Change we can believe in

Let’s look at the record so far.

Bill Richardson withdraws as Obama’s choice for Commerce secretary, after it is revealed he is being investigated for the same kind of “Pay to Play” deal that forced Gov. Rod Blagojevich (endorsed twice by Obama for Governor) from office.

Eric Holder is confirmed as Obama’s Attorney General, despite having guided the “Pay to not Pay” pardons of billionaire fugitive financier Marc Rich and other questionable, but connected figures at the end of the Clinton administration.

Tom Daschle is nominated as Obama’s Secretary of Health & Human Services, despite forgetting to pay a lot more taxes than the Democrats pilloried poor Joe the Plumber for, after he dared to ask candidate Obama a question. Update: before I posted this, Daschle withdrew. Guess now he doesn't have to pay his back taxes!

Tim Gaither is confirmed as Obama’s Secretary of the Treasury despite his failure to also pay thousands in taxes. (He did pay the back taxes, for which the statute of limitations had run, immediately before being nominated, the kind of fine coincidence the Obama administration is becoming noted for.) If Joe the Plumber had been an Obama guy, he’d probably be an ambassador now.

Rahm Emanuel becomes Obama’s Chief of Staff, moving from the Congressional seat formerly held by Rod Blagojevich. Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass reports Emanuel won the Blagojevich seat because of the support of the Daley machine, which provided the illegal help of thousands of city-employed campaign workers. Obama investigates and clears Emanuel of involvement in the Blagojevich scandal. (Will Dick Chaney investigate and clear Scooter Libby next? And will the media quietly accept that?)

Hillary Clinton is confirmed as Obama’s Secretary of State, where she will doubtless deal very firmly with foreign dictators who have pumped millions into the Foundations of Bill Clinton. Guess it depends on what the meaning of “conflict” is.

Ray LaHood, a Republican with long ties to the “Illinois Combine,” is named as Obama’s Transportation Secretary. John Kass reports in the Chicago Tribune that LaHood, “will have billions of federal dollars to dole out in state grants for contracts for roads, bridges, airport modernization—all the sugarplums the guys behind the guys dream about. One such guy is the indicted Republican boss of Springfield, William Cellini, a wealthy developer and executive director of the Illinois Asphalt Pavement Association. LaHood is a Cellini guy.” The drool must be causing flooding in Springfield.

This is just what we know about the Obama team so far. They have a free hand to spend hundreds of billions of dollars, due to the economic collapse started in the housing industry by the Community Reinvestment Act, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Yeah, yeah, I know, there were enough greedy Wall Street and banker types piling on to do it without that. The collapse in Asia and Europe can hardly be blamed on either party, not that the voters don’t always blame the guy in the White House. There’s plenty of bi-partisan blame to go around. And, as noted about, the Obama administration is certainly hiring questionable characters on a bi-partisan basis.

No one seems to notice that every dollars the government spends on the economic stimulus, it has to take out of the economy, in taxes, borrowing or inflation by printing money, so you and I don’t have that dollar to spend on economic stimulus. The answer is that we might not spend it, we might put it in the bank. But didn’t the government just put billions in the banks through the bailouts, to prop them up? Why is our putting money in the bank bad?

America wanted change, any kind of change, and is certainly getting change. Can we loot the public treasury in a bi-partisan way? Yes, we can!

Update: Missed this one. "Nancy Killefer, Obama's nominee for the newly created position of chief performance officer, also stepped aside because of a tax problem." Performance Officer?

Team Obama: Bi-partisan bums!