Chicken Little: The end is near

It seems Chicken Little was right after all. The sky really is falling...and has been falling for at least six months now. Chicken Little must have known that after 30 years of living like the sky was the limit, eventually it was bound to come crashing down. So he hunkered down and warned us.

We didn't believe. We spent and squandered. Now Washington and Wall Street want us to put up a trillion dollars to bail them out. We have to do it right now because the sky is falling...and quickly. Why are they so pressed? We're the ones with our you-know-what's in the air.

Who’s the real villain in the AIG bonus debacle?

Of course they took the money!

In all the congressional huffing and puffing about the $165 million bonuses given to AIG execs, Congress seems to ignore a basic of human nature: Nobody returns a $6 million bonus check from their boss, no matter how bad the business is doing. Ain’t gonna happen.

That said, I think it’s pretty safe to say that most Americans are outraged that AIG would pay bonuses to employees who engineered the current financial catastrophe. None are more outraged than Congress, however. Legislators, seeking a dramatic demonstration of their anger, are demanding that employees give back the money or have it taxed by 100 percent.

Seems to me that they are punishing the wrong villains. We know the employees don’t deserve retention awards or “bonuses” by any other name, but they were promised and paid.

If you are looking for villains now, how about Congress, who shoveled billions from taxpayer coffers to the banks. This same outraged Congress didn't ask basic questions about whether banks would be forced to actually loan money or if employees could scamper out the door with some of the bailout loot. How about the board of directors and senior management, who approved and disbursed the bonuses while they were still begging America for a handout. How about a Secretary of the Treasury, who had no clue that the bonuses were planned while selling the “rescue” plan. How about a complicit media, who didn’t report on the substance of the stimulus bills but rather focused on who was winning or losing the fight.

None of the true villains want to take responsibility, so they point at the employees who accepted the bonuses rather than the knuckleheads who paid them. Now they want the employees to voluntarily give them back. Who does that? Certainly none of the real culprits.

The $165 million question

What the hell were they thinking?

Sent from my iPhone.

‘Too much, too soon’

Pres. Obama is trying to do too much, too soon. That’s this week’s constant refrain from Republicans in Congress. Focus on the economy, they warn. Do that first. You can get to health care later. We can deal with education down the road. We need to fix the banks now. Then the legislators retire to their offices in the sterile, white buildings that bookend the Capitol.

Those offices are so far from the regular person who might be struggling to keep health insurance after losing a job. The person who might be counting the days until unemployment insurance runs out, having already lost health insurance. The person who wants to pin their hopes on a better life for a child stuck in a school system that is failing them. Just wait, guys...to educate you, keep you afloat and healthy between jobs is too much, too soon. We’ll get to you later.

To dismiss the urgent needs of millions of Americans as too much, too soon is the antithesis of the Golden Rule. Worse, it’s an overly simplistic view of governance. Why does the president need to focus on only one thing? Is it like he’s actually doing it himself? Should all of the employees in the Department of Health and Human Services cool their heels while their counterparts at the Department of Treasury get their acts together? Employees at the Department of Education must really be thrilled to know that no one will ask anything of them for at least three years. To ask them to focus on their jobs would be too much, too soon.

I’m guessing congressional Republicans aren’t used to seeing leadership in action. The idea of a president who will set a lofty vision and challenge different communities to work toward a common purpose must be totally foreign. How about setting a goal and holding people accountable for the results? I don’t think so, Brownie.

I like that Pres. Obama is trying to do so much so soon. There’s a lot of work to do. He has to repair and rebuild almost simultaneously. He has to do it before a fickle public gets bored and impatient. He has to do it or risk becoming irrelevant. He has to do it...now.

I like that he presses on with his agenda, ignoring the chihuahuas snipping at his heels. Critics will always criticize. “Strategists” who have never had to make a decision of any consequence will always pontificate. And envious politicians will try to limit your effectiveness by challenging your ambition. Too much, too soon. Puhleeze. I say do it all. Do it now.

It seems Steele don’t really ‘be da man’

Bless his little heart. Michael Steele really thought he was in charge of the Republicans. He eked his way into the position of Chairman of the Republican National Committee in a very competitive race, then started making the rounds to sell “his” party.

You might excuse him for thinking he was in charge after his ‘endorsement’ by Rep. Michele Bachmann. After Steele finished speaking to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Bachmann belted out “You be da man!” That moment would have been awkward anywhere else but the CPAC. Not one person from the Conference seemed to get it or has since acknowledged her comments might be construed as inappropriate.

Anyway, fresh with that endorsement, Michael Steele went on D.L. Hughley’s CNN show and proclaimed that Rush wasn’t the head of the Republican Party. Steele said that HE was the head of the party.

“Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer. Rush Limbaugh — his whole thing is entertainment. He has this incendiary — yes, it's ugly,” Steele said.

Now an interesting thing happened in between that exchange and Rush’s response. On CBS’ Face the Nation, Rahm Emanuel reinforced that Rush was the head of the Republican Party.

“When a Republican did attack him (Rush), he was — clearly had to turn around and come back and basically said that he's apologizing and was wrong.”

Ok, back to Michael and Rush.

As you might expect, Rush didn’t take too kindly to Steele’s comments.

“I hope the RNC chairman will realize he’s not a talking head pundit, that he is supposed to be working on the grassroots and rebuilding it and maybe doing something about our open primary system and fixing it so that Democrats don’t nominate our candidates,” Limbaugh said, his voice rising. “It’s time, Mr. Steele, for you to go behind the scenes and start doing the work that you were elected to do instead of trying to be some talking head media star, which you’re having a tough time pulling off.”

Ooooh... Well Michael Steele couldn’t let those comments go without a response, could he?

“I went back at that tape and I realized words that I said weren’t what I was thinking,” Steele said. "It was one of those things where I thinking I was saying one thing, and it came out differently. What I was trying to say was a lot of people … want to make Rush the scapegoat, the bogeyman, and he’s not."

“I’m not going to engage these guys and sit back and provide them the popcorn for a fight between me and Rush Limbaugh,” Steele added. “No such thing is going to happen. … I wasn’t trying to slam him or anything.”

An apology? Actually, three. After that apology, Steele called Limbaugh and apologized in person. Steele then issued another statement saying that he had apologized, and Rush had accepted him back into the fold. I guess now he can “go behind the scenes and do the work he was elected to do,” just as Rush had instructed.

Excuse me… who’s the head of the Republican Party?

Bless his little heart... He really thought he was in charge.