The Dodge Retort

I watched the President speak unscripted to House Republicans in a Baltimore hotel yesterday courtesy of JetBlue. The president’s appearance in the lion’s den was unprecedented and given what Mass. senator-elect Scott Brown has been doing lately, maybe, just maybe, Republican and Democrats can work together.

This nano-thaw in relations could lead to a ceasefire or better, a truce. It’s a start. After all, aren’t we all on the same side?

Obama was brilliant and talking candidly about about the animosity on both sides sows the seeds of mutual self-destruction. He had the courage to walk into the enemy camp and take question extemporaneously (apparently, the meeting was supposed to be behind close doors, but it wasn’t).

“We have have to be careful what we say about each other because it boxes us in. [We need] a tone of civility instead of slash and burn,” said the president.

Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz asked why the healthcare reform debate was not broadcast on Cspan and why Obama hired lobbyists in his administration when he said he wouldn’t. I didn’t catch Obama’s answer, but he replied that the charge was not entirely true. That Chaffetz got to asked the question point blank was testiment to Obama’s deep desire for bipartisanship.

The Republicans asked the president to stop calling them “the party of no.”  Obama called on Republicans to stop calling his ideas “Bolshevik” and labeing him “a crazy guy who’s doing bad things for the country.” Obama also said the Republicans have substantive proposals and that he read them.

It was raw and all out on the table. Now what?

Were any minds changed? Will any Republicans occasionally vote with the president instead of hoping to freeze government until they have another shot in the midterms and 2012? I pray it be so.

As for Brown, I’ve have been pleasantly surprised. He has reached out to key Masschusetts Democrats because he knows he has to work with them. Casting himself as an independent, Brown is acting more like one now than he did in the campaign.

He has met with Boston Mayor Tom Menino and Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick. He even ate a little crow when Deval explained to Brown that his earlier remarks about the state not speeding Stimulus dollars fast enough were in error. Brown confessed to not knowing a couple of things.

Maybe it’s the altitude that’s getting to me given I’m on a TVed JetBlue flight to Florida, but I am hopeful and that Scott Brown’s election might be a turning point. I am as partisan as anyone and voted for his opponent Martha Coakley, but at the end of the day, I’d first and foremost like to see the country and Congress come together and get the nation’s work done.

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My good friend and high school classmate Gordie Stuart is  far to right of me, but I think his idea of putting Congress on notice cuts across party lines. His guest commentary suggests putting members of Congress on Social Security, 401ks, no pay when out of office and into the same healthcare system as other Americans.  Term limits, too. The official proposal is below his commentary. Let us know what you think and follow me on Twitter.

by Gordon Stuart

So many people have sent me the article below on “How to Fix Congress”, I feel compelled to seriously express my thoughts and gather yours.   I’m sure you’ve read the article too and I hope you respond. I don’t know who originally came up with the suggestions in the article, but, I do concur with most of them.  This email was forwarded to me as: “An idea whose time has come”.  In my opinion, it is beyond time.  Our Government’s spending is out of control, entitlements are destroying our country, we continue struggling with being the “world’s policeman” and we still concern ourselves about being “politically correct”, while our freedoms dwindle and handouts increase a little more each day.  What happened to Common Sense?  All this should have been nipped at the start and we should never have arrived at this point.  So, what about “fixing Congress”?

Well, there may someday be an elected Representative of the United States who will step up to the plate and initiate legislation along the lines suggested below.  However, I don’t hold much hope that will happen and I hold even less hope such legislation would ever pass unless there was some great incentive.  Maybe I am too cynical, but I think there is just too much greed and corruption among our elected Government officials to get this type of legislation passed without some incentive.

Some of you may respond by saying we can bring about these changes through our election process.  Certainly, one would hope that would be enough incentive.  Unfortunately, that hasn’t affected very much in the past and history repeats itself.  Whether we continue to elect the same old people like Frank Lautenberg in NJ or elect new people, we’ve honestly seen little change in the way our Government conducts itself.  All our elected officials always seem to fall into the “Washington Beltway Trap” shortly after being elected and common sense is put on the “back burner”.  Whether you are Republican, Democrat or Independent, there is probably only 1 or 2 of you who would disagree with that statement.

I listened to a person last week say our elected officials, government employees, Wall Street bankers and corporate CEO’s are responsible for our current fiscal crisis.  That is true, but he didn’t like it when I responded by saying: “in fact, we are all responsible”!  After all, we (the people) let it happen.  The proposed legislation in “How to Fix Congress” addresses nothing more than taxation without representation.  It doesn’t address military operations, corporate greed or even corruption within our government.  It just addresses taxation without representation and in fact, we are being taxed without representation.  What is worse: these are our “employees” whom we are allowing to dictate terms and conditions to us and we should do something about it or hold ourselves accountable.  If you disagree; stop reading right here.  If you agree: what do you think we should do?  My fiancée’s son has a bumper sticker that says: “STOP BITCHIN’, START REVOLUTION”.  I think that is a good solution!

I’m not proposing an outright revolution to overthrow our Government.  That would cause too much chaos and put us in even more trouble.  However, I would like to see a tax revolt because I think it is outrageous to allow our elected officials to enact laws that don’t apply to them and it is wrong to allow them to give themselves pay raises, lavish pension plans and premium health care while the “backbone” of working America paying for it all settles for something far less.  Furthermore, since they are “playing in a different stadium” they’ve had no incentive to improve “the turf” in ours.

To say we can bring these changes about through our election process is a joke!  We can’t wait for the election process and it isn’t effective correcting these issues anyway.  We may get one or two people to introduce such a bill.  However, without some “incentive” to get the other Congressmen and Senators to vote for it, the measure would never pass.  So, what would be enough incentive?  This may be naïve, but, I think if a large enough percentage of the population said: “I’ve had it” and threatened to refuse paying their taxes (unless the suggested, common sense measures are passed) it may work.

Our current population in the United States is a little over 300 million people.  If just 10-30 million people (less than 10% of our population) said: “I’m not paying my Federal Income Tax unless you pass these measures”, what would the government do?   Would they throw everybody in jail?  No, because there isn’t enough room.  Would they put liens on our property, garnish wages or put holds on our bank accounts?  I don’t think so!  Those actions would exacerbate the situation and cause even more revolt- possibly an outright revolution.  I think, under those pressured circumstances, our government officials would do what is right.  Few will “bite the hand that feeds them”.  They’d change things quickly and I’m willing to take that chance.

How about you?  What do you think?  I look forward to hearing your insightful response.  With best wishes for a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2010…

I keep hearing President Obama’s popularity ratings are plummeting. My question is why?

On a macro scale, he’s done just about everything he promised to in the 2007-08 campaign: push healthcare reform and Wall Street regulation; restore America’s diplomatic standing in the world; take a hard line on security; jump start renewable energy; work to close Gitmo and wind down the Iraq War;  rebuild the electrical grid and get economy back on its feet.

credit: Whitehouse.gov

To one degree or another, all of this is happening. As someone who writes about technology, I see billions of federal dollars flowing to utilities in matching grants to rebuild the nation’s electrical grid. Battery makers and electric auto projects are also being backed. Such funding is critical to national security, weaning ourselves off oil imports (does anyone care anymore?) and making the U.S. more competitive.

If he’s made political miscalculations, why would we sour on him when it’s politics and Belthway insider-ism we complain about? Bottom line: President Obama is not doing a good job. He’s doing a great job in incredibly challenging times. But he’s still learning. Did anyone honestly think the country would turn around in a year under a rookie president? Progress has been made and the country is on the right track.

People have short memories about where we were heading under the last president. Check your 401k statements from where they were a year ago. Why would anyone be for allowing insurance companies to drop sick people from their rolls? We’re still losing jobs every month, but the number is far fewer: 598,000 in January, 2009 versus  11,000 in November and 85,000 in December.

The Jan. 19 issue of  Time takes stock in the Obama Presidency  on the eve of his second State of Union speech and it’s quite favorable. More than anything, it faults him for not giving up sooner on courting most Republicans. Besides healthcare reform bogging down, “he’s done a great many other things very well.” Author Joe Klein’s biggest criticism is saved for Republicans, accusing them of “nihilism.”

They [Republicans]  demagogued nonexistent provisions of the [healthcare reform] bill.” Klein writes.

How is that working for us?

Obama told Klein that when he’d go to meet the Republican caucus to get their ideas on the stimulus package, minority leader John Boehner would release statements that the GOP would vote against such a measure before the exchange took place. The Republican leadership acts like petulant children.

A friend told me Obama’s timing is off. When Wall Street was cratering our 401ks a year ago, Obama should have gone after the banks and brokerage firms instead of pursing healthcare reform. That’s a good point. Wall St. was enemy number one, but we voters have short and selective memories.

The far right preaches morality, harps about taxes and if they don’t say so outright hopes President Obama goes down in flames. The Republican strategy is to say “no” until they are back in power. Certainly, they win on being the loudest and most vitriolic. Washington politics are so nasty that “survival is as good as it gets,” Klein writes.

The rest of us – moderate Republicans , Democrats and Independents – want to see the president succeed. And if you’re unsure about President Obama, remember what it was like under the last president.

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As a Democrat, I feel utterly let down by Martha Coakley. In a word, the campaign she ran against Republican Scott Brown STUNK! Except for the last 10 days leading up to the election, you could call it “The Campaign that Wasn’t.”

So Massachusetts won’t have the person in the Senate voting for the Democratic values I treasure. From a practical standpoint, her loss makes President Obama’s job tougher. For the record, I think he’s doing a good job trying hard to make good on his campaign promises. My main issue with him is that he’s way TOO WIMPY with his fruitless obsession in courting Republicans (every time I see Mitch McConnell and John Boehner on TV, I throw up).

Coakley: a lousy campaign. credit: Masslive.com

Back to Coakley: more than one person on election day itself commented on how few Coakley signs were plunked down in yards. In front of our polling place, Brown’s energized and angry followers were out in force, holding signs and enthusiastically waving at passing cars. Coakley had two or three supporters out there and sometimes none. I heard this repeated about several towns.

As one fellow Dem said, “I wish Brown was a Democrat.”

This morning’s Globe carried a good piece on her failed campaign and how she let leads of 17 points or more slip away  after the the first of the year. I was stunned to learn that she held no public events between Dec. 23-30  (word was she was vacationing in the Caribbean!!) while Scotto was driving around in his fabled truck meeting voters.

That’s the arrogance that swung independents over to Brown.

Even before the primary, I never saw her on the North Shore where I live. She wasn’t out pressing the flesh and as the Globe article put it, making voters feel “respected.” In the primary, I voted for scrappy Rep. Mike Capuano because he came off as a fighter. Martha seemed   controlled, calculating and a bit cold. She showed little of herself while Brown exhibited himself as an open book and likable guy.

That’s until last Saturday when Martha came to Michael’s Harborside restaurant in Newburyport. Finally, her campaign showed signs of life, but it was too late. Meanwhile, Brown’s supporters lined Route 1 on the hillside above Michael’s letting Coakley know she was under siege. The scene was right out of a 50s western with the Indians on the ridge about to slaughter the cavalry.

Edward Jr. at Ted's funeral. credit: SDNN.com

My wife and I both commented this morning that we thought Martha would have made a good senator. She grew on me the more she got out in the campaign. That’s the way it’s supposed to happen, right?

But yesterday, she also said she’s running for Attorney General again this Fall. The dust hasn’t even settled and this career bureaucrat is acting like it’s business as usual. I’m not sure I’d vote her her this Fall until she recognizes how badly she screwed up and acknowledges in some way that she let down fellow Democrats, Independents and maybe a Republican or two.

She bears sole responsibility for losing the seat held by Ted Kennedy for 47 years because she did not work hard enough. To use a sports metaphor, she didn’t want victory badly enough.  Could she have made up the five point difference with a better campaign? That’s about 100,000 votes, but she only needed better than half of those for a victory. I think she could have.

The Kennedy legacy still stands, but oh does it feel like the Kennedy influence around here just swirled down the drain with TV news showing all those Brown signs in Hyannisport.  Joe Kennedy, who doesn’t ring my bell all that much, would have beaten Brown. I think Vickie would have, too. But the Kennedy I liked the most is Ted Kennedy Jr. who spoke so movingly about his father at the funeral.

Maybe’s it’s that he sounds and looks like his father. Ted Jr. has conquered cancer and loss of his leg at a young age. He’s stared down death and comes off articulate and wonderfully genuine. I hope he enters politics so “The Dream lives on.”

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