Motley Moose – Archive

Now that Daschle is out of the picture, everyone is wondering who Obama will put up for Secretary of Health and Human Services. If it were my choice, I’d go straight to Howard Dean.

Dean is, first of all, a Physician and knows the health field from the inside. Has head of the Democratic Party his 50 State Stratey was a masterpiece of organization and one of the reasons Obama carried so many states that were previously in the Republican Column.

Dean is intelligent, articulate and a real presence when he appears on television or at rallies.

Now, as I understand it, there’s friction between Dean and Rahm Emmanuel that ha to be overcome, but Rahm’s personal crap should not be standing in the way of a real position in the Administration for Dean, who, after all his work, has been really, and insultingly, overlooked.

Under The LobsterScope

The announcement that Brandeis University was going to close the Rose Art Museum and sell off part or most of the collection, a collection that includes one of the best representations of America in the 1950s and 1960s – a time when the center of art theory and practice moved from Europe to the USA, caused a ruffle in my house. My artist wife is very fond of the Rose, was just up there in the past year, and, frankly, couldn’t believe the University’s decision.

I’ve been watching Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R – Texas) debating John Kerry (D – Massachusetts) debating the economic stimulus bill and it’s related problems with bipartisanship on MEET THE PRESS. Needless to say, Kerry is pushing for jobs, education and infrastructure employment. Hutchinson is pushing for tax cuts, of course, and is threatening another 100% Republican pullout. What stuck in my mind, however, was her statement that the Infrastructure has been well-funded so far and is not a problem.  

Looking over the vote in the House on the Stimulus Package, where almost all the Democrats and none of the Republicans voting for Obama’s proposal (despite his extremely visible outreached hand, meetings, compromises on more than one issue, etc.), I realized that the Republican (read Neo-Conservative) Movement was still in full swing. It was one thing to go up against a majority of American economists, a growing number of unemployed workers, lower-middle-class homeowners whose mortgages were about to et their homes… but it is strictly another thing not to have any Party concessions (like one or two votes in favor) to show that the attempts at bipartisanship by the President would be somewhat acknowledged.