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Is the Immigration Wave Ebbing?
Tweet Share on Facebook November 20, 2008 Comment (5)By Michael Barone, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
Blogger extraordinaire Mickey Kaus collects information that suggests that we are seeing a reversal of immigration, a gran salida of immigrants, surely many illegal, back to their countries of origin. Follow the links for the fascinating details. He sees a connection between tougher enforcement of immigration laws (including state laws) and the rejection of comprehensive immigration bills in 2006 and 2007 and an out-migration of immigrants. And a connection between that and the collapse of the housing bubble. All of this makes a lot of sense to me. We've seen a long trend of heavy Latino immigration, but trend lines don't go on forever. There's a break point somewhere. I'm going to be interested in seeing whether the Census Bureau's population estimates for June 30, 2008 (due out in December, I believe), show some concrete and significant evidence of this apparent trend. Here's a link to the relevant website.
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Reporters as Consultants Is a Bad Idea
Tweet Share on Facebook November 19, 2008 Comment (3)Let's think of ways to make journalists even less credible than they already are. Hire them out to give advice to corporate brass in trouble with the media. This proposal is the brainchild of former MSNBC chief Dan Abrams, who lost his show to the more popular host, Rachel Maddow, and has now left the cable news network.
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Paulson, Bernanke, and Congress on the Bailout: Incompetence All Around
Tweet Share on Facebook November 19, 2008 Comment (29)Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke got beaten up pretty badly in the House Financial Services Committee yesterday. And on at least one point, I think, justifiably so. In his opening statement, Paulson acknowledged that at the time the Senate passed its version of the financial rescue package October 1 and the House passed the same version October 3, he had already decided that the Treasury Department would not embark on the program of acquiring toxic securitized mortgage and other paper from financial institutions, as he was telling Congress it would, and that it would instead use powers in the bill to inject capital into banks and other financial institutions. I think members of Congress have standing to complain when they are asked to approve a piece of legislation on the grounds that the administration will do A, but in fact the administration has already decided to use the broad powers in the bill to do B—and hasn't told Congress about its change of mind. Paulson in his opening statement hit back at that by noting that in the two weeks Congress had been considering the legislation—from September 19, when Paulson and Bernanke presented their three-page rescue package outline to members of Congress, until October 3, when Congress passed the bill—the stock market fell 9 percent. In effect, he's blaming Congress for dithering while $2 trillion of wealth was being destroyed. He's got an argument, too.
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Team of Rivals? No, Team of Superstars. Why Obama Tapping Clinton for Secretary of State Makes Sense
Tweet Share on Facebook November 19, 2008 Comment (2)Tom Friedman's thoughts on Hillary Clinton's prospective appointment as Barack Obama's secretary of state are typically provocative.
And, in other times, I might agree with him. There is no denying the benefits of a close partnership between a president and a secretary of state, nor the dangers of a flawed or distant relationship.
But these are not other times. Obama is inheriting one stupendous mess, and an American government—from State to Homeland Security to FEMA to Interior to Social Security to Energy and on and on down the list—in dire need of reform.
Obama doesn't need a team of rivals in his cabinet so that, with Machiavellian guile, he can keep his enemies close.
What he needs is a team of political and corporate superstars who, whatever their status—rivals, friends, or strangers—can immediately start fixing stuff.
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The Obama Cabinet Needs More Women
Tweet Share on Facebook November 19, 2008 Comment (21)I spoke with a former member of Congress yesterday about the paucity of women on the list of rumored Obama cabinet and White House staff appointments (I blogged about it earlier) and she pointed me in the direction of Ellen Malcolm's quote below, from a blurb by the Washington Post's Al Kamen headlined "Let's Talk About Sex" (I think the writer meant "gender"):
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Bret ‘Hitman’ Hart and Me, Wrestling With Book Sales
Tweet Share on Facebook November 19, 2008 Comment (2)Here's a lineup you could have caught at the National Press Club Tuesday night but won't be likely to see again anytime soon: politico-cum-historian Alvin Felzenberg, blogger/U.S. Newser/pretend-historian Robert Schlesinger, and retired professional wrestler Bret "Hitman" Hart.
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The GOP and Ted Stevens: Lessons Not Learned
Tweet Share on Facebook November 19, 2008 Comment (4)Following the Republican drubbing this election, the newspapers and airwaves have been clogged with party pooh-bahs wringing their hands and promising earnest introspection. The GOP must move in a new direction, they've said; the Republican Party must rediscover its soul.
Yesterday gave an indication of what direction that is—straight down the same path that's brought ruin. By 36 to 4, Republican senators overwhelmingly rebuffed an effort by South Carolina's Jim DeMint to impose term limits on its Appropriations Committee members. And this, on the 85th birthday of Sen. Ted Stevens, the (now former) chief Republican appropriator from Alaska convicted of corruption.
So the future of the GOP looks to be more of the same: Grand words about responsibility and change to the "folks back home," and more feckless spending and institutionalized corruption in Washington.
The GOP can mint new bulls like Stevens, and his legacy of willy-nilly bribery—bribery of voters, his own members, and himself—will continue. But so will his other legacy, confirmed last night after two weeks of suspense: He lost.
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When Pork Barrel Met Pork Barbecue
Tweet Share on Facebook November 19, 2008 Comment (1)Like Calvin Trillin, I am a man who takes my barbecue seriously. All those years on the road as a national political reporter have allowed me to search the country for good ribs, and sauce, and brisket.
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The Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama Effects
Tweet Share on Facebook November 18, 2008 Comment (4)Two posts of interest today on The Daily Beast. The first is by editor Tina Brown, who explains why Senator Clinton would be a good pick for the Obama cabinet and why her stardom would eclipse President-elect Obama in ways that benefit him more than her:
Once Hillary dropped from view, no-drama Obama became a tiny bit boring for a while. As his presidency gets grueling and sour, as it will surely very swiftly become, he will need her again like Batman needs Robin. Not only is she super-smart and wired to Washington, she distracts the press while he gets on with governing.
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Barack Obama's North Carolina Coattails (or Not)
Tweet Share on Facebook November 18, 2008 Comment (1)I wrote on Election Night about whether Barack Obama would have North Carolina coattails—would first-time Obama voters keep voting Democratic down-ballot? Doug Heye (who first posed the question to me and writes in our op-ed section today about the future of the GOP) passes on the following figures:
