Larry Craig really is retiring

It's the end of an era:

Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), encumbered by a scandal since last summer, did not file for reelection by his state’s deadline Friday, keeping a promise he made and officially marking the end of his congressional career.

Craig’s political future has been in doubt since his arrest and guilty plea on disorderly conduct charges filed after an incident in a men’s restroom at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport last June.

And, for old times sake:
Read More......

Socialized compensation for Wall Street high flyers

What's more bizarre? That Wall Street crashed from a very preventable problem (read Krugman today who is spot on) or that even after crashing, we're showering them in even more money without even the slightest hitch. Are we nuts?

The costs of such a lopsided system of incentives are by now clear. Better regulation of mortgage markets would help avoid repeating current excesses. But more fundamental correctives are needed to curb financiers’ appetite for walking a tightrope. Some economists have suggested making their remuneration contingent on the performance of their investments over several years — releasing their compensation gradually.

That’s an idea worth studying. Certainly, trying to put specific limits on bankers’ salaries is a nonstarter. But until bankers face a real risk of losing their shirts, they will continue blithely ratcheting up the risks to collect the rewards while letting the rest of us carry the bag when their punts go bad.

Read More......

Friday Parisian Cat Blogging

Read More......

Pelosi speaks out on Tibet

So when is the White House or any damned Republican going to find time to speak out? As much as they like to tell everyone about their love of freedom and democracy, Republicans are no-shows in a very important struggle. If only Tibet had oil. In the mean time, it's Pelosi as the lone voice of reason.

"If freedom loving people throughout the world do not speak out against China's oppression in China and Tibet, we have lost all moral authority to speak on behalf of human rights anywhere in the world," Pelosi said before a crowd of thousands of Tibetans, including monks and schoolchildren.

"The situation in Tibet is a challenge to the conscience of the world," she said.

Read More......

Wash Post catches Hillary outright lying about her trip to Bosnia

100% outright lie. She claimed that there was no welcoming ceremony because it was too dangerous, sniper fire was everywhere, she had to run for cover.

Not so much.

In the photo below, Hillary heroically strangles a Bosnian sniper who was about to play checkers with Chelsea. Seriously, read the caption, which quotes Hillary's description of the scene, then check out the photo of the actual scene.

Read More......

Bill Clinton: Hillary, McCain and Obama - one of 'em doesn't love our country. Guess who?

Hey, at least he's moved on from race-baiting. Read More......

Vandehei & Allen: Hillary can't win

A blistering analysis of how the race is already over for Hillary. She lost. But the media, for some odd reason, is afraid to tell people that. So they continue to pretend that it's really really close. It's not. But hey, maybe Hillary can knee-cap the black guy Obama before we have to take on our real enemy, the Republicans. And anything the Clintons can do to harm our chances in the general election in the fall only helps Hillary run again another day.

And it doesn't hurt Mark Penn's firm's other "client," John McCain, either.

One big fact has largely been lost in the recent coverage of the Democratic presidential race: Hillary Rodham Clinton has virtually no chance of winning.

Her own campaign acknowledges there is no way that she will finish ahead in pledged delegates. That means the only way she wins is if Democratic superdelegates are ready to risk a backlash of historic proportions from the party’s most reliable constituency.

Unless Clinton is able to at least win the primary popular vote — which also would take nothing less than an electoral miracle — and use that achievement to pressure superdelegates, she has only one scenario for victory. An African-American opponent and his backers would be told that, even though he won the contest with voters, the prize is going to someone else.

People who think that scenario is even remotely likely are living on another planet.

Read More......

Merci McCain

John McCain was in Paris today to receive the thanks of a grateful nation.
Read More......

Fox Anchor decides he's heard enough Obama-bashing from Fox

Well, how 'bout this for refreshing? Chris Wallace takes his own colleagues to task for twisting Obama's comments and harping on a fabricated interpretation of a sliver of a thought.

A radio interviewer in Philly yesterday asked Obama what he meant when he spoke of his grandmother's race and prejudice in Tuesday's speech:

In the speech, the Democratic candidate spoke of his white grandmother "who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."

On WIP, Obama said: "The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn't. But she is a typical white person who, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know, there's a reaction that's been bred into our experiences that don't go away, and that sometimes come out in the wrong way, and that's just the nature of race in our society.

Apparently, Fox took the ball and ran with it in a ridiculous-yet-totally-Fox direction. Here's Wallace chastising the team:

Read More......

China creates new Olympic sport: Tibetan manhunt

The hot new story is that Bush is "privately" telling Hu Jintao that he is not happy. Uh huh, right. I think we know how well all of those "private" meetings have gone in the past. Does Bush still think it's 2002 when he can say anything and people will believe him? If China can't handle public criticism - as they so often deliver themselves to the US and others - then perhaps they are not quite the world power they want to believe they are.

Maybe they're just a regional power who isn't ready or able to play on the world scene. Being a regional player is fine but let's not get carried away and suggest more importance than that. If Beijing wants to be taken seriously, it's time to put the old communist doctrine behind and let Tibet be Tibet and not be so sensitive to criticism. The world *is* watching, so deal with it. Read More......

Clinton campaign finished February in the red

The presidential campaigns filed their FEC reports last night. I wrote about John McCain busting the FEC's spending cap, a criminal violation, last night. On the Democratic side, Clinton's report is here and Obama's is here. Based on the numbers, and it takes a little digging and some math, Hillary Clinton actually finished the month of February (her best fundraising period to date, by far) in the red.

Some background from AP:

Clinton spent $31.6 million in February and had $33 million in the bank, but of that $21.7 could only be used in the general election, according to her FEC filing. Clinton also reported $8.7 million in debts; Obama had $625,000.

A summary page supplied by the Obama campaign reported that he spent $42.7 million in February. He had nearly $39 million cash on hand; more $7 million of it could only be used in the general election.

Clinton's campaign ended the month with $33.1 million cash on hand. But, that's deceptive. Clinton has been aggressively raising money for the general election, too. As AP notes, $21.7 million is off limits to the primary campaign. That means her cash on hand is really $11.4 million. In addition, the Clinton campaign reports $8.7 million in debt (including $2.5 million to Mark Penn's firm) bringing her number down to $2.7 million if she pays the debts. Subtract the $5 million loan she made to herself and we're talking negative cash balance of -$2.3 million.

On the other hand, Obama had $38.8 million cash on hand at the end of February. Only $7 million is off limits in the primary leaving $31.8 million. The Obama camp had debts of $625,000 and no personal loans to the campaign, meaning he had over $31 million available.

Part of the Clinton strategy of inevitability was built on her fundraising capacity. As superdelegates are looking at electability (the new Clinton standard), they should look at the real story behind the numbers.

Back in the early days of the campaign when Clinton campaigned almost exclusively on her inevitability, she aggressively raised money for the primary and the general election from her large donors, many of whom contributed the maximum $4600 ($2300 for the primary and $2300 for the general). The money from general election contributions cannot be used unless she wins the primary and must be returned to these donors if she doesn't win.

If Hillary is having this much trouble with a budget of $150 million, how will she handle the federal budget? Read More......

Former Clinton ambassador, Bill Richardson, to endorse Obama

After being pursued by Bill Clinton himself, this is a hefty blow to Clinton. Richardson isn't just a former Clintonista who is now defecting, he's also a Hispanic leader, which could cut into Hillary's lead with Latinos. More from the NYT:

He is one of the biggest prospective endorsers in the Democratic Party: former candidate, prominent Hispanic governor, influential superdelegate and generally beloved teddy bear among party insiders, if not by the voters of Iowa and New Hampshire, both of which dealt him distant fourth-place finishes in their early nominating contests.

Read More......

Did Hillary sit next to Rev. Wright at prayer breakfast?

(Hat tip to reader Dem in VA.) Hillary was there, so who's the guy sitting next to her? If it is Wright, it's kind of hard to imagine that they'd sit an "America hater" next to the woman who singlehandedly brought peace to Northern Ireland. You don't put random people next to the First Lady. And you REALLY don't put just anybody next to the First Lady during a speech in which you know that Bill Clinton is going to talk about Monica. This had to be a horrible scene for Hillary - you had better believe that the man sitting next to Hillary was vetted to the moon and back. He was chosen as the best man in the room. So who was he? Sure looks like Rev. Wright. More from the NYT. (Full disclosure, I lightened the photo with Hillary so as to make Wright's facial features more visible, for comparison sake.) Read More......

Did Bill Clinton "repent" about Monica to Obama's Rev. Wright?

So the latest news is that Clinton wasn't just photographed at a White House meal with Obama's pastor, Reverend Wright. Clinton actually may have "repented" to Wright and the assembled clergy about his affair with Monica.

The Clintons are now saying that literally tens of thousands of people got their photos snapped with Bill Clinton. True, but we're all aware that the Clinton White House was hardly cavalier about invitations. An invitation to their White House was a favor doled out to special people (Lincoln Bedroom, anyone?). And in any case, of those tens of thousands of photos, how many of those people actually got invited to a formal meal with the president at the White House? I've been in DC for 20 years and never got invited to dine at the White House. You have to be fully vetted, and placed on the special suck-up list, for something like that. The Clinton campaign is now calling it "pathetic" that this photo has come to light. I'd say. After the Clinton campaign peddled the Rev. Wright story for weeks, now we find out that Bill Clinton himself invited Wright to dine at the White House. Yeah, saying anything to win is definitely pretty pathetic.

And in any case, would the Clintons now have us believe that each and every one of those tens of thousands of photos included a personal "repentance" from Bill Clinton over the Monica scandal? Read More......

Wall Street borrowing billions from average Americans

What a fine bunch we have on Wall Street. They can afford to hand out massive bonus money hand over fist but look who is gobbling up money from American taxpayers. If they weren't showering so much money on themselves it would be one thing, but c'mon, this is ridiculous. How much is enough? How could they possibly afford to pay out so handsomely if times are so tough? Firms averaged $13.4 BILLION per day in loans by the government over the last week. $13.4 billion per day. Amazing.

Most Americans would probably accept helping out to keep the American economy going but when they're increasingly struggling to make ends meet and then discover they're financing the high rolling lifestyles of Wall Street millionaires, the cause suddenly sounds much less compelling. Where are the sacrifices on Wall Street? Why do we again have a situation where regular people are getting stuck with all of the bad and none of the upside? What a system the Republicans have constructed. Good money, if you can get it. Read More......

China sends troops to Tibet, 99+ protesters killed

China has been desperate to have the spotlight and now they have it. For years they wanted to show the world how much they have progressed but now all the world sees is the same old thugs who slaughtered protesters at Tienanmen Square. China can blame everyone else but they're the ones sending in the good squads to Tibet. The more aggressive they are the more the governments shows everyone just how fragile their system really is. Is this what they really want to show the world? Is this who we want to be doing business with and relying on as a critical trade partner? What an impressive regime and please step over the dead bodies while entering the Olympic village. Read More......

Obama: "McCain seems determined to carry out a third Bush term"

Why would McCain offer anything different? He is in favor of staying in Iraq for 10,000 years regardless of how much it costs and his economic team is led by the same person who is Bush's leading adviser. It's interesting to note that it's bad Republican policy with the economy that will ultimately cut funding for the bad Republican policy in Iraq.

There is no way the public will tolerate throwing more bad money into that black hole of spending when they're worried about the serious problems at home. McCain can blame himself and all of his Republican colleagues for creating this sticky situation. When the GOP starts crying about funding for Iraq, they can step back and think of the millions and billions that have all gone missing due to corruption and mismanagement. Read More......

A few shots around Athens (and a wee bit of Paris too)

Taking a break from politics. Had a number of interviews with the local papers in Athens, to talk about blogs in the US (I think), and attended my cousin's international relations class at the university, which was interesting. It's amazing how Athens has changed over the years. There are so many cool neighborhoods. Trendier than anything I've seen in DC, and on a par with NYC, if not far cooler. Just amazing. Having said that, only 15% of the population has Internet access (10% have broadband), per a study from last year (so it may be a bit higher now). So they still have a ways to go. Anyway, a few cool pics of Athens I thought I'd share:







Actually, this post is a few days old. I got into Paris last night and am working from Chris and Joelle's apartment. I had to snap a shot of the cheese shop next door. They were giving a cheese lesson, which was cute enough, but to top it off, the instructor was wearing a beret. :-)

Read More......