Chris Dodd's 'Quaint Cottage'

From Brian Faughnan at Red State:
If you’ve been thinking of buying a quaint little retreat near Galway, Ireland, you might want to ask Chris Dodd for advice. He’s made off quite well on his (pictured).
Here’s the quick-and-dirty: find a convicted felon and get him to put up two-thirds of the purchase price, then 8 years later - when the value of comparable real estate has quadrupled - buy him out at around the same amount he bought in for.
Voila! Before you know it, you own an Irish ‘cottage’ worth about a million dollars, but whose value you claim on ethics forms is as little as $100,000! The Wall Street Journal reported on the specifics not that long ago.

Obama Speaks, Stocks Tank

From Robert Bluey at Red State:
The best thing President Barack Obama can do for the economy is keep quiet. A day after delivering an address that won widespread praise from the chattering class, Obama’s big-government policies were rejected by traders on Wall Street.
Wall Street’s negative reaction to Obama is nothing new. Ever since Election Day, Obama’s words have failed to inspire investors. “When the President speaks, the market listens … and crumbles,” said Family Research Council chief Tony Perkins, who outlined the following pattern of the Dow’s drop after notable Obama addresses:
Nov. 5, 2008 (Wednesday after Election Day): -486 (5.0%)
Jan. 9, 2009 (one day after Obama speaks at George Mason University on “need” for $800 billion stimulus package): -143 (1.6%)
Jan. 20, 2009 (Inauguration Day): -332 (4.0%)
Feb. 10, 2009 (one day after Obama declares that without a stimulus, “an economy that is already in crisis will be faced with a catastrophe”): -382 (4.6%)
Feb. 17, 2009 (market opens for the first time after Congress passes $787 billion stimulus on Feb. 13; Obama signs bill into law, declaring, “The stimulus lets Americans claim destiny.”): -298 (3.8%)
Feb. 19, 2009 (one day after Obama announces potential mortgage relief plan): -90 (1.2%)
Feb. 25, 2009 (one day after Obama’s first speech to the full Congress): -80 (1.1%)

Bettin On Failure?

ITEM: House Republicans are setting up “a stimulus-watch program” that will allow watchdog groups and private citizens to report findings as contractors and agencies start spending billions of dollars on roads, schools, renewable energy projects and other initiatives, said House GOP Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia.
From Erick Erickson at Red State:
Here’s the thing: the stimulus will fail. Even the Congressional Budget Office says the stimulus, as passed, will drag out the recession. Obama can make statements claiming the bill will save 4 million 3.8 million 3.5 million 2 million jobs. The media will give him a pass spinning it as “if the stimulus hadn’t passed, you would have lost your job.”
That does not, though, somehow validate the idea that the stimulus will stimulate the economy. It won’t. But in the meantime, a lot of bad stuff will happen. A lot of waste will be generated. A lot of corruption will be uncovered.
And because the GOP held the line and refused to vote for the stimulus, the Democrats and Barack Obama will own it.

Transparency Redefined

From Warner Todd Huston at Red State:
Despite all claims to the contrary, President Obama has not been very vigilant about pursuing that idea of “transparency” he ballyhooed during the recent campaign.
Politico reported on a host of documents, proclamations and executive orders that Obama has made in the last month and none of them were online. In fact, many were not even released at all to the press by the White House.
So, where is the drumbeat of outrage about the “secret presidency” we heard for the last 6 or so years?

Obama Leads Cabinet Goofs

From Brian Faughnan at Red State:
Just as the dust was settling last week from the exits of Tom Daschle and Nancy Killefer, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., whipped up the tumult again. By pulling out of consideration for Commerce secretary, a post previously abandoned by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D), Gregg became the Obama administration’s fourth high-level dropout so far.
But while this administration has set a turnover record for an incoming Cabinet, it’s hardly the first to run into problems with its nominees. Bill Clinton leads among recent presidents with a total of six major nominee dropouts over the course of his presidency, followed by George W. Bush and his Cabinet’s two withdrawals. Three previous presidents — George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter — each slipped once. All but Reagan had at least one kink in their first-term Cabinet selection process, with Clinton accepting three withdrawals.

Enabling GOP Comeback

From Dan McLaughlin at Red State:
As a matter of politics, conservatives, having only a small Republican minority to work with and a moderate-to-liberal faction still remaining within that minority, faced the dire threat that Obama would coopt enough Republican support for his initiatives to make it impossible to get out a distinct opposing message and hold him accountable if he fails. Experienced leaders know what Obama doesn’t:
If Republicans support the Democrats’ economic agenda and the economy gets better, Democrats will get all the credit.
If Republicans oppose the Democrats’ economic agenda and the economy gets better, Democrats will get all the credit.
If Republicans support the Democrats’ economic agenda and the economy does not get better, the two parties will share the blame.
If Republicans oppose the Democrats’ economic agenda and the economy does not get better, Democrats alone will get the blame.
In other words, as a strictly political matter, the only major risk for the Democrats, and the only possible upside for Republicans, is if Republicans can distinguish themselves from what the Democrats are doing. And by taking the “I won” approach, Obama is allowing, even compelling, moderate Republicans to do just that. The result is an opposition that is energized and sees a path to recovery, rather than one that is divided, demoralized and outmaneuvered. . . .
Obama and the Democrats have now committed themselves irrevocably to massive growth in government spending, and the odds are that they are not done there, as we are likely to see the ghosts of economic liberalism past and of Eurosocialism present come knocking: more marginal tax hikes, a government takeover of health care, protectionism, massive new regulations, measures to tip the labor-management balance towards unions, restrictions on energy production, you name it. No serious adult can believe that any of this will help the economy . . .
So there you have it: Obama and the Democrats, by ramming the ’stimulus’ bill through on a party-line basis and bulldozing Republican opposition, have taken ownership of old-time Big Government liberalism; they have surrendered to Republicans the very issues that divided the GOP and attracted moderate swing voters to the Democratic banner; they have energized and galvanized their opponents; they have discarded the pretense of bipartisanship; and they have, in the end, lashed themselves to the mast of policies that are proven not to work. The only thing the stimulus bill will stimulate is conservatism.