Category: White House

The Lines Cross, and the White House Backs Away From Specter

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Absolutely brutal, and completely true.


And the lines cross

I understand why the White House supported Arlen Specter in the Democratic primaries, it was a reward for his switching parties, and provided an inducement to other potential Republicans who might consider switching, like uh……… uh……… uh………

OK, there is not another potential switcher, but it all seemed so wonderfully hopey–changey post partisan.

Well, largely on the basis of the fact that Arlen Specter is really all about Arlen Specter, and the fact that Joe Sestak is pointing it out to people (see vid), Arlen Specter is now lagging in the polls, and as the incumbent with good name recognition.

The rule of thumb that the undecideds nearly always break for the challenger by something like 2:1, so I reiterate my statement that Arlen Specter is toast.

So, the White House loses one here, and they are doing something really stupid, which is to walk back their support of Specter now that it is likely that he is going to lose the election:

If this is true, it’s significant: CBS chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer is now saying that he has it on good authority that the White House is privately bracing for Arlen Specter to lose tomorrow.

………

I’ve also learned that Veep Joe Biden will not be doing any campaign events for Specter in the final stretch, though it’s not immediately clear how significant this is. Last week, Biden said he’d be doing events for Specter “as needed.”

But a Biden aide confirms for me that no campaign events are scheduled, even though Biden will be in Pennsylvania tonight speaking at his daughter’s graduation. Biden has done radio interviews on Specter’s behalf.

This recognizes a problem with the Obama administration, and for the Clinton and Carter administrations before them: An unwillingness to continue fighting when victory seems unlikely.

I can understand some talking points flowing out about, “an anti-incumbency mood,” and suchlike, but the idea that when faced with less than a 50:50 change of success, the choice is to fold like overcooked Brussels sprouts has negative consequences.

It convinces allies that you don’t have their back, and it convinces opponents that they can take a temporary advantage, and use it to kill a proposal early in the process.

I never thought that they should support Specter, or for that matter Lincoln, but sawing off the branch won’t endear other Democrats with the concept of going out on a limb for Obama.

We Have a Report that Elana Kagan Will Be the Scotus Nominee

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Not surprising.

Basically, they are choosing her because of her ability to get ahead in legal academe without saying, or publishing much.

She was tenured at the University of Chicago, and later Harvard, where she became Dean of Harvard Law, but her record of publications is remarkably sparse, though I think that Paul Campos’ comparison of her to Harriet Miers is a big much:

Yesterday, I read everything Elena Kagan has ever published. It didn’t take long: in the nearly 20 years since Kagan became a law professor, she’s published very little academic scholarship—three law review articles, along with a couple of shorter essays and two brief book reviews. Somehow, Kagan got tenure at Chicago in 1995 on the basis of a single article in The Supreme Court Review—a scholarly journal edited by Chicago’s own faculty—and a short essay in the school’s law review. She then worked in the Clinton administration for several years before joining Harvard as a visiting professor of law in 1999. While there she published two articles, but since receiving tenure from Harvard in 2001 (and becoming dean of the law school in 2003) she has published nothing. (While it’s true law school deans often do little scholarly writing during their terms, Kagan is remarkable both for how little she did in the dozen years prior to becoming Harvard’s dean, and for never having written anything intended for a more general audience, either before or after taking that position.)

On the other hand, the fact that she has not been a Federal judge, or worked as a US Attorney, and she made the prima-donnas at Harvard Law play nice.

Still, I think that it is her lack of a record that has put her in this position, which I think is a bad idea.

It will just push Obama’s opponents to look harder, and they will find something eventually.

Appointing a real liberal would be day 1 news, but instead, we will have a drip, drip, drip, about her.

I also think that this is a real attempt to avoid a fight, and once again, because the Republicans understand that unreasonable opposition is their best political tactic, it will fail.

Color me unimpressed.

Senate Finance Debate Developments

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We have the good:

The bad:

And the confusing:

  • The Audit the Fed amendment appears to be on track to pass, though Bernie Sanders has agreed to narrow its scope, getting Chris Dodd as a cosponsor:

The audit sought by Mr. Sanders would scrutinize an alphabet soup of programs that injected liquidity into the markets, ranging from commercial paper to money market funds. Under the proposal, the accountability office will not question whether the loans should have been made but will focus on operational integrity and accounting practices.

The audit, however, would explore “whether the credit facility inappropriately favors one or more specific participants over other institutions eligible to utilize the facility” and “whether there were conflicts of interest with respect to the manner in which such facility was established or operated.”

It appears that Obama/Geithner/Summers still oppose the audit provision, and are implying that they might consider such a provision worthy of a veto.

As I’ve said before, Summers wants to be Fed chair, so he hates it, Geithner is afraid of being forced to resign in disgrace or of criminal prosecution, and they have Obama’s ear,* so we continue to here noise from the White House in support of opacity as policy.

*But remember, the Cossacks work for the Czar.

A Thought on Barack Obama’s Most Likely Supreme Court Choice

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Current Solicitor General, Elena Kagan, is on the short list to be the Supreme Court Nominee to replace John Paul Steven.

She has a long and distinguished record, though she has never been a judge.*

Perhaps her 2nd most prestigious position, after being Solicitor General was as Dean of Harvard Law School, where she made special efforts to “broaden the ideological diversity” of the institution by hiring conservative legal scholars.

Needless to say, this sort of thing would clearly play well with Obama, who has clearly drunk his own Koolaid on his post-partisan thing.

The thing is, her definition of “diversity” is pretty narrow, and it appears taht she did not hire minorities or women:

Granting that we know very little about Kagan, what do we make of the facts that we do know? Here are some data that gives me pause about Kagan. When Elena Kagan was Dean of the Harvard Law School, she hired 29 tenured or tenure-track faculty members. But she did not hire a single black, Latino, or American Indian faculty member. Not one, not even a token. Of the 29 people she hired, all of them with one exception were white. Under Kagan’s watch Harvard hired 28 white faculty members and one Asian American.

One of Kagan’s purported qualifications for the Supreme Court is that she is a consensus builder. The chief evidence for that contention is that she broke the hiring logjam at Harvard and made it possible for Harvard to hire conservatives. It might sound absurd to some, but I will accept the point that one of Kagan’s chief selling points is that she assured that Harvard did not discriminate ideologically. I am personally gratified that Harvard Law School is not closed to conservative faculty members. I support ideological diversity and would not want to see qualified individuals discriminated against on the basis of ideology.

But what about people of color? How could she have brokered a deal that permitted the hiring of conservatives but resulted in the hiring of only white faculty? Moreover, of the 29 new hires, only six were women. So, she hired 23 white men, 5 white women, and one Asian American woman. Please do not tell me that there were not enough qualified women and people of color. That’s a racist and sexist statement. It cannot be the case that there was not a single qualified black, Latino or Native-American legal academic that would qualify for tenure at Harvard Law School during Elena Kagan’s tenure. To believe otherwise is to harbor troubling racist views.

I am unaware of the dynamics at Harvard Law School, but having a stepmother who is both a former college president, and a Harvard grad, I do know that the politics at Harvard can be unpleasant, and produce less than optimal results.

Still, 28 hires, 27 of whom are white, and one of whom is of Asian extraction seems to me to indicate some very real issues, whether it’s just conflict avoidance/cowardice, or something more.

It seems to me that in an environment like Harvard Law, hiring 28 faculty and hiring only 1 non-white actually takes a lot of work.

H/t BTD.

*I think that the practice of appointing Federal judges is overrated. Every current justice was a Federal judge, which was not the tradition. The last non Federal judge appointed was O’Connor, and you have people like Warren, Douglas, Fortas, Marshall, Brandeis, Black, Frankfurter, etc., as well as people like Holms and Cardozo, who were judges, but not Federal judges.

Obama’s Former Auto Czar Being Investigated for Pension Kickback Scheme

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So, Andrew Cuomo has made it official, and former Obama “Car Czar” Steven Rattner is under investigation for kickback schemes involving the New York State pension system:

In case you were living under a rock, this is why he left so quickly from his position managing the bailouts of GM and Chrysler:

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo confirmed his office is investigating former Obama administration auto industry advisor Steven Rattner, in a growing probe into illegal kickbacks involving the state pension fund.

Rattner, who helped craft the federal rescues of General Motors and Chrysler, left the Obama administration abruptly last year. This morning, the private equity firm he co-founded, Quadrangle Partners, agreed to pay $7 million to settle allegations it made illegal payments to a New York state official and a political consultant in exchange for millions of dollars in pension investments.

But the settlement specifically excludes Rattner, who Cuomo says is no longer with the firm and remains under investigation. What’s more, Quadrangle issued a scathing statement against its co-founder.

“We wholly disavow the conduct engaged in by Steve Rattner,” the statmement says. “That conduct was inappropriate, wrong and unethical.”

This is a guy who operated a corporate “chop shop,” and we are surprised to discover that he is a dirt bag.

This “experience” thing, which justified, Rattner, Geithner, Summers, etc. is highly overrated.

Ethics first, allegiance to the American public second, and only then consider experience.

Earlier post.

Obama Finally Does Something for Gay Civil Rights

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He has issued an order directing the Department of Health and Human Services to mandate that hospitals extend visitation rights to gay partners, as well as requiring hospitals to recognize power of attorney for same sex couples.

Of course, the actual rule is still months away, but my guess is that John Aravosis’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Give donor boycott has finally developed critical mass, and the fund raisers are beginning to notice.

So, now we know, that, if absolutely backed into a corner, Barack Obama is willing to take the most timid steps for LGBT civil rights.

3 cheers.

Justice Stevens to Retire

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Just Announced.

Obviously, the question now is who Obama will nominate to succeed him.

My predictions:

  • They will be Protestant
    • Stevens is the only Protestant on the court, the rest are Catholic or Jewish.
  • They will be a woman and/or a minority.
    • Because it will be his way to pander to the base when he chooses a basically conservative nominee.
  • They will be tepid, at best, on Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose in general.
    • Since Barack Obama has always been tepid, at best, on Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose in general.
  • They will generally favor a very expansive definition of the powers of the Presidency.
    • Since Barack Obama has aggressively asserted a very expansive definition of the powers of the Presidency.
  • They will generally be rather pro corporate, though not as much as Scalia, Thomas, Alito, Roberts, and Kennedy.
    • Since Barack Obama is ……… You get the picture.
  • They will not be particularly pro organized labor.
    • Obama has clearly been tepid on labor issues, as shown by his efforts to soft pedal the EFCA (Card Check).

What I would like to see, beyond ideology, is that:

  • They not have worked as a prosecutor, which tends to set people off on a legal path that is hostile to the rights of the accused.
  • That they not, and have not been, a sitting Federal Judge, which is increasingly the norm, and we need more diversity of experience in there.
  • Nominating someone who is publicly an atheist.

Things that could make this amusing, but will not happen:

  • Nominating Bill Clinton, just to make the ‘Phant’s heads explode.
  • Nominating a Muslim.
  • Nominating Hillary Clinton, just to make the ‘Phant’s heads explode.

But these will not happen.

Obama Authorizes Assassinations of American Citizens

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Radical Imam Anwar al-Aulaqi has now been placed on the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) target list, which means that he can be killed if spotted. (See also here)

Based on the reports that I’ve seen in the media, it’s pretty clear that there is probable cause to apprehend him on suspicion of a number of crimes, but basically, the JSOC is a hit list.

There won’t be any efforts to capture him, this means that he’s going to be taken out by a Predator drone or suchlike, and I find this to profoundly troubling.

Glenn Greenwald makes the point that this is authorizing the killing of an American citizen on the decision of one man, the President, a power that even George W. Bush did not claim, and I agree, though I am not quite as strident in my views.

Additionally, this has the effect of legitimizing the use of lethal force by other governments against those whom they deem terrorists.

Under the rules adopted, I could see the Chinese assassinating Uighur activists, the Russians assassinating Chechen activists, or the Turks assassinating Kurdish activists, on US soil.

Also, from a purely tactical perspective, if you have a person who is willing to die to accomplish their mission, and al Qaeda does, then it is rather simpler to locate the President of the United States than it is to locate Anwar al-Aulaqi or Saddam Hussein.

This may have the effect of encouraging direct action against American officials.

Please, God, Let This Be True!

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The rumor is that Larry Summers is dissatisfied with his relative lack of power in the Obama administration, and will soon be leaving.

I am generally not a big follower of the Kremlinology school of politics, which looks obsessively at petty power squabbles amongst the courtiers in the White House, but it appears that Larry Summers, after being denied Treasury Secretary because he was too toxic, was expecting that he would be appointed to replace Ben Bernanke as Fed chair.

Well, Joshua Green at The Atlantic notes that Summers has started demanding perks, such as, I kid you not, “golf dates with the president,”* and that he is most unhappy with his role as head of the Director of the White House’s National Economic Council, and is considering leaving.

Well, all that I can say is, hip hip hurray!

Larry Summers, whatever his academic achievements have been, has been deeply, profoundly and disastrously wrong on every venture into the real world, as evidenced by Mark Ames’ devastating portrait of his performance as a public servant which shows him to be both incompetent and corrupt.

Here’s hoping that Barack Obama does not feel the need to keep him around. Larry Summers is not just the wrong man for these times, he is the wrong time for any times.

Next up, Tim Geithner, and if the Senators place a hold on his successor, then recess appoint Sam Webb.

It is a disaster on both a policy and a politics level to allow senior economic staff to be so captured by wall street.

*Golf Dates? F%$#ing Golf Dates?!?!? How fucking egotistical and petty can you be?

Obama Says, “Drill, Baby, Drill”

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Click for full size

The Audacity of D’oh!

Once again, Barack Obama decides to cock-punch the base, and he announces a massive expansion of offshore drilling that largely echos those of George W. Bush, with the protection of Bristol Bay being the only major change.

He did this with nuclear power a 1½ months ago, so I guess that this is not a surprise, particularly given his lip service to the fraud that is “clean coal.”

It appears that part of his goal is to get some Republican support for his climate change bill, but, as was shown in healthcare reform, the Republicans are not good faith actors.

Better to use the recent EPA declaration about C02 emissions as a harmful emissions as a club, and keep this in your back pocket, because giving away the store upfront results in really bad policy.

Finally!

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Barack Obama has finally realized that playing nice with the ‘Phants, and has made 15 recess appointments in response to Republicans filibustering his nominees.

Most notably are Craig Becker and Mark Pearce for the National Labor Relations Board, and and Jacqueline Berrien and Chai Feldblum in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, basically because these are people who won’t reflexively rule for the rich pig fat cats.

Personally, I would have gone further.

If the Republicans don’t want Becker or Pearce on the NRLB, the response should be to appoint Teamsters President James P. Hoffa, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, and SEIU President Andy Stern.

If the Republicans don’t like that, they can allow an up or down vote on the nominees.

Full White House statement after break

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
March 27, 2010

President Obama Announces Recess Appointments to Key Administration Positions

Fifteen Appointees Have Waited an Average of 214 Days for Senate Confirmation

WASHINGTON –After facing months of Republican obstruction to administration nominees, President Obama announced his intent to recess appoint fifteen nominees to fill critical administration posts that have been left vacant, including key positions on the economic team and on boards that have been left with vacancies for months.

“The United States Senate has the responsibility to approve or disapprove of my nominees. But if, in the interest of scoring political points, Republicans in the Senate refuse to exercise that responsibility, I must act in the interest of the American people and exercise my authority to fill these positions on an interim basis,” said President Barack Obama. “Most of the men and women whose appointments I am announcing today were approved by Senate committees months ago, yet still await a vote of the Senate. At a time of economic emergency, two top appointees to the Department of Treasury have been held up for nearly six months. I simply cannot allow partisan politics to stand in the way of the basic functioning of government.”

Following their appointment, these nominees will remain in the Senate for confirmation.

Obama Administration appointees have faced an unprecedented level of obstruction in the Senate.

  • President Obama currently has a total of 217 nominees pending before the Senate. These nominees have been pending for an average of 101 days, including 34 nominees pending for more than 6 months.
  • The 15 nominees President Obama intends to recess appoint have been pending for an average of 214 days or 7 months for a total of 3204 days or almost 9 years.
  • President Bush had made 15 recess appointments by this point in his presidency, but he was not facing the same level of obstruction. At this time in 2002, President Bush had only 5 nominees pending on the floor. By contrast, President Obama has 77 nominees currently pending on the floor, 58 of whom have been waiting for over two weeks and 44 of those have been waiting more than a month.

The President announced his intention to recess appoint the following nominees:

Jeffrey Goldstein: Nominee for Under Secretary for Domestic Finance, Department of the Treasury
Jeffrey Goldstein is currently a Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury. Mr Goldstein was a Managing Director of Hellman & Friedman LLC, a private equity investment firm with offices in San Francisco, New York and London. Mr. Goldstein served at the World Bank from 1999 to 2004, where he served as Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer. He oversaw the Bank’s work with its client countries in strengthening financial and capital market systems. Mr. Goldstein was the Bank’s point person on the International Development Association (IDA). He also helped lead the Bank’s relationship with the G-8 countries. As Chief Financial Officer, he was responsible for the Bank’s financial operations and budget. He was the Bank’s representative on the Financial Stability Forum and on the International Monetary Fund’s Capital Markets Consultative Group and Chairman of the Pension Finance Committee. Prior to joining the World Bank, Mr. Goldstein was Co-Chairman of BT Wolfensohn and a member of the Bankers Trust Company Management Committee. He held senior management positions and worked with BT Wolfensohn and its predecessor, James D. Wolfensohn Incorporated, for more than 15 years. Early in his career, Mr. Goldstein taught economics at Princeton University and worked at the Brookings Institution and the U. S. Department of the Treasury. Mr. Goldstein received his Ph.D., M.Phil., and M.A. in economics from Yale University. He received his B.A. with honors in economics from Vassar College (Phi Beta Kappa) and attended the London School of Economics. He is on the Board of Trustees of Vassar College and was Chairman of the Vassar College Investments Committee.

Michael F. Mundaca: Nominee for Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy, Department of the Treasury
Michael F. Mundaca currently is Senior Advisor for Policy within the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Policy and the Acting Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy. Mr. Mundaca served in the Treasury Department during the Clinton Administration and returned to the Treasury Department in 2007, as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Tax Affairs. Before that appointment, he was a partner for five years in the International Tax Services group of Ernst & Young’s National Tax Department, in Washington, D.C. His practice focused on cross-border planning and structuring, including especially tax treaty issues, and on international legislative and regulatory monitoring and consulting. Before joining Ernst & Young, Mr. Mundaca served for over five years in Treasury’s Office of the International Tax Counsel, leaving as the Deputy International Tax Counsel. He was also Treasury’s Senior Advisor on Electronic Commerce. Prior to that first stint in Treasury, he was an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell, a law firm in New York. Mr. Mundaca has been an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, teaching a seminar on tax treaties. Mr. Mundaca received a B.A. in philosophy and in physics from Columbia University, in 1986, and an M.A.in philosophy from the University of Chicago, in 1988. He received a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Boalt Hall), in 1992, where he was Senior Executive Editor of The California Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. He also has an LL.M., in taxation (international tax specialization), from the University of Miami.

Eric L. Hirschhorn: Nominee for Under Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration and head of the Bureau of Industry and Security, Department of Commerce
Eric Hirschhorn, a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Winston & Strawn LLP, long has been active in the areas of international law, litigation, and professional responsibility. As Deputy Assistant Secretary for Export Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce (1980-81), Mr. Hirschhorn oversaw U.S. export controls for items having commercial as well as military applications, antiboycott compliance, restraints on imports for national security reasons, and the Department’s participation in the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Earlier, while a member of President Jimmy Carter’s reorganization project staff (1977-80), he worked on reorganizing the government’s international trade, public diplomacy, and foreign assistance mechanisms. Before working in the Executive branch, Mr. Hirschhorn held several congressional staff positions, was in private law practice in New York City, and was a legal services lawyer. Mr. Hirschhorn has represented clients on a wide range of commercial and regulatory matters since returning to private law practice in 1981. He is Executive Secretary of the Industry Coalition on Technology Transfer (ICOTT), a group whose industry participants are affected by U.S. export control and embargo rules. He is the author of The Export Control and Embargo Handbook, Second Edition, published in 2004, and numerous articles on export controls, embargoes and related topics. He chairs the D.C. Bar Rules of Professional Conduct Review Committee and is a member (and former chair) of the D.C. Bar Legal Ethics Committee. He also is a member of the New York City Bar Association and the Thurgood Marshall American Inn of Court. Mr. Hirschhorn received his B.A. degree from the University of Chicago and a J.D. degree from Columbia University, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.

Michael Punke: Nominee for Deputy Trade Representative – Geneva, Office of the United States Trade Representative
Michael Punke has worked in the field of international trade law and policy for two decades. From 1995 to 1996, Punke served as Senior Policy Advisor at the Office of the United States Trade Representative. There, he advised the USTR on issues ranging from agricultural trade to intellectual property protection. From 1993 to 1995, Punke served at the White House as Director for International Economic Affairs with a joint appointment to the National Security Council and the National Economic Council. His responsibilities included assisting in the management of the interagency process. From 1991 to 1992, Punke was International Trade Counsel to Senator Max Baucus, then Chairman of the Finance Committee’s International Trade Subcommittee. Punke has also worked on international trade issues from the private sector, including as a partner at the Washington, D.C., office of Mayer, Brown, Rowe, & Maw. From 2003 to 2009, Punke advised clients on trade issues through out of Missoula, Montana. Since January 2010, Punke has served as a Consultant to the U.S. Trade Representative. He also has worked as an adjunct professor at the University of Montana and as a writer, authoring a novel, two books of nonfiction, and two screenplays. Punke is a graduate of George Washington University and Cornell Law School, where he was elected Editor-in-Chief of the Cornell International Law Journal.

Francisco “Frank” J. Sánchez: Nominee for Under Secretary for International Trade, Department of Commerce
Francisco J. Sánchez currently serves as a Senior Advisor to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke on international trade issues. He served as a Policy Advisor on Latin America to the Obama For America campaign. He was also the Chairman of the campaign’s National Hispanic Leadership Council. In 1999, Sanchez became a Special Assistant to President Clinton, working in the Office of the Special Envoy for the Americas. While at the White House, Sanchez worked with the National Security Council, the State Department and the U.S. Trade Representative. Clinton later appointed Sánchez as U.S. Assistant Secretary of Transportation where he developed aviation policy and oversaw international negotiations. Prior to his work in the federal government, Sánchez practiced corporate and administrative law with the firm of Steel, Hector and Davis in Miami, Florida. Before practicing law, he served in the administration of former Florida Governor (and later U.S. Senator) Bob Graham, as the first director of the state’s Caribbean Basin Initiative Program. For the last 15 years, Sanchez has worked with several consulting companies on projects involving complex transactions, labor-management negotiations, litigation settlement, negotiation strategy, alliance management, facilitation and training, most recently as a partner with CM Partners. Among his public-sector engagements, Sánchez headed a team in Medellín, Colombia as part of a “Teaching Tolerance” program. He also advised the president of Ecuador in negotiations to settle the 56-year-old border dispute with Peru. He is a contributing author to Negociación 2000, a collection of essays on negotiation published by McGraw-Hill. A Florida native, Mr. Sánchez attended the University of Florida, received his undergraduate and law degrees from Florida State University and holds a master’s degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Islam A. Siddiqui: Nominee for Chief Agricultural Negotiator, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
Islam A. Siddiqui is currently Vice President for Science and Regulatory Affairs at CropLife America, where he is responsible for regulatory and international trade issues related to crop protection chemicals. Previously, Dr. Siddiqui also served as CropLife America’s Vice President for agricultural biotechnology and trade. From 1997 to 2001, Dr. Siddiqui served in various capacities in the Clinton Administration at U.S. Department of Agriculture as Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, Senior Trade Advisor to Secretary Dan Glickman and Deputy Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs. As a result, he worked closely with the USTR and represented USDA in bilateral, regional and multi-lateral agricultural trade negotiations. Since 2004, Dr. Siddiqui has also served on the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Industry Trade Advisory Committee on Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, and Health/Science Products & Services, which advises the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and USTR on international trade issues related to these sectors. Between 2001 and 2003, Dr. Siddiqui was appointed as Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where he focused on agricultural biotechnology and food security issues. Before joining USDA, Dr. Siddiqui spent 28 years with the California Department of Food and Agriculture. He received a B.S. degree in plant protection from Uttar Pradesh Agricultural University in Pantnagar, India, as well as M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in plant pathology, both from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

Alan D. Bersin: Nominee for Commissioner, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security
Alan Bersin was appointed by Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano in April, 2009 as Assistant Secretary for International Affairs and Special Representative for Border Affairs in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In that capacity, he serves as the Secretary’s lead representative on Border Affairs and Mexico, for developing DHS strategy regarding security, immigration, narcotics, and trade matters affecting Mexico and for coordinating the Secretary’s security initiatives on the nation’s borders. Prior to his current service, Bersin served as Chairman of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority. Previously, Mr. Bersin served as California’s Secretary of Education between July 2005 and December 2006 in the Administration of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Between 1998 and 2005, he served as Superintendent of Public Education in San Diego and from 2000 to 2003 served as a member and then Chairman of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Prior to becoming the leader of the nation’s eighth largest urban school district, he was appointed by President Bill Clinton as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of California and confirmed in that capacity by the U.S. Senate. Mr. Bersin served as U.S. Attorney for nearly five years and as the Attorney General’s Southwest Border Representative responsible for coordinating federal law enforcement on the border from South Texas to Southern California. Mr. Bersin previously was a senior partner in the Los Angeles law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson. Mr. Bersin received his A.B. in Government from Harvard University (magna cum laude) and attended Balliol College at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. In 1974, he received his J.D. degree from the Yale Law School.:

Jill Long Thompson: Nominee for Member, Farm Credit Administration Board
Jill Long Thompson is a former Member of the United States House of Representatives and the former Under Secretary for Rural Development at the United States Department of Agriculture. She also served as Chief Executive Officer and Senior Fellow at The National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy, a not-for-profit, non-advocacy research and policy organization. She is the first and only woman to be nominated by a major party to run for Governor in Indiana, as well as the first and only Hoosier woman to be nominated by a major party to run for the United States Senate. Long Thompson joined the faculty at Valparaiso University in 1981 and in 1983 was elected to the City Council. In 1989 Long Thompson was elected to represent Northeast Indiana in Congress. She went on to serve three terms in the House, where she was a member of the Agriculture Committee and the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. She introduced one of the nation’s first pieces of legislation banning Members of Congress from accepting gifts and expanding the disclosure requirements for lobbying activities. After leaving Congress, Long Thompson was appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve as the Under Secretary for Rural Development at the United States Department of Agriculture. In her five years at USDA, she oversaw a $10 billion annual budget and 7,000 employees while managing a number of programs that provide services to the underserved areas of rural America. Long Thompson earned a B.S. in Business Administration from Valparaiso University and an M.B.A. and Ph.D. in Business from the Kelley School at Indiana University.

Rafael Borras: Nominee for Under Secretary for Management , Department of Homeland Security
Rafael Borras currently serves as a Vice President, Construction Services, for the Mid-Atlantic Region with URS Corporation, a global engineering services firm. Prior to joining the URS, Mr. Borras served as the Regional Administrator for the Mid-Atlantic Region of the U.S. General Services Administration. Prior to serving in this position, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Administration in the U.S. Department of Commerce. Mr. Borras also served as Deputy City Manager in the City of Hartford, Connecticut, where he was responsible for the departments of finance, police, fire, code enforcement, information technology, purchasing, budget, and human relations. Mr. Borras began his public sector career with Metropolitan Dade County Government, serving in the Office of the County Administrator as an administrative officer.

Craig Becker: Nominee for Board Member, National Labor Relations Board
Craig Becker currently serves as Associate General Counsel to both the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of Labor & Congress of Industrial Organizations. He graduated summa cum laude from Yale College in 1978 and received his J.D. in 1981 from Yale Law School where he was an Editor of the Yale Law Journal. After law school he clerked for the Honorable Donald P. Lay, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. For the past 27 years, he has practiced and taught labor law. He was a Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law between 1989 and 1994 and has also taught at the University of Chicago and Georgetown Law Schools. He has published numerous articles on labor and employment law in scholarly journals, including the Harvard Law Review and Chicago Law Review, and has argued labor and employment cases in virtually every federal court of appeals and before the United States Supreme Court.

Mark Pearce: Nominee for Board Member, National Labor Relations Board
Mark Gaston Pearce has been a labor lawyer for his entire career. He is one of the founding partners of the Buffalo, New York law firm of Creighton, Pearce, Johnsen & Giroux where he practices union side labor and employment law before state and federal courts and agencies including the N.Y.S. Public Employment Relations Board, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the National Labor Relations Board. Pearce in 2008 was appointed by the NYS Governor to serve as a Board Member on the New York State Industrial Board of Appeals, an independent quasi-judicial agency responsible for review of certain rulings and compliance orders of the NYS Department of Labor in matters including wage and hour law. Pearce has taught several courses in the labor studies program at Cornell University’s School of Industrial Labor Relations Extension. He is a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. Prior to 2002, Pearce practiced union side labor law and employment law at Lipsitz, Green, Fahringer, Roll, Salisbury & Cambria LLP. From 1979 to 1994, he was an attorney and District Trial Specialist for the NLRB in Buffalo, NY. Pearce received his J.D. from State University of New York, and his B.A. from Cornell University.

Jacqueline A. Berrien, Nominee for Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Ms. Berrien has served as Associate Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) since September 2004. In that position, she assists with the direction and implementation of LDF’s national legal advocacy and scholarship programs. Ms. Berrien served from 2001 to 2004 as a Program Officer in the Ford Foundation’s Peace and Social Justice Program, where she administered more than $13 million of grants to promote greater political participation by underrepresented groups and remove barriers to civic engagement. Prior to joining the Ford Foundation, Ms. Berrien was an Assistant Counsel with LDF and directed the Fund’s voting rights and political participation work. For eight years before that, Ms. Berrien was a staff attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union. Berrien has also taught in trial advocacy programs at Fordham and Harvard law schools and served on the adjunct faculty of New York Law School. She began her legal career clerking for the Honorable U.W. Clemon, the first African-American appointed to the U.S. District Court in Birmingham, Alabama. Ms. Berrien is a graduate of Harvard Law School, where she served as a General Editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree with High Honors in Government from Oberlin College and also completed a major in English.

Chai R. Feldblum: Nominee for Commissioner, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Chai Feldblum is a Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center where she has taught since 1991. She also founded the Law Center’s Federal Legislation and Administrative Clinic, a program designed to train students to become legislative lawyers. Feldblum previously served as Legislative Counsel to the AIDS Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. In this role, she developed legislation, analyzed policy on various AIDS-related issues, and played a leading role in the drafting of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and, later as a law professor, in the passage of the ADA Amendments Act of 2008. She has also worked on advancing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights and has been a leading expert on the Employment Nondiscrimination Act. As Co-Director of Workplace Flexibility 2010, Feldblum has worked to advance flexible workplaces in a manner that works for employees and employers. Feldblum clerked for Judge Frank Coffin and for Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun. She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and B.A. from Barnard College.

Victoria A. Lipnic: Nominee for Commissioner, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Victoria A. Lipnic is of counsel in the Washington, D.C. office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP. Ms. Lipnic was the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment Standards from 2002 until 2009. In addition to her work with the Department of Labor, Ms. Lipnic’s experience in Washington, D.C. includes service as Workforce Policy Counsel to the Republican members of the Education and Labor Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. Before her work for Congress, Ms. Lipnic acted as in-house counsel for labor and employment matters to the U.S. Postal Service for six years. She also served as a special assistant for business liaison to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, the Honorable Malcolm Baldrige. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and History from Allegheny College and a Juris Doctor degree from George Mason University School of Law.

P. David Lopez: Nominee for General Counsel, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
David Lopez has served at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for 13 years in the field and at headquarters. He began at the EEOC in 1994 as a Special Assistant to Commissioner Casellas. Currently, Mr. Lopez is a Supervisory Trial Attorney with the EEOC’s Phoenix District Office. During his tenure, Mr. Lopez has successfully tried several cases on behalf of the EEOC in a wide variety of legal bases. Before joining the Commission, Mr. Lopez served at the Civil Rights Division, Employment Litigation Section, at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. from 1991 to 1994. From 1988 to 1991, he was an Associate with Spiegel and McDiarmid. Mr. Lopez received a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School in 1988 and a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Arizona State University in 1985, magna cum laude.

Barack Obama Signs Senate Healthcare Bill

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Is it an end?


Or is it a beginning?†


Joe Biden says, “It’s a fucking big deal.”

I think that it is clear that there is a lot more that needs to be done, and I am reasonably sure that Barack Obama won’t do much.

I think that he has to create the appearance of support on the side-car, because otherwise, he will have the every Democrat in House of Representatives out for payback, but beyond that, I think that he has his paper to sign, and he won’t do much beyond this.

His strategy, as it has been in finance reform, has been to buy off the market malefactors, and so I think that attempts to further improve the system, whether it is Grayson’s Medicare buy in, or Kucinich’s elimination of ERISA preemption will likely be opposed.

Of course, it will be sold as the, “time not being right,” much as he has done with the repeal of DADT, the ENDA, the EFCA, etc.

I would note that my predictive record sucks, and perhaps he will surprise me.

If this is all that Obama will do with healthcare, than we have just seen him make his own flight suit speech, but if he supports further improvements, then, as the fucking* Vice President of the United States accidentally said into a live microphone, “This is a big fucking deal.”

BTW, one of my predictions is coming true: when I said that the preening narcisists in the Senate would find a way to make the bill worse, for the same reason that a dog marks his territory, I was right, case in point, Jim Baucus claiming that there would have to be minor changes to the bill to accommodate Senate rules:

Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus told reporters today that there may be “one or two” changes to the health care reconciliation bill, meaning it could be sent back to the House for another vote.

“Anything is possible. We’ve constructed this thing so well … maybe one or two but they’re so minor they’re almost not even worth mentioning,” Baucus said.

Any changes to the bill, even minor, will send it back to the House for another vote there before it can go to the president’s desk.

But it seems that either he got the face time on camera that he wanted, or someone threatened to disembowel him with a rusty spoon:

Late update: But Conrad now says he’s confident there won’t be changes.

“We’ve found additional precedent that supports our view that nothing is Byrd-able,” he said, referring to the Byrd rule on which legislation may be passed under reconciliation.

Kudos to whoever put a horse’s head in his bed.

*I consider myself to be a fairly profane writer, though mu rule is to %$# out my swear words, but fuck it, if the Vice President can drop the F-bomb today, than so can I.
†Yes, this T-shirt is for sale from Zazzle.com.

Another Day, Another Obama Administration Capitulation

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Yep, this time it’s the CFPA:

The Obama administration is no longer insisting on the creation of a stand-alone consumer protection agency as a central element of the plan to remake regulation of the financial system.

In hopes of quick congressional approval of a reform bill, White House officials are opening the door to compromise with lawmakers concerned about creating a new bureaucracy, according to congressional and some administration sources.

President Obama’s economic team is now open to housing the consumer regulator inside another agency, such as the Treasury Department, though they still prefer a stand-alone agency. In either case, they are insisting on a regulator with political autonomy and real teeth so it can effectively enforce rules designed to protect consumers of mortgages, credit cards and other financial products.

(emphasis mine)

Let’s be clear on this: No one has any concern about a new bureaucracy. The banks want impunity to screw consumers, and members of Congress who want campaign donations from Wall Street, and White House officials completely captured by the finance industry, **cough** Geithner and Summers **cough**, are more than willing to do this.

If the CFPA is not independent, which means that they have the ability to craft their own budget, they will be subject to the tender mercies of someone like Timothy “Eddie Haskell” Geithner or Hank “Why the f%$# isn’t he in Jail” Paulson, and so will be largely ineffective.

It’s Like They are Trying to Demoralize the Democratic Base

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Because it looks like they are going to delay the Iraq withdrawal:

The U.S. military has prepared contingency plans to delay the planned withdrawal of all combat forces in Iraq, citing the prospects for political instability and increased violence as Iraqis hold national elections next month.

Under a deadline set by President Obama, all combat forces are slated to withdraw from Iraq by the end of August, and there remains heavy political pressure in Washington and Baghdad to stick to that schedule. But Army Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said Monday that he had briefed officials in Washington in the past week about possible contingency plans.

I understand that there need to be contingency plans, but the fact that this gets leaked to the Washington Posts means that they are looking to see if a delay is politically feasible for them to further extend Operation Useless Dirt 1.*

So in August, 3 months before the election, they are going to push back the withdrawal, and they expect the base to be enthused about working for the Democratic party.

The Obama administration is beginning to make the Carter administration look like Niccolò Machiavelli.

A few more months of this, and I might be ready to vote green.†

The equation here is very clear: Military operations are very good for careerist military officers, so you will always have a significant portion of the military arguing for these operations, since it benefits them personally.

You need to ignore them.

*H/t Eric Palmer for this bon mot describing Operation (insert name here).
†Not really, pulling the lever for the Greens would have vomiting in the voting booth.‡
‡But yes, actually vomiting in the voting booth might be a real possibility.

If Rahm is Gone, What Does It Mean?

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Cenk Uygur looks at Dana Millbank’s recent big wet kiss to Rahm Emanuel, and concludes that Rahm Emanuel is on his way out:

My second thought was, “Wow, what a hatchet job on Jarrett, Gibbs and Axelrod!” Since Rahm is obviously feeding this to Milbank, that is very revealing. You don’t throw these kinds of bombs unless you’ve already lost. This is an act of desperation. It’s bound to make mortal enemies of these people inside Obama’s inner circle. You can’t really work with these people anymore. That means you’re already finished there.

This is basically Rahm saying on his way out, I was right all along and these guys were wrong. ………

I hope that he is right, but Taylor Marsh sees a bigger picture, and it is scary:

But what if the problem isn’t Rahm?

It’s the question most Democrats can’t, won’t or refuse to face, because they can’t do anything about the answer. Because if they pretend it’s all about Rahm, hoping for his ouster, at least Democrats might get a re-set. With Gibby, Axe, Val and now even Dave still around, it’s better than nothing.”

Rahm Emanuel has some less than savory, and I think downright destructive characteristics, but Barack Obama is not simply some passive actor here; The problems here are clearly Barack Obama’s responsibility, his desk is where the buck stops, but it’s also likely that it’s his fault, and that his missteps on healthcare, stimulus, DADT, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.

The question is whether these are mistakes, or an artifact of who Barack Obama is.

I fear that this is the latter, because mistakes can be fixed, but if the attempts to make nice and split the difference is at Obama’s core, then we are screwed.

Core Inflation Fell For the First Time in 28 Years

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Down 0.1% in January:

The cost of living in the U.S. rose in January less than anticipated and a measure of prices excluding food and fuel fell for the first time since 1982, indicating the recovery is generating little inflation.

The consumer-price index increased 0.2 percent for a fifth straight month, led by higher fuel costs, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. Excluding energy and food, the so-called core index unexpectedly fell 0.1 percent, reflecting a drop in new-car prices, clothing and shelter.

And still, the Federal Reserve is full of people who are batsh%$ insane inflation hawks, and there are two seats open, but Obama has not bothered to appoint people who are, you know, saner, in what is clearly a deflationary environment.

So Obama’s Magical Deficit Reduction Commission is a Go

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And former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson will be the co-chairman.

I think that it’s a bad idea in the first place, and that it’s a way to create political cover for weakening Social Security and Medicare, and what’s more, as former Clinton Treasury official Brad Delong notes, putting Simpson in charge of deficit reduction is like naming an, “Arsonist to Co-Run the Fire Department,” with history of supporting every half-assed tax cut for the rich plan out there, supporting Reagan’s disastrous 1981 cuts, and opposing Clinton’s tax increases, which produced the first surpluses in a generation.

What really worries me is that we have a whole bunch of Beltway Boyz who are thinking that the huge problem is Social Security and Medicare, and are looking for a way to gut them.

Obama Fail

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OK, so Obama made some noises about recess appointments, and the Republicans let 27 nominees get an up or down vote, the ones that do not matter.

Well, that’s good.

What is not good is that Obama followed up with signals that there is no need for recess appointments (BTW, Clinton made about 150, and GWB made about 200).

No, when you have them down, you put your foot on their neck.

If they block your Transportation Security Administration (TSA) nominee, as they did. because they don’t like Barack Obama’s position on union rights for the employees, you don’t back down, you appoint Teamsters President James Hoffa as your TSA chief. Hell, if they were still alive, you appoint his dad, Jimmy Hoffa, or maybe Walter Ruther or Eugene V. Debs during the recess.

Unfortunately, as Ezra Klein notes, in getting this small concession, Obama stated that recess appointments are a, “rare but not unprecedented step,” which makes any attempt to do recess appointments in the future an invitation to your standard Republican sh%$ storm of phony outrage, and as Matthew Yglesias notes, the Obama administration really does not have time for this crap.

Stupid, really stupid.