Today's Auto hearings were all "posturing for the press." After the "yak yak" is done, the Dems will cut them a deal.
Political Wisdom: Who's Willing to Save Detroit?
WSJ.COM
In Political Perceptions
Here's a summary of the smartest new political analysis on the Web:
by Gerald F. Seib and Sara Murray
The auto companies begin an uphill climb to federal aid in Congress Thursday, with President-elect Barack Obama as perhaps their best hope, writes David Rogers of Politico. "Unlike the banking industry, the carmakers have no strong in-house champion like Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson or Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to help make their case," Rogers writes. "In fact, the companies' task is that much harder because of the greater 'anti-bailout' sentiment in Congress now following Treasury's use of the rescue funds approved this fall." But, he adds, if the hearings beginning in the Senate and moving to the House create "some political shift," the "pressure will mount on all sides—including Obama— to engage more fully to find the needed financing." Much hangs on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "Never a natural ally for the auto companies given her environmental priorities, the California Democrat again said Monday that bankruptcy was not an option. But her first preference is for Treasury to take executive action with the funds and power it already has."
OK, so the Democrats lost the runoff in Georgia, and Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss was re-elected, but Michelle Cottle of The New Republic says that doesn't tell you much about Obama's coattails, or lack thereof. "I'm sorry, did anyone really expect" the Democrats to win that race, she asks. "Georgia is, after all, Georgia. Obama only got 47 % of the vote there, and this runoff was only possible because libertarian candidate Allen Buckley and his whopping 3 percent of the vote held Chambliss at an eyelash under 50 percent last time around. This week, Obama wasn't on the ballot. Much of the nation (including, presumably Georgia) is suffering from election fatigue. (Even I wish the folks in my neighborhood would take down their blasted Obama-Biden signs.) And, let's face it, the Democrats' plea for Georgians to turn out and give them a shot at a filibuster-proof Senate margin doesn't pack nearly the terror-inducing motivational juice of Republicans' warning of a Washington controlled 100 percent by the Obama-Pelosi-Reid socialist axis."
One Bush prepares to exit, another prepares to enter? Marc Ambinder of The Atlantic says that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is seriously considering a run for Senate now that incumbent Republican Mel Martinez has retired." One adviser says Bush will weigh "how a run would impact his family, his business, and whether the Senate would be the best platform for the causes he'd advocate — education, immigration, GOP solutions to health care and energy." Bush favors "a comprehensive approach" to immigration reform, unlike some Republicans who just want a crackdown on illegal immigration. But in a recent interview "Bush said that Republicans can't give up on conservatism, and, in what might be interpreted as a dig at Florida's current governor (Republican Charlie Crist), said that Republicans 'can't be Democrat-lite.'" |
