Sunday, January 18, 2009
PREFACE:

On ABC’s This Week this morning, Obama strategist David Axelrod was still campaigning.

On FNS, Nancy Pelosi screeched, cackled, and discussed bipartisanship done her way. Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs promised us that he’d never lie. If he was uncomfortable with the truth, he would move on to the next subject.

On MTP, Rahmbo said a lot of stuff to moderator David Gregory, mostly defending a stimulus package of some sort, and then they all went out for Drinks. Gregory was buying.

On CBS’s FTN, Obama economic advisor Larry Summers said that we will see additional job losses will not hit 10%. He did not again hold forth on the stupidity of women.

(Read on for the review.)

AXELROD ON TW. George Stephanopoulos, host of ABC’s This Week, spoke to Obama strategist David Axelrod in what appeared to be obtuse and uneventful Axelrod said of the Obama stimulus: “We have to act. We have to try.” Otherwise, we’ll surely get double-digit inflation. Contrary to John Boehner’s assertion that the Republicans were not consulted about the Obama stimulus, Axelrod asserted that “there have been consultations with Republicans.

Axelrod insisted that President Bush, with malice aforethought, personally killed the “Clinton surpluses” and he did not hear members of Congress complaining about that. Axelrod concluded that Obama was not spending to create jobs; rather, he was investing in our future.

NANCY ON FNS. Host Chris Wallace’s first guest on FOX News Sunday was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who bitterly complained that more House Republicans should support TARP now, as they had “voted for TARP in a high number when Bush was President.” Well, technically, Nancy, he still is, and he helped Obama to appeal for this second batch. Of course, what did we get for the first half?

Nancy claimed that her stimulus package creates by its lonesome 3 to 4 million jobs. She reported that according to the “Republicans’ Congressional Budget Office (CBO),” nothing had contributed more to the deficit than Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthiest. She said that she put everything on the table, including benefit reductions.

She applauded Conyers’ rabid promises of Congressional investigations into the past doings of the Bush Administration, as we must “learn from the past” and “let the truth come forth

Finally, said Nancy: “I wish President Bush would have been bipartisan.”

ROBERT GIBBS ON FNS. “You can tell by the way I use my walk, I’m a woman’s man, no time to talk.” And no time for the Bee Gees, either.

Wearing a nicer suit and sporting a better haircut than he did at the FN last summer, incoming White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs held forth on FNDC. He said that the “American people are going to have to give something,” as in: Uncle Sam demands a sacrifice!

Obama is “more transparency,” “do things differently,” etc.

Gibbs insisted that “we have to ask the financial sector to reform themselves” He quickly revised that to telling the financial sector that they must get with the program.

Obama’s going to have us out of Iraq in 16-months. In his major changes, Gibbs insisted, Obama’s going to consult with the military and hand more responsibility over to the Iraqis. (Can they really be that oblivious to what President Bush has been doing post-surge?)

Gibbs declared that the Pelosi stimulus package was not Obama’s.

He added, “I don’t think Mr. Geithner about paying his taxes.” I don’t know what he’d call it, then. Perhaps he liked the phrasing that Geithner didn’t want to pay his taxes until he was caught and wanted to fill a position of trust with the American people.

RAHMBO ON MTP. On NBC’s Meet the Press, Moderator David Gregory talked to Chicago-style Rahmbo. In his inaugural address, Rahmbo intimated, that he’ll say the same things we heard in the campaign. Obama will talk about his new “era of responsibility,: as opposed to the current culture of “anything goes.” We’ll have to “do what we need to do as a country to regain America’s greatness” in the global test. This is larger, Rahm intoned, than just sacrifice and the economy.

Gregory took the opening to discuss the economy, pointing out that the “era of big government is back in a big way.” Rahmbo blamed, part, overruns in defense spending.

Gregory confronted Rahmbo with the wasteful spending in Obama’s plan, ad Rahmbo retorted that the Pell grant was no wasteful because it sent people to college. He suggest that he and Gregory “would not be sitting here” if it weren’t for Pell grants. Gregory asked Rahmbo what he says to people who report that under the guise of stimulus, the Obama package is really just the Dem domestic agenda. Rahm continued the blather about how important this plan is, without answering the question, and Gregory let him go.

Rahmbo, several times, repeated: “This is the single worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.” Gregory grunted his agreement

On Tim Geithner’s failure to pay income taxes until Obama wanted to put him in charge of the IRS, Rahmbo called it a “mistake” and an “embarrassment,” but added that Geithner was the right and only man who could run the Treasury Department at this point. As proof of this, he pointed to Geithner’s broad bipartisan support: Lindsey Graham and Orrin Hatch.

LARRY SUMMERS ON FTN. Obama economic advisor Larry Summers, a Clinton retread, has declared that Obama’s stimulus package is “shovel ready” and will pass in a month. He said that no one who earns less than $250,000 will receive a tax increase, but “the focus is on getting this economy started. This “won’t be fixed in a week, or a month, or a year,” but they have to show the commitment to fixing everything for everyone. Summers thinks “we’re gonna see substantial job losses,” but unemployment won’t hit 10%.

He said that Obama and Geithner (the tax cheat) are going to use the economy rather than the banks to create loans.

He did not reiterate his deeply held belief that women are stupid.

CNN’S LATE EDITION. evidently, this television show is no more and has been replaced by State of the Union starring John King. When I tuned in, King was talking to Donna Brazile, Alex Castellanos, and the worthless, shriveled David Gergen worshipping at the altar of Obamamania. One of them even managed a “son of Africa.”

I’ll see what’s up here next week, if they will bother with legitimate news.
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We’re ready for the inauguration of our new President. Let’s wish each other luck.