Monday Stuff

RIP former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop – the Reaganites wanted him to be just like them, but he changed and evolved over time, as all intelligent adults in a position of leadership are supposed to do…



…and John Nichols of The Nation brings us great stuff on the “fix the debt” con that is being perpetrated here, with this guy being one of the supposed “centrists” giving it more “cred” than it deserves; there was a real stink in these parts recently when this came to light with Rendell and his former right-hand man, David Cohen (when Rendell was mayor of Philadelphia), deciding to support Tom “Space Cadet” Corbett here; I wish I could say I was surprised…yes, Rendell and Cohen, along with former City Council president and eventual mayor John Street, did some good way back when, with the help of some altruistic union cave-ins, but when push comes to shove, they’re “bottom line” guys, and I guess they figured out that the “dark side” paid better and it was time to cash in…



…and speaking of bottom-line guys, let’s try to “soften up” Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao so he looks more vulnerable to a Teahadist takeover (here); let them knock off McConnell and save us the trouble, to say nothing of saving the money…



Update 2/26/13: And by the way, speaking of McConnell…I try not to participate in spats between lefties, which are dumb, counter-productive…you name it…but as much as I admire Think Progress, I think they’re off base here; yes, Progress Kentucky walked a fine line by pointing out that former Bushco Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, who may very well go down as the absolute worst Secretary of Labor this country has ever seen, did her level best to send as many good-paying jobs in this country to China as she could, but I don’t think pointing that out is necessarily “racist.” If she had been African American and she’d sent jobs to, say, Ghana, would pointing that out be racist too?

The bigger issue I have is that, while it’s emotionally satisfying to take another shot at Chao like this for the upheaval and ruin she caused among an untold number of workers and their families in this country, the fact of the matter is that she’s been out of public life for over four years. Unless she pops up somewhere in the wingnutosphere to try and practice some revisionist history, I think we’re obligated to let bygones be bygones.

…and George Harrison would have been 70 today.