Funniest headline of the campaign season so far: "Clinton aides deplore negativity"

Sounds like today's Clinton campaign conference call was a real hoot. Ben Smith has the report. They're all freaked out that Obama is going to challenge Clinton on issues of "ethics and transparency." This coming from the campaign that promised to throw the "kitchen sink" at Obama. From the over-the-top reaction of Team Clinton, it sure sounds like they've got something to hide. Otherwise, they'd release the 2001- 2006 tax forms, the Senate earmarks, the White House schedules and the funders of the Clinton library already.

Lots and lots of whining from Team Clinton over the challenge for her to be transparent. Why is that? And, who knew they were so fragile. How would Team Clinton ever handle the GOP if they can't take this scrutiny from Obama?

While the Clinton campaign is busy holding conference calls to spin the media and complain that Obama is being mean, the Obama camp is busy racking up delegates. He picked up 14 more delegates yesterday. That's how you win the nomination. And, that's why Hillary Clinton is losing. Read More......

Wild economic news for a Sunday night

The Fed cut the interest rate tonight. Yes, tonight. On a Sunday night:

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said new steps announced by the central bank Sunday should help squeezed financial institutions get cash infusions-- a fresh effort to provide relief to a spreading credit crisis that threatens to plunge the economy into recession.

The central bank approved a cut in its lending rate to financial institutions to 3.25 percent from 3.50 percent, effective immediately, and created another lending facility for big investment banks to secure short-term loans.

''These steps will provide financial institutions with greater assurance of access to funds,'' Bernanke told reporters in a brief conference call Sunday evening.

And Bear Stearns, until very recently a giant on Wall Street, was purchased for $250 million -- or $2 per share.

Your president didn't sound too concerned about the economy during his radio address yesterday. Seems he's the only one who isn't.

Should make for a wild week on Wall Street -- and Main Streets across America. Read More......

McCain makes campaign visit to Baghdad

Five years after the start of the war, McCain still isn't being greeted as a liberator as he predicted. But, he is doing a campaign visit to Baghdad -- and some Iraqis understand that a President McCain will keep his word to stay in Iraq indefinitely:

Many Iraqi politicians are keeping close tabs on the American presidential race, and some said the visit bolstered their belief that if Mr. McCain wins in November the American military will have a large presence in Iraq for a very long time.

“This visit confirms that the Republicans believe that the Iraqi war is very important in the fight against terrorism in the Middle East,” said Wael Abdul Latif, an independent Shiite member of the Iraqi Parliament. “It’s a message to Iran that the United States will never leave, even after Bush is gone.”

Jalaladeen Sagheer, a senior member of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, a leading Shiite party, described the visit as “an advertisement for the American elections” and said it shows Mr. McCain’s commitment to staying in Iraq, a policy Mr. Sagheer said he favors. “It suggests that American officials will make good on their promises.”

Campaign money is tough for McCain, which is why he's been trying to scam the campaign finance system. He is having a British Lord host a fundraiser in London. Maybe Ahmad Chalabi can throw a little event for McCain in Baghdad to raise a few bucks, too. Read More......

Lynn Sweet: On the disclosure front, "Clinton has every liability in front of her"

I like Lynn Sweet who writes for the Chicago Sun-Times. Years ago, in a former job, I used to interact with her quite often. She's tough, but fair. She's been very tough on Obama over the Rezko issue. In fact, in a post at Huffington, Rod McCullom gave a list of the ten things Obama could do to win Pennsylvania. Number 4 was:

Please Return Lynn Sweet's Phone Calls. Put Rezko behind the campaign and (finally) grant an interview with the Sun-Times reporter. 'Nuff said.

Given Clinton's formidable endorsements, Obama can't win Pennsylvania anyway, but, on Friday, Obama did just that. He spent time at the Chicago Sun-Times answering questions about Rezko. Sweet seemed satisfied:

In making the effort to get potentially crippling matters behind him and to move on, Obama is now freer than before to go after Clinton’s lapses on the ethics and disclosure fronts.

Clinton has declined to release even the last year of her income tax returns, and Obama has. Clinton has not been able to expedite the release of her first lady records from the Clinton presidential library. Clinton has not made public her earmark — or pet project — spending requests for any of her time in the Senate, and Obama has. Obama has revealed a bit more information about his fund-raising “bundlers” than Clinton. The donors who bankroll Bill Clinton’s library and foundation are not public.

With showdown primaries ahead — and debates April 16 in Pennsylvania and April 19 in North Carolina — Clinton has every liability in front of her.

We're waiting. Read More......

Schumer and Pelosi are absolutely correct

The mismanagement of the US economy comes as no surprise to many. The Republicans ignored this for years and now suddenly we're supposed to jump and throw around billions of dollars that we don't have because of Iraq and excessive tax cuts. I may disagree with Congress wanting a bailout to every home buyer who was just as stupid and greedy as Wall Street but that's peanuts compared to the money we're sinking in to Wall Street.

Give the commissions, the big bonuses and the big salaries back and then let's talk about another government bailout. It's just too easy to bailout Wall Street without debate. Look at the debates in Congress when the GOP argues over a few bucks here and there but nowhere do I see them arguing a bailout of *their* damned problem. They own this rotting mess so every Democrat needs to pin it on the GOP every waking minute of the day. This goes well beyond Bush. It's the entire GOP.

"We're in the most serious economic problem we've been in in a very long time, much worse than 2001. The president's hands-off attitude is reminiscent of Herbert Hoover in 1929, in 1930," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "There are lots of things that can be done, particularly on housing. Housing has been the bull's eye of this crisis."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said, "Much of what the administration has done has been too late."

Read More......

Clinton to Pelosi: "You sank my battleship"

Okay, she didn't really say that. But it's what Pelosi just did to Hillary. Hat tip to reader Ryan (the "battleship" idea was his). From AP:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says it would be damaging to the Democratic party for its leaders to buck the will of national convention delegates picked in primaries and caucuses, a declaration that gives a boost to Sen. Barack Obama.

"If the votes of the superdelegates overturn what's happened in the elections, it would be harmful to the Democratic party," Pelosi said in an interview taped Friday for broadcast Sunday on ABC's "This Week."....

In her interview, Pelosi also said that even if one candidate winds up with a larger share of the popular vote than the delegate leader, the candidate who has more delegates should prevail.

"It's a delegate race," she said. "The way the system works is that the delegates choose the nominee."

It's time for Hillary to stop this nonsense and concede. She can't win. But she can sure as hell take the rest of us down with her. And she is. Read More......

Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

Bush's Secretary of the Treasury is making the rounds this weekend. Yes, Henry Paulson and his boss have really mangled the American economy. Do not expect honesty or confidence from Paulson today.

Speaker Pelosi who stood up to George Bush this week on FISA. Pelosi's leadership on FISA was terrific -- and it showed that the Bush reign of fear mongering is over.

Also, as expected an array of surrogates for the Democratic candidates are on the shows. Perhaps someone from Team Clinton will let us know when we can expect full disclosure from their candidate.

Remember, too, that this is the week we will find out if John McCain exceeded the public campaign finance system's spending cap. That's a big deal as The Washington Post explained:

Knowingly violating the spending limit is a criminal offense that could put McCain at risk of stiff fines and up to five years in prison.

A candidate breaking the law should be the topic on every talk show next week (but that would make McCain angry...very angry.)

The full lineup is after the break.

ABC's "This Week" — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

___

CBS' "Face the Nation" — Gov. Deval Patrick, D-Mass.; Leon Panetta, former chief of staff to President Clinton.

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NBC's "Meet the Press" — Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y.; former Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley.

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CNN's "Late Edition" — Paulson; Douglas Holtz-Eakin, adviser for John McCain's presidential campaign, and Gene Sperling, adviser for Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign; Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.; L. Paul Bremer, former head of the transitional government in Iraq.

"Fox News Sunday" _ Paulson; Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Chris Dodd, D-Conn.

Read More......

Chicago Trib exonerates Obama on Rezko, 100%

As Joe noted last night, the Chicago Tribune editorial board has exonerated Obama 100% regarding his involvement in the so-called Rezko scandal. This is no small feat, as the Trib has a conservative editorial board, and the Trib is the paper that broke the Rezko story in the first place. Who'd have ever imagined that sitting down and candidly telling the truth could get you out of a pickle? There is now nothing more of substance that the Republicans (or Hillary) can throw at Obama. We may have our first Teflon Democrat in a very long time. And that's a quality the Clintons will never be able to claim. Read More......

Will this be the week when Senator Vitter and Senator Craig resign?

You know, the men who were caught cheating on their wives that have long been forgotten. Spitzer was wrong, but weren't they as well? Why are both still in office while Spitzer has resigned? Spitzer was wrong but I'm still trying to figure out how it is that he resigned within days yet Larry Craig and David Vitter are still in office. The GOP was rolling on the floor laughing this week when Spitzer went down but I'm almost surprised that Fox didn't interview Newt Gingrinch, Vitter or Craig and have them tell us about the evils of sex outside of marriage and how it's destroying America much the way the media has used Bill Bennett when they are seeking moral guidance on one issue or another. It's a tricky game to understand who is supposed to resign in disgrace when you see this.

Meanwhile while Wall Street and the GOP were all laughing Americans shoveled $200 billion to Wall Street all based on a guarantee of $200 billion in subprime loans that nobody was ever going to buy. Funny, isn't it? Ha, ha, ha. Joke's on us. Read More......

Who is the next bailout target?

Just how much money do these freeloaders want from taxpayers? The previously pro free market crowd is now calling for bailouts, hand over fist, because we just can't have a domino effect. Sure. Great. Perhaps. But where was all of this concern when they were raking in billions in fluff? Everyone made their healthy commissions, bonuses flowed and lobbyist money kept the wheels of democracy running. Why are we now supposed to spring into action to bail out a system that they all wanted?

The worst of this bailout is that the US government is committing so many billions without even debating where the money goes or who is it helping. Are we now picking up the tab for Wall Street bonuses? Let Wall Street pay back the commissions and bonuses that were based on this trash and then let's talk. Their excuse is that they need to retain the good people who weren't part of the problems. Frankly, I don't care. The management made these problems and even today, we have Prince (Citibank), O'Neil (Merrill Lynch) and others who walked away with tens of millions all based on buying and selling trash. Let them pay it back and let's ask for all of the money that others made on selling trash and then let's talk. If they don't want to, fine, but don't ask for more money. Why are we giving bailout money without debate? Read More......