Posted by
Philip Mella on Friday, March 20, 2009 2:17:52 PM
With the passage of time, anomolies, whether biological or political, inevitably surface. Such is the case with the stunning revelation that I'm in agreement with Arianna Huffintgon, whose post concerning the AIG bonus debacle charges the Obama administration with hypocrisy and cynicism.
As you've doubtless learned, officials at Treasury supposedly insisted on a modification of a provision allegedly inserted into the stimulus bill by Sen. Chris Dodd (with co-author Sen. Ron Whden) that would have prohibited bonuses at companies receiving tax payer funds. Now, Dodd is being accused of game-playing with the language and is fighting withi TS Geithner. But however this turns out, as Huffington correctly asserts, it creates a credible trail to someone in Obama's administration.
In a rare disagreement with Charles Krauthammer, who argues that the bonuses reflect a pittance, a tempest in a teapot, I see it as yet further evidence that political considerations routinely trump not only common sense, but the common good. Huffington quotes Sen. Wyden, who lamented:
It is the ultimate indictment of what Washington has become. It's a place where, again and again, the public interest is deep-sixed behind closed doors and without any fingerprints.
From children in poverty to the challenges in the Middle East, ours is a trouble world. But America has always been a place where the virtues of decency and good will brought out the best in its citizens. Although every generation has examples of unethical, cynical, or illicit behavior by elected officials, when the values that underlie our political system become tainted by craven self-interest, when judgment is corrupted by a thorough-going disregard for moral precepts, we've effectively entered a new age informed by incipient anarachy.
What does this say about Mr. Obama, who, along with Geithner, certainly must have known about these bonuses? There is clearly some kind of inadvertent disconnect between Obama's overwrought, socialism-lite agenda and his ability to perpetuate his rapidly fading image of post-political bipartisanship.
Moreover, the expiration date for his convenient line--"we inherited this crisis"--has already passed, or as they say at used car dealerships, once you're off the lot, all noises, pings, and knocks are yours. The Congressional Budget Office now says the Obama-generated deficits will be $2.3 trillion higher than his crack economists predicted.
All of this is slowly seeping into the public's political conscience, and the drip, drip, drip--that familiar sound of leaking political capital--will become progressively more difficult for this neophyte executive to confront. Already, many moderate Democrats are wondering aloud what happened to their opportunity to advance the agenda of fiscal restraint, to reach across the aisle to like-minded Republicans who share their concern that we're drowning our children in red ink while awakening the giant known as inflation.
With the predictable exception of those on the hard left, Americans are already asking themselves, is Obama guilty of false competence or poor judgment? Perhaps it's both, with a tincture of arrogance.