Here comes Reed Charlie Brown running up to kick that football! Will the Bush administration Lucy hold the ball still? I wait with bated breath.....

Hoppy in Sacramento

"Bolten gave that promise . . ."

Maybe so, but I'd hazard a small bet that in return Paulson had to agree he'd be running things within some predetermined limits. A return to undisputed fiscal sanity is probably not in the cards.

J. McCutchen "JmacSF"

San Francisco. CA

Reed, this a bit of a stretch for materiality, but what the hell. 

 At some point, I'd like to have your take on this

The FCC will investigate the placing by the Bush administration of "video news releases" full of "good news" about Iraq on US television channels, passing them off as real news. Having defeated the Soviet Union, the US government seems increasingly intent on emulating its domestic security policies. (Juan Cole)

Am I wrong or is this likely to go as far as the FTC's investigation of oil price manipulation?

 Oh yeah - the proffer

1. Reed's comment "Dems step up game"

2. Dems = DoNothing Dems of the CoverUp Congress

3. FCC investigation a whitewash, part of coverup

4. Dems do nothing

5. Dems have no game to "step up"

penalcolony wrote:
"'Bolten gave that promise . . .'

Maybe so, but I'd hazard a small bet that in return Paulson had to agree he'd be running things within some predetermined limits. A return to undisputed fiscal sanity is probably not in the cards."

Paul O'Neill was likewise somewhat capable, and probably thought he would have an impact as well. Cheney sandbagged him. Last time I checked Cheney was still in office, and has yet to express any misgivings about Bush Administration fiscal policy failures.

Regardles of whether its good or bad for Democrats, it would be good for the country if the Bush Administration started setting aside ideology. The problem is, they think spending the Federal Government into a huge hole is a good thing because:
1)it lets them distribute fat no-bid contracts to their supporters
2)it reduces the amount of discretionary spending possible in following Administrations (making them look good by comparision)
3)most people haven't caught on to the fact that the tax burden has been shifting from the rich to the middle class, so any move by the middle class toward tax relief will have to be accompanied by spending cuts.

-Dave Adams-

I don't know why this is getting to me right now, but after all this time, and all these posts I really want you to realize that

J. McCutchen "JmacSF"

San Francisco. CA

belongs at THE END OF YOUR POST. It starts out at the beginning, and it is a little work to push it down, but not that much, really. It is so distracting to see that

J. McCutchen "JmacSF"

San Francisco. CA

at the beginning of every post.

My name: Jan Knaus shows up at the start of my "replies" too, but I shove it out of the way and put it at the end where it belongs.

Jan Knaus

I have to agree with Reed. Josh Bolten is probably the smartest and most capable Republican in the party. Democrats would be well advised to take him extremely seriously.

More importantly, he is controlling Bushes' actions. He can take considerable credit for recent admissions of mistakes, the immigrant compromise, etc.

I think the era of Republicans screwing up is over.

Whatever else can be said, Paulson will have the full support of the financial community, which means that whatever he says is going to work. Nobody is going to upset someone who might be their ultimate boss at some point in the future.

So the question arises; what now? It is easy to say we Democrats have to step up our game. The problem is, how? Dean and Reid have made a good start on policies. Should blogs like TPMCafe set up a project to expand on that?

But policies are only half the issue; the potential rise of the Democratic party will result in more Republican dirty tricks. such as interference in Democratic blogs. What, if any, actions should we be taking against that?

Ditto that.

Not only do Dems need to get their game on, they need to realize that Republicans will poach any work they do and claim it as their own. Have seen it happen here in my own state, watched the Repugs do a 180 degree reversal on their position when it was clear there was a simple majority that would support the Dem position. The Repug majority buried a Dem-written and sponsored bill when petition counts supported the bill, re-wrote and submitted an extremely similar bill under Repug authors/sponsors, pass it and claim victory.

Lazy, pandering sad sacks...these kinds of dirty tricks will not stop at trolling in blogs.

Not only do Dems need get out the A-game, they also need to act pre-emptively. This nomination of Paulson comes at a critical time; U.S. currency is highly troubled and the Chinese are in a position to cause serious trouble economically. Add to this mix the possible merger of NYSE with EuroNext and we have a highly volatile situation. There are suggestions that depending on how NYSE/EuroNext merger is handled, the Deutsche Bourse might initiate a hostile takeover. Is this what we want to have happen to our nation's largest exchange?

Here's the preemptive bit that Dems need to address: does the NYSE/EuroNext merger qualify for CIFA review?

Or are we looking at another Ports deal with no review and a wave by? Remember that John Snow was a beneficiary of the Ports deal (and just where is the status of that deal anyhow?)...will the next TreasurySec also have a vested interest in the NYSE/EuroNext merger, and possibly the conjectured Bourse buy-out?

Fax already enroute to my Senate Dems on this, BTW.

I think the era of Republicans screwing up is over.

That's a good one! Republicans are in fact just being Republicans. It is the voting public that screwed up letting these guys take over to lie, pillage and loot the US Treasury. It might be more educational for the US public if the Republicans maintained total control (and responsiblity) at the federal level as the dollar and the US economy sink from the bloody morass of death, debt and disgrace the Bush administration has created for America.

Not quite that easy. The Republicans are:

1) Going to have a large number of successes over the next few months.

2) Going to be much more effective in their attacks. Rove was a devisive personality. Josh isn't.

3)Going to be taking the high ground. There is going to be a tremndous backlash against attack ads. Attacks are not a viable strategy.

Democrats need to propose alternative solutions. Republicans propose an old style fiscal overseer, Democrats need to propose a modern fiscal engineer. Say one of the CEO's of Ameritrade, or EBay.

They also need the support of the trade publications. One of the things they might do is contact reporters and ask their opinions on what are the areas of concern to their readers.

Reporters understand their communities pretty well and understand what concerns their readers. Reporters would be a very good way to determine what issues to address.

Taking into account the limits placed on the Secretary, do you think Paulson would be in favor of making the tax cuts permanent? What might he do about our huge deficit? Other than that rather brave statement on Kyoto, what do you know about his policy thinking?

Not persuaded here. Reporters? You mean ask reporters like Solomon who completely distorted the story on Sen. Reid and the tickets?

Or anybody else working for the corporate media owned by Republican supporters?

Communities can communicate for themselves directly and not through the mouthpieces of the RNC. That is one of the emerging policies the netroots/grassroots are developing and propelling; they want greatere disintermediation, not the dilution of their will through representatives who are working on behalf of corporate donors rather than the people.

Progressive communities can develop their own policies; an energy policy will be presented this month (although open to further development), generated by an open source "think tank" of every day folks.

Frankly, the traditional corporate media is one of the barriers to the Dems making traction. Do you honestly believe the corporate media will cover a story about grassroots/netroots Dems wanting to return to the Fairness Doctrine or revisit media diversity through divestiture?

Just a speculation -

Up until now Rove has been running economic policy as a way to reward the base. The two industrialist Treasury secretaries were window dressing to keep big business placated. The real policies were designed to reward financial concerns (the "new" economy).

There is a fair probablity that Rove will have to leave the administration and, thus, some one else may have to run the economic policy. Hence the new choice, a Wall St. insider, as the understudy.

--- Policies not Politics
Daily Landscape

This is nothing but right-winger speculation, therefore I'm rating your comment a "1." You've also posted at least two other comments spouting the exact same nonsense on this thread.

If Rove were still in charge, that is a possibility. With Josh, however, I don't think that is going to happen.

More importantly, he is possibly the single best choice on the planet for negotiating with China. He is definiitely going to have sucess there.

Actually that was probably the only reason Paulson accepted the position. The job is really far beneath him, but he has an idealistic streak that even Wall Street couldn't erase.

By the way, Josh just scored another one. He got the US to negotiate with Iran. Geez the guy works fast...

What makes you think that the R's will have a large number of successes over the next few months? Will the earth start to rotate backwards and the sun rise in the west, as well? In terms of the economy I would suspect just the opposite as the chickens come home to roost on a host of poor policies and rising adjustable rate mortgages, gas price increases and slowdown of the housing boom, if not a bust.

Just how will Bolton being less divisive make him more effective as an attack dog? Anyway, that's not his job, is it?

Republicans taking the high road? Heh! That'll be the day.

Methinks you be a troll, sir.

Basically because in the past few days, they have proposed a immigration bill and gotten it through the senate, established an effective response and overture to Iran, and gotten one of the worlds most powerful people in charge of AMerica's negotiations with China.

That is an awful lot for just a few days.

We Democrats cannot remain complacent. We need to press our advantage while we can.

You are right. His comment is merely stupid and doesn't deserve "1."

BTW, I'm rating you a "1" because of extreme hypocrisy ("who made you an enforcer?")

Umm, perhaps it would help if you were to elaborate on what you object to with my comments. If your argument is valid, I might amend or retract my statements. I believe arguments are for learning, not for winning.

P.S. What exactly is your definition of a right winger? How exactly would you distinguish between a "right winger", a centrist, and a "left winger"?

I never claimed I had a personal familiarity with the man, it is just customary to call him Josh, so as not to confuse readers with the other prominent Boltons in government.

And no, I don't support the Republicans, but I have a healthy respect for what they could do without Rove's divisiveness screwing them up. We as Democrats cannot afford to become complacent, or to dismiss the Republicans as not a threat, simply because they are not now. It should be remembered that they have won elections for 12 years now, you don't do that unless you have something going for you.

(By the way, there are real Republicans who do post here, I would not be afraid of declaring myself if I were one. TPMCafe is for free speech. I am just a "classical" liberal, from before it was fashionable to demonize the opposition. Hey, what can I say?, I'm old and grey.)

I base my opinions that Josh represents a major threat just simply on his accomplishments to date, as I listed earlier. Korea and Iraq are coming to the peace table, Bush has got one of the leaders on Wall Street, someone far more powerful than him, as Treasury secretary, and most important, Bush is admitting mistakes. Af for backlash against attacks, Reid is the one leading that charge, along with many Republican leaders.

Add in the fact that his immigration plan got through the Senate against the opposition of his own party, and Ted Kennedy, no less, defended him on it, and you get a much more competitive Bush, and Republican party in general.

Right now, everyone thinks the election is sewn up, and the Democrats will take the house in the next elections.

I think we need to be careful, and not get complacent. There is still time to lose the election, and well, Democrats have a sort of history of doing pulling defeat out of victory.

If it helps, I am very impressed with Reid and Dean's recent statements. They are in the right direction, but we need more.

Right now, Democrats are going to take the house only because they seem the lesser of two evils, not because they offer a viable alternative.

It should be remembered that it was not too long ago that they represented the greater of two evils to most of the voting public, and the Republicans could easily turn that around, especially with their recent moves.

For one thing, we need to reach out to the Religious left, and even the right. I do not think it is wise to just let the Republicans take that voting segment without a fight.

One of the other things I think we need to do is with TPMCafe itself. TPMCafe is unique, as Daily Kos put it, we are all policy and no invective. As a matter of fact, recent attempts to introduce invective got little traction at all, something I am immensely proud of.

One of the reasons a lot of people prefer Republicans is the exclusionary nature of the Demoicratic party, Democrats seem highly prejudiced in certain areas that are important to them. TPMCafe, which gets 60,000 views a day and potentially much more, could change that image. I have been working very hard to project that image, and so have many others....read the Birthday thread, for example, TPMCafe is considering introducing Conservative speakers (possibly with complementary asbestos suits).

Insanity is defined as doing the same things over and over again and expecting different resulst. After 12 years, we Democrats have to try something new...the present style just isn't working.

Look, all the policy in the world doesn't help if you don't have power. If you want to make any policy changes, you are going to have to do some compromises, and open up the party to more voters.

.