-
Caroline Kennedy Should Replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate
Tweet Share on Facebook December 16, 2008 Comment (24)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Break my heart
I want to go and cry
It's so sad to watch a sweet thing die
Oh, Caroline why
—The Beach BoysLet's cut to the chase. I think it is a fine idea if New York Gov. David Paterson appoints Jack and Jackie Kennedy's daughter Caroline to the U.S. Senate.
-
Thinking about Robin Toner
Tweet Share on Facebook December 15, 2008 Comment (2)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
Some years ago, Robin Toner and I found ourselves in New Orleans—or was it Houston?—covering the deliberations of the platform committee at a Republican national convention.
We shared an Irish-American's love of politics, and a Celtic sense of humor. And during a brief break in the proceedings we entertained each other with snatches of political gossip and some flippant commentary about what, and who, we were watching.
-
Sabathia and the Damn Yankees Lead the Economic Way
Tweet Share on Facebook December 11, 2008 Comment (3)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
The news is filled with tales of corruption and economic woe. A cold rain falls in the nation's capital. We must look, once more, to baseball for salvation.
More specifically, to the New York Yankees, who hope to ride C.C. Sabathia to the World Series, and so have given the mammoth left-hander a $161 million contract.
$161 million. Yeah, baby. That's what I'm talkin' 'bout.
Confidence. Panache. Muscle. Bucks. American virtues all. And too forgotten in this dreary December.
Phil Gramm had it right. The root causes of this recession—of any recession—are psychological. And the Yankees, god bless 'em, are defying the gloom 'n doom psychology of the day.
-
Blagojevich Calls to Mind Clarence Darrow and Chicago Corruption
Tweet Share on Facebook December 10, 2008 Comment (2)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Now that Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich has joined Chicago's long list of political rogues and rascals who have spent time in handcuffs, connoisseurs of the city's politics are having fun exchanging their favorite Second City tales.
Here's one that I've come across while researching my book on Clarence Darrow—who, as a young lawyer, represented a prime cast of Chicago's crooks and boodlers in the 1890s, long before he achieved saintly status for the courtroom heroics of his later years.
-
A Get-Rich Plan for 2009: Serve Up the Schmaltz
Tweet Share on Facebook December 8, 2008 CommentBy John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
As I am busy at work on another project, I now offer a guaranteed get-rich plan for 2009 to all my grumpy, fretful, financially hard-pressed fellow Americans.
Schmaltz.
-
Barack Obama Should Keep Troops in Iraq
Tweet Share on Facebook December 5, 2008 Comment (9)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
In 1993, Bill Clinton took office and raised taxes. He had promised Americans a middle-class tax cut, but by the time of his inauguration it was clear that the smart route to prosperity was to reduce the federal government's debt and deficits, not grow them with a tax cut.
So Clinton did the right thing, drew down his political capital, spent a time in political hell—then sailed to re-election on the wings of a strong American economy.
There is an analogy here for Barack Obama. Not on the economic side—the new president will find supportive majorities in favor of his campaign promise to cut taxes and boost federal investment in this recession.
I'm talking about Iraq.
-
Bobby Jindal and the GOP Don’t Believe in Evolution
Tweet Share on Facebook December 4, 2008 Comment (52)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's recent trip to Iowa, where they hold those presidential caucuses every four years, leads me to suspect he may share the media speculation that he could be the Next Great Thing in the Republican Party.
-
The Rising Cost of College Is a Good Reason to Spread the Wealth
Tweet Share on Facebook December 3, 2008 Comment (11)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
Why spread the wealth?
Today's newspapers offer a compelling answer—with stories about how difficult it's becoming for younger Americans to get a college education.
Read up, all you Obama-is-a-socialist and Joe the Plumber fans.
Two new studies show that college costs are rising in America, more students are dropping out of high school, and sizable chunks of the population can't afford postsecondary education at all. So other nations are passing us by.
"At nearly 40 percent, the United States is second only to Canada in the percentage of adults 35 to 64 with an associate's degree or higher," the Washington Post reports. "But the United States is 10th in the world in the percentage of adults 25 to 34 who have such degrees."
In other words, their young uns are getting smarter than our young uns.
-
Campbell Brown and CNN Get Tiresome On Barack Obama and Media Criticism
Tweet Share on Facebook December 2, 2008 Comment (29)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
While channel surfing last night, I came upon an irate Campbell Brown on CNN, scolding Barack Obama with a mighty wind of righteousness.
I sat there, mesmerized, as Brown did an incredibly bad imitation of Keith Olbermann, whose audience, I suppose, she's trying to steal.
Apparently, CNN has decided to go the way of Fox and MSNBC and the Associated Press and be very opinionated in its evening news hours. Like we don't have enough of that.
-
What Wasn't Said at the Barack Obama Press Conference
Tweet Share on Facebook December 1, 2008 Comment (6)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
It's in the job description. As Russell Baker once said, a significant part of the life of a Washington reporter is sitting around outside a closed door, waiting for someone to come out and lie to you.
So when the capital's press corps gets the chance to call a politician on even the flimsiest of fibs, its members tend to cherish the moment.
And that was why President-elect Obama got repeated opportunities at today's press conference to admit that he's had a history with Hillary Rodham Clinton that—Maybe? Just might? Perhaps?—lead to rocky days ahead.
