gave us Warren Harding, but they also gave us Harry Truman. The only way out now for Democrats is to light up the cigars, close the door and force a Kennedy-Johnson ticket.

The question becomes, who gets to be Kennedy? Surely Barack Obama, who has inspired so many, including, poignantly, JFK’s daughter Caroline, with the similarity. And Hillary, with her sharp elbows, my-way-or-the-highway style and even ham-handed speaking, resembles LBJ. Maybe she even has some of the better angels of his nature, although we would pray she didn’t reach the Oval Office through the same tragic circumstances.

But ah, my foes and oh, my friends, that won’t work. Obama must play the role of the outsized senator from Texas.

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