Mullings An American Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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Let's Twist Again ...

Rich Galen

Friday February 6, 2009

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No one is happier than I am when Obama appointees get dragged through the mud which is at the bottom of the Main Stream Media � stream.

Really. I know I'm supposed to say "we need to give President Obama the people he needs to run his Administration." And I know, as a true-blue American I want the Obama Administration to get off to a fast start. And I know that, as a Washington Insider I am supposed to be above petty politics.

But � Nah.

I like to see them, in the words of John Ehrlichman, "twist slowly, slowly in the wind."

I understand that Republicans lost in 2008. Right after the election I told one wire service reporter that "we had a 1970's candidate with a 1980's message using 1990's technology and � we lost." I get that.

That does not mean I am buying into the theory espoused by the Ladies of the Club in the Upper West Side of Manhattan that Barack Obama, either because he is Black or because his name isn't "Bush" should subject any less scrutiny (or held up to any less scorn) than the 43 Presidents who have come before him.

Obama was not in the Senate long enough - nor was his attendance in the Senate frequent enough - for him to understand that being President means that a whole bunch of people who are political appointees in the Executive Branch have to agree with every clause in every halting sentence you utter.

However, the Members of the House and Senate are independently elected. Each one secretly (or, in the case of at about half the U.S. Senate who have run for the office, openly) believe they should have the house, the limo, the airplane and the army.

Here's a good idea. If the President and the Congress feel as strongly as they do that organizations which are feeding at the trough of the Federal Treasury should give up perks like cars, drivers, private planes, and the like - Cabinet officers should not be permitted to fly on government aircraft and should give up their chauffeured limos.

There is absolutely no national need which requires that the Secretary of Education be driven around Washington in federally funded limo. What national interest is served by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development be granted a car and driver?

Much less Deputy Secretaries, Under Secretaries, Assistant Secretaries, Deputy Assistant Secretaries or whatever comes after them.

Members of the House and Senate, for their part, should not be allowed to use fancy, tricked-out Air Force planes to go on official junkets nor should they have free healthcare at Walter Reed or Bethesda Naval Hospital.

And cars? How many Members of Congress and Senators drive around in cars which are leased by their campaigns - but are used to go to the Safeway? Why isn't that taxable as income?

And raises for Members of Congress? After the great job they've done overseeing all those agencies we pay for to look after Wall Street?

I � Don't � Think ... So.

The latest Obama Twister is his choice for Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis. Who? Hilda Solis.

We don't know that there are any issues with her taxes. But we do know that her husband - quite suddenly - decided to pay back taxes due on his business. According to USA Today's Matt Kelley Solis "paid about $6,400 Wednesday to settle tax liens that had been outstanding for as long as 16 years against his business."

The last time a woman had to answer for her husband's tax issues was in 1984 when Geraldine Ferraro had to do it after having been selected by Walter Mondale to be his Vice Presidential running mate.

Here's the joke running around Your Nation's Capital: Who's the most irritated guy in Washington? Tom Daschle. He paid the $140,000 and still didn't get the job!

This building an Administration business isn't as easy as it looks like it's going to be.

Maybe I don't agree with Erlichman after all about that "twisting slowly, slowly in the wind" business.

I'm happy no matter how quickly they twist.

On the Secret Decoder Ring today: Links to Erlichman, Ferraro, and Hilda. Also a quick tutorial on how Cabinet Departments are organized. A Mullfoto proving Republicans are eternal optimists and a Catchy Caption of the Day.

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