US POLITICS: AMERICANS, PLEASE WELCOME YOUR NEW PRESIDENT... SCOTT BROWN!

He's the one with a wife running a major health insurance thing, yes?

― extra awesome blossom (suzy), Monday, February 15, 2010 5:34 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

xxxxxp
would be interested to know if this is true - lieberman's wife's involved in a health charity, would be super depressing if they're both so ironically sidekicked.

When he was governor, Bayh’s wife, Susan, was a lawyer for [Eli] Lilly. After it became clear he was going to be a senator, she started stacking up memberships on the boards of health-care corporations.

Susan Bayh got paid a little over $2 million for her service between 2006 and 2008. Her husband had a good 2008 also, collecting more than $500,000 in campaign donations from the health-care industry.

Bayh's wife is on the BoD of WellPoint and about five other similar companies.

Hadassah Lieberman also has a place on the board of a breast cancer charity, yes, but there was a push to remove her a few months ago because of Joe and her own place on health-related boards.

Anyone read the Holder profiles in the NYT this morning and last week's New Yorker? Grisly stuff. Digby:

after reading this thoroughly depressing profile of Eric Holder this morning in the NY Times, I think we can assume that Dick Cheney could go on television and admit to personally torturing KSM on the rack and nothing would be done. Eric Holder is no longer a non-political actor by his own admission. Or, rather, as a member of the Obama administration, he's now operating as a functionary of the Republicans and the national security state.

In case you were wondering, Lindsay Graham is now the de facto Attorney General and he will be deciding all the legal questions surrounding terrorism. It's an unusual arrangement, but the constitution does say that regardless of the outcome of elections, Republicans must be in charge of national security and criminal justice at all times.

Sullivan is correct that Cheney is now an admitted war criminal. But it will not be a problem for him in the United States. He might want to let that passport lapse though. He may not get such favored treatment in another country.

it's pretty maddening that bayh is getting top billing in the news today with his sound bite about the senate not working correctly when he's easily one of the worst "good guy" senators in the congress. he's tearing a page directly from the sarah palin playbook & i doubt that anyone in the media is going to hammer him on it like they (rightfully) did her

yeah this stuff about lindsay graham is utterly insane

it's pretty maddening that bayh is getting top billing in the news today with his sound bite about the senate not working correctly when he's easily one of the worst "good guy" senators in the congress.

Yeah. As Digby said, Bayh is right for the wrong reasons.

hey does anyone here understand the deficit? because I fuck as hell don't, not on a micro or even macroeconomic scale. but help me counter someone who keeps throwing this at me:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2009/03/21/GR2009032100104.html

my take on this:

1) this is a comparison between actual historical spending and 'projected' spending during a time of extreme economic volatility, assuming slow recovery
2) deficit spending during recessions is not inherently bad, in fact, it is probably necessary, because if money does not circulate during a recession it freezes up
3) uh, dunno.

why do I get in these online arguments with a childhood friend who has gone insane? I do not know.

akm, you should read krugman's nyt blog, has lots of v. readable stuff on the subject

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/opinion/05krugman.html?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/28/opinion/28krugman.html?em

I actually think that Brad DeLong does a way better job of putting the deficit into perspective than Krugman does. Check out his blog.

Pretty sure the guys over at Baseline Scenario have discussed this issue in the past month or so as well. Both them and DeLong are reliably liberal, if that matters to you.

these for example

http://baselinescenario.com/tag/deficit/

I dont get how these pols think quitting their jobs is the way to the white house

hey does anyone here understand the deficit? because I fuck as hell don't, not on a micro or even macroeconomic scale. but help me counter someone who keeps throwing this at me:

dont really understand the deficit but this is my understanding:

1) biggest contributors to the immense deficit are the wars in iraq and afghanistan, rising medical costs, and bush-era tax cuts
2) this is the important bit >>> econ 101: gov't spending is counter-cyclical, i.e., gov't should be spending, even if it increases deficits, when the economy is hurting (and vice versa obv.)--so our first concern should be getting the economy on an even keel

yeah that seems to be the agreement of everything I've read. and it kickstarted some dormant shit in my brain dating all the way back to the 80's when I had a high school history teacher who talked an enormous amount about Keynes.

I've been arguing with someone who is not mentally stable and is mainly enraged that the Constellation project was canceled though. It's like fighting with a 13 year old.

I dont get how these pols think quitting their jobs is the way to the white house

in sarah palin's case, it's because she's a nitwit.

a nitwitter.

1) biggest contributors to the immense deficit are the wars in iraq and afghanistan, rising medical costs, and bush-era tax cuts
2) this is the important bit >>> econ 101: gov't spending is counter-cyclical, i.e., gov't should be spending, even if it increases deficits, when the economy is hurting (and vice versa obv.)--so our first concern should be getting the economy on an even keel

This is right, but one other thing is that a lot of this is automatic. In a recession the gov has to spend way more on unemployment, food stamps, etc, even if they don't pass any new spending legislation. This isn't a huge part of the overall budget, but it's a big reason why the deficits are much higher now then they were a few years ago.

Also, it's not just the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, which iirc are a relatively small part of the overall defense budget. More is spent on stuff like building, maintaining and staffing bases all over the world in dozens of countries.

Notably, in a recession, tax revenues also fall, thereby exacerbating the problem noted above ("a lot of this is automatic") and contributing to the deficit and debt problem.

I've never seen Josh Marshall so subdued.

in other news, Cenk Uygur does a nice Taibbi stand-in by ripping Henry Paulson a new one wr2 Paulson's vomit on yesterday's Times editorial page:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psShP07gtyU

thanks for those links don and others, they gave me some nice background. I came to realize I was talking with people who essentially see any government spending on any social programs as funding a welfare state of drug addicts and who think the government is about to kick their doors down and take their guns, so i just ducked out of the debate. frighteningly I'm seeing more people that I thought were rational falling prey to teabagger mania; I know of one or two reasonable conservatives with less hyperbolic views but they are suddenly in the minority.

Looks like Paulson doing some kinda Masonic hand sign in that youtube still!

can't stand the young turks -- it's always so rambling that i can't figure out his main point. he should start by stating exactly what's been said and riff off afterwards.

he looses a lot of credibility by naming himself after genocide perpetrators, even if I do agree on his politics. But yeah, Keith Olbermann he is not (and as we've already established, even Olbermann is kind of longwinded).

bayh is such an awful and insincere speaker, i have no idea how he ever won an election

nepotism & $$

so there is a big push now to get healthcare with a public option pushed through the senate with reconciliation, with something like 16 senators already declaring support. does anyone think they have a chance in hell of pulling this off? are there 51 votes for this?

I'd say the chances are pretty low due to Harry Reid's being a fucktard

dunno that reid has anything to do with it--its a last ditch effort by a bunch of idiots to reestablish their 'progressive' bonafides before the election, and also cover their asses in the event that hcr doesnt go anywhere

Reid's cooperation would be required to bring it to a vote, and he's not going to bring anything to a vote that he thinks won't pas

but yeah I agree this is primarily just political grandstanding

fienstein signed on which is kind of surprising to me.

I wonder if losing their super-majority has made Congressional Dems realize that they need to stop being jackasses and pass something substantial.

Klobuchar is more moderate than Franken and both of them are on it.

I wonder if losing their super-majority has made Congressional Dems realize that they need to stop being jackasses and pass something substantial.

I wouldn't bet any money on this...

i wish we didn't have to wonder

here's something else to get un-excited about:

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2010/02/democrats_coalescing_behind_ellsworth_in_indiana.php

Democrats Coalescing Behind Ellsworth In Indiana

With the White House's encouragement, Rep. Brad Ellsworth, former sheriff, pro-life Dem, will soon announce that he intends to run for Senate in Illinois -- Evan Bayh's seat, Democratic officials said. An announcement won't come today.

"Contrary to some media reports, I have not made a decision about whether to run for the U.S. Senate. I am continuing to talk with my family and Hoosiers throughout Indiana about where I can best serve our state," Ellsworth said through a spokesperson.

"Put simply, this is a decision I don't take lightly. I want to make sure whatever decision I make is the right one for my family, my constituents, and the state of Indiana. Tomorrow, I will wrap up my annual Open Door Listening Tour, which took me through all 18-counties of the 8th District. At that point, I will have more time to devote to giving this great responsibility the serious consideration it deserves."

Ellsworth cuts a great profile for the state -- though he voted for health care reform, he voted against the stimulus package in the House and voted against cap and trade legislation to boot.

Great campaigner, young, attractive guy -- strong on second amendment issues. Popular within the Democratic caucus. Supported by the Democratic establishment. Ellsworth's impending announcement was first hinted at by Howey Politics Indiana. He faces a noon Friday deadline due to Indiana's ballot access rules. Officially, the primary is May 4 -- but absent candidates who turn in enough signatures, the state party gets to choose.

Former Sen. Dan Coats remains the likely Republican nominee.

kinda pathetic that they can't keep Indiana and Illinois straight there

too many straights in Indiana imo.

Indiana is pretty conservative, odds of getting anyone leftier than Bayh elected are pretty low

? what do you mean re: illinois?

i'm a little more pissed that ambinder uses the phrase "strong on second amendment issues" -- whether ellsworth is pro- or anti-gun control, well, it's no guess what "strong" is supposed to mean, right?

xp to shakey

oh 1st sentence, whoops

Rep. Brad Ellsworth, former sheriff, pro-life Dem

zero-tolerance for these types, I know some of you small-gainser types advocate a big tent about this stuff but a Democrat who'll vote against choice (int'l funding of birth control; sex ed; important issues) should be actively opposed imo

it's no guess what "strong" is supposed to mean, right?

I assumed it means he belongs to the local militia

I know some of you small-gainser types advocate a big tent about this stuff

I basically don't give a shit who wins Indiana, cuz its a foregone conclusion its gonna be a white right-wing guy. because that is who that state likes to elect. whether or not its a Democrat, eh who cares.

tbh I am perfectly fine with being categorically opposed to the entire concept of Indiana

was it the record Klan membership that pushed you over the edge