Are They All Bozos On This Bus?

Is Max Baucus a dumbass or just a WOLFE IN SHEEEP's CLOTHING? Here he is, chair the powerful Senate Finance Committee and he offers up a jobs bill that looks like a relic of the Raygun years. Chock full of tax cuts for the rich, negotiated it with the GOOP as though that was surely the very best thing for all of us. Back when the world was talking about the value of bipartisanship this may have been a good idea, but today even Hairy Reid, not the sharpest tack in the Senate Cloak Room, decided it was not a good idea. Here is the funny part. Maybe somebody needs to tell Baucus. The Democrats have the majority of the seats on the Finance Committee and the Chair is supposed to use his majority to get legislation out that is consistent with the Democratic Party Platform. Someplace in the Platform is something about no tax cuts for the rich, I am pretty sure. Now comes Chris Dodd. Chair of the Banking Committee. Also a powerful position where you are supposed to use your considerable majority to at least get a proposal out of committee that is consistent with the promises your party made in its platform. Remember how they promised to reform the financial services industry that was so screwed up by the Busches and such? In December, Dodd took the House-passed financial institutions reform bill and parceled it out to four bipartisan study groups that were supposed to develop legislation. ANYTHING HAPPEN YET, MR. CHAIRMAN? No. Right. Nothing happened. So Chairman Dodd now announces that he is working directly with Sen. Bob Corker to write a proposed bill. Corker, a GOOPer from Tennessee, is a "serious thinker" on this subject, Dodd says. Does anyone want to bet that we are not going to see a serious proposal to reregulate the banking industry come out of this? Senate Majority? Who has a Senate Majority? The Insurance industry represented so ably for years by Chris Dodd?? The rich guys on Wall Street who benefit from the tax cuts Baucus was so willing to pass out? The Health Insurance Boys? There is no Democratic majority in the United States Senate. There will be even less of a not majority after we lose about five seats in the elections next November. Here is the good news. Evan Bayh will be gone. Chris Dodd will be gone. We may lose Blanche Lincoln. Hairy Reid is likely to be gone, too. I will not miss any of them. My fantasy is a few good losses will wake up the Senate Leadership, get a majority leader with some brass knuckles and common sense. Straighten up, fly left. If we don't it won't matter much. We will be right here where we are, in the hands of a bunch of dumbass bozos who either don't know how to use the authority they have, or use it well to suit the interests of the people who really own them.