Beyond Crony Capitalism: New treasury chief a "safety-net entrepreneur" (Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo)

"Critics of this administration often hit it for being full of so-called Chicken-hawks, folks who are all gung-ho to get into wars but somehow never found time to put on a uniform themselves.

"On the economic side of the equation, it's also filled with what I'm calling (in a piece I'm now working on) safety-net entrepreneurs. Those would be folks who talk a great game about markets and risk-taking and entrepreneurship and gumption and such but have actually made their cash in ventures which are almost immune from real risk and where their skill isn't entrepreneurship but the ability to work the bureaucracy and purse strings of -- yikes! -- big government. Safety-nets for the poor and middle-class damage character; for the businessmen, they work just fine.

"Dick Cheney's career at Haliburton is almost the archetypal example; Snow's seems a decent runner-up."

    

Corporate Welfare Queen: Bear, Stearns Threatens Again to Leave City and Seeks Third Set of Deals to Stay (NYTimes)

Harvey Robins, a former city director of operations, said: "In the city's hour of need, Bear, Stearns is asking New York for yet another corporate handout." He added, "We become a smaller city when the financial and real estate industries see municipal government as a cash cow for their private purposes."

    

Lott's More: Oliver Willis takes on the Senate Republican leader (OliverWillis.com)

Lott's track record:

"Twenty-two years ago, Trent Lott, then a House member from Mississippi, told a home state political gathering that if the country had elected segregationist candidate Strom Thurmond to the presidency "30 years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we are today." The phrasing is very similar to incoming Senate Majority Leader Lott's controversial remarks at a 100th birthday party for Thurmond last week." -- the Washington Post

Democratic dumbness:

If you thought Tom Daschle was ineffectual before, his sad comment that "Senator Lott, in my conversation with him this morning, explained that that wasn't how he meant them to be interpreted. I accept that. There are a lot of times when he and I go to the microphone, would like to say things we meant to say differently, and I'm sure this is one of those cases for him, as well." should seal the deal. Republican or Democrat, these senate guys are part and parcel to the back scratch club when it comes to one of their own (unless the evidence is overwhelming like with Bob Packwood). As long as the White House/Republican spin continues like this, I dub this the Bush-Lott Administration (shades of Dole-Gingrich if your memory works).

Bush / Lott Campaign ad