Unemployment has remained at a historic high under President Obama and a Democrat-led Congress.Actually, as noted here, unemployment reached 9.7 percent under “Republic” Party president Ronald Reagan, though I will admit that the current high number is nothing to be proud of (and not completely reflective of the Obama Administration either, it should be noted, but such are the political spoils I know).
And as long as we’re talking about jobs and presidents, this National Journal account tells us the following…
From February 2001, (George W.) Bush's first full month in office, through January 2009, his last, total U.S. nonfarm employment grew from 132.5 million to 133.5 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's an increase, obviously, of just 1 million. From January through April of this year, the economy created 573,000 jobs. Over a full year, that projects to 1.72 million jobs.And this tells us that 431,000 jobs were added in May since that article was written (yes, I know most of them were “public” temp jobs related to the census, but a paycheck is a paycheck).
So let’s see how many “private” jobs are added for the rest of the year and whether or not it turns out that the Obama Administration will have created more jobs in a single year than Former President Highest Disapproval Rating in Gallup Poll History did throughout his entire nightmare of a presidency (and if that does indeed happen, let’s wait for the sound of crickets from gop.gov).
"A gaffe happens when someone slips up and tells the truth," goes the old Washington saw. But there is a corollary: A scandal occurs when someone gets caught doing what everyone else is doing. Gambling in the casino!?! He had an affair?!? Ethics impropriety in the U.S. Congress!?! Clutch the pearls, call for an investigation, restore order.It doesn’t come across to me, either from reading Scherer’s post or his article, that he is aware of the fact that Rangel is facing 13 counts of ethics violations in the House (here); in addition to the charge of improperly raising money from companies with business before his committee for a non-profit cause (the academic center Scherer mentions), he is also accused of using a rent-stabilized apartment in Harlem for his campaign office; of failing to report more than $600,000 on his financial disclosure report; and of failing to pay taxes on rental income from a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic.
Something like this is at play in the current excoriation of Charlie Rangel, who has been accused by the House Committee On Standards of Official Conduct of improperly raising money from companies with business before his committee for a non-profit cause--an academic center named in his honor--that amounted to a personal benefit. In a new story on Time.com, I explain why this sin is not exceptional in anything more than some of the specifics, like the type of stationary he used and the fact that, at one point, the academic center planned to give him an office.
Rangel should have taken the hint long before now and gracefully retired from a public life that, to be fair, has been rich in accomplishment. However, he now seems bound and determined to make a spectacle of himself while his party faces a difficult fall election cycle, thus giving further ammunition to the opposition.
I guess this is called “going down in flames” (and if anyone out there thought I was going to defend Rangel merely because he's a Dem, you were very much mistaken).
For retired Army Lt. Col. Allen West, Republican candidate for Congress in Florida’s 22nd District, one word seems to sum up his campaign, his career, his life: “leadership.”Uh, is West running against Klein or Barack Obama (something to wonder about based also on this, which I discussed here)? If he’s running for the GOP presidential nomination, he’s too early (but not by much).
“We’ve got to rediscover what leadership is in this country,” West says during an interview in Washington. “In the last 2008 election cycle, we saw American Idol play on a grand scheme. And unfortunately, we believed that giving a good teleprompter speech meant leadership.”
This, though, is boilerplate stuff for West, who said here that his supporters should “make (Klein) scared to come out of his house,” part of a pattern of hate speech noted here.
The best way to respond to West, then, would be by clicking here for starters.
Update 8/18/10: West is a real sweetheart, isn't he? (here)
Steve King has said some pretty offensive things in his time in Washington.To help Matt Campbell, click here.
To remind the voters of the real Steve King, we've put together a "TOP 10" list of the most ridiculous, offensive, and down-right stupid things King has said. Each week, we'll work to raise $1,000 online to cross one off and to help silence him in November.
I'm working to run a positive campaign and to revitalize our economy but these statements are part of Steve King's record and sadly reflect his poor representation in Congress.
Click here to contribute $5 or more to help us cross off Steve King item #10!
The full list is below, but #10 is a golden oldie from 2005:10. King has referred to unions as "economic weapons of mass destruction."
Unions are the backbone of American society and fought for values like the 40-hour workweek and safe work places. It is offensive that he'd compare them to "weapons of mass destruction" as unions have spent a generation building the middle class.
Help cross off King's offensive item #10 by chipping in $5 or more today (here)!
Thanks again for supporting my campaign.
I hope with your help, we'll be able to restore common-sense leadership to Iowa.
Fight on,
Matt Campbell
P.S. Here is the full list below - help us cross of item #10 by giving $5 or more!
SILENCE STEVE KING LIST….
1. King stated that American treatment of Iraqis in Abu Ghraib "amounts to hazing."
2. King called Senator Joseph McCarthy a "great-American hero."
3. King argued that President Obama "has a default mechanism that favors blacks," and has charged that the administration has a racial bias.
4. Steve King in a recent editorial indicated that Democrats are acting like Pontius Pilate in wanting to legislate comprehensive immigration reform and washing their hands of the consequences. Pontius Pilate was the Roman administrator that sent Jesus Christ to his death.
5. Steve King who had this to say on the subject of calling members of Congress "faggots" and "n__[racial slur]" after the health-care debate:"I just don't think it's anything," King said, emphasizing that the incidents were isolated. "There are a lot of places in this country that I couldn't walk through. I wouldn't live to get to the other end of it."
6. King was the only member of Congress to oppose a measure to honor the role slaves played in building the U.S. Capitol in the Visitors Center.
7. King, after hearing about a suicide attack on a federal building in Austin, said "I understand the deep frustration with the I.R.S," empathizing with an act of domestic terrorism that killed a Vietnam veteran, and injured several others.
8. King, on hearing Congressman Barton's apology for the BP escrow fund, said "I think Joe Barton was spot-on when he called it a 'shakedown.'"
9. King opposes the Treasury's efforts to fight tax evasion in international structures as it "squeezes the rich." The Treasury program King opposes follows-up on a UBS agreement to pay a $780 million fine to settle charges it helped individuals evade U.S. taxes.
10. King has referred to unions as "economic weapons of mass destruction."
Update 8/16/10: The beat goes on - ugh (here).
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