Republicans Gone Wild - On Other Republicans
by pessimist
Traditionally in American politics, the President is considered the leader of his party as well as the leader of the nation.
But considering the wunnerful job King George is doing leeding the world, the nashun, and his party, one has to wonder what to make of these tales - of Republicans rebelling against Bu$hCo! This first GOP Guerilla violates the GOP Eleventh Commandment and takes on the morality - or lack thereof - of the new bankruptcy bill:
I'm not going to bore you with a million links to analyses of the bill and its politics -- they are found easily enough. The point here is fairly simple: The bill is basically a gift to corporate lenders that tightens requirements on consumers while paradoxically loosening restrictions on credit card companies. The argument for the bill goes something like this: The record number of bankruptcies in America is indicative of a lack of personal responsibility made possible through too-lax bankruptcy laws; these bankruptcies in turn force up costs and interest rates for responsible consumers; ergo, if we tighten bankruptcy requirements, American consumers and the credit industry will be better off.This argument is almost wholly false for several reasons: It's already plenty difficult to declare bankruptcy for the average consumer. I know because I've seen it, and I also know that it is a profoundly humiliating process that forever follows and tarnishes a person's good name and good credit.
But what of the poor lenders???? Have you no compassion for corporate earnings???
The notion that bankruptcy is somehow easy and easily abused to be deeply offensive. Make no mistake: there are those who abuse it nonetheless; but the solution to this is existing enforcement, not en masse punishment.The record number of bankruptcies in America is not the fault of consumers so much as it's the fault of credit companies willing to extend credit to pretty much anyone, independent of their means or station.
When I lived in Brooklyn, one of my roommates was unemployed for almost a full year. After six months of unemployment, he did an experiment and saved all the pre-approved credit offers he received. The result: in one month, this unemployed 26-year old was offered almost a hundred thousand dollars in preapproved credit. That the bankruptcy bill does zero to address this corporate malfeasance -- a major and easily-addressed cause of the bankruptcy rate -- is absurd.
To my knowledge, there is no empirical evidence establishing a relationship between bankruptcies and credit interest rates. The latter remain wildly variable, indicating that the credit companies have plenty of leeway. Furthermore, there is no empirical evidence that credit companies -- or any businesses involved in forms of lending -- are suffering more than ordinary cost-of-business risk from bankruptcies. This is a red herring.
The people affected by this bill are almost exclusively the desperate and the stupid. While we ought to have little problem allowing the latter their fate, having been amongst the former, I believe compassion demands something more for them than a simple tightening of the screws.
But then, compassion appears to have no place amongst the Republicans pushing this wretched law.
Compassion isn't an attribute of the target of this assault:
Former GOP Boss Zings Party Leaders
Jacksonville businessman Tom Slade built a reputation in the 1990s as one of the key architects of the Republican political dominance in Florida, and one of the most important political allies of Gov. Jeb Bush.Slade, chairman of the state Republican Party from 1993 to 1999, said often that getting Bush elected governor was his overriding goal in politics, and he was one of many who speculated on Bush as a possible presidential candidate.
But Slade's view on that may have changed.
In an interview in January, Slade said Bush `does not have the maturity ... and wisdom' to be president, and that Bush's administration has been marked by a `dictatorial' style and reluctance to take advice. That, he said, could prove a problem for the Republican Party in the future.
He said Jeb Bush and his brother President Bush `are arrogant as hell.'
Jeb Bush didn't respond to a phone call and an e-mail including the Slade quotes sent to his office Friday, nor did a spokesman for the Florida Republican Party.
Uh, Jack, ... Karl's on the phone.
Karl.
Yes - THAT Karl.
[A short time later]
When Slade learned last week that his interview with Paulson would be the subject of a Tampa Tribune story, he said the comment about Jeb Bush's maturity referred not to his present opinion of Bush, but to the opinion he held earlier in Bush's political career, after his loss in the 1994 governor's race. He said he has revised that opinion.
Oh? That's not what the reporter thinks!
Slade made his comments during a wide-ranging interview with University of South Florida political scientist Darryl Paulson for a book Paulson plans to publish on the history of the Florida Republican Party. Paulson, himself a dedicated Republican, interviewed Slade Jan. 13 at Slade's Jacksonville home. He made a tape of their three-hour talk available to the Tribune.Most of his statements in the interview ... are made in the present tense, and all seem to apply to the later Jeb Bush. Slade said, for example, that Jeb Bush "just didn't have the maturity and wisdom to do his brother's job," meaning the presidency, which George W. Bush won in 2000.
The interviewer who taped Slade's comments, Paulson, said Slade's comments were in response to questions about current political figures. His understanding was Slade was talking about his current views.
Slade, 69, now working as a lobbyist in Tallahassee, said he didn't know that his often- blunt comments would be printed in a newspaper, and objected to the story.
Paulson "represented to me that he was fishing around to write a book down the road somewhere, and that was the basis on which I agreed to sit down and talk with him," Slade said. "I was probably more open than I would have been had I had any idea that this was going to be subject to a newspaper review."
Paulson acknowledged that he told Slade the book was the purpose of the interview. But both he and Slade agreed that Slade asked for no ground rules or restrictions on how the interview would be used. Paulson said Slade was "extraordinarily candid and honest and probably one of the best interviews I ever did."
Karl ain't gonna like this, Jack. Ever see The Godfather? You'll wish you got off that easy!
Speaking of easy off, King George is getting off easy in spite of his lowering approval numbers. It seems that the Republican-dominated Congress ranks even lower in the public's humple opinion:
Many adults in the United States are dissatisfied with their legislative branch, according to a poll by Ipsos released by the Associated Press. 53 per cent of respondents disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job.In the Nov. 2 congressional ballot, the Republican Party elected 232 lawmakers to the U.S. House of Representatives, while the Democratic Party secured 201 seats. The Republicans also have a majority in the Senate, with 55 members in the 100-seat upper house.
On Mar. 10, Democrat Doris Matsui was sworn in as the new representative from California’s fifth district. Matsui won a special election to take over the seat vacated by her late husband Robert Matsui. The Democratic Party now controls 202 seats in the lower house. Since 1923, 45 widows have been elected to replace their husbands in Capitol Hill.
Polling Data
Overall, do you approve, disapprove or have mixed feelings about the way Congress is handling its job?
Mar. 2005
Approve 41%
Disapprove 53%
Mixed feelings 5%Feb. 2004
Approve 44%
Disapprove 52%
Mixed feelings 3%Jan. 2005
Approve 41%
Disapprove 53%
Mixed feelings 4%Source: Ipsos / Associated Press
Methodology: Interviews to 1,001 American adults, conducted from Mar. 7 to Mar. 9, 2005. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.Just goes to show that even for Republican warmongers, there is a silver lining in the ol' storm cloud!
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