The Swamp

Dems to auto execs: no plan, no money

2008-11-20T21:32:00Z

by Frank James

Congressional Democrats have volleyed the auto-bailout ball back into the Big Three automakers' court.

Lawmakers asked the auto industry chieftains who appeared on Capitol Hill this week to provide a plan by early December of what they would do with the $25 billion they sought

It was a sign that the automakers clearly hurt their efforts to get taxpayer money to tide them over by not being able to adequately answer lawmaker questions on how they would spend the money. Nor could they offer assurances that they wouldn't be back for more money.

Explaining Congress's unwillingness to give the automakers what they wanted, Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, said:

The main reason is what we've all witnessed in the congressional hearings this week. The executives of the auto companies have not been able to convince the Congress or the American people that this government bailout will be its last.

In light of the importance of this issue, to all of us, we have decided, the best way to proceed is to give the auto companies another opportunity to make their case, make their case to Congress and to the American people.

]]> We're requesting that they submit a plan to Congress, through Chairman Frank and Chairman Dodd, no later than December 2nd. These two very able men will review the plan and if necessary hold hearings, during the week of December 2nd, to fully vet the auto industry's proposals.

We're prepared to come back into session, the week of December 8th, to help the auto industry, but only if they present a viable plan that gives us, the Congress, the confidence that taxpayers and the auto workers will be well served.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi modified a line from the movie from the movie "Jerry Maguire" to make the same point.

It is all about accountability and about viability. Until we can see a plan where the auto industry is held accountable and a plan for viability on how they go into the future -- until we see the plan, until they show us the plan, we cannot show them the money. And that is really where we are with this.

And let there be no doubt, getting busted for flying to Washington on their private jets definitely wasn't a good move.

Reid said:

What happened here in Washington this week has not been good for the auto industry. I know it wasn't planned, but these guys flying in their big corporate jets doesn't send a good message to people in Searchlight, Nevada, or Las Vegas or Reno or any place in this country. We want them to get their act together. We want them to come up with something. We are here to help. We're not against the auto industry. We want to help those people keep those jobs. And yes, we're kicking the can down the road because that will give us the opportunity to do something positive. But that will only happen if they get their act together.

Sounds like the auto executives should book those December commercial flights now.

Ted Stevens' swan song

2008-11-20T20:41:00Z

by Frank James

Sen. Ted Stevens gave his valedictory speech on the Senate floor today. The 85-year old who holds the record as the longest-serving Republican senator in history said repeatedly stressed his love for and sense of duty to Alaska.

He said:

And home is where the heart is... If that is so I have two homes. One is right here in this chamber and the other is my beloved state of Alaska. Alaska and the Senate. I must leave one to return to the other."

He also said:

"My motto has been here, to hell with politics. Just do what is right for Alaska. And I've tried everyday to live up to those words."

Oh yes, he did say he hopes to clear the cloud caused by his conviction for lying on his federal financial disclosure forms which helped lead to his defeat this week by Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich.

Emanuel extends hand to Republicans

2008-11-20T20:18:22Z

by Jill Zuckman

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), the incoming chief of staff for President-elect Obama, met on Capitol Hill Thursday with the House and Senate GOP leaders to tell Republicans that the new president wants to hear their ideas and to work with them.

"We welcome their ideas and their concepts," said Emanuel, who similarly reached out to Republicans after he helped Democrats take back control of the House in 2006. "The challenges facing the country require that people of both parties work together to solve those problems."

Emanuel called his first meeting with Senate Republican leaders "very, very, very good" and said he was talking to them at the direction of Obama. Emanuel has also held individual meetings with House Republicans and estimated he had spoken by phone with at least 20 other Republicans.

"The challenges for the country are large. The problems we face are of a serious magnitude and there's enough area and enough good will for ideas from both parties to solve those challenges," Emanuel said.

Obama inaugural = teeming masses

2008-11-20T20:12:00Z

The stored-value card Washington, D.C.'s mass-transit system will begin selling Friday, Nov. 21, 2008 to commemorate President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration.

by Frank James

Many people who live and work in the Washington, D.C. area have been closely following stories in the local media about what we're likely to face on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 2009.

There are estimates that as many as four million people will descend on downtown Washington to try and witness history, to see either the inauguration of the first African-American president or the parade to the White House.

For those who have to work that day and don't live right downtown or are used to driving in and don't have a hotel room or space at a friend's house lined up, the question has been "How do I get downtown that day?"

Fortunately, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority which runs the city's mass transit system said today that it will run the city's subway and bus system on a rush- hour basis from 4 am to 7 pm.

]]> And they unveiled a new commemorative SmarTrip card bearing President-elect Barack Obama's photo that will be available starting Friday. But they're likely to go fast since only 35,000 of them will be produced. I'm guessing there'll be huge demand for them to print up more of those hard-plastic cards.

The Washington Post's "Inauguration Watch" has these details:

Metro is expecting to move 1.6 million people on rail and bus on Inauguration Day, which would double the previous high of 854,638 (rail only) on July 11. The authority will issue 35,000 SmarTrip commemorative cards with a picture of Barack Obama, which can be purchased for $10 apiece on a special Web site that will be set up Friday and can be found by going to www.wmata.com. (Regular fare cards also will feature Obama.) Commuters can then add value to the cards, which will come with no value, at the stations, and move quickly through the fare gates.

Catoe said people trying to get into train stations after the parade could face delays of "up to a couple hours" at the end of the day. Metro is encouraging people to spread out their trips after the events are over by visiting downtown museums or grabbing something to eat.

Worth noting is that the number of people Metro expects to move that day is actually more than the 1.2 million people who showed up for President Lyndon B. Johnson's 1965 inaugural, the biggest inauguration crowd on record.

According to a Post story from earlier this week, city officials are sure they can pull off the Obama inaugural with all its expected teeming masses.

District and federal officials... expressed confidence that they can handle this January's events. At the same time, they know that Inauguration Day 2009 will be one of a kind.

For example, (Mayor Adrian) Fenty said, officials expect people to camp overnight, starting Jan. 19, to get as close as possible to the swearing-in viewing area and parade route.

The next several weeks will be spent figuring out how to change the comprehensive playbook that has been used in the past.

"We have a great blueprint from years past, and we will follow that," the mayor said. "But we will start to make exceptions and deviations because, by everyone's estimation, we will have crowds that will be two, three, maybe even four times as large as the largest inaugural. . . . One of the biggest exceptions would be to open up the Mall."

Officials are talking about opening large sections of the Mall east of the Washington Monument, a space normally used for staging the many components of the inaugural parade, Fenty said. That would make the Mall a viewing area that experts said could accommodate several million people -- significantly more than in the past. Officials have not said where the parade groups will gather instead.

Fire Limbaugh and his ilk: columnist

2008-11-20T19:08:00Z

by Frank James

Many Republicans have been rethinking what their party should do to regain its political mojo.

Morton Kondracke has a provocative column today in which he says the GOP needs to essentially chew off its leg. That leg would be conservative broadcasters who have done so much over the years to rally the conservative base.

According to Kondracke they are not only expendable, they are dangerous to Republican prospects because they have set an agenda that has been destructive to the Republican party's prospects.

But Step One is to fire Rush Limbaugh and his ilk as the intellectual bosses of the GOP. They shouldn't be muzzled, as some liberals want to do by reviving the "fairness doctrine" in broadcasting, just ignored more frequently.

In recent years, Republicans have let right-wing talk show hosts whip the GOP base into frenzies -- over immigration, brain-damage victim Terry Schiavo and same-sex marriage -- that have branded the party as troglodyte.

The result is that the demographic groups representing the future of American politics shifted decisively to the Democratic Party in 2008 -- Latinos, young people, the well-educated, moderates, working women, first-time voters, suburbanites and seculars."

]]> Kondracke's other ideas are for Republicans to work with President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats so long as the Democrats stay in the political center. And Republican governors should show that they can solve real problems which could go a long way towards winning over pragmatists of all political stripes.

But it's Kondracke's proposal for conservatives to ignore Limbaugh that is the one that will get the most attention. Other Republicans have recommended this over the years and it hasn't happened yet. Maybe, this time will be different. Unfortunately for Kondracke, his side of the Republican Party doesn't have nearly the platform of a Limbaugh or Sean Hannity.

Waxman, pro-enviro, wins House post

2008-11-20T18:00:00Z

by Janet Hook

In a sign that President-elect Barack Obama's environmental agenda will receive strong support from Capitol Hill, House Democrats today voted to install Rep. Henry Waxman of Los Angeles as leader of the House committee that handles environmental legislation, ousting the auto industry's strongest ally, Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, from the job.

Waxman is an advocate of much stricter regulation to curb global warming than Dingell, who as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committe had compiled a long record of defending the auto industry against emissions rules that automakers consider too strict.

Waxman's promotion to chairman of the committee was approved 137-122 in a closed meeting of the House Democratic Caucus.

He argued that the panel needed new leadership in order to manage upcoming legislation on healthcare, energy and global warming -- all signature issues of Obama. Dingell, who is 82 and recovering from knee surgery, argued that there was no reason to upend the House's longstanding seniority system.

Pritzker passes on Commerce Post

2008-11-20T16:55:59Z

by Mike Dorning and Christi Parsons and updated

Chicago billionaire Penny Pritzker has told Barack Obama's team she does not want to serve as Commerce Secretary, said a senior Obama official.

"Penny Pritzker ultimately has decided she does not want to do the Commerce thing," the senior official said.

Pritzker has issued this statement: "Speculation has grown that I am a candidate for Secretary of Commerce. I am not. I think I can best serve our nation in my current capacity: building businesses, creating jobs and working to strengthen our economy. It has been my great privilege to serve in the Obama campaign.

"I look forward to helping our new president in every way possible and am excited about the future under his leadership,'' she said.

The senior Obama official also said reports that Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano will be Secretary of Homeland Security are premature.

"I expect Napolitano will end up in the Cabinet. But whether she ends up where the speculation is (has her), I don't know," the official said.

Consumers won't see light for long time

2008-11-20T15:36:00Z

by Frank James

Don't read this if you're in a blue mood because it won't help lift your spirits.

Nouriel Roubini, a professor at New York University's Stern Business School gives 20 reasons why consumers aren't spending. Really, it's no mystery. Boiled down, we don't have any money. To elaborate further: we have too much debt, not enough savings and are losing our jobs.

While most others were still at the economic punch bowl of cheap money and easy credit, Roubini warned years ago that the economy was heading toward the cliff, so he's worth listening to now. But it's not easy listening, that's for sure.

An excerpt from his a piece he has on the Forbes website:

This week's news about October retail sales (-2.8% relative to the previous month and now down in real terms for five months in a row) confirm that the U.S. has entered its most severe consumer-led recession in decades. At this rate of free fall in consumption, real gross domestic product growth could be a whopping 5% negative or even worse in the fourth quarter of 2008. And this is not a temporary phenomenon: Almost all of the fundamentals driving consumption are heading south on a persistent and structural basis.

Republican brand falls further

2008-11-20T15:00:00Z

by Frank James

If Republicans didn't have bad luck, they wouldn't have any luck at all, it seems.

Gallup's pollsters have found that Americans have an even more unpopular view of the Republican Party now than they had on Election Day.

An excerpt from Gallup's report:

PRINCETON, NJ -- The Republican Party's image has gone from bad to worse over the past month, as only 34% of Americans in a Nov. 13-16 Gallup Poll say they have a favorable view of the party, down from 40% in mid-October. The 61% now holding an unfavorable view of the GOP is the highest Gallup has recorded for that party since the measure was established in 1992.

Meanwhile, Americans view Democrats about as positively now as they did on Election Day, with Democrats getting a 55 percent favorable rating. That would seem to indicate that Democrats have a good amount of political capital to expend when the new Obama Administration and Congress take charge in January.

Back to the Republicans. One of the Gallup's most interesting findings was this: it was 78 percent of Republicans want the party to become more conservative while only 12 percent want it to become less conservative.

]]> What makes this finding so fascinating is that if Republican leaders do what that 78 percent of Republicans want, that could arguably make it more difficult for the Republican Party to regain its majority status in Congress or win the White House with its party identification is so low and the country actually being more centrist than far right or far left.

If Obama and congressional Democrats stay in the political center and the Republican Party is yanked hard to the right by its base, it could be a very long time indeed in the political wilderness for Republicans in the nation's capital.

Napolitano, Pritzker: Obama's Cabinet?

2008-11-20T14:40:00Z

by Jill Zuckman

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano is "a leading contender'' for the job of Homeland Security secretary in the administration of President-elect Barack Obama, National Public Radio reports.

And Penny Pritzker, the Chicago real estate executive who steered Obama's phenomenal campaign fundraising, could be in line for appointment as Secretary of Commerce, NPR says this morning.

Napolitano was an early supporter of Obama's presidential campaign and serves on his transition team.

While she has no national security experience, she does have extensive knowledge of border security as the governor of a border state constantly crossed by illegal immigrants.

Pritzker, CEO of Pritzker Realty Group, manages the family's non-hotel real estate investments.and served as chair of the Obama campaign's fundraising.

Bailouts for white, not blue collars?

2008-11-20T14:37:00Z

by Frank James

Have the federal bailouts been biased towards white-collar and against blue-collar workers?

That question was starkly raised by Rep. Barney Frank, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, which yesterday heard the chief executives of the Big Three automakers beseech Congress for $25 billion in taxpayer-funded loans.

Frank, the committee's chair, said:

I have been struck, not happily, in the time that we've been discussing this, at what frankly seems to me an inherent cultural bias. There's a double standard here. Aid to blue-collar employees is being judged by a standard different than white-collar employees.

Now, I have no complaint about white-collar employees. They are my friends and constituents, as are others. But I do not remember complaints -- and I'm not talking about CEO compensation. And let me just add one thing. We have the CEOs with us. People have said, "Well, we're bailing them out. Should we deal with them?..."

]]> ... But while there was some talk about CEO compensation, there was none about the compensation of the people who work at these financial houses. And I am sure that even before the concessions in the recent contract, the hourly wage of people at the financial houses that have received assistance through the federal government are a good deal higher than auto workers. I think the average AIG worker gets a good deal more than the auto workers -- probably not the clerical people, but the people at AIG.

There is apparently a cultural conditioning that's more prepared to accept aid to the white-collar industry than to the blue-collar industry, and I think that has to be confronted honestly. Look, the $700 billion and this much smaller amount have in common the following: The justification for them has to be the impact on the broader economy. We have no right trying to help an industry for that industry's sake.

One point to make is that when Frank in September argued for the $700 billion bailout package in September, he said it was important to pass in part because it would help blue-collar workers among others.

On Sept. 22, he told reporters:

The issue here is that the credit system of the country is clogging up. I've had people in the business of providing automobile finance say that they may go out of business. If people can't buy cars, salesmen can't sell cars, automobile workers can't make cars. There's a real clog from all these -- from these kinds of things.

Another point. It's not exactly blue-collar versus white-collar since the automakers all have large white-collar workforces as well.

The $700 billion bailout for the financial industry and the AIG bailout were also qualitatively different than the proposed auto industry bailout, addressing substantially different problems.

There was a consensus among economists that the financial institutions' main problem was not having enough money to lend.

As some of the assets the institutions held onto like mortgage loans and more sophisticated instruments lost value, the institutions held onto cash in part because regulators require them to keep enough cash in reserves. So banks stopped lending money or made loans extremely difficult to get.

Injecting cash into the banks and other institutions was meant to ease their cash crunch and get them lending again. That hasn't worked out quite the way federal officials had hoped.

With AIG, the fear was that if AIG failed, it could take the entire global financial system with it since the company had insured a broad range of investments and financial bets ranging into the trillions of dollars.

But with Detroit the problems are different. True, their current crisis in terms of burning through their cash is in part related to the difficulty companies are having getting credit now. And if they fail, it would be a massive real and psychological blow to the nation at a very fragile time.

Detroit, however, has real, longer-term structural problems, including higher built-in costs than the Japanese transplant automakers like Honda and Toyota it competes against and a less fuel-efficient fleet than those Japan-based companies.

It's those structural problems which have critics questioning whether infusing $25 billion into the Big Three automakers is actually a good idea, if doing so would only prolong the the time before one or more of the companies has to seek bankruptcy protection.

So it's arguably not a bias against blue-collar workers that has many questioning an auto bailout, although there is obviously no love lost between Republicans and the United Auto Workers union. Critics have real questions about whether it's the best use of taxpayer money, whether it wouldn't be a case of throwing money down a rabbit hole.

Hillary Clinton as Obama's right hand?

2008-11-20T13:26:00Z

by Frank James

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, raises an important question about the possibility that President-elect Barack Obama could name Sen. Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state.

Friedman questions whether the relationship between Obama and Clinton can become so close that Clinton would be viewed by foreign leaders as speaking for Obama, of having his full backing, when she enunciates policy, or if there would always be some doubt about that.

My question is whether a President Obama and a Secretary of State Clinton, given all that has gone down between them and their staffs, can have that kind of relationship, particularly with Mrs. Clinton always thinking four to eight years ahead, and the possibility that she may run again for the presidency. I just don't know.

Every word that is said between them in public, and every leak, will be scrutinized for what it means politically and whether there is daylight. That is not a reason not to appoint Mrs. Clinton. But it is a reason for everyone around the president-elect to take a deep breath and ask whether they are prepared to have the kind of air-tight relationship with Mrs. Clinton that is required for effective diplomacy.

When it comes to appointing a secretary of state, you do not want a team of rivals.

That's the rub. To be effective, a secretary of state can't be thought to be freelancing or have an agenda other than that of the president's. If nothing else, it prevents confusion and the kind of misunderstanding that can literally prove deadly to someone.

A successful secretary of state almost needs to be a president's alter ego or right hand, as James Baker was to the first President Bush or Madeleine Albright was to President Bill Clinton, knowing what the president wants to accomplish and doing it. Because of the decline in U.S. standing abroad and the challenges of terrorism, Iraq and Afghanistan, among others, there's little margin for error or infighting.

Is it possible for Clinton to be throw herself completely into the task of making Obama's foreign policy a success is the key question before Obama right now in these days before he makes his choice for the State Department officially known.

Barack Obama's Illinois inaugural ball

2008-11-20T12:30:00Z

by Jason George

The Illinois ball for president-elect Barack Obama's inauguration might be Washington D.C.'s hottest ticket, but the event's headliners aren't exactly Kanye, The Boss or any of those A-list entertainers who've endorsed Obama.

In fact, wedding singers, corporate-events crooners and bar mitzvah bands make up the list of the musicians scheduled to perform at the Illinois State Society's Jan. 19 Inaugural Gala, according to a partial list obtained by the Tribune.

Planners say they are still hoping to hire a handful more professional acts, who will also be joined by two high school choirs.

Of course, it's not the musical entertainment that's making the D.C. event so popular but the assumption that Obama will keep with inaugural tradition and hit his home state's party. In 2001 and 2005, Texas' "Black Tie and Boots Inaugural Ball" reigned as the not-miss affair because of Pres. George W. Bush's Lone Star connections. In 2005, headliners at that ball included Asleep at the Wheel, Lyle Lovett and Clay Walker.

]]>
You'll notice, if you know your country music, that all those acts are home state heroes for Texans, which can not be said for the confirmed performers at the Illinois event - of the eight names I was given, at least seven are not Illinois-based acts. (The 8th group, "Madrigals," is a name used by several groups, so if you know which one is performing at the gala send it along. Wise-guys can save their email postage, as I can confirm that the Madrigals choral group has nothing to do with Madrigals, the shuttered all-male-strip club in ~~Boystown~~ Andersonville.)

'The Land of Lincoln''s very own Abe Lincoln was reportedly a member of the Illinois Society of Washington D.C., but no sitting president has ever attended the state's inaugural ball, and the event's organizers say they are excited to host this year's big one, which has a $1 million budget, financed through donations, ticket sales, Society membership and gala sponsorship.

Speaking of tickets, all 1,500 of the $500-a-piece tickets for the dinner/gala/reception have sold out. And while there are still $300 tickets to attend just the gala, those who buy them will party in an ancillary ballroom, where there will be "entertainment and live feeds to the main ballroom," according to the Illinois States Society.

In the main ballroom, the rooms will themed around Illinois sights. So, the Society says, you can "meet your friends under the Marshall Fields' clock in the City of Chicago ballroom where you can dance to the big-band music of the Bob Hardwick Sound....Imagine the rolling muddy Mississippi while you sit in the Riverboat Lounge listening to honky-tonk piano player Daryl Ott" and so on.
The Society's list of confirmed performers, with links to info about each artist, is as follows:

Doctors Orders
Second Nature
Southern Wind
The Bob Hardwick Sound
Daryl Ott
Strolling Strings

Swamp Sunrise

2008-11-20T12:00:00Z

Auto officials nailed on private jets

2008-11-19T21:29:00Z

Ford Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally arrives on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008, in a new Ford Fusion Hybrid, (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

by Frank James

It was kind of a cheap shot but still an effective moment that made the point the lawmaker was seeking.

Rep. Brad Sherman, a California Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee asked at today's hearing on a potential bailout for the struggling U.S. auto industry asked the Big Three's chief executive officers which of them had flown by private jet into Washington for the hearing. All three raised their hands.

Then he asked which would be heading home commercially. None of the three raised his hand.

It definitely didn't match the image of cash-strapped companies in desperate need of a taxpayer-financed bailout that the auto industry officials were trying to get across.

Not that there wasn't some thought given ahead of time to image. Alan Mulally, Ford's CEO made sure to arrive at Capitol Hill today in a Ford Fusion hybrid.