Setting the Record Straight 

Blog: www.straightrecord.wordpress.com

GOP = SOP: The Same Old Party
     The week after the devastating rejection of the Republican Party at American polling places, the Republican Party at all levels has been undergoing a self-assessment, a “what went wrong,” if you will. The upshot of what has been said by the congressional GOP leadership and would-be leadership, from the Republican Governors Association and from other party members across the country is: same old party. Apparently, they just don’t get it. It seems all they could come up with is something like, “We forgot to follow Reaganism.” That sounds just about it, except when one asks what “Reaganism” is, the response is all over the board.
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The Dangerous Path of Executive Orders
      A disturbing juxtaposition of news items began this week as the United States began its transition of governments. The new government will behave as the old in at least one respect. And lay this one on the Democrats who took control of Congress and announced immediately (through the new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi) that there would be no attempt to impeach Presi- dent Bush. The Barack Obama administration apparently plans to take advantage of the executive order process Bush grabbed for himself. Somebody needs to put a stop to it.
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Raining On the Parade

     The ascendancy of Barack Obama has shown the nation, and the rest of the world, that the United States not only has not lost all of its senses, it truly is a nation where not only can anybody succeed regardless of skin color, religion or culture, anybody can even become president. That was the source of the excitement that brought millions into the streets around the United States and in much of the rest of the world on the night of Nov. 4, to celebrate and not to protest. Unfortunately, that is as good as it gets. Now comes the disappointment, the realization there is no way Obama or anyone else can achieve what he promised during the campaign and his supporters came to expect.
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Is Our Auto Industry Relevant?
     The U.S. Congress and the Bush administration arranged to give the U.S. auto industry, which now numbers three compa- nies, $25 billion in its own version of the much more massive fi- nancial meltdown. Now the industry is back asking for $25 bil- lion more, because the first 25 was only half of what they origin- ally asked for. Following the original $25 billion, General Motors and Chrysler began using the money to concoct a merger, which would lower a once-proud industry to just two members. Sorry, but so what? Why do we need them any more? Even if we helped them, what would the American people get out of it? The government's money and efforts might be better spent pre- paring the current employees for the fallout of the U.S. auto in- dustry's collapse, with retraining, adult education, financial help and guaranteed health care.
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GOP's November Surprise
     Racism may be the elephant in the voting booth Nov. 4, but there is an even bigger elephant already in the room this elec- tion season that Americans have overlooked. It is just beginning to get some attention. Groups with strong Republican ties, in- cluding GOP groups themselves, have been waging a war of sorts around the country that goes beyond the current effort to create a scandal involving the Acorn voter-registration group and to tie it to the Democrats through Barack Obama. The effort to smear Obama with Acorn is just a small part of a much larger picture. The apparent true purpose of creating an Acorn scandal is to give credibility, legal and otherwise, to Republican backers who want to negate the newly registered voters Democrats are counting on Nov. 4.
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Chance to Remake America
     Believe it or not, several good signs emerge from the finan- cial meltdown, enabling the U.S. government to think “outside the box.” First, the methods used to resolve the problem should help take some of the onus off the words “socialism,” “nationali-zation” and even “regulation.” That will allow for some creative solutions to many of the problems that have plagued the country for decades. Second, it should demonstrate anew the govern- ment needs to consider solving problems from the bottom up, or "trickle-up," instead of from the top down. Third, we have a chance for a major makeover of U.S. policy as the nation at- tempts to climb back to the top of the community of nations and avoid losing its economic leadership status to the European Union, as now seems likely.
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Deregulation and the Meltdown

     The financial meltdown, the effects of which are going to be felt by the American public (and pretty much the rest of the world in this era of globalization) for years to come, had its be- ginnings in two huge political deregulation moves, one when Congress was under Democratic control, the other when it was controlled by Republicans. The driving force that got it to the meltdown stage was greed. Two major deregulations brought an ages-old government philosophy of “too big to fail” up from little more than a policy-wonk concern to today when it is a linchpin of the government’s attempts to deal with the meltdown.
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Have we reached China yet?
    While all the sturm and drang about the failed Wall Street bailout shuttlecocks back and forth, there are many other fac- tors going on that spell bad economic times ahead for the United States. Here are just a few points to keep in mind, be- yond our already-mentioned flood of suits to come. Remember who got us there, who was one of them, who sided with them and who used to brag about being an “unregulator.” And we now have had a chance to see some of his judgment abilities. Where is your shovel, John McCain?
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Meltdown II, the Sequel
     As the federal government considers bailing out the financial meltdown on Wall Street, some care should be given to the fact there in all likelihood be another Wall Street meltdown after this one cools, a residual meltdown if you will. And voters should know of John McCain’s role in enabling the meltdown and how it reflects on how much he cares about such matters. Sharehold- ers collectively lost billions in the meltdown of the Wall Street investment banks and related institutions and just about all of them should be expected to file multi-billion suits against the same firms for not disclosing to them over-leveraged positions and other actions that preceded the meltdown.
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Send in a Gunslinger
     The real government people doing the work of trying to re- solve the financial meltdown have thrown up their hands, realiz- ing there is no regulatory or legal system in place to resolve it. Instead they are thinking outside the box. One proposal that has been raised coincides with one we had been tinkering with for this page—buying up the subprime mortgages on houses most in danger of foreclosure. Although we are believers in com- passionate government, we have a take that is different from that of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who wants authority for the government to buy the bad mortgages. How about calling on Warren Buffett, and maybe his new-found partner in charit- able largess, Bill Gates to create a foundation to buy the paper.
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Brass-Ring Chance for Democrats
     Finally, the economic meltdown is leading us away from subjects for sycophants and onto a real issue that should clarify the difference between Republicans and Democrats and define the race for president. As goofy as it sounds, relying on the marketplace to do the right thing without regulation is like rely- ing on communism. Neither can work because both ignore hu- man nature. Everything a child has to be taught should be fac- tors to keep in mind when deciding whether and how much to regulate human activity.
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Honorable Politics, R.I.P.

     Back before the ides of March, when it appeared John McCain would be the Republican nominee for president, we noted that if Barack Obama were the nominee that because of his race, he would face a particularly uphill fight this fall. We added, that much depended on whether the Republican nomi- nee “comes up with another Kevin Phillips, Lee Atwater or Karl Rove.” It appears to have happened. But would an honorable person stoop so low?
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Drill, Baby Drill; Then Export It
     As has become clear, the McCain/Palin campaign has de- cided to exceed the level of distortions and exaggerations that characterize many a political campaign and perpetrate outright lies its American Idolators are more than pleased to spread. We consider duplicity even worse. A natural gas pipeline, which would span Alaska and become the nation’s largest-ever infra-structure project, is being promoted as helping to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil. At the same time the United States is about to export natural gas from Alaska, re- ducing U.S. supplies and driving up prices just as winter arrives.
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