When change means some of the same old lobbyists

AS THE POLITICAL reformers crowd into the new Congress, you can put the following report under the heading of, the more things change the more they stay the same.

ITEM: When Louisiana Democratic Senator Mary Landreau flew out of the chute to savage President Obama's tax compromise as "nonsensicalness and almost, you know, moral corruptness," it left me, you know, with the feeling that Katrina had garbled her memory (she did also defend BP on the oil spill, you know, you know. The problem with her outrage, however, is that she voted in favor of the Bush tax cuts in the early 90s.

ITEM: Republican Sen. Jon Kyl, of Arizona, an ardent opponent of earmarks, did manage to get a big one for old times' sake by slipping into another bill a $200 million Federal grant to one of his state's Indian tribes. His office insisted it wasn't an earmark. Right. Problem solved.

ITEM: The Washington Post had this to say about the all of the fresh faces who are arriving on Capitol Hill to clean up government: "Many incoming GOP lawmakers have hired registered lobbyists as senior aides. Several of the candidates have strong support from the anti-establishment Tea Party movement." And as Think Progress pointed out, "These lobbyists are not public servants. They are experts at carving out special deals and tax giveaways to powerful corporations."

Want a prominent example? Rep.-elect Mike Pompeo of Kansas has named Mark Chenowerth as his chief of staff. Chenowerth is a former lawyer-lobbyist for Koch Industries, owned by billionaires Charles and David Koch. They are remembered as the major sugar daddies of the Tea Partyers in the past campaign. (Guess where Chenowerth is going with this one to look after all of those angry little folks who want their government back!)

So far more than a dozen pols have been identified as having hired big-time lobbyists to shape the style of their humble offices.

I wonder if any of this has gotten back to the raging placard-wavers at the Tea Party rallies.

What? Poor Mitt's health plan could sink him?

THERE WAS a brief moment back in the last presidential campaign when I gave Mitt Romeny a decent chance of winning his party's nomination. He had good posture, spoke clearly enough without a cowboy's twang, and his hair revived the World War II he-man image of Ronald Reagan - an attribute that neither John McCain nor Rudy Giuliani could ever hope to assume. On the negative side, he was from Massachusetts, which was much too hospitable to Harvard for anybody from South Carolina or Idaho to embrace. And seldom a day passed when a radio preacher didn't inspire angry Bible-quoting callers to accuse Romney of being a Mormon cultist - a zillionaire or not.

But the tie breaker appeared to be that Romney had figured out a solution to America's health care challenges with his plan for Massachusetts. He spoke about it often in polite political circles (there were no Tea Parties then). For a photogenic politician who always impressed me as preparing for a place in an altarpiece, how could anybody not give him the edge against, say, Fred Thompson , who growled a lot, and Mike Huckabee, who could have once had a walk-on role in an old Andy Griffith show.

Ironically, Romney, who appears to be one of those guys who has no luck, is being forced to defend himself against the very thing that he boastfully helped create: his state's health plan. That's because President Obama and other Democrats keep reminding everybody that their health care plan is very much like Romney's. You can see the problem. As Gail Collins of the New York Times pointed out, Romney has yet to come up with an appropriate game-changer. When a couple of reporters from Think Progress rudely inquired, Mitt could say nothing more than it was a "big topic" and "ducked into an elevator."

I still like his chances of being cast as a presidential candidate in the next Hollywood movie. Which is more than I can say about McCain or Giuliani.

Of traitors, medical bankruptcies & enemies lists

THE GARBAGE TRUCK is out on the curb so I want to gather up a few items before it pulls away:

The bus tour of a right-wing Iraq/Afghanistan coalition of veterans has produced this comment from a supporter of the Operation Free tour, Pennsylvania Republican State Sen. Daryl Metcaife, with dire warnings about those of us who support climate change legislation:

"As a veteran, I believe that any veteran lending their name, to promote the leftist propaganda of global warming and climate change, in an effort to control more of the wealth created in our economy, through cap and tax type policies, all in the name of national secruity, is a traitor to the oath he or she took to defend the Constitution of our great nation. Remember Benedict Arnold before giving credibility to a veteran who uses their service as a means to promote a leftist agenda. Drill Baby Drill!!!"

According to Think Progress, which gave us that gem from Metcaife, he served in the army from 1980 to 1984. (Weren't we Iraq's and Afghanistan's friend at the time?) Metcaife, the blog reported, also refused to support Domestic Violence Awareness Month in Pennsylvania because "the resolution referenced domestic abuse suffered by men, which Metcaife interpreted as part of a 'homosexual agenda." It figures.

For all of this nonsense (drumroll), Metcaife is the winner of today's Grumpy Abe Linguistic Lunacy (GALL) Award.

And what about Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Diana Furchgott-Roth , who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on medical debt and bankruptcy reform. She insisted that medical debt bankruptcies would soar under reforms. Buy when Sen. Al Franken asked her how many such bankruptcies have occurred in countries like Switzerland and France, which have universal health care, she said she didn't know but would get the figure for him.

He advised her that she needn't bother because the number was zero. The same for Germany, he said. When she responded that he was obviously referencing zeros, he responded:

"Well, you're very good. Very fast. The point is I think we need to go in that direction, not the opposite direction. Thank you. " (And thanks again to Think Progress, which is having a field day with its ear to the dumb comments on the Hill) "

Finally, from Talking Points Memo we hear: Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander is advising President Obama not to create an enemies list by feuding with Fox News and U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He said it would be comparable to the Nixon Administration.

Wow! Now they are comparing Obama to Nixon. Call the President a traitor, a socialist, a Nazi and all of those nasty other things, but to label him as Nixon is too much. Alexander may now be headed to the top of the enemies list.

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